Search

In the application of X-ray industrial flaw detection, the exposure parameters directly affect the image quality. The voltage of the tube is the most important factor, which is difficult to be accurately calculated. Especially in the detection of a workpiece composed of both high absorption coefficient and low absorption coefficient materials, the improper symmetric balance of the tube voltage would lead to an overexposure or underexposure phenomenon. In this paper, based on the X-ray absorption model, combined with the performance of the X-ray imaging detector, and taking the optimal symmetry and contrast as the model constraint condition, the key factors of high absorption ratio material imaging are decomposed. Through expansion and iteration, the calculation process is simplified, the optimal imaging convergence surface is found, and then the optimal energy input conditions of high absorptivity materials are obtained and symmetrically balanced. As a result, this paper solves the problem of fast selection and symmetric factor chosen of the optimal tube voltage when imaging materials with high absorption ratios. It reduces the subsequent complications of the X-ray image enhancement process and obtains a better image quality. Through experimental simulation and measurement verification, the error between the theoretical calculation results and the measured data was better than 5%.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary Selenohomolanthionine (SeHLan) on antioxidant status and immune response in canine parvovirus (CPV) vaccinated puppies. In this study, 30 weaned puppies were randomly divided into six groups: control group (–Se/–Vacc), immunization group (–Se/+Vacc), supplementation of sodium selenite group (SS/+Vacc, 0.35 mg/kg DM), low-dose SeHLan group (SeHLan-L/+Vacc, 0.35 mg/kg DM), mid-dose SeHLan group (SeHLan-M/+Vacc, 1.0 mg/kg DM), and high-dose SeHLan group (SeHLan-H/+Vacc, 2.0 mg/kg DM). The puppies were fed for 42 days and vaccinated with Vanguard Plus 5 on day 0 and day 21. Blood samples were collected on 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 days post-immunization (PI) for determination of antioxidant indicators, lymphocyte proliferation index, serum cytokine concentration (IL-2, IL-4), canine polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) phagocytic function, and the level of CPV antibody titers. The results showed that SeHLan supplementation raised the serum Se concentration and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). It also increased the activity of serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) and decreased serum malondialdehyde (MDA) content, especially in SeHLan-M/+Vacc group (1.0 mg/kg DM) (P < 0.01). SeHLan supplementation significantly increased lymphocyte proliferation, IL-2, and IL-4 levels in canine serum, and enhanced phagocytosis of PMN in vaccinated puppies (P < 0.05). Moreover, SeHLan supplementation shortened the CPV antibody production time and increased the CPV antibody titers (P < 0.05). Of note, the beneficial effects of SeHLan were superior to those of SS. In conclusion, dietary SeHLan supplementation improved antioxidant activity, increased CPV antibody titers, and enhanced immune function in puppies after weaning. An appropriate dosage of SeHLan (1~2 mg/kg DM) may confer nutritional benefits in puppies.

Slope failures lead to large casualties and catastrophic societal and economic consequences, thus potentially threatening access to sustainable development. Slope stability assessment, offering potential long-term benefits for sustainable development, remains a challenge for the practitioner and researcher. In this study, for the first time, an automated machine learning (AutoML) approach was proposed for model development and slope stability assessments of circular mode failure. An updated database with 627 cases consisting of the unit weight, cohesion, and friction angle of the slope materials; slope angle and height; pore pressure ratio; and corresponding stability status has been established. The stacked ensemble of the best 1000 models was automatically selected as the top model from 8208 trained models using the H2O-AutoML platform, which requires little expert knowledge or manual tuning. The top-performing model outperformed the traditional manually tuned and metaheuristic-optimized models, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.970 and accuracy (ACC) of 0.904 based on the testing dataset and achieving a maximum lift of 2.1. The results clearly indicate that AutoML can provide an effective automated solution for machine learning (ML) model development and slope stability classification of circular mode failure based on extensive combinations of algorithm selection and hyperparameter tuning (CASHs), thereby reducing human efforts in model development. The proposed AutoML approach has the potential for short-term severity mitigation of geohazard and achieving long-term sustainable development goals.

The non-uniformity of the readout circuit response in the infrared focal plane array unit detector can result in fixed pattern noise with stripe, which seriously affects the quality of the infrared images. Considering the problems of existing non-uniformity correction, such as the loss of image detail and edge blurring, a multi-scale residual network with attention mechanism is proposed for single infrared image stripe noise removal. A multi-scale feature representation module is designed to decompose the original image into varying scales to obtain more image information. The product of the direction structure similarity parameter and the Gaussian weighted Mahalanobis distance is used as the similarity metric; a channel spatial attention mechanism based on similarity (CSAS) ensures the extraction of a more discriminative channel and spatial feature. The method is employed to eliminate the stripe noise in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively, while preserving the edge texture information of the image. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms four state-of-the-art methods by a large margin in terms of the qualitative and quantitative assessments. One hundred infrared images with different simulated noise intensities are applied to verify the performance of our method, and the result shows that the average peak signal-to-noise ratio and average structural similarity of the corrected image exceed 40.08 dB and 0.98, respectively.

Geohazard prevention and mitigation are highly complex and remain challenges for researchers and practitioners. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an effective tool for addressing these challenges. Therefore, for decades, an increasing number of researchers have begun to conduct AI research in the field of geohazards leading to rapid growth in the number of related papers. This has made it difficult for researchers and practitioners to grasp information on cutting-edge developments in the field, thus necessitating a comprehensive review and analysis of the current state of development in the field. In this study, a comprehensive scientometric analysis appraising the state-of-the-art research for geohazard was performed based on 9226 scientometric records from the Web of Science core collection database. Multiple types of scientometric techniques, including coauthor analysis, co-citation analysis, and cluster analysis were employed to identify the most productive researchers, institutions, and hot research topics. The results show that research related to the application of AI in the field of geohazards experienced a period of rapid growth after 2000, with major developments in the field occurring in China, the United States, and Italy. The hot research topics in this field are ground motion, deep learning (DL), and landslides. The commonly used AI algorithms include DL, support vector machine (SVM), and decision tree (DT). The obtained visualization on research networks offers valuable insights and an in-depth understanding of the key researchers, institutions, fundamental articles, and salient topics through animated maps. We believe that this scientometric review offers useful reference points for early-stage researchers and provides valuable in-depth information to experienced researchers and practitioners in the field of geohazard research. This scientometric analysis and visualization are promising for reflecting the global picture of AI-based geohazard research comprehensively and possess potential for the visualization of the emerging trends in other research fields.

Blood perfusion is an important index for the function of the cardiovascular system and it can be indicated by the blood flow distribution in the vascular tree. As the blood flow in a vascular tree varies in a large range of scales and fractal analysis owns the ability to describe multi-scale properties, it is reasonable to apply fractal analysis to depict the blood flow distribution. The objective of this study is to establish fractal methods for analyzing the blood flow distribution which can be applied to real vascular trees. For this purpose, the modified methods in fractal geometry were applied and a special strategy was raised to make sure that these methods are applicable to an arbitrary vascular tree. The validation of the proposed methods on real arterial trees verified the ability of the produced parameters (fractal dimension and multifractal spectrum) in distinguishing the blood flow distribution under different physiological states. Furthermore, the physiological significance of the fractal parameters was investigated in two situations. For the first situation, the vascular tree was set as a perfect binary tree and the blood flow distribution was adjusted by the split ratio. As the split ratio of the vascular tree decreases, the fractal dimension decreases and the multifractal spectrum expands. The results indicate that both fractal parameters can quantify the degree of blood flow heterogeneity. While for the second situation, artificial vascular trees with different structures were constructed and the hemodynamics in these vascular trees was simulated. The results suggest that both the vascular structure and the blood flow distribution affect the fractal parameters for blood flow. The fractal dimension declares the integrated information about the heterogeneity of vascular structure and blood flow distribution. In contrast, the multifractal spectrum identifies the heterogeneity features in blood flow distribution or vascular structure by its width and height. The results verified that the proposed methods are capable of depicting the multi-scale features of the blood flow distribution in the vascular tree and further are potential for investigating vascular physiology.

Based on the analysis of the evolution history of existing network protocol technologies,the innovative guiding principles applicable to the future data network unified protocol system was proposed.By dividing the nature of network functions into the connections between network elements,five areas of protocol innovation such as data plane,control plane,user plane,management control and intrinsic network security were proposed.The implementation and application of the protocol system in many heterogeneous scenario were analyzed.Finally,the rationality of the protocol innovation guidelines was verified by analyzing the protocol innovation process in deterministic network forwarding technology and intrinsic security network technology.

Internet applications deeply affect people’s work and life.As the booming of internet applications,the data network faces more and more challenges.Based on the requirements of future applications,the trend for inheritance development based on traditional IP of data networks was analyzed and a new network protocol suite——NewIP was proposed.The core technologies including deterministic IP,intrinsic security,new control and addressing mechanisms for ManyNets,user definable and new transport were also introduced.

AIM: To investigate the activation of autophagy in rat retina after optic nerve crush (ONC) and evaluate its relationship with apoptosis of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). METHODS: The ONC model was established. Western blots were performed to investigate expression of p62, LC3 and Beclin-1. Transmission electron microscopy was performed to discover the autophagosomes in the retina after ONC. Immunohistochemistry was used to confirm the distribution of LC3. TUNEL was performed to confirm the relationship between autophagy and RGC apoptosis. RESULTS: p62/Beclin-1 ratio was declined shortly after ONC until to day 7 after ONC and then restored to a normal level at day 21. There was an opposite change in the LC3-II/LC3I ratio in the retina compared to the p62/Beclin-1 ratio. Increased autophagosomes were found after ONC using transmission electron microscopy, and most of the LC3-stained cells were colocalized with RGCs and Müller cells. More LC3-immunoreactive cells and apoptotic RGCs were found on day 7 following ONC. CONCLUSION: Possible activation of autophagy in RGCs after ONC; autophagy mainly occurred in RGCs and Müller cells, and the apoptosis of RGCs after ONC may be partly associated with autophagic activation.

Internet is the hub of information exchange.The innovation of network technology is the basis and enabler for innovation of new applications and business.The design of the future internet is expected to base on assumptions and visions for a future intelligent society.The new requirements of data networks for novel forward-looking applications in the future were firstly introduced,then the technological gaps of current data networks were analyzed,and new capabilities of data networks in the next 8~10 years were finally defined,aiming to provide guidance for the design of future data networks.

Abstract Background This study aims to investigate the molecular mechanism of Adenovirus type 36 (Ad36) in adipocyte differentiation and glucolipid metabolism. Methods Rat obesity model was established by Ad36 infection and high-fat diet, respectively. Comparison of the body weight, clinical biochemical indicators, insulin sensitivity and lipid heterotopic deposition between these two models was performed. Ad36-induced adipocyte in vitro model was also established. The binding rate of FoxO1, PPARγ and its target gene promoter was detected using ChIP. The mRNA and protein expression levels of PPARγ and downstream target genes were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. Oil red O staining was used to measure differentiation into adipocyte. Wortmannin (WM), inhibitor of PI3K, was used to act on Ad36-induced hADSCs. Results Ad36-induced obese rats did not exhibit disorders in blood glucose and blood TG, insulin resistance and lipid ectopic deposition. The expression of Adipoq, Lpin1 and Glut4 in the adipose tissue increased. Oil red O staining showed that Ad36 induced the differentiation of hAMSCs into human adipocytes in vitro. During this process, the binding rate of FoxO1 and PPARγ promoter regions was weakened. However, the binding rate of the transcription factor PPARγ to its target genes Acc, Adipoq, Lpin1 and Glut4 was enhanced, and thus increased the protein expression of P-FoxO1, PPARγ2, ACC, LPIN1, GLUT4 and ADIPOQ. The PI3K inhibitor Wortmannin reduced the expression of P-Akt, P-FoxO1 and PPARγ2, thereby inhibiting adipogenesis of hADSC. Conclusion Ad36 may promote fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis, and improve insulin sensitivity by affecting the PI3K/Akt/FoxO1/PPARγ signaling pathway.

The Internet of things (IoT) is a system of smart technologies and services that mutually communicate data between users and devices or between devices via the Internet. Since data are shared between a remote user and various sensing devices over a network, it is essential to design a secure, lightweight and efficient remote user authentication protocol for the IoT environment. In the context of security and network privacy, mutual authentication is necessary for securely accessing the services of the IoT environment. However, the IoT faces substantial new challenges realizing mutual authentication due to IoT devices constraints. In this paper, we present a lightweight, robust and secure authentication protocol that satisfies constraints on IoT devices. The proposed protocol is based on level 3 feature extraction, fuzzy extraction of the user's biometrics, one-way hash functions and XOR operations and includes (1) three-factor authentication (user password, biometrics and smart devices), (2) mutual authentication, (3) a session key, and (4) key freshness. Furthermore, we have used the Burrows-Abadi-Needham logic to prove the authentication of our proposed protocol. In addition, our proposed protocol does not require additional hardware or a resource-constrained cryptosystem, and for that reason; hence, it has the lowest computational cost on the IoT nodes (0.003_ms), the lowest total computational cost (0.071_ms), and the lowest communication cost (2784 bits) compared with other relevant works. Moreover, we have conducted an informal security analysis to prove its ability to withstand well-known malicious attacks, such as replay attacks, impersonation attacks, password change attacks, man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, and denial of service (DOS) attacks.

The topographical morphology of the loess landform on the Loess Plateau exhibits remarkable textural features at different spatial scales. However, existing topographic texture analysis studies on the Loess Plateau are usually dominated by statistical characteristics and are missing structural characteristics. At the same time, there is a lack of regularity calculation methods for DEM digital terrain analysis. Taking the Loess Plateau as the study area, a regularity calculation method based on the improved normalized distance matching function (INDMF) is proposed and applied to the classification of a loess landform. The regularity calculation method used in this study (INDMF regularity) mainly includes two key steps. Step 1 calculates the INDMF sequence value and the peak and valley values for the terrain data. Step 2 calculates the significant peak and valley, constructs the significant peak and valley sequences, and then obtains the regularity using the normalised ratio value. The experimental results show that the proposed method has good anti-interference ability and can effectively extract the regularity of the main landform unit. Compared with previous methods, adding structural features (i.e., INDMF regularity) can effectively distinguish loess hill and loess ridge in the hilly and gully region. For the loess hill and loess ridge, the recognition rates of the proposed method are 84.62% and 92.86%, respectively. Combined with the existing topographic characteristics, the proposed INDMF regularity is a topographic structure feature extraction method that can effectively discriminate between loess hill and loess ridge areas on the Loess Plateau.

Among food crops, rice has the largest planting area, the highest yield per unit area and the largest total yield in China. However, cleaning performance is reduced by the high moisture content of rice during the harvesting process. In order to decrease the adhesion among wet rice threshed mixtures and improve the cleaning performance, the method of hot airflow cleaning was proposed. Firstly, the fluidization characteristics of wet sticky rice under the action of hot air were compared with those of dry particles. In this work, the minimum suspension velocity and the fastest suspension time were used and quantified to characterize the fluidization characteristics. It was found that the minimum suspension velocity and the fastest suspension time of the wet rice threshed mixture are both higher than those of dry particles due to the liquid bridge force. Moreover, the dispersion degree of the wet rice threshed mixture can be improved by the hot airflow due to the decrease in the surface water content of impurities. Secondly, the influence of the temperature and vibration frequency in the air-and-screen cleaning device on the dispersion characteristics of the wet rice threshed mixture were investigated. The accumulation mass was measured to quantify the dispersion degree. It was found that the increase in vibration frequency has little effect on the dispersion of the wet rice threshed mixture. The accumulation mass on the front of the sieve decreases slightly with the increase in the gas temperature range from ambient temperature to 30 °C. Then, the dispersion degree increases rapidly when the temperature exceeds 40 °C. The dispersion effect is the best when the temperature is 50 °C and the vibration frequency is 5 Hz. These results provide a basis for the cleaning of the wet rice threshed mixture in a combine harvester.

The COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting many people worldwide and causing a heavy burden to global health. To eliminate the disease, SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the pandemic, can be targeted in several ways. One of them is to inhibit the 2′-O-methyltransferase (nsp16) enzyme that is crucial for effective translation of viral RNA and virus replication. For methylation of substrates, nsp16 utilizes S-adenosyl methionine (SAM). Binding of a small molecule in the protein site where SAM binds can disrupt the synthesis of viral proteins and, as a result, the replication of the virus. Here, we performed high-throughput docking into the SAM-binding site of nsp16 for almost 40 thousand structures, prepared for compounds from three libraries: Enamine Coronavirus Library, Enamine Nucleoside Mimetics Library, and Chemdiv Nucleoside Analogue Library. For the top scoring ligands, semi-empirical quantum-chemical calculations were performed, to better estimate protein–ligand binding enthalpy. Relying upon the calculated binding energies and predicted docking poses, we selected 21 compounds for experimental testing.

Roller grinding workshop is a typical multi-unit and multi-task manufacturing scenario, which is aimed to repair the surface damage of the rollers caused by the rolling process, so that the rollers can be reused. Due to the process complexity of roller grinding workshop and the large volume and weight of the roller, hoisting and transportation mode with multiple cranes is required. Consequently, the scheduling of the roller grinding workshop needs to consider both the task sequencing in time and the noninterference of the multi-crane trajectory in space. In this paper, the intelligent scheduling of roller grinding workshop is studied based on the characteristics of complex tasks and space-time coupling constraints. Firstly, the scheduling basis is established based on priority rules and process constraints. In order to solve the scheduling problem under the space-time coupling constraints, the position coordinate system is established, and then the algorithms of crane position tracking and cooperative motion without interference are developed. Further, considering the transportation time of crane and its out of sync time point with the processes, the intelligent decision and scheduling algorithm are developed based on the dynamic priority strategy defined to realize scheduling, including time decision, crane decision, and process decision. With the developed intelligent scheduling algorithm applied, the simulation of the roller grinding workshop is conducted under three combinations of priority strategy and noninterference strategy to verify algorithm performance. Under the guarantee of crane noninterference during the full production, the efficiency is improved by 22.1% compared with the existing processing mode of industry. Additionally, EPTR (effective process time rate) based on dynamic priority strategy and noninterference strategy B is up to 100% to avoid intervals between two processes in the scheduling. The dynamic priority developed in this paper reveals more efficiency than MOR principle, while with the strategy B the CUR (crane utilization rate) can be improved more than 20% under the condition of enough machines which facilitates to obtain shorter makespan than strategy A. The intelligent scheduling algorithm developed guarantees the effectiveness and rationality of scheduling with multi-unit and multi-task under the complex constraints. Finally, in order to realize the automatic and intelligent operation of the roller grinding workshop, the management software of the roller grinding workshop is developed by integrating the intelligent scheduling algorithm, which realizes the intelligent production, monitoring, and management of the roller grinding workshop during the full production cycle.

Background Acarbose and repaglinide are widely used either by themselves or in combination with other medications. However, their efficacy in diabetes control has not been compared when used in combination with metformin. Methods The present study aimed to compare their effects on glycemic variability (GV) control when taken with metformin for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) inadequately controlled with metformin alone. In this retrospective cohort study, T2DM patients who were treated with either acarbose-metformin or repaglinide-metformin combination were recruited. Either acarbose 100 mg or repaglinide 2 mg triple daily was taken for the subsequent 12 weeks in combination with metformin. Demographic data, biochemical data and 7-point glycemic self-monitoring conducted with capillary blood (SMBG) data were reviewed after one week and 12 weeks. The primary outcome including glucose control and changes in GV as well as other factors affecting GV and the incidence of hypoglycemia were also analyzed. Results Of the 305 T2DM patients enrolled, data from 273 subjects, 136 in the acarbose-metformin group (M+A) and 137 in the repaglinide-metformin group (M+R) were analyzed. Both regimens improved glycemic control at 12 weeks post commencement of new medications. GV, expressed as the mean amplitude of plasma glycemic excursions (MAGE, 5.0 ± 2.6 vs. 2.8 ± 1.6 mmol/L, p

A human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line (WMUi001-A) was generated from the aortic tissue of a 47-year-old donor with aortic dissection and normal blood pressure. Integration-free episomal vector-mediated reprogramming was used for the generation of this iPSC line. The established iPSC line was found to express pluripotency markers, exhibit a differentiation potential in vitro, as well as display a normal karyotype. We further identified that this iPSC line contained a mutation in collagen type IV (COL4A2, R131M), which may serve as a useful tool for the disease modeling of aortic dissection.

The lateral wall deflection is the most intuitive parameter to reveal the stability and safety of underground excavations. The existing automated approaches, such as to serialize dozens of inclinometers along casing pipes, are too expensive to be applied in most common projects. To guarantee stable automation and lower the costs, a novel system based on strain measurement is proposed in this paper to achieve real-time automated monitoring of underground excavations. The specially designed components are highlighted to benefit the mass industrial production and rapid in situ assembly. By theoretical comparisons, the accuracy and resolution performance of the proposed strategy are demonstrated to be better than those of the traditional manual method. The applicability of the mentioned system was verified by an engineering case, from which it was demonstrated that the proposed system works well to predict the lateral wall deflection of underground excavations. The sensitivity of the monitored results to the boundary conditions is also carefully discussed. The designed system has broad application prospects to provide timely data for safety assessment to prevent the unexpected failure of underground excavation as well as other engineering structures with dangerous lateral deflection or movement.

For metal rolling, the quality of final rolled productions (for instance, metal sheets and metal foils) is affected by steel roll’s cylindricity. In roll grinding process, grinding parameters, which typically involve multiple substages, determine the steel roll’s quality and the grinding efficiency. In this article, a modified particle swarm optimization was presented to dispose of roll grinding multi-objective optimization. The minimization of steel roll’s cylindrical error and maximization of grinding efficiency were optimization objectives. To build the correlation between grinding parameters and cylindrical error, the response surface model of cylindrical error was regressed from the operation data of machine tool. The improved particle swarm optimization was employed to the roll grinding parameter optimization, and the optimal compromise solutions between grinding efficiency and cylindrical error were obtained. Based on the optimal compromise solutions, engineers or computer were capable to determine the corresponding most efficient roll grinding parameters according to the requirement of the final cylindrical error specification. To validate the efficacy of the improved particle swarm optimization, the validation experiment was carried out on the practical roll grinding operation. The error between the calculated optimized cylindrical error and experimental cylindrical error is less than 7.73%.

Given an all-one base matrix of size M×N, a closed path of different lengths can be formed by starting at an arbitrary element and moving horizontally and vertically alternatively before terminating at the same “starting” element. When the closed-path length is small, say 4 or 6, the total number of combinations can be evaluated easily. When the length increases, the computation becomes non-trivial. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to evaluate the number of closed paths of different lengths in an all-one base matrix. Theoretical results up to closed paths of length 10 have been derived and are verified by the exhaustive search method. Based on the theoretical work, results for closed paths of length larger than 10 can be further derived. Note that each of such closed paths may give rise to one or more cycles in a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code when the LDPC code is constructed by replacing each “1” in the base matrix with a circulant permutation matrix or a random permutation matrix. Since LPDC codes with short cycles are known to give unsatisfactory error correction capability, the results in this paper can be used to estimate the amount of effort required to evaluate the number of potential cycles of an LDPC code or to optimize the code.

Abstract The metal-free synthesis of graphene on single-crystal silicon substrates, the most common commercial semiconductor, is of paramount significance for many technological applications. In this work, we report the growth of graphene directly on an upside-down placed, single-crystal silicon substrate using metal-free, ambient-pressure chemical vapor deposition. By controlling the growth temperature, in-plane propagation, edge-propagation, and core-propagation, the process of graphene growth on silicon can be identified. This process produces atomically flat monolayer or bilayer graphene domains, concave bilayer graphene domains, and bulging few-layer graphene domains. This work would be a significant step toward the synthesis of large-area and layer-controlled, high-quality graphene on single-crystal silicon substrates.

Terraces, which are typical artificial landforms found around world, are of great importance for agricultural production and soil and water conservation. However, due to the lack of maintenance, terrace damages often occur and affect the local flow process, which will influence soil erosion. Automatic high-accuracy mapping of terrace damages is the basis of monitoring and related studies. Researchers have achieved artificial terrace damage mapping mainly via manual field investigation, but an automatic method is still lacking. In this study, given the success of high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry and object-based image analysis (OBIA) for image processing tasks, an integrated framework based on OBIA and UAV photogrammetry is proposed for terrace damage mapping. The Pujiawa terrace in the Loess Plateau of China was selected as the study area. Firstly, the segmentation process was optimised by considering the spectral features and the terrains and corresponding textures obtained from high-resolution images and digital surface models. The feature selection was implemented via correlation analysis, and the optimised segmentation parameter was achieved using the estimation of scale parameter algorithm. Then, a supervised k-nearest neighbourhood classifier was used to identify the terrace damages in the segmented objects, and additional geometric features at the object level were considered for classification. The comparison with the ground truth, as delineated by the image and field survey, showed that proposed classification can be adequately performed. The F-measures of extraction on three terrace damages were 92.07% (terrace sinkhole), 81.95% (ridge sinkhole), and 85.17% (collapse), and the Kappa coefficient was 85.34%. Finally, the potential application and spatial distribution of the terrace damages in this study were determined. We believe that this work can provide a credible framework for mapping terrace damages in the Loess Plateau of China.

Worldwide, 19.3 million new cancer cases and almost 10.0 million cancer deaths occur each year. Recently, much attention has been paid to the ocean, the largest biosphere of the earth that harbors a great many different organisms and natural products, to identify novel drugs and drug candidates to fight against malignant neoplasms. The marine compounds show potent anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo, and relatively few drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of metastatic malignant lymphoma, breast cancer, or Hodgkin′s disease. This review provides a summary of the anticancer effects and mechanisms of action of selected marine compounds, including cytarabine, eribulin, marizomib, plitidepsin, trabectedin, zalypsis, adcetris, and OKI-179. The future development of anticancer marine drugs requires innovative biochemical biology approaches and introduction of novel therapeutic targets, as well as efficient isolation and synthesis of marine-derived natural compounds and derivatives.

Pre-existing cracks and associated filling materials cause the significant heterogeneity of natural rocks and rock masses. The induced heterogeneity changes the rock properties. This paper targets the gap in the existing literature regarding the adopting of artificial neural network approaches to efficiently and accurately predict the influences of heterogeneity on the strength of 3D-printed rocks at different strain rates. Herein, rock heterogeneity is reflected by different pre-existing crack and filling material configurations, quantitatively defined by the crack number, initial crack orientation with loading axis, crack tip distance, and crack offset distance. The artificial neural network model can be trained, validated, and tested by finite 42 quasi-static and 42 dynamic Brazilian disc experimental tests to establish the relationship between the rock strength and heterogeneous parameters at different strain rates. The artificial neural network architecture, including the hidden layer number and transfer functions, is optimized by the corresponding parametric study. Once trained, the proposed artificial neural network model generates an excellent prediction accuracy for influences of high dimensional heterogeneous parameters and strain rate on rock strength. The sensitivity analysis indicates that strain rate is the most important physical quantity affecting the strength of heterogeneous rock.

A series of single-hole hollow polyester fiber (SHHPF) reinforced hydrogenated carboxyl nitrile rubber (HXNBR) composites were fabricated. In this study, the sound absorption property of the HXNBR/SHHPF composite was tested in an impedance tube, the composite morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the tensile mechanical property was measured by strength tester. The results demonstrated that a remarkable change in sound absorption can be observed by increasing the SHHPF content from 0% to 40%. In the composite with 40% SHHPF in 1 mm thickness, the sound absorption coefficient reached 0.671 at 2,500 Hz; the effective bandwidth was 1,800-2,500 Hz for sound absorption coefficient larger than 0.2. But the sound absorption property of the composite deteriorated when the SHHPF content increased to 50% in 1 mm thickness. While with 20% SHHPF proportion, the sound absorption property was improved by increasing the thickness of composites from 1 to 5 mm. Compared with the pure HXNBR of the same thickness, the tensile mechanical property of the composite improved significantly by increasing the SHHPF proportion. As a lightweight composite with excellent sound absorption property, the HXNBR/SHHPF composite has potential practical application value in the fields of engineering.

Objectives To investigate the expression levels of aromatase cytochrome P450 enzyme (P450AROM) and related molecules—estrogen receptor-beta (ER-β), Ki-67, and p53—in prolactinoma tumor tissue from pre- and post-menopausal women, and to determine the associations of tumor invasiveness with expression levels of these genes. Methods This study recruited 90 patients with prolactinoma who underwent adenoidectomy between 2012 and 2017. Information was collected regarding clinical characteristics, hormones, laboratory tests, and magnetic resonance imaging-assessed tumor invasiveness. Expression levels of P450AROM, ER-β, Ki-67, and p53 were examined by immunohistochemistry in prolactinoma tissues. Results Increased P450AROM expression was found in invasive prolactinoma tissues in post-menopausal women, compared with its expression in non-invasive prolactinoma tissues. ER-β level was significantly higher in patients resistant to treatment with bromocriptine, a dopamine agonist. However, there were no differences in rate of resistance to treatment (8.2% vs. 3.4%) or expression levels of P450AROM, Ki-67, p53, and ER-β between pre- and post-menopausal patients. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that increased P450AROM expression in prolactinoma of post-menopausal women was positively associated with invasiveness. Moreover, ER-β level was higher in both pre- and post-menopausal patients who were resistant to dopamine agonist treatment.

Using He+ ion irradiation, we demonstrate how the magnetodynamic properties of both ferromagnetic layers in all-perpendicular [Co/Pd]/Cu/[Co/Ni] spin valves can be tuned by varying the He+ ion fluence. As the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of both layers is gradually reduced by the irradiation, different magnetic configurations can be achieved from all-perpendicular (↑↑), through orthogonal (→↑), to all in-plane (⇉). In addition, both the magnetic damping (α) and the inhomogeneous broadening (ΔH0) of the Co/Ni layer improve substantially with increasing fluence. While the GMR of the spin valve is negatively affected, decreasing linearly from an original value of 1.14% to 0.4% at the maximum fluence of 50×1014 He+/cm2, most of the Co/Ni layer improvement is achieved already at a fluence of 10×1014 He+/cm2, for which GMR only reduces to 0.9%.

Focusing on the Ni80Fe20 (Py)/Nd-Cu bilayers, the magnetization dynamic damping from spin pumping effect is investigated systematically by doping itinerant Cu in rear earth metal Nd. Various Ta/Py/Nd1-xCux/Ta/Si films with x = 0%, 16%, 38%, 46% and 58% are prepared by magnetron sputtering. For every content of Cu, the thickness of Nd-Cu layer is changed from 1 nm to 32 nm. The damping coefficient increases with increasing the thickness of Nd-Cu layer, which shows the trend of the spin pumping behavior. Also, with increasing Cu concentration in the Nd-Cu layer, the damping coefficient decreases, implying that the spin-orbit coupling in Nd-Cu layer is indeed cut down by high itinerant of Cu dopants. It is interesting that the spin diffusion length (λSD) in the Nd-Cu layer for different Cu dopants is not found to increase monotonously.

The mechanism of the magnetic properties on the Zn2+ substituted Fe3O4 film have been investigated based on first principle calculations. It is found that the surface effect plays an important role in the occupation of Zn ion, and in turn changes the magnetic moment. It may also destroy the half metallic behavior of Fe3O4 film even if the Zn2+ concentration only is one Zn2+ per unit cell (4%), which is different from that in bulk material.

The structural stability of hexagonal Nd2O3 under pressure has been investigated by in situ synchrotron angle dispersive x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy up to 53.1 GPa and 37.0 GPa, respectively. Rietveld analysis of the x-ray diffraction data indicate that the hexagonal Nd2O3 undergoes an isostructural phase transition in the pressure range from 10.2 to 20.3 GPa, accompanied by anomalous lattice compressibility and pressure-volume curve. A third-order Birch-Murnaghan fit based on the observed Pressure-Volume data yields zero pressure bulk moduli (B0) of 142(4) and 183(6) GPa for the low and high pressure hexagonal phases, respectively. Raman spectroscopy confirms this isostructural transition, the pressure dependence of the Raman modes display noticeable breaks in the pressure range of 9.7-20.9 GPa, which is consistent with the change of Nd-O bond length. The pressure coefficients of Raman peaks and the mode Grüneisen parameters of different Raman modes were also determined.

The mean shift algorithm has been introduced successfully into the field of computer vision to be an efficient approach for visual tracking but the tracker has been awkward in handling the scale change of the object. This study addresses the scale estimation problem of the mean shift tracker, and proposes a novel method which is based on invariant foreground occupation ratio to solve this problem. The foreground occupation ratio is defined as the proportion of the foreground pixels in an image region. By taking an analysis of the foreground occupation ratio, the authors obtain its three simple properties. With its property of scale invariance, an iterative approximation approach is employed to estimate the scale of the foreground in the current image. The scale value is modified by a weighting function, and it is adjusted along the two axes with respect to the width and the height of the target. The scale estimation algorithm is then employed in the mean shift tracker to obtain the ability of scale adaptation for tracking. Experimental results show that, using the authors method for object scale estimation, the mean shift tracker performs well in tracking the target efficiently when its scale continuously changes.

Magnetization dynamics of Fe1-xGdx thin films (0 ≤ x ≤ 22%) has been investigated by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). Out-of-plane magnetic field orientation dependence of resonance field and linewidth has been measured. Resonance field and FMR linewidth have been fitted by the free energy of our system and Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation. It is found that FMR linewidth contains huge extrinsic components including two-magnon scattering contribution and inhomogeneous broadening for FeGd alloy thin films. In addition, the intrinsic linewidth and real damping constants have been obtained by extracting the extrinsic linewidth. The damping constant enhanced from 0.011 to 0.038 as Gd dopants increase from 0 to 22% which originates from the enhancement of L-S coupling in FeGd thin films. Besides, gyromagnetic ratio, Landé factor g and magnetic anisotropy of our films have also been determined.

Focusing on the interface effect of the Ni80Fe20 (Py)/terbium (Tb) bilayer, the influence of interface on the magnetization dynamic damping is investigated systematically. Two series of Py (12 nm)/Tb (d nm) films with and without copper (Cu) (1 nm) interlayer are deposited on silicon (Si) substrates by DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature. From vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements, the saturation magnetization (Ms) decreases with increasing Tb thickness in Py/Tb bilayer while the decrease of Ms is suppressed efficiently by inserting a Cu layer with even 1 nm of thickness. From the frequency dependence of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth, we can obtain the Gilbert damping coefficient (α), α is found to exhibit an extreme enhancement in comparison to the single Py layer and shows an increasing trend with increasing Tb thickness. By inserting the Cu layer, α decreases significantly. From theoretical fitting, the spin diffusion length (λSD) and spin mixing conductance (g↑↓) are determined. It shows that the interface structure influences the spin mixing conductance but not the spin diffusion length.

The objective of this study was to investigate the suitability of tiletamine/zolazepam-xylazine-tramadol combination for miniature pigs. Fourteen Chinese experimental miniature pigs subjected to this study received 3.5 mg tiletamine/zolazepam kg−1 bw, 1.32 mg xylazine kg−1 bw and 1.8 mg tramadol kg−1 bw intramuscularly, as a mixture of the drugs. Cardiopulmonary, biochemical and haematological parameters were recorded before drug administration and after anaesthesia. The combination of the compounds resulted in anaesthesia lasting about 87 min and a satisfactory immobilization for handling. Cardiopulmonary parameters were changed after administration, but there were within biologically acceptable limits. Biochemical and haematological values decreased after drug administration, however, they returned to the baseline at 24 h. At the doses described, tiletamine/zolazepam-xylazine-tramadol combination produced good immobilization in miniature pigs with minimal changes over time in cardiopulmonary, biochemical and haematological parameters.

A series of quinoxaline 1,4-di-N-oxide analogues were prepared from benzofurazan N-oxide derivatives and β-diketone ester compounds by the improved Beirut reaction. The structures of the target products were characterized by NMR, MS, IR and elemental analysis measurements, and that of 2-carbomethoxy-3-hydroxyquinoxaline- di-N-oxide was further confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Its crystal structure belongs to the monoclinic system, space group C2/c with a = 14.4320 (12) Å, b = 10.7514 (9) Å, c = 13.2728 (11) Å, V = 1958.5 (3) Å 3, Z = 8. The X-ray crystallographic analysis reveals that quinoxaline 1,4-di-N-oxide displays acyloin-endiol tautomerism.

Natural products with interesting biological properties and structural diversity have often served as valuable lead drug candidates for the treatment of various human diseases. Largazole, isolated from the marine cyanobacterium Symploca sp. has exhibited potent inhibitory activity against many cancer cell lines. Besides, it shows remarkable selectivity between transformed and nontransformed cells, which is the main disadvantage of other antitumor natural products such as paclitaxel and actinomycin D. Due to its potential as a potent and selective anticancer drug candidate, a great deal of attention has been focused on largazole and its analogues. It is the aim of this review to highlight synthetic aspects of largazole and its analogues as well as their preliminary structure–activity relationship studies.

Himalayan glacier changes in the context of global climate change have attracted worldwide attention due to their profound cryo-hydrological ramifications. However, an integrated understanding of the debris-free and debris-covered glacier evolution and its interaction with glacial lake is still lacking. Using one case study in the Gyirong River Basin located in the central Himalayas, this paper applied archival Landsat imagery and an automated mapping method to understand how glaciers and glacial lakes interactively evolved between 1988 and 2015. Our analyses identified 467 glaciers in 1988, containing 435 debris-free and 32 debris-covered glaciers, with a total area of 614.09 ± 36.69 km2. These glaciers decreased by 16.45% in area from 1988 to 2015, with an accelerated retreat rate after 1994. Debris-free glaciers retreated faster than debris-covered glaciers. As a result of glacial downwasting, supraglacial debris coverage expanded upward by 17.79 km2 (24.44%). Concurrent with glacial retreat, glacial lakes increased in both number (+41) and area (+54.11%). Glacier-connected lakes likely accelerated the glacial retreat via thermal energy transmission and contributed to over 15% of the area loss in their connected glaciers. On the other hand, significant glacial retreats led to disconnections from their proglacial lakes, which appeared to stabilize the lake areas. Continuous expansions in the lakes connected with debris-covered glaciers, therefore, need additional attention due to their potential outbursts. In comparison with precipitation variation, temperature increase was the primary driver of such glacier and glacial lake changes. In addition, debris coverage, size, altitude, and connectivity with glacial lakes also affected the degree of glacial changes and resulted in the spatial heterogeneity of glacial wastage across the Gyirong River Basin.

Loess shoulder-lines are significant structural lines which divide the complicated loess landform into loess interfluves and gully-slope lands. Existing extraction algorithms for shoulder-lines mainly are based on local maximum of terrain features. These algorithms are sensitive to noise for complicated loess surface and the extraction parameters are difficult to be determined, making the extraction results usually inaccurate. This paper presents a new extraction approach for loess shoulder-lines, in which Marr-Hildreth edge operator is employed to construct initial shoulder-lines. Then the terrain mask for confining the boundary of shoulder-lines is proposed based on slope degree classification and morphology methods, avoiding interference from non-valley area and modify the initial loess shoulder-lines. A case study is conducted in Yijun located in the northern Shanxi Loess Plateau of China. The Digital Elevation Models with a grid size of 5 m is applied as original data. To obtain optimal scale parameters, the Euclidean Distance Offset Percentages between shoulder-lines is calculated by the Marr-Hildreth operator and the manual delineations. The experimental results show that the new method could achieve the highest extraction accuracy when σ = 5 in Gaussian smoothing. According to the accuracy assessment, the average extraction accuracy is about 88.5%, which indicates that the proposed method is applicable for the extraction of loess shoulder-lines in the loess hilly and gully areas.

This paper reports an algorithm of traffic multiple targets occlusion processing and tracking based on both the prediction of Kalman filtering operators and the processing of the PCA-SIFT (Principle Component Analysis Scale Invariant Feature Transform) feature with the active operators. The Kalman filtering operators are used for both the prediction of occlusion event and the fast location of occlusion area. The template for each target in the occlusion area is built and the PCA-SIFT feature with the active contour operators is used to estimate and trace the multiple targets separately in the area. Through updating, the occlusion processing and tracking of multiple targets continue until the occlusion ends. Obtained results have shown that the algorithm in the paper can solve multiple targets occlusion and tracking effectively and accurately, comparing with the real trajectories.

The formation mechanism of TiC particles in a Ni-Ti-C system were revealed by using differential thermal analysis (DTA), XRD, and SEM to identify the reaction products in different temperature ranges. The results indicated that the synthesis mechanism of TiC in Ni-Ti-C system was complex; several reactions were involved in the combustion synthesis of TiC-Ni composite. The Ni-Ti intermediate phases play important roles during the formation of TiC. Moreover, the influence of heating rate on the size range of TiC was also discussed.

Our paper is a study about metabolism syndrome (MS) incidence situations of different nationalities, including Uighur, Kazak and Han nationality in Xinjiang by means of a cross-sectional survey and compare differences and adaptabilities of applications of the diagnostic criteria for MS recommended by Adult Treatment Protocol III of National Cholesterol Education Program of America (ATP III), International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS) in three groups of populations. Conclusion tell us, for Uighur population and Kazak population, IDF criterion and ATPIII criterion had a better consistence, and CDS criterion was worst. For Han population, CDS criterion and IDF criterion had a better consistence, and ATPIII criterion was worst. For the screening of MS incidence rate of Uighur and Kazak adult populations in Xinjiang region, ATPIII criterion was optimal, while CDS criterion was optimal for Han population. However, as for screening of clustering of multiple risk factors of MS, IDF criterion was better than other criteria for the three nationalities.

Annonaceous acetogenins, a large family of naturally occurring polyketides isolated from various species of the plant genus Annonaceae, have been found to exhibit significant cytotoxicity against a variety of cancer cells. Previous studies showed that these compounds could act on the mitochondria complex-I and block the corresponding electron transport chain and terminate ATP production. However, more details of the mechanisms of action remain ambiguous. In this study we tested the effects of a set of mimetics of annonaceous acetogenin on some cancer cell lines, and report that among them AA005 exhibits the most potent antitumor activity. AA005 depletes ATP, activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and inhibits mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) signal pathway, leading to growth inhibition and autophagy of colon cancer cells. AMPK inhibitors compound C and inosine repress, while AMPK activator AICAR enhances, AA005-caused proliferation suppression and subsequent autophagy of colon cancer cells. AA005 enhances the ATP depletion and AMPK activation caused by 2-deoxyglucose, an inhibitor of mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis. AA005 also inhibits chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin-triggered up-regulation of mTOR and synergizes with this drug in suppression of proliferation and induction of apoptosis of colon cancer cells. These data indicate that AA005 is a new metabolic inhibitor which exhibits therapeutic potentials in colon cancer.