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Min Xiao,1,&ast; Di Wang,2,&ast; Guo-Ling Lin,1 Xin Lin,3 Li-Yan Tao,4 Qi-Yong Li1,5 1Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Shulan (Hangzhou) Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang Shuren University Shulan International Medical College, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Nursing, Shulan (Hangzhou) Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang Shuren University Shulan International Medical College, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 5Jinan Microecological Biomedicine Shandong Laboratory, Jinan, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qi-Yong Li, Shulan (Hangzhou) Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang Shuren University Shulan International Medical College, #848 Dongxin Road, Hangzhou, 310000, People’s Republic of China, Email liqiyong@zju.edu.cnPurpose: To explore the feasibility and safety of using the left lateral decubitus position (LLDP) to perform laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) for the treatment of hepatic lesions in segment VI and/or VII.Patients and Methods: Clinical data concerning 50 patients underwent LLR including 25 patients in the LLDP and the other 25 patients in the routine operative position (ROP) at Shulan (Hangzhou) Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang Shuren University Shulan International Medical College (Hangzhou, China) and Shulan (Quzhou) Hospital between March 2019 and May 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. All of the patients underwent LLR while in the LLDP or the ROP for the treatment of hepatic lesions located in segment VI and/or VII.Results: The preoperative clinical and laboratory parameters were comparable between the two groups (P > 0.05). All patients completed the surgery successfully. There were two patients required conversion to open resection in the ROP comparing with zero in the LLDP. The mean operative time was 256.9 ± 132.7 minutes in LLDP and 255.7 ± 92.1 minutes in ROP, while the median perioperative blood loss was 100 mL (range: 50– 300 mL) in LLDP and 200 mL (range: 50– 425 mL), respectively. The postoperative pathological examination showed that margin-negative resection was achieved all of the cases. The important postoperative parameters all returned to normal within five days after the LLR. The mean postoperative hospital stay (15.6 vs 19.3 days; p < 0.05) and the extraction of the drainage tube time (7.8 vs 10.4 days; p < 0.05) were shorter for patients in LLDP.Conclusion: The LLDP represents a safe and feasible position for performing LLR in selected patients with lesions in segment VI and/or VII. LLR in the LLDP is helpful in terms of the exposure of the surgical field and the recovery of the patient.Keywords: laparoscopic, liver resection, left lateral decubitus position

Lianyuan Tao, Chunhui Yuan, Zhaolai Ma, Bin Jiang, Dianrong Xiu Department of General Surgery, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China Introduction: Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease with a very poor prognosis. This study investigates survival of patients diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC) based on local treatment of the primary tumor. Methods: Patients diagnosed with stage IV mPC between 2004 and 2013 were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. Cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were examined. CSS and OS were examined by using the Kaplan–Meier method with the log-rank test. Multivariable survival analyses of CSS and OS were conducted using the Cox proportional hazard model. Results: A total of 28918 patients with mPC were included in this analysis. There were 467 patients who received surgical resection (1.6%) and 28451 patients who did not (98.4%). Patients who were younger than 70 years (odds ratio [OR]=1.45, 95% CI=1.04–2.03, p=0.03), diagnosed from 2004 to 2008 (OR=1.49, 95% CI=1.25–1.80, p50 years (HR=1.25, 95% CI=1.09–1.42, p=0.001), male (HR=1.121, 95% CI=1.09–1.15, p

The growing concerns surrounding water pollution and the degradation of ecosystems worldwide have led to an increased use of nature-based solutions (NbSs). This study assessed the feasibility of using floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) as an NbS to treat propylene glycol-contaminated water and quantitatively investigated different removal pathways. With an environmentally relevant concentration of propylene glycol (1,250 mg/L), FTWs containing Acorus calamus and mixed species demonstrated the highest average glycol mass removal efficacy (99%), followed by Carex acutiformis (98%), Juncus effusus (93%), and the control group without plants (10%) after 1 week. Additional mesocosm-scale experiments with varying FTW configurations, including surface coverage to reduce evaporation and photodegradation processes, and the addition of antibiotics to inhibit microbial activity, were conducted to quantify glycol removal pathways. Mass balance analysis results revealed that microbial biodegradation (33.3–39.7%) and plant uptake (37.9–45.2%) were the primary pathways for glycol removal. Only 15.5–19.5% of the glycol removal via evaporation and photodegradation was accounted in this study, which may be attributed to the mesocosm experimental setup (static water and no wind). Aligned with the broader discussion regarding biodiversity improvements and carbon storage capacity, this study demonstrated that FTWs are an environmentally friendly and effective NbS for addressing glycol-contaminated water. HIGHLIGHTS Floating treatment wetland (FTW) can effectively remove organic micropollutants.; Acorus and Carex are more efficient to remove propylene glycol than Juncus.; Microbial biodegradation and plant uptake are the major removal pathways.; Mixed species in FTW can yield high removal efficiency and support biodiversity.;

Nitrogen oxides (NOxs) are some of the most important hazardous air pollutants from industry. In China, the annual NOx emission in the waste gas of industrial sources is about 8.957 million tons, while power plants remain the largest anthropogenic source of NOx emissions, and the precise control of NOx in power plants is crucial. However, due to inherent issues with measurement and pipelines in coal-fired power plants, there is typically a delay of about three minutes in NOx measurements, bringing mismatch between its control and measurement. Measuring delays in NOx from power plants can lead to excessive ammonia injection or failure to meet environmental standards for NOx emissions. To address the issue of NOx measurement delays, this study introduced a hybrid boosting model suitable for on-site implementation. The model could serve as a feedforward signal in SCR control, compensating for NOx measurement delays and enabling precise ammonia injection for accurate denitrification in power plants. The model combines generation mechanism and data-driven approaches, enhancing its prediction accuracy through the categorization of time-series data into linear, nonlinear, and exogenous regression components. In this study, a time-based method was proposed for analyzing the correlations between variables in denitration systems and NOx concentrations. This study also introduced a new evaluation indicator, part of R2 (PR2), which focused on the prediction effect at turning points. Finally, the proposed model was applied to actual data from a 330 MW power plant, showing excellent predictive accuracy, particularly for one-minute forecasts. For 3 min prediction, compared to predictions made by ARIMA, the R-squared (R2) and PR2 were increased by 3.6% and 30.6%, respectively, and the mean absolute error (MAE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) were decreased by 9.4% and 9.1%, respectively. These results confirmed the accuracy and applicability of the integrated model for on-site implementation as a 3 min advanced prediction soft sensor in power plants.

Background & Aims: Peripartum prophylaxis (PP) with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is the standard of care to prevent mother-to-child transmission of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection in mothers who are highly viremic. We investigated the maternal and infant outcomes in a large Chinese cohort of TDF-treated CHB pregnant participants. Methods: In this prospective study, treatment-naive mothers with CHB and highly viremic (HBV DNA ≥200,000 IU/ml) but without cirrhosis were treated with TDF at 24–28 weeks of pregnancy. In accordance with Chinese CHB guidelines, TDF was stopped at delivery or ≥4 weeks postpartum. Serum HBV DNA and alanine aminotransferase were monitored every 6–8 weeks to determine virological relapse (VR). Infants received standard neonatal immunization, and HBV serology was checked at 7–12 months of age. Results: Among 330 participants recruited (median age 30, 82.7% HBeAg+, median HBV DNA 7.82 log IU/ml), TDF was stopped at delivery in 66.4% and at ≥4 weeks in 33.6%. VR was observed in 98.3%, among which 11.6% were retreated with TDF. Timing of TDF cessation did not alter the risk of VR (99.0 vs. 96.9%), clinical relapse (19.5 vs. 14.3%), or retreatment (12.6 vs. 10.1%) (all p > 0.05). A similar proportion of patients developed alanine aminotransferase flare five times (1.1 vs. 2.1%; p = 0.464) and 10 times (0.5 vs. 0%; p = 0.669) above the upper limit of normal (ULN) in the early withdrawal and late withdrawal groups, respectively. No infants developed HBsAg-positivity. Conclusions: PP-TDF and neonatal immunization were highly effective in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HBV in mothers who are highly viremic. Timing of cessation of PP-TDF did not affect the risk of VR or retreatment. Impact and Implications: In pregnant mothers with chronic hepatitis B infection who are started on peripartum tenofovir to prevent mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT), the optimal timing for antiviral withdrawal during the postpartum period remains unknown. This prospective study demonstrates that stopping tenofovir immediately at delivery, compared with longer treatment duration of tenofovir, did not lead to an increased risk of virological relapse, retreatment, or transmission of the virus to the baby. Shortening the duration of peripartum antiviral prophylaxis from 12 weeks to immediately after delivery can be considered. The immediate withdrawal of peripartum tenofovir, combined with standard neonatal immunization schemes, is 100% effective in preventing MTCT among pregnant mothers with CHB who are highly viremic, with a high rate of vaccine response in infants.

The evaluation of geological suitability for urban underground space (UUS) development is an indispensable prerequisite for its optimal utilization. As the actual carrier of underground facilities, the evaluation of rock mass quality plays a crucial role in assessing geological suitability. However, it is notable that the evaluation of rock mass quality has regrettably remained somewhat marginalized within the broader framework of the geological suitability assessment in recent years. The selection of pertinent indicators for the evaluation of rock mass quality inherently presents an appreciable degree of subjectivity. Predominantly subjective evaluation methods continue to dominate the field, while the application of objective algorithms, such as unsupervised clustering, remains in its nascent stage. Furthermore, there is a lack of comprehensive investigations into distinct combinations of attributes. This limitation confines the broader applicability of the evaluation outcomes in the context of urban underground space. Within this study, we meticulously amassed rock core test data from over 40 boreholes of engineering geological significance within the urban planning ambit of Guang'An City. Utilizing the K-means unsupervised clustering algorithm and the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) algorithm. We successfully conducted an unsupervised clustering procedure with nine distinct physical and mechanical attributes. This yielded an aggregation into five discernible clusters. Building upon the derived clustering outcomes, a stratification of rock mass quality was effectuated into three distinct tiers: Level 1 (characterized by pure sandstone), Level 2 (primarily dominated by sandstone), and Level 3 (denoting fair conditions predominantly influenced by mudstone). This structured stratification facilitates a relatively objective and comprehensive evaluation of rock mass quality within the context of the red-bed hilly terrain. In the course of this analytical trajectory, we conducted a dissection of the clustering efficacy. For strongly correlated attributes, we propose a preliminary dimensionality reduction procedure prior to the clustering endeavor. Moreover, we recommend intervals of 10 m for the stratified evaluation in red bed hilly urban terrains.

The negative thermal expansion (NTE) phenomenon is of great significance in fabricating zero thermal expansion (ZTE) materials to avoid thermal shock during heating and cooling. NTE is observed in limited groups of materials, e.g., metal cyanides, oxometallates, and metal-organic frameworks, but has not been reported in the family of metal hydrides. Herein, a colossal and continuous negative thermal expansion is firstly developed in the low-temperature phases of LT1- and LT2-Mg2NiH4 between 488 K and 733 K from in-situ transmission electron microscope (TEM) video, with the volume contraction reaching 18.7% and 11.3%, respectively. The mechanisms for volume contraction of LT1 and LT2 phases are elucidated from the viewpoints of phase transformation, magnetic transition, and dehydrogenation, which is different from common NTE materials containing flexible polyhedra units in the structure. The linear volume shrinkage of LT2 in the temperature of 488–553 K corresponds to the phase transition of LT2→HT with a thermal expansion coefficient of –799.7 × 10–6 K–1 revealed by in-situ synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction. The sudden volume contraction in LT1 between 488 and 493 K may be caused by the rapid dehydrogenation of LT1 to Mg2Ni. The revealed phenomenon in single composite material with different structures would be significant for preparing zero thermal expansion materials by tuning the fraction of LT1 and LT2 phases.

Abstract Background Helicobacter pylori infection and associated diseases are a growing global public health issue. H. pylori infection is the major cause of gastric cancer, over 90% of duodenal ulcers, and over 70% of gastric ulcers. The infection rate of H. pylori is approximately 50%, and approximately 50% of new cases of gastric cancer worldwide occur in China. Bismuth (BI)-based quadruple therapy is recommended as the first-line treatment for H. pylori in China. Vonoprazan (VPZ), a new potassium-competitive acid blocker that can inhibit gastric acid secretion more effectively than proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), has been combined with antibiotics to effectively eradicate H. pylori. In this study, we compared the efficacy and safety of two VPZ-based therapies with that of BI-based therapy for H. pylori treatment. Methods A three-armed randomised controlled trial (RCT) is being conducted in Shenzhen, with 327 participants recruited from the Gastroenterology Clinic of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital. Patients were diagnosed with H. pylori infection based on a positive 13C-urea breath test (UBT). Patients are kept naïve to their treatment and are randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to either VPZ-based triple, VPZ-based dual, or BI-based quadruple therapy for 14 days. All groups are subjected to follow-up evaluations of safety, adverse drug reactions, and clinical variables in the first, second, and fourth weeks after treatment. Successful eradication is confirmed by a negative 13C-UBT six weeks after treatment. If initial treatment fails, (1) those patients are turned to another regimen, or (2) a drug resistance test is conducted, after which an individualised treatment regimen shall be prescribed according to antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The resulting data will be evaluated using intention-treat and a per-protocol analysis. Discussion This study is the a RCT aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of 14-day VPZ-based triple and dual therapies in comparison with BI-based quadruple therapy. The outcomes of this study may allow treatment recommendations and update drug instructions in China. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (No. ChiCTR2200056375). Registered on February 4, 2022, https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=141314

Abstract Background Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most prevalent congenital valvular heart defect, and around 50% of severe isolated calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) cases are associated with BAV. Although previous studies have demonstrated the cellular heterogeneity of aortic valves, the cellular composition of specific BAV at the single-cell level remains unclear. Methods Four BAV specimens from aortic valve stenosis patients were collected to conduct single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). In vitro experiments were performed to further validate some phenotypes. Results The heterogeneity of stromal cells and immune cells were revealed based on comprehensive analysis. We identified twelve subclusters of VICs, four subclusters of ECs, six subclusters of lymphocytes, six subclusters of monocytic cells and one cluster of mast cells. Based on the detailed cell atlas, we constructed a cellular interaction network. Several novel cell types were identified, and we provided evidence for established mechanisms on valvular calcification. Furthermore, when exploring the monocytic lineage, a special population, macrophage derived stromal cells (MDSC), was revealed to be originated from MRC1+ (CD206) macrophages (Macrophage-to-Mesenchymal transition, MMT). FOXC1 and PI3K-AKT pathway were identified as potential regulators of MMT through scRNA analysis and in vitro experiments. Conclusions With an unbiased scRNA-seq approach, we identified a full spectrum of cell populations and a cellular interaction network in stenotic BAVs, which may provide insights for further research on CAVD. Notably, the exploration on mechanism of MMT might provide potential therapeutic targets for bicuspid CAVD.

Automatically segmenting polyps from colonoscopy videos is crucial for developing computer-assisted diagnostic systems for colorectal cancer. Existing automatic polyp segmentation methods often struggle to fulfill the real-time demands of clinical applications due to their substantial parameter count and computational load, especially those based on Transformer architectures. To tackle these challenges, a novel lightweight long-range context fusion network, named LightCF-Net, is proposed in this paper. This network attempts to model long-range spatial dependencies while maintaining real-time performance, to better distinguish polyps from background noise and thus improve segmentation accuracy. A novel Fusion Attention Encoder (FAEncoder) is designed in the proposed network, which integrates Large Kernel Attention (LKA) and channel attention mechanisms to extract deep representational features of polyps and unearth long-range dependencies. Furthermore, a newly designed Visual Attention Mamba module (VAM) is added to the skip connections, modeling long-range context dependencies in the encoder-extracted features and reducing background noise interference through the attention mechanism. Finally, a Pyramid Split Attention module (PSA) is used in the bottleneck layer to extract richer multi-scale contextual features. The proposed method was thoroughly evaluated on four renowned polyp segmentation datasets: Kvasir-SEG, CVC-ClinicDB, BKAI-IGH, and ETIS. Experimental findings demonstrate that the proposed method delivers higher segmentation accuracy in less time, consistently outperforming the most advanced lightweight polyp segmentation networks.

With the further development of neural networks, automatic segmentation techniques for melanoma are becoming increasingly mature, especially under the conditions of abundant hardware resources. This allows for the accuracy of segmentation to be improved by increasing the complexity and computational capacity of the model. However, a new problem arises when it comes to actual applications, as there may not be the high-end hardware available, especially in hospitals and among the general public, who may have limited computing resources. In response to this situation, this paper proposes a lightweight deep learning network that can achieve high segmentation accuracy with minimal resource consumption. We introduce a network called DTONet (double-tailed octave network), which was specifically designed for this purpose. Its computational parameter count is only 30,859, which is 1/256th of the mainstream UNet model. Despite its reduced complexity, DTONet demonstrates superior performance in terms of accuracy, with an IOU improvement over other similar models. To validate the generalization capability of this model, we conducted tests on the PH2 dataset, and the results still outperformed existing models. Therefore, the proposed DTONet network exhibits excellent generalization ability and is sufficiently outstanding.

Particles larger than 10 nm from engine exhaust are gaining global concerns. In light of this, to investigate how EGR affects gasoline vehicle SPN10 (solid particles larger than 10 nm) emissions, seven gasoline vehicles (hybrid or conventional) were studied experimentally. The results revealed that EGR vehicles risk failing the current limit (6 * 1011 #/km) more than those without EGR if the cut-off size was tightened from 23 nm to 10 nm. More specifically, during the WLTC test, EGR increased the SPN10 emission factors by 2 ∼ 3 times depending on vehicle powertrains (conventional or hybrid). Notably, SPN10 emissions increased significantly when EGR was actively engaged but showed a decrease when the EGR rate remained constant. EGR and the enriched fuel–air mixture are the critical reasons for the increased SPN10.

ObjectivesIn order to investigate the rolling-forward law of a spherical underwater vehicle and the influence of mass distribution on its motion, this study carries out the innovative design and analysis of its mechanical mechanism. MethodsFirst, a dynamic model of the rolling-forward motion is established using the Newton-Euler method. The influence of mass distribution on its motion is then analyzed through the ground test and underwater hydrodynamics theory. Finally, by building a simulation environment and virtual prototype, the rolling dynamics of the vehicle underwater and on land are compared and analyzed. ResultsThe results show that when the built-in driving unit rotates constantly, the speed of the vehicle fluctuates and the swing angle of the built-in driving unit also alters periodically. When the driving weight is increased, the period and amplitude of swing angle become smaller, and the rolling-forward motion becomes more stable. ConclusionsThe results of this paper can provide guidance for the further optimization of spherical underwater vehicles.

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the world’s third leading cause of cancer-related death; due to the fast growth and high prevalence of tumor recurrence, the prognosis of HCC patients remains dismal. Long non-coding RNA CEBPA-DT, a divergent transcript of the CCAAT Enhancer Binding Protein Alpha (CEBPA) gene, has been shown to participate in multiple tumor progression. However, no research has established its cancer-promoting mechanism in HCC yet. Methods CEBPA-DT was identified in human HCC tissues through RNA sequencing. The expression level of CEBPA-DT was assessed by quantitative real-time PCR. The biological effects of CEBPA-DT were evaluated in vitro and in vivo through gain or loss of function experiments. RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and RNA pull-down assays were applied to investigate the downstream target of CEBPA-DT. Immunofluorescence, subcellular protein fractionation, western blot, and co-immunoprecipitation were performed to analyze the subcellular location of β-catenin and its interaction with Discoidin domain-containing receptor 2 (DDR2). Results CEBPA-DT was upregulated in human HCC tissues with postoperative distant metastasis and intimately related to the worse prognosis of HCC patients. Silencing of CEBPA-DT inhibited the growth, migration and invasion of hepatoma cells in vitro and in vivo, while enhancement of CEBPA-DT played a contrasting role. Mechanistic investigations demonstrated that CEBPA-DT could bind to heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C (hnRNPC), which facilitated cytoplasmic translocation of hnRNPC, enhanced the interaction between hnRNPC and DDR2 mRNA, subsequently promoted the expression of DDR2. Meanwhile, CEBPA-DT induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process through upregulation of Snail1 via facilitating nuclear translocation of β-catenin. Using DDR2 inhibitor, we revealed that the CEBPA-DT induced the interaction between DDR2 and β-catenin, thus promoting the nuclear translocation of β-catenin to activate transcription of Snail1, contributing to EMT and HCC metastasis. Conclusions Our results suggested that CEBPA-DT promoted HCC metastasis through DDR2/β-catenin mediated activation of Snail1 via interaction with hnRNPC, indicating that the CEBPA-DT-hnRNPC-DDR2/β-catenin axis may be used as a potential therapeutic target for HCC treatment.

The increasing global demand for skin disease diagnostics emphasizes the urgent need for advancements in AI-assisted diagnostic technologies for dermatoscopic images. In current practical medical systems, the primary challenge is balancing lightweight models with accurate image analysis to address constraints like limited storage and computational costs. While knowledge distillation methods hold immense potential in healthcare applications, related research on multi-class skin disease tasks is scarce. To bridge this gap, our study introduces an enhanced multi-source knowledge fusion distillation framework, termed DSP-KD, which improves knowledge transfer in a dual-stage progressive distillation approach to maximize mutual information between teacher and student representations. The experimental results highlight the superior performance of our distilled ShuffleNetV2 on both the ISIC2019 dataset and our private skin disorders dataset. Compared to other state-of-the-art distillation methods using diverse knowledge sources, the DSP-KD demonstrates remarkable effectiveness with a smaller computational burden.

Glytrexate, developed by our team, as a novel multitarget folate antagonist, has inhibitory effects on a variety of cancer cell types, especially KB tumor cells (IC50 0.078 nM), and thus has antitumor drug development prospects. However, its pharmacokinetics and plasma protein binding properties remain unknown. In this study a selective and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC‒MS/MS) method was developed and verified to facilitate biological analysis. The bioanalysis method was applied to evaluate the stability, plasma protein binding, and pharmacokinetics of glytrexate. Glytrexate is more stable in human plasma than in rat plasma and in human liver microsomes. The binding of glytrexate to human plasma proteins was higher than that to rat plasma proteins, both of which were less than 30%, suggesting that glytrexate may be at a higher concentration at the pharmacologic target receptor(s) in tissues. Pharmacokinetic characteristics were determined by noncompartmental analysis after administration of single oral (12.5, 25 and 50 mg/kg) and intravenous (2 mg/kg) doses in rats. According to the rat oral pharmacokinetic characteristics, glytrexate had linear dynamics in a dose range of 12.5–50 mg/kg and a poor oral bioavailability of 0.57–1.15%. The investigation revealed that the intravenous half-life, AUC, and Cmax of glytrexate were higher than those of pemetrexed. Pemetrexed is generally produced as an injection preparation. This provides ideas for the development of glytrexate formulations. Therefore, glytrexate injection has clinical application prospects compared to oral administration. This study provides a basis for further investigations into the pharmacological effects and clinical uses of glytrexate.

Mutated cells may constitute a source of cancer. As an effective approach to quantifying the extent of cancer, cell image segmentation is of particular importance for understanding the mechanism of the disease, observing the degree of cancer cell lesions, and improving the efficiency of treatment and the useful effect of drugs. However, traditional image segmentation models are not ideal solutions for cancer cell image segmentation due to the fact that cancer cells are highly dense and vary in shape and size. To tackle this problem, this paper proposes a novel U-Net-based image segmentation model, named U-Net_dc, which expands twice the original U-Net encoder and decoder and, in addition, uses a skip connection operation between them, for better extraction of the image features. In addition, the feature maps of the last few U-Net layers are upsampled to the same size and then concatenated together for producing the final output, which allows the final feature map to retain many deep-level features. Moreover, dense atrous convolution (DAC) and residual multi-kernel pooling (RMP) modules are introduced between the encoder and decoder, which helps the model obtain receptive fields of different sizes, better extract rich feature expression, detect objects of different sizes, and better obtain context information. According to the results obtained from experiments conducted on the Tsinghua University’s private dataset of endometrial cancer cells and the publicly available Data Science Bowl 2018 (DSB2018) dataset, the proposed U-Net_dc model outperforms all state-of-the-art models included in the performance comparison study, based on all evaluation metrics used.

An evaluation of the measurement uncertainty of on-road NOx emissions using portable emission measurement system (PEMS) based on real local testing data collected in China was carried out as per the type B method defined in the EN 17507 standard. The aim of this work was to quantify the “absolute” measurement uncertainty of PEMSs, which excluded “PEMS relative to laboratory constant volume sampler (CVS)” uncertainty from the calculation of on-road NOx measurement uncertainty using PEMSs. PEMS instruments from three mainstream manufacturers were employed. The zero drift of the NOx analyzers was evaluated periodically during the real driving emissions (RDE) test, and it was noticed that there was neither a linear nor step model of zero drift, with no correlation with the boundary conditions or measurement principle. Additionally, from the 256 valid RDE tests, the zero drift always ranged from 3.8 ppm to −3.8 ppm, and more than 95% of the span drifts were within a range of 1.5%. Based on the laboratory testing of ten vehicles using the worldwide harmonized light-duty vehicle test cycle (WLTC), the type B uncertainty of PEMS NOx measurements corresponding to China-6a and China-6b limits was assessed. An uncertainty of 26.5% for China-6a was found (NOx limit = 60 mg/km over the WLTC), which is very close to the 22.5% from the EU evaluation results (NOx limit = 80 mg/km over the WLTC); the uncertainty with respect to China-6b was found to be 42.8% because the type-I limit was tuned down to 35 mg/km. This result indicates that, with the ever-tightening regulatory limits of vehicle NOx emissions, big challenges will be posed in terms of the reliability of PEMS measurements, which requires PEMS manufacturers to improve the performance of the instruments and policymakers to refine the test procedures and/or result calculation method to minimize the impacts.

Most of the current, popular approaches to monitoring real driving NOx emissions are based on direct measurement. However, due to the uncertainty of sensor-based measurements, such methods cannot always be used to accurately screen out the malfunctions of an emission control system. In this paper, a random forest (RF) model which extracts information from on-board diagnostics (OBD) data streams transmitted by a remote emission management vehicle terminal (REMVT) is proposed to provide a specific emission method for the online screening of high NOx emissions. First, two particular forms of modeling, random forest and logistic regression (LR), are laid out as representatives of nonparametric models and specified linear models. These two models were trained, validated and compared using OBD data collected from three China-VI heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs). The results show that as a data-driven, highly adaptive and robust learning method, the RF model can more accurately identify an abnormal emission state. Finally, a further validation was conducted, in which another China-VI HDDV was tested in two typical states, including a fault state and a normal state. The results indicated that the RF model could clearly distinguish the out-of-control emission condition from the normal operation state. The outcome of this research verifies the feasibility of using a machine learning model to process remote OBD data on HD vehicles and to identify high emissions in the case of an in-use fleet. On this basis, more sophisticated combined models and multi-stage models could be developed.

Microalgae carbon dioxide (CO2) fixation technology is among the effective ways of environmental protection and resource utilization, which can be combined with treatment of wastewater and flue gas, preparation of biofuels and other technologies, with high economic benefits. However, in industrial application, microalgae still have problems such as poor photosynthetic efficiency, high input cost and large capital investment. The technology of microalgae energy development and resource utilization needs to be further studied. Therefore, this work reviewed the mechanism of CO2 fixation in microalgae. Improving the carbon sequestration capacity of microalgae by adjusting the parameters of their growth conditions (e.g., light, temperature, pH, nutrient elements, and CO2 concentration) was briefly discussed. The strategies of random mutagenesis, adaptive laboratory evolution and genetic engineering were evaluated to screen microalgae with a high growth rate, strong tolerance, high CO2 fixation efficiency and biomass. In addition, in order to better realize the industrialization of microalgae CO2 fixation technology, the feasibility of combining flue gas and wastewater treatment and utilizing high-value-added products was analyzed. Considering the current challenges of microalgae CO2 fixation technology, the application of microalgae CO2 fixation technology in the above aspects is expected to establish a more optimized mechanism of microalgae carbon sequestration in the future. At the same time, it provides a solid foundation and a favorable basis for fully implementing sustainable development, steadily promoting the carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and realizing clean, green, low-carbon and efficient utilization of energy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of a quick overview of the latest developments and unprecedented opportunities for scholars who want to set foot in the field of traditional taxi and online car-hailing (TTOC). From the perspectives of peoples (e.g., passenger, driver, and policymaker), vehicle, road, and environment, this paper describes the current research status of TTOC's big data in six hot topics, including the ridership factor, spatio-temporal distribution and travel behavior, cruising strategy and passenger service market partition, route planning, transportation emission and new-energy, and TTOC's data extensional application. These topics were included in five mainstreams as follows: (1) abundant studies often focus only on determinant analysis on given transportation (taxi, transit, online car-hailing); the exploration of ridership patterns for a multi-modal transportation mode is rare; furthermore, multiple aspects of factors were not considered synchronously in a wide time span; (2) travel behavior research mainly concentrates on the commuting trips and distribution patterns of various travel indices (e.g., distance, displacement, time); (3) the taxi driver-searching strategy can be divided into autopsychic cruising and system dispatching; (4) the spatio-temporal distribution character of TTOC's fuel consumption (FC) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has become a hotspot recently, and there has been a recommendation for electric taxi (ET) in urban cities to decrease transportation congestion is proposed; and (5) based on TTOC and point of interest (POI) multi-source data, many machine learning algorithms were used to predict travel condition indices, land use, and travel behavior. Then, the main bottlenecks and research directions that can be explored in the future are discussed. We hope this result can provide an overview of current fundamental aspects of TTOC's utilization in the urban area.

Abstract Background Genome-wide change of polyadenylation (polyA) sites (also known as alternative polyadenylation, APA) is emerging as an important strategy of gene regulation in response to stress in plants. But little is known in woody perennials that are persistently dealing with multiple abiotic stresses. Results Here, we performed a genome-wide profiling of polyadenylation sites under heat and cold treatments in Populus trichocarpa. Through a comprehensive analysis of polyA tail sequences, we identified 25,919 polyA-site clusters (PACs), and revealed 3429 and 3139 genes shifted polyA sites under heat and cold stresses respectively. We found that a small proportion of genes possessed APA that affected the open reading frames; and some shifts were commonly identified. Functional analysis of genes displaying shifted polyA tails suggested that pathways related to RNA metabolism were linked to regulate the APA events under both heat and cold stresses. Interestingly, we found that the heat stress induced a significantly more antisense PACs comparing to cold and control conditions. Furthermore, we showed that a unique cis-element (AAAAAA) was predominately enriched downstream of PACs in P. trichocarpa genes; and this sequence signal was only absent in shifted PACs under the heat condition, indicating a distinct APA mechanism responsive to heat tolerance. Conclusions This work provides a comprehensive picture of global polyadenylation patterns in response to temperatures stresses in trees. We show that the frequent change of polyA tail is a potential mechanism of gene regulation responsive to stress, which are associated with distinctive sequence signatures.

The aim of this study was to improve the entrepreneurial performance (EP) and sports morality of college teacher-and-student entrepreneurs (i.e., college entrepreneurs). Consequently, psychological capital (PsyCap) is creatively combined with social and political education (SPE) to explore college entrepreneurs’ EP and sports morality. First, following a theoretical model implementation, this article proposes several hypotheses. Then, a questionnaire survey (QS) was designed, and the data were analyzed. The results show that (1) gender has little impact on EP and sports morality; (2) PsyCap significantly affects the EP of college entrepreneurs at the age of 33–38 years; (3) in terms of educational background, average scores of PsyCap + SPE of bachelors are the highest, followed by masters or above, and finally, the college undergraduate; (4) the average score of PsyCap + SPE of married respondents is 4.0, while that of the unmarried is 3.7; (5) there is a significant difference between college entrepreneurs’ EP under the dimension of the basic enterprise situation; and (6) the average score of the length of entrepreneurship is 9.87, which has the most significant impact on the EP and sports morality, and the significance of sports morality is 0.04. Among them, the most significant impact on EP and sports morality is weekly sports participation, with a score of 9.67. Therefore, PsyCap + SPE plays a positive role in the EP of college entrepreneurs. In contrast, sports morality has little impact on EP. This study provides a reference for the research on the influence of entrepreneurship and sports morality of college entrepreneurs.

Uniform-dispersed Ni nanoparticles (NPs) anchored on reduced graphene oxide (Ni@rGO) catalyzed MgH2 (MH-Ni@rGO) has been fabricated by mechanical milling. The effects of milling time and Ni loading amount on the hydrogen storage properties of MgH2 have been investigated. The initial hydrogen desorption temperature of MgH2 catalyzed by 10 wt.% Ni4@rGO6 for milling 5 h is significantly decreased from 251 °C to 190 °C. The composite can absorb 5.0 wt.% hydrogen in 20 min at 100 °C, while it can desorb 6.1 wt.% within 15 min at 300 °C. Through the investigation of the phase transformation and dehydrogenation kinetics during hydrogen ab/desorption cycles, we found that the in-situ formed Mg2Ni/Mg2NiH4 exhibited better catalytic effect than Ni. When Ni loading amount is 45 wt.%, the rGO in Ni@rGO catalysts can prevent the reaction of Ni and Mg due to the strong interaction between rGO and Ni NPs.

We report on an ultra-compact, low loss and broadband TM-pass polarizer, which is constructed by two interleaved subwavelength-gratings (SWGs) waveguides inserted in the center of the strip waveguide on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. The device structure is optimally engineered to support Bloch mode for fundamental TM polarization only. Therefore, the TM mode transmits along the strip waveguide with rather low propagation loss while the TE mode is completely reflected by the embedded SWGs waveguides. Simulation results show that an efficient and ultra-compact TM-pass polarizer of 5.2 μm in length is realized with extinction ratio (ER) of 31.63 dB and insertion loss (IL) of 0.18 dB at the operating wavelength of 1550 nm. The operation bandwidth for ER over 20 dB and IL below 0.32 dB is 155 nm (from 1465 to 1620 nm). By increasing the period number, the ER performance and bandwidth can be further improved. Furthermore, the fabrication of the present polarizer only requires mono-lithography and single etch process, which will greatly reduce the fabrication difficulty.

Male-sterile mutants are useful materials to study the anther and pollen development. Here, whole transcriptome sequencing was performed for inflorescences in three sterile lines of Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris L. ssp. chinensis Makino, syn. B. rapa ssp. chinensis), the genic male-sterile line (A line), the Polima cytoplasmic male-sterile (CMS) line (P line), and the Ogura CMS line (O line) along with their maintainer line (B line). In total, 7,136 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), 361 differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) (DELs), 56 differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) (DEMs) were selected out. Specific regulatory networks related to anther cell differentiation, meiosis cytokinesis, pollen wall formation, and tapetum development were constructed based on the abortion characteristics of male-sterile lines. Candidate genes and lncRNAs related to cell differentiation were identified in sporocyteless P line, sixteen of which were common to the DEGs in Arabidopsis spl/nzz mutant. Genes and lncRNAs concerning cell plate formation were selected in A line that is defected in meiosis cytokinesis. Also, the orthologs of pollen wall formation and tapetum development genes in Arabidopsis showed distinct expression patterns in the three different sterile lines. Among 361 DELs, 35 were predicted to interact with miRNAs, including 28 targets, 47 endogenous target mimics, and five precursors for miRNAs. Two lncRNAs were further proved to be functional precursors for bra-miR156 and bra-miR5718, respectively. Overexpression of bra-miR5718HG in B. campestris slowed down the growth of pollen tubes, caused shorter pollen tubes, and ultimately affected the seed set. Our study provides new insights into molecular regulation especially the ncRNA interaction during pollen development in Brassica crops.

To satisfy the adaptability of forecasting the short-term and abrupt volume of the initial metro network, we build the multiple enter linear regression (MELR) model to explore the determinants and forecast the intensity during the twice expansion of the initial metro network in Xi’an. We further compare the prediction of the metro transport capacity between the MELR models with exponential smoothing and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. Results show that the passenger intensity significantly fluctuates with the months and days, and MELR model is more adapted for the short-term prediction of the abrupt volume than the ARIMA model during the new metro line opening and the old line expands, which avoids the drawback of time series models that need a huge database. This study provides a guide for the prediction of initial metro network volume and accurate purchase of the rail vehicles during the metro planning and expends stages.

Anaerobic digestion technology is regarded as the most ideal technology for the treatment of a distiller in terms of environmental protection, resource utilization, and cost. However, there are some limitations to this process, the most prominent of which is microbial activity. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the microorganisms involved in the anaerobic digestion process of a distiller, with emphasis on the archaea community. The effects of operating parameters on microbial activity and process, such as pH, temperature, TAN, etc., are discussed. By understanding the activity of microorganisms, the anaerobic treatment technology of a distiller can be more mature. Aiming at the problem that anaerobic treatment of a distiller alone is not effective, the synergistic effect of different substrates is briefly discussed. In addition, the recent literature on the use of microorganisms to purify a distiller was collected in order to better purify the distiller and reduce harm. In the future, more studies are needed to elucidate the interactions between microorganisms and establish the mechanisms of microbial interactions in different environments.

Improving the efficiency of using energy and decreasing impacts on the environment will be an inevitable choice for future development. Based on this direction, three kinds of medium (modified anaerobic digestion wastewater, anaerobic digestion wastewater and a standard growth medium BG11) were used to culture microalgae towards achieving high-quality biodiesel products. The results showed that microalgae culturing with anaerobic digestate wastewater could increase lipid content (21.8%); however, the modified anaerobic digestion wastewater can boost the microalgal biomass production to 0.78 ± 0.01 g/L when compared with (0.35–0.54 g/L) the other two groups. Besides the first step lipid extraction, the elemental composition, thermogravimetric and pyrolysis products of the defatted microalgal residues were also analysed to delve into the utilisation potential of microalgae biomass. Defatted microalgae from modified wastewater by pyrolysis at 650 °C resulted in an increase in the total content of valuable products (39.47%) with no significant difference in the content of toxic compounds compared to other groups. Moreover, the results of the life cycle assessment showed that the environmental impact (388.9 mPET2000) was lower than that of raw wastewater (418.1 mPET2000) and standard medium (497.3 mPET2000)-cultivated groups. Consequently, the method of culturing microalgae in modified wastewater and pyrolyzing algal residues has a potential to increase renewable energy production and reduce environmental impact.

Ozone (O3) has been widely used for water and wastewater treatment due to its strong oxidation ability, however, the utilization efficiency of O3 is constrained by its low solubility and short half-life during the treatment process. Thereby, an integrated approach using novel nanobubble technology and ozone oxidation method was studied in order to enhance the ozonization of ammonia. Artificial wastewater (AW) with an initial concentration of 1600 mg/L ammonia was used in this study. In the ozone-nanobubble treatment group, the concentration of nano-sized bubbles was 2.2 × 107 particles/mL, and the bubbles with 3 for ammonia oxidation. H+ was the by-product of the ammonia ozonation process, thus the pH decreased from 8 to 7 and 7.5 in nanobubble treatment and control groups, respectively, after 30 min of operation. The fast removal of ammonia was observed in both systems in the first 10 min, where the concentration of ammonia decreased from 1600 mg/L to 835 and 1110 mg/L in nanobubble treatment and control groups, respectively. In the nanobubble treatment group, ammonia concentrations kept the fast-decreasing trend and reached the final removal performance of 82.5% at the end of the experiment, which was significantly higher than that (44.2%) in the control group. Moreover, the first-order kinetic model could be used to describe the removal processes and revealed a significantly higher kinetic rate constant (0.064 min−1) compared with that (0.017 min−1) in the control group. With these results, our study highlights the viability of the proposed integrated approach to enhance the ozonation of a high level of ammonia in contaminated water.

The metro has developed rapidly in the past two decades and has become one of the crucial patterns of transportation for urban residents in China. Many studies have explored the factors affecting metro ridership, but few have focused on the metro usage of specific groups, such as the elderly and students. This paper uses the negative binomial regression model to explore the relationship between the built environment and the metro ridership of three types of people (adults, the elderly, and students) by using the metro smart card data of Qingdao. We also used the fractional response model to discuss the factors that influence the ridership share for the elderly and students. The results show that most variables promote the metro usage of the three groups of people but have a significantly different effect on the market share of those groups. Specifically, the number of schools, hospitals, supermarkets, squares, parks, and scenic spots near metro stations significantly increases the proportion of the elderly metro usage. The number of bus stops and schools substantially increases the share of metro ridership by students. The research results can provide valuable insights for promoting the metro’s overall ridership and minimizing the gap in allocating public transport resources among different groups.

Abstract Background Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a severe viral disease caused by SFTSV. It is important to estimate the rate of missed SFTS diagnosis and to further understand the actual incidence in high endemic areas in China. Methods This study was conducted in two high SFTS endemic provinces in 2015. Patients hospitalized in 2014 or within 1 year before investigation were selected after considering their clinical manifestations, specifically, fever, platelet, and white blood cell. During retrospective investigation, sera were collected to detect SFTSV antibodies to assess SFTSV infection. To further understand SFTSV infection, acute phase sera were detected; SFTSV infection rate among a healthy population was also investigated to determine the basic infection level. Results In total, 246 hospitalized cases were included, including 83 cases (33.7%) with fever, thrombocytopenia and leukopenia, 38 cases (15.4%) with fever and thrombocytopenia but without leukopenia, and 125 cases (50.8%) without fever but with thrombocytopenia and leukopenia. In total, 13 patients (5.3%) were SFTSV IgM antibody-positive, 48 (19.5%) were IgG-positive. Of the 13 IgM-positive cases, 11 (84.6%) were IgG-positive (9 with titres ≥1:400). Seropositive rates of antibodies were high (8.4% for IgM and 30.1% for IgG) in patients with fever, thrombocytopenia and leukopenia. Furthermore, among IgG-positive cases in this group, 76% (19/25) of patients’ IgG antibody titres were ≥1:400. Additionally, 28 of 246 cases were initially diagnosed with suspected SFTS and were then excluded, and 218 patients were never diagnosed with SFTS; the seropositive rates of IgM and IgG in these two groups were 25% and 67.9% and 2.8% and 13.3%, respectively. These rates were 64.3% and 21.4% in 14 sera collected during acute phase of the 28 cases mentioned above. Seropositive rate of SFTSV IgG was only 1.3% in the patient-matched healthy group, and no IgM antibody was detected. A preliminary estimate of 8.3% of SFTS cases were missed in SFTS high endemic provinces. Conclusions The actual SFTS incidence was underestimated. Effective measures such as adding a new SFTS case category - “SFTS clinical diagnosis cases” or using serological detection methods during acute phase should be considered to avoid missed diagnoses.

This study developed a nano-magnetite-modified biochar material (m-biochar) using a simple and rapid in situ synthesis method via microwave treatment, and systematically investigated the removal capability and mechanism of chromium (VI) by this m-biochar from contaminated groundwater. The m-biochar was fabricated from reed residues and magnetically modified by nano-Fe3O4. The results from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterisations confirmed the successful doping of nano-Fe3O4 on the biochar with an improved porous structure. The synthesised m-biochar exhibited significantly higher maximum adsorption capacity of 9.92 mg/g compared with that (8.03 mg/g) of the pristine biochar. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model and the intraparticle diffusion model, which indicated that the overall adsorption rate of Cr(VI) was governed by the processes of chemical adsorption, liquid film diffusion and intramolecular diffusion. The increasing of the pH from 3 to 11 significantly affected the Cr(VI) adsorption, where the capabilities decreased from 9.92 mg/g to 0.435 mg/g and 8.03 mg/g to 0.095 mg/g for the m-biochar and pristine biochar, respectively. Moreover, the adsorption mechanisms of Cr(VI) by m-biochar were evaluated and confirmed to include the pathways of electrostatic adsorption, reduction and complexation. This study highlighted an effective synthesis method to prepare a superior Cr(VI) adsorbent, which could contribute to the effective remediation of heavy metal contaminations in the groundwater.

In connection with wind sensitivity for the towering and hollowed-out structures (drilling derrick, crane, etc) of large offshore oil platform, the wind-induced response of towering structure was studied. By the similarity criteria, high frequency force balance tests for the large offshore oil platform under 0–360° wind directions were carried out, and the spatial distribution model of fluctuating wind load acting on platform was presented. Also, the characteristics of wind-induced vibration and the changing rule of gust loading factors were obtained precisely through wind-induced assessment in all directions. The results show that: the RMS (Root Mean Square) of the fluctuating across-wind load is about 10% of the fluctuating along-wind load on the platform; the vibration is mainly focused on the towering and hollowed-out structure like derrick, and the RMS of the across-wind acceleration is about 55% of the along-wind acceleration; the towering derrick has a big dynamic magnification of fluctuating across-wind load. The across-wind load can not be neglected in wind resistance design of large offshore oil platform, also the wind-induced response on the top/bottom of derrick and the magnification of fluctuating across-wind load of towering structure should be mainly considered. Key words: offshore oil platform, derrick, wind-induced response, fluctuating wind load, wind-induced vibration, gust loading factor

Eutrophication has become one of the major environmental issues of global concern due to the adverse effects on water quality, public health and ecosystem sustainability. Fundamental research on the restoration of eutrophic freshwaters, i.e., lakes and rivers, is crucial to support further evidence-based practical implementations. This Special Issue successfully brings together recent research findings from scientists in this field and assembles contributions on lake and river restoration. The 12 published papers can be classified into, and contribute to, three major aspects of this topic. Firstly, a background investigation into the migration of nutrients, and the characteristics of submerged biota, will guide and assist the understanding of the mechanisms of future restoration. Secondly, various restoration strategies, including control of both external and internal nutrients loading, are studied and evaluated. Thirdly, an evaluation of the field sites after restoration treatment is reported in order to support the selection of appropriate restoration approaches. This paper focuses on the current environmental issues related to lake and river restoration and has conducted a comprehensive bibliometric analysis in order to emphasise the fast-growing attention being paid to the research topic. The research questions and main conclusions from all papers are summarised to focus the attention toward how the presented studies aid gains in scientific knowledge, engineering experience and support for policymakers.

Camellia vietnamensis is an economic woody plant producing high-value edible oils, which is commonly found and cultivated in south areas of China. To provide genetic information for future genetic research, we have sequenced and assembled the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of C. vietnamensis based on the Illumina Hiseq platform. The total genome size is 161,958 bp in length with 37% GC, which contains a large single copy (LSC, 86,657 bp) region, a small single copy (SSC, 13,347 bp) region, and a pair of inverted repeat (IRs, 30,977 bp) regions. It is comprised of 81 protein-coding genes, 44 transfer RNAs and 4 ribosomal RNAs. To obtain the phylogeny relationship, the cp genome of C. vietnamensis has been compared with other Camellia species; the results indicate that C. vietnamensis is closely related to C. taliensis. This study provides fundamental information of C. vietnamensis cp genome, and it is valuable to the molecular phylogenetic and genetic diversity analyses in future.

A 12-bit high-speed column-parallel two-step single-slope (SS) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for CMOS image sensors is proposed. The proposed ADC employs a single ramp voltage and multiple reference voltages, and the conversion is divided into coarse phase and fine phase to improve the conversion rate. An error calibration scheme is proposed to correct errors caused by offsets among the reference voltages. The digital-to-analog converter (DAC) used for the ramp generator is based on the split-capacitor array with an attenuation capacitor. Analysis of the DAC’s linearity performance versus capacitor mismatch and parasitic capacitance is presented. A prototype 1024 × 32 Time Delay Integration (TDI) CMOS image sensor with the proposed ADC architecture has been fabricated in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process. The proposed ADC has average power consumption of 128 μW and a conventional rate 6 times higher than the conventional SS ADC. A high-quality image, captured at the line rate of 15.5 k lines/s, shows that the proposed ADC is suitable for high-speed CMOS image sensors.

Air traffic control (ATC) performance is important to ensure flight safety and the sustainability of aviation growth. To better evaluate the performance of ATC, this paper introduces the HFACS-BN model (HFACS: Human factors analysis and classification system; BN: Bayesian network), which can be combined with the subjective information of relevant experts and the objective data of accident reports to obtain more accurate evaluation results. The human factors of ATC in this paper are derived from screening and analysis of 142 civil and general aviation accidents/incidents related to ATC human factors worldwide from 1980 to 2019, among which the most important 25 HFs are selected to construct the evaluation model. The authors designed and implemented a questionnaire survey based on the HFACS framework and collected valid data from 26 frontline air traffic controllers (ATCO) and experts related to ATC in 2019. Combining the responses with objective data, the noisy MAX model is used to calculate the conditional probability table. The results showed that, among the four levels of human factors, unsafe acts had the greatest influence on ATC Performance (79.4%), while preconditions for safe acts contributed the least (40.3%). The sensitivity analysis indicates the order of major human factors influencing the performance of ATC. Finally, this study contributes to the literature in terms of methodological development and expert empirical analysis, providing data support for human error management intervention of ATC in aviation safety.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs), eutrophication, and internal pollutant sources from sediment, represent serious problems for public health, water quality, and ecological restoration worldwide. Previous studies have indicated that Modified Local Soil (MLS) technology is an efficient and cost-effective method to flocculate the HABs from water and settle them onto sediment. Additionally, MLS capping treatment can reduce the resuspension of algae flocs from the sediment, and convert the algal cells, along with any excessive nutrients in-situ into fertilisers for the restoration of submerged macrophytes in shallow water systems. Furthermore, the capping treatment using oxygen nanobubble-MLS materials can also mitigate sediment anoxia, causing a reduction in the release of internal pollutants, such as nutrients and greenhouse gases. This paper reviews and quantifies the main features of MLS by investigating the effect of MLS treatment in five pilot-scale whole-pond field experiments carried out in Lake Tai, South China, and in Cetian Reservoir in Datong city, North China. Data obtained from field monitoring showed that the algae-dominated waters transform into a macrophyte-dominated state within four months of MLS treatment in shallow water systems. The sediment-water nutrient fluxes were substantially reduced, whilst water quality (TN, TP, and transparency) and biodiversity were significantly improved in the treatment ponds, compared to the control ponds within a duration ranging from one day to three years. The sediment anoxia remediation effect by oxygen nanobubble-MLS treatment may further contribute to deep water hypoxia remediation and eutrophication control. Combined with the integrated management of external loads control, MLS technology can provide an environmentally friendly geo-engineering method to accelerate ecological restoration and control eutrophication.