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The chemical and mineralogical characteristics of fly ash from a municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) in China and the influence of processing parameters on heavy metals removal during leaching were investigated in this work. The fly ash particles had complex surface structure with limited specific surface area. The alkali chloride and metal salts in MSWI fly ash showed evidently impact on leaching efficiency. Metal leachability was related to their properties and speciation in fly ash. Water-soluble salts such as KCl, NaCl and CaCl2 in fly ash were easily washed out. In this study, removal efficiency by water washing was achieved to 93.1% for Cl, 41.4% for Na, 48.5% for K and 24.8% for Ca, respectively. Mineralogical analysis also revealed change of fly ash mineral phases and specification distribution after water washing. Under liquid to solid ratio of 40:1 L/kg and treatment time of 120 min, the leaching process achieved high dropping yields of toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) concentrations for Cu, Zn Cd and Pb (80%–100%), moderate dropping yields for As (30%–80%) and relatively low dropping yields of Ni (

Background: Post-stroke insomnia (PSI) is a common and severe illness among the complications of stroke. Although there are plenty of drugs currently used for PSI treatment, they generate several side effects and other problems. Bright light therapy (BLT) is thought to be relatively safe and effective in treating PSI patients. Despite this, there is still a lack of systematic review on BLT in the treatment of PSI. Allowing for this, the aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of BLT for PSI. Methods: The meta-analysis and systematic review will perform a comprehensive electronic search for items fulfilling the required criteria in Web of Science, Google Scholar, Wan Fang database, MEDLINE, Baidu Scholar, PubMed, SinoMed, Embase, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China national knowledge infrastructure database (CNKI), Cochrane Library Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and Wei Pu database from establishment to January 1, 2022. We will select articles, collect data, and assess the methodology quality. And we will set the primary outcome and secondary outcomes in this research. RevMan 5.3 software will be used to analyze the data for this investigation. Results: The work of this research will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Conclusion: The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of BLT for PSI and present robust scientific evidence concerning BLT for PSI. Registration: INPLASY2021100065.

Background\ud The prevalence of present-on-admission pressure injuries (POA-PIs) is much higher than hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs). But scant attention has been paid to POA-PIs, especially the healing rate and potential prognostic factors.\ud \ud Objective\ud To describe the characteristics of POA-PIs at admission and the outcomes of POA-PIs at discharge, and to explore potential prognostic factors of POA-PIs wound healing.\ud \ud Methods\ud This study analyzed electronic health records (EHRs) for 838 POA-PIs among 586 patients from a Chinese tertiary hospital in 2018. The outcomes of POA-PIs were identified into four categories by comparing POA-PIs' wound area and exudation amount scores at admission and discharge: deteriorating, stable, improving, and healed. The generalized estimating equation (GEE) was carried out to screen the prognostic factors of POA-PIs wound healing.\ud \ud Results\ud Among this population, 66.38% of the patients were male, 44.03% patients had a Braden Score less than 12 and the median of the Charlson comorbidity index was 5. The most common location of POA-PI wounds was the sacrum and the most common stage of them was Stage II. Nearly half of wounds (45.78%) were larger than 15 cm2, 26.61% were deeper than 0.5 cm, and 61.81% of the wounds were painful. When the patients were discharged, 29.71% wounds were healed, 36.16% were in improving status, 25.78% kept stable, and 8.35% wounds were in deteriorating status. Wound depth was the only independent prognostic factor for POA-PIs wound healing.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud The healing rate of POA-PIs is quite low, and the only independent prognostic factor of POA-PIs was wound depth.

Hydrogen chloride (HCl) non-thermal plasma was applied to introduce Cl active sites on biochar prepared from sorghum straw in this study. Surface modified biochar was then placed in flue gas with typical components to investigate its elemental mercury (Hg0) capture ability. To elucidate the adsorption mechanism & binding properties, samples were characterized by N2 adsorption, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS) and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) analysis of Hg LIII-edge, Cl K-edge and S K-edge. Experimental results showed that HCl plasma modification successfully increased Cl active sites on biochar and greatly increased its mercury removal efficiency. Both HCl treatments (w/without plasma involvement) altered biochar's surface structure and layered structure generated. XANES spectra revealed that adsorbed-Hg on HCl-treated biochars mainly in the form of Hg+. Gaseous Hg0 was believed to heterogeneously react with chlorinated sites through electron-transfer and formed Hg2Cl2 compounds. With the presence of NO or SO2 in the system, adsorbed mercury existed on biochar mainly as Hg+. SO2 competed and inhibited the adsorption of Hg0; while NO promoted Hg0 removal capacity by increasing the active sites and enhancing the adsorption kinetics of adjacent Cl-containing sites.

The effect of physicochemical properties of activated carbon on adsorption of elemental mercury (Hg0) was investigated on a series of modified activated carbons. Heat treatment and benzoic acid impregnation were conducted to vary the oxygen functional groups on carbon surface. Hg0 adsorption experiments were run in a fixed-bed reactor at 140 °C. Surface characteristics of carbon samples were studied by N2 adsorption, Boehm titration, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), respectively. The predominant mechanism of Hg0 removal was the formation of chemical bonds between Hg and various functional groups. Both XPS and XAFS analysis revealed that mercury bound on carbon surface was mainly in oxidation state. Under N2 atmosphere, the absorbed Hg was found as Hg2+, and coordinated to O atom. With the existence of HCl in simulated flue gas, Hg0 was bonded on Cl sites and HgCl2 was assumed to be the dominated form.

In this work, the 3 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) composed of tetragonal phase has been introduced into the 10 mol% Er2O3 stabilized cubic hafnia (10ErSH) matrix to improve its fracture toughness. The effects of the addition of 3YSZ on the phase composition, microstructure, mechanical properties and thermal conductivities of the 10ErSH have been investigated. The results showed that all the 3YSZ-toughened 10ErSH samples were composed of cubic phase and a little (

The non-thermal plasma injection method was used to oxidize elemental mercury (Hg0) in this study. A mixture of water vapor and oxygen was selected as the discharge gases. Active species generated by a dielectric barrier discharge plasma reactor were introduced into the flue gas duct, where they reacted with Hg0. Different parameters including active particles, supply voltage, flow rate of injection gas, system temperature, and typical flue gas components were considered. Experimental results indicated that it produced a high yield of oxidative species than using a single discharge gas, and the reason was believed to be the dissociation and excitation of water molecules and oxygen molecules by electron impact. It was assumed that active radicals include O, O3, water cluster ions (O2+·H2O), and ·OH. Increasing the plasma injection volume led to higher content of reactive species in the system, which promoted Hg0 oxidation. Approximately 98.3% of Hg0 was oxidized at 4 kV of voltage with 20 mL/min of plasma ...

Several studies have found that melamine causes damage to the testes, epididymis and sperm. However, few studies have investigated the effect of melamine on the synthesis of testosterone, which plays an import role in testicular development and spermatogenesis. In present study, mice were orally administrated with 2, 10 or 50mg/kg of melamine for 28days. In these groups, various abnormalities were observed including disruption of the seminiferous tubule structure, an increased necrotic germ cells and sperm abnormalities, and a reduced sperm count. Melamine exposure also decreased the level of serum testosterone and levels of testicular StAR, P450scc and 17β-HSD. In addition, melamine exposure reduced the number of Leydig cells. Taken together, these results indicate that melamine exposure reduces the level of testosterone through down-regulation of StAR and testosterone synthetic enzyme expression and also a decreased number of Leydig cells. This may further affect testicular development and lead to sperm damage.

When combining information across different senses, humans need to flexibly select cues of a common origin while avoiding distraction from irrelevant inputs. The brain could solve this challenge using a hierarchical principle by deriving rapidly a fused sensory estimate for computational expediency and, later and if required, filtering out irrelevant signals based on the inferred sensory cause(s). Analyzing time- and source-resolved human magnetoencephalographic data, we unveil a systematic spatiotemporal cascade of the relevant computations, starting with early segregated unisensory representations, continuing with sensory fusion in parietal-temporal regions, and culminating as causal inference in the frontal lobe. Our results reconcile previous computational accounts of multisensory perception by showing that prefrontal cortex guides flexible integrative behavior based on candidate representations established in sensory and association cortices, thereby framing multisensory integration in the generalized context of adaptive behavior. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of physicochemical properties of activated carbon on adsorption of elemental mercury (Hg

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This Letter proposes a high bit-depth coding method to improve depth map resolution and render it suitable to human-eye observation in 3D range-intensity correlation laser imaging. In this method, a high bit-depth CCD camera with a nanosecond-scaled gated intensifier is used as an image sensor; subsequently two high bit-depth gate images with specific range-intensity profiles are obtained to establish the gray depth map and finally the gray depth map is encoded by an equidensity pseudocolor. With this method, a color depth map is generated with higher range resolution. In our experimental work, the range resolution of the depth map is improved by a factor of 1.67.

Three-dimensional super-resolution range-gated imaging has been developed for high-resolution 3D remote sensing with two range-intensity correlation algorithms under specific shapes of range-intensity profiles (RIP). However, pulsed lasers have a minimum pulse width which limits range resolution improvement. Here a spatial difference shaping method is proposed to break the resolution limitation. This method establishes a shaping filter, and the pre-reshaping gate images are reshaped by spatial difference and yield new gate images with the laser pulse width equivalently narrowed as half value which improves the range resolution. Furthermore, the boundary blurring caused by non-rectangular laser pulses are also eliminated.

The occurrence of 13 veterinary drugs were studied in soil fertilized with animal manures in Eastern China. The 69 soil samples were obtained from twenty-three vegetable fields in 2009 and analysed for selected veterinary drugs by HPLC-MS/MS at soil depths of 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm, and two additional samples were re-analysed from an earlier study from November 2011. Results showed that animal wastes, especially those from poultry farms, were one of pollution sources of veterinary drugs in soil. The detection frequency of veterinary drugs in soil was 83%, 91% and 87% in the three soil depths, respectively. The detection rates for the five classes of drugs in soils followed the rank order cyromazine > tetracyclines > sulfonamides > fluoroquinolones > florfenicol. Veterinary drugs were detected in soil layers at 20-40 and 40-60 cm depth to a greater extent than at 0-20 cm depth. The results of the same point in years 2009 and 2011 indicated that veterinary drugs accumulate easily and persist in the deeper soil. In addition, residue levels of veterinary drugs in soil were related to the animal species the manure was derived from. Overall, the predominance of tetracyclines in sampled soils underscored the need to regulate their veterinary use in order to improve the management and treatment of associated releases.

Assessment is an important basis for testing effect of confidential work, adjusting confidential work and putting forward proposals. According to problems of current confidential work assessment, and following principle of constructing evaluation index system that comprehensiveness, operability, combining of qualitative indicators and quantitative indicators, this paper determined a confidential work evaluation index and calculated the weight of each index by using AHP theory. The evaluation model of confidential work provides an important reference to confidential work assessment.

Three-dimensional range-gated imaging is a new 3D sensing technique with higher resolution than 3D flash LIDAR, and has great potential in realizing high-resolution real-time 3D imaging to satisfy land surface remote sensing applications. In this paper, three existing approaches of realizing 3D range-gated LIDAR are introduced including their advantages and disadvantages. Among them, the two methods of gain modulation and range-intensity correlation can reconstruct a 3D scene from two gate images, which enable 3D flash imaging. We propose a 3D superresolution range-gated flash LIDAR based on triangular algorithm of range-intensity correlation, and further present a coding method based on triangular algorithm for high depth-to-resolution ratio. Some prototyping experiments and simulations are demonstrated. Keywords: remote sensing, three-dimensional range-gated imaging, range-intensity correlation, range-intensity coding, superresolution depth mapping, 3D flash imaging. 1. INTRODUCTION

An automatic fishing net detection and recognition method for underwater obstacle avoidance is proposed. In the method, optical gated viewing technology is utilized to obtain high-resolution fishing net images and extend detection distance by suppressing water backscattering and background noise. The fishing net recognition is based on the proposed histograms of slope lines (HSLs) descriptors plus a support vector machine classifier. The extraction of HSL descriptors includes five steps of contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization, the Gaussian low-pass filtering, the Canny detection, the Hough transform, and weighted vote. In the proof experiments, the detection distance of the fishing net reaches 5.7 attenuation length and the recognition accuracy reaches 93.79%.

High-resolution real-time three-dimensional imaging is important in 3D video surveillance, robot vision, and automatic navigation. In this paper, a three-dimensional superresolution range-gated imaging based on inter-frame correlation is proposed to realize high-resolution real-time 3D imaging. In this method, a CCD/CMOS with a gated image intensifier is used as image sensor, and depth information collapsed in 2D images is reconstructed by spatial-temporal inter-frame correlation with a resolution of about 1000×1000 full-frame pixels within a frame. Furthermore, under inter-frame correlation a 3D point cloud frame is generated at video rates corresponding to CCD/CMOS utilized. Finally, some proof simulation experiments are demonstrated.

A control software named as gated imaging lab (GIL) for 2D/3D underwater or atmospheric range-gated imaging has been introduced. First, a detailed analysis of the functional requirements of imaging system is made. Based on its operating principle and hardware components, functional modules of GIL are determined. It mainly includes zooming and focusing lens, setting gated intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD), changing laser divergence angle, controlling synchronization timing control unit and reconstructing three dimensional (3D) scenes based on captured images. MFC framework simplifies the method of software design and improves the degree of reuse and development efficiency of GIL. Experiments demonstrate that GIL system is stable, real-time and can meet the application demands.

A DSP based system is proposed to detect infrared small targets in thermal imaging. The core of the system is TMS320DM6467T, in which an ARM9 and a C64+ DSP are integrated. The system includes a video capture module, a video process module and a video output module. To detect small targets in the video, an algorithm based on maximum between-class variance method in wavelet domain is proposed. Video stream data is obtained by a thermal imager, and then processed in proposed system. Experiment shows that the system is capable of target detection for thermal imaging.

Although the toxicity of melamine to the kidneys and testes is well known, few studies have investigated the effects of melamine on female reproductive organs. Therefore, this study explores the effects of oral administration melamine or melamine and cyanuric acid for 28 days on the ovaries of female rats. Rats that were exposed to the mixture exhibited reduced ovarian and uterine weights, a shorter estrous cycle, and reduced serum estrogen and progesterone levels compared to rats that were exposed to melamine and control rats. Furthermore, morphological analysis revealed pathological changes in the ovaries of rats exposed to melamine or the mixture, such as more atretic follicles and necrosis of oocytes and granulosa cells. TUNEL staining revealed that the exposed groups had a higher proportion of TUNEL-positive granulosa cells than the control group, and the mRNA expressions of SOD1, GPX1, GPX2, P450scc, 17β-HSD I, and 17β-HSD II were reduced in the exposure groups compared with the control group. These results indicated that exposure to melamine alone or to the melamine-cyanuric acid mixture could damage the ovaries in rats.