Search

With the development of social networks and hardware devices, many young people have post a lot of high definition v-logs containing selfie images and videos to commemorate and share their daily lives. We found that the reflected image of corneal position in the high definition selfie image has been able to reflect the position and posture of the selfie taker. The classic localization works estimating the position and posture from a selfie are difficult because they lack the knowledge of the environment. The corneal reflection images inherently carry information about the surrounding environment, which can reveal the location, posture and even height of the selfie taker. We analyze the corneal reflection imaging process in the selfie scenario and design a validation experiment based on this process to estimate the pose of the selfie in several scenarios to further evaluate the leakage of the pose information of the selfie taker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a logistic regression classification method based on the integration of a statistical learning model with linearized kernel preprocessing. The single Gaussian kernel and fusion of Gaussian and cosine kernels are adopted for linearized kernel pre-processing respectively. The adopted statistical learning models are the generalized linear model and the generalized additive model. Using a generalized linear model, the elastic net regularization is adopted to explore the grouping effect of the linearized kernel feature space. Using a generalized additive model, an overlap group-lasso penalty is used to fit the sparse generalized additive functions within the linearized kernel feature space. Experiment results on the Extended Yale-B face database and AR face database demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The improved solution is also efficiently obtained using our method on the classification of spectra data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most offshore wind turbines (OWT) recently installed in Europe, China and North America are in shallow water. However, unlocking the full potential of OWT lies in deeper waters. Jacket substructures have presented themselves as a reliable foundation concept for transitional water depth. This study focuses on the structural static and dynamic analysis of the traditional jacket substructures (with X and K bracing) and the recently patented three-legged twisted jackets (with a twisted angle of 30 and 60 degrees) for deployment in transitional water (beyond 60 m). To facilitate comparison, the dimensions of all the jackets remain the same, while the geometric configurations are distinct. Static analysis was implemented to better understand the global load bearing behaviour of the jackets. First, the global displacement patterns at the tower top are compared. The individual reactions at mud-line were investigated, followed by the evaluation of the maximum von Mises stress. Subsequently, this research went on to investigate the effect of dynamic loading. In this dynamic analysis, three main critical points were considered, including the wave point (67 m), the platform and the tower top. A modal analysis was performed to compute the mode shapes and natural frequencies for all the jackets. The first five modes of all the jackets were also checked against the results available for the OC4 project. A similar analytical approach was adopted for the structural design of monopile or tripod foundations for offshore wind turbines. The results showed that in the static analysis both the traditional jackets and the twisted jackets were safe under the provided load combination. The twisted jacket proved to possess excellent structural behaviour compared to the traditional four-legged jackets, while maintaining the merits of lower material usage with fewer nodes. Analysing the von Mises stress revealed that the maximum stress occurred at the transition piece and close to the working platform. The modal analysis results of the jackets demonstrated that the twisted jackets (30 and 60 degrees) with the first natural frequency of 0. 29 and 0.31 Hz fell under the soft-stiff design category, whereas the traditional four-legged jackets were classified as stiff-stiff designs. The discovered structural performance of OWTs equipped with various jacket foundations contributes to the preliminary structural selection and optimal design of foundations of OWTs to be installed in transitional water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) represents the most frequent subtype of thyroid cancer (TC) with poor prognosis mainly due to the severe invasion and metastasis. As an oncogene, microRNA-421 (miR-421) is involved in the development of various cancers. This study was to investigate the clinical significance of miR-421 in PTC and its effects on the biological function of PTC cells. Methods: The expression level of miR-421 in all tissues and PTC cell lines was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Subsequently, the relationship between miR-421 expression and the clinicopathological feature was detected by chi-square analysis in 106 patients with PTC. In addition, Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to detect the survival time and the prognostic value of miR-421. Finally, the regulatory effect of miR-421 on the proliferation, migration, and invasion ability of PTC cells was detected by Cell Counting Kit (CCK-8) and Transwell assay. Results: Compared with all control groups, the expression of miR-421 was significantly increased in 106 patients tissues and PTC cell lines (p < 0.001). In addition, patients with miR-421 upregulated in PTC showed more positive lymph node metastasis (p = 0.011), positive tumor infiltration (p = 0.031), and TNM stage III/IV (p = 0.019), and when miR-421 expression level was elevated, the survival rate of PTC patients was poor (log-rank test, p = 0.023). Furthermore, miR-421 might be an independent prognostic biomarker for PTC (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.172, 95% CI = 1.071-9.393, p = 0.037). Finally, increased levels of miR-421 can signifi- cantly promote cell proliferation, migration, and invasion (p < 0.01). Conclusion: miR-421 is a novel oncogene of PTC and is a valuable prognostic biomarker. Moreover, the upregulation of miR-421 enhances the proliferation, migration, and invasion of PTC cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objective Pneumonectomy and sleeve resection are routine operations for the treatment of central non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but some patients suffered of central NSCLC, whose pulmonary function is too poor to tolerate pneumonectomy, or the tumor involves the bronchus and pulmonary artery extensively, it is hard to perform bronchovascular sleeve lobectomy. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of lung autotransplantation in the treatment of central NSCLC. Methods The clinical data of 3 cases with central NSCLC treated by lung autotransplantation was reviewed from December 2016 to December 2018. One patient underwent double sleeve resection of left upper lobe with end-to-end anastomosis of the bronchus. Because the resection of the pulmonary artery was too long to perfrom a tension-free anastomosis, the inferior pulmonary vein was cut off, then the left lower lobe was moved up for an anastomosis of the inferior pulmonary vein and the stump of the superior pulmonary vein. In the other 2 cases, left pneumonectomy was performed directly, and the upper left lobe was excised in vitro. The lower left lobe was reset to the chest after trimming and flushing and then the bronchus, pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein were anastomosed in turn. Results The average operation time was 333 min, the average time of vascular occlusion was 86 min, the average blood loss was 450 mL, and the average hospital stay was 18.7 d; Perioperative complications included a case of bronchial obstruction, which improved after sputum aspiration through bronchofibroscope. The average follow-up period was 20 mon; One case died of cancer, one case had recurrence of anastomotic stoma and brain metastasis, one case had 4R lymph node metastasis (stable condition after chemotherapy), and one case survived without recurrence. Conclusion For patients with central NSCLC with extensive tumor invasion, thus inability to tolerate sleeve resection or pneumonectomy, autologous lung transplantation can preserve lung function to the greatest extent with a complete tumor resection and improve postoperative quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) can help the manufacturing enterprises improve the production efficiency, reduce costs and achieve intelligent factory production. In this harsh scenario, however, the electromagnetic noise performs a severe impact on IIOT which uses low-power wireless sensor devices. In this article, we aim to characterize electromagnetic noise for IIoT systems based on the realistic measurement data collected in an automobile factory. The measurements were taken in time and frequency domain into account. By using the frequency-domain measurement data, we can extract the frequency occupation and power amplitude information of electromagnetic noise in 300MHz~3GHz band. By using the time-domain measurement data, the amplitude probability distribution (APD) could be obtained of electromagnetic noise at 315MHz, 779MHz and 916MHz bands. Then, an improved bell shaped spectrum is used to characterize the frequency spectrum of wide band electromagnetic noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The zinc air battery has been regarded as an efficient solution to renewable energy storage applications in the next generation. Zinc air chemistries are promising, though great challenges still remain to utilize their high energy, optimize efficiency and high discharge rate. Here, we demonstrate an improved zinc air battery by replacing NaOH, used in our previous study, with KOH as an additive to the molten Li0.87Na0.63K0.50CO3 eutectic electrolyte. Cycling tests showed a very stable performance through 150 charge-discharge cycles, exhibiting high coulombic efficiency (94%) and an average discharge potential of ∼1.08 V when charged at a constant current of 75 mA and discharged over a constant 100Ω load to 0.8 V cutoff at 550°C. Moreover, rate tests revealed a good performance even at high rates of cycling, maintaining a coulombic efficiency of over 90% while at 7.3 C. These results show marked improvements in the field of rechargeable zinc air batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal nanoparticles electrodes present great difference in electrochemical thermodynamics compared with corresponding bulk electrodes, which depends on the size of nanoparticles that construct the electrodes. However, it remains unclear about the influences of particle size on electrochemical thermodynamics of the electrodes. Herein, the size-dependence of electrochemical thermodynamic functions of metal nanoparticles electrodes was deduced theoretically. Experimentally, taking copper nanoparticles electrode as an example, the standard electrode potentials, the temperature coefficients, and the thermodynamic functions of electrode reaction were obtained by determining the electrode potentials of the electrodes constructed by copper nanoparticles with different sizes at different temperatures. Both the theoretical and the experimental results indicate that with the particle size of metal nanoparticles decreasing, the standard electrode potential and surface tension decreases, while the temperature coefficient, the molar reaction Gibbs energy, enthalpy and entropy increase. Moreover, all these physical quantities are linearly related with the reciprocal of particle radius when the radius exceeds 10 nm. Meanwhile, we also found that the influence regularities of particle size on electrochemical thermodynamic functions of metal nanoparticles electrodes are quite opposite to those of oxide nanoparticles electrodes, which is attributed to the nanoparticles being reactant or product in an electrode reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Lysosomal dysfunction is implicated in human heart failure for which ischemic heart disease is the leading cause. Altered myocardial expression of CTSD (cathepsin D), a major lysosomal protease, was observed in human heart failure, but its pathophysiological significance has not been determined. METHODS AND RESULTS: Western blot analyses revealed an increase in the precursor but not the mature form of CTSD in myocardial samples from explanted human failing hearts with ischemic heart disease, which is recapitulated in chronic myocardial infarction produced via coronary artery ligation in Ctsd+/+ but not Ctsd+/− mice. Mice deficient of Ctsd displayed impaired myocardial autophagosome removal, reduced autophagic flux, and restrictive cardiomyopathy. After induction of myocardial infarction, weekly serial echocardiography detected earlier occurrence of left ventricle chamber dilatation, greater decreases in ejection fraction and fractional shortening, and lesser wall thickening throughout the first 4 weeks; pressure–volume relationship analyses at 4 weeks revealed greater decreases in systolic and diastolic functions, stroke work, stroke volume, and cardiac output; greater increases in the ventricular weight to body weight and the lung weight to body weight ratios and larger scar size were also detected in Ctsd+/− mice compared with Ctsd+/+ mice. Significant increases of myocardial autophagic flux detected at 1 and 4 weeks after induction of myocardial infarction in the Ctsd+/+ mice were diminished in the Ctsd+/− mice. CONCLUSIONS: Myocardial CTSD upregulation induced by myocardial infarction protects against cardiac remodeling and malfunction, which is at least in part through promoting myocardial autophagic flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Era of knowledge economy, how to effectively mining, the use of knowledge is the enterprise growing concern. CBR system from the field of artificial intelligence is a self-learning system to manage tacit knowledge (case). Case retrieval link is the core link, the advantages and disadvantages of search methods directly affect the efficiency of case retrieval and case matching accuracy. Therefore, this paper proposes a new case matching process: when the size of the case database is small, it searches based on the case similarity algorithm; when the case database is large, it searches based on the FCM secondary retrieval model. And illustrates the fastness and efficiency of FCM in matching large-scale case database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has entered the era of knowledge economy, knowledge is becoming the core of social production. Any organization or individual can only continue to strengthen the application of knowledge, in today's changeable, fast changing, change in the competition to stand out. Provides a rich source of data explosion of information and knowledge for knowledge application, knowledge management research direction of past and existing knowledge, needs the shortcomings, which introduced the large-scale data adapter based on knowledge. Large data sets in the memory not only need to consume a large amount of storage space, but also put forward higher requirements for data retrieval, and the existing search engine is not very good to meet the needs of knowledge adaptation system. Based on large data sets, this paper mainly studies the retrieval system of knowledge adaptation system. The selection of the algorithm for the search engine, the analysis of the deficiencies, and put forward a targeted improvement program-kNN algorithm to increase the pre process, expand the scope of application and effect of the engine. Finally, the efficiency and effectiveness of the model are verified by the example of forest cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy poverty and climate change are crucial issues we face in our societies. Offshore wind energy has been a reliable solution to both of these problems - solving our growing energy problems while reducing CO2 emission. Innovative foundation design is one of the setbacks faced by this industry. Designing and constructing a cost effective offshore wind farm is greatly hampered by technical and infrastructural challenges, especially in foundation structures. This paper provides a detailed overview of issues related to this problem, with the aim of eliminating the frequent misunderstandings which can arise among engineers and investors working in the offshore wind energy sector. It begins by investigating the latest data and recommendations regarding the design and deployment of various kinds of offshore wind turbine (OWT) foundations. It provides a framework which enables us to study the different OWT foundations, including prototypes and their limitations. Various structural failure modes are highlighted and corrosion measures are presented. Moreover, various removal methods of support structures are put forward. Finally, this paper presents the setbacks preventing the spread of offshore wind energy and the future works for offshore wind energy applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature distribution is the key factor affecting the bonding quality in the glass!glass laser bonding process. In this work, the finite element method was used to establish three-dimensional (3D) numerical analysis model of the temperature field during bonding. Based on the result of the finite element analysis, the crucial parameters and their influences on the temperature distribution were discussed. In order to predetermine the necessaiy process parameter values for bonding, a nonlinear multiparameter fitting formula was established to predict the maximum temperature. The fitting model was validated experimentally by recording the maximum temperature during laser bonding via an infrared thermal imager. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agronomic and physiological performances of a crop are closely associated with the yield and resource use efficiency. This study investigated if an integrative crop management (ICM) in rice (Oryza sativa L.) could improve agronomic and physiological performances and, consequently, increase grain yield, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and water use efficiency (WUE). A japonica hybrid rice cultivar was fieldgrown in 2012 and 2013. Three treatments were conducted: no N application, local high-yielding cultivation method (LHY), and ICM. The ICM consisted of the adoption of three practices: increased plant density, optimized N management, and an irrigation regime of alternate wetting and moderate soil drying. The ICM substantially increased sink size (total number of spikelets per m2), percentage of productive tillers, root oxidation activity, leaf area duration, non-structural carbohydrate accumulation in the stem, and zeatin (Z) and zeatin riboside (ZR) content in roots and leaves. On average, the ICM increased grain yield by 18 to 19%, agronomic NUE (kg grain yield increase per kg N applied) by 67 to 70%, and WUE (grain yield per unit water consumed) by 27 to 28% over the LHY. The results suggest that the ICM could achieve the dual goals of increasing grain yield and resource use efficiency, and improved agronomic and physiological performances, especially increased sink size and enhanced root and shoot activities during the middle and late growth periods, contributed to high grain yield, NUE, and WUE in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which was aimed at identifying and assessing plasma biomarkers which reflect the phenotypes of cardiac aging. Multi-analyte profiling was performed for measuring marker levels. Results indicate the potential of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) as cardiac aging's plasma markers.

ZnO/ZnS heterostructure nanorod arrays are fabricated by a two-step electrochemical deposition method from dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) aqueous solution. The XRD and TEM pattern indicate the ZnO/ZnS nanorods are composed of hexagonal wurtzite ZnS structure and hexagonal wurtzite ZnO structure. The optical and photocatalytic properties of as-prepared ZnO/ZnS are investigated in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonconductive film (NCF) is a challenging potential material to substitute the application of anisotropic conductive film in the ultrafine pitch chip-on-glass (COG) packaging. The NCF interconnection requires a high bonding temperature and pressure to form joints, and this causes new reliability concerns. This study investigated effects of the thermocompression bonding parameters on the microstructure and geometric size in the joints to a COG module packaged with NCE The results revealed that the high temperature and pressure compressed the joints to become wider and shorter. A dual layer of intermetallic compounds consisting of AuSn2 (e phase) and AuSn4; (η phase) was found in each joint. They were the two kinds of interphases with different melting points (AuSn2 :309°C and AuSn4:257°C) during the interfacial reaction between Au and Sn. At the low temperature (below the melting point), the high pressure induced the residual inner stress to generate the cracks in the joints, and this also increased the contact resistance of the joints. The contact resistance increased with the pressure elevating at the same temperature and with the temperature degrading at the same pressure. In the COG packaging with NCF, a proper elevating of the bonding temperature could produce a stable direct connection with the low contact resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonconductive film (NCF) interconnection technology is now being used for the ultrafine pitch interconnections in chip-on-glass (COG) packaging. In comparison to traditional anisotropic conductive film (ACF) technology, NCF can reach less than 10 μm ultrafine pitch interconnection, while ACF just reaches the limit of 30 μm. For NCF interconnection technology used in COG bonding, it needs a higher bonding pressure and temperature than those in ACF bonding, so the warpage is very important for the reliability of the package. In this paper an exploring study investigated the effects of the structure design and bonding process on the warpage in a COG module. The warpage increased linearly with the increase in bonding head temperature and bonding force, but it decreased with the increase in substrate temperature, substrate thickness, and chip thickness. The large temperature difference between the substrate and chip produced a high thermal stress, and the large bonding force generated a high mechanical stress. The thermal and mechanical stresses were the reasons for warpage in a COG module. For the high reliability, the design and bonding process to the COG module with NCF should adopt a thick substrate, an appropriate bonding force, and a low temperature difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]