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Emergencies require various emergency departments to collaborate to achieve timely and effective emergency responses. Thus, the overall performance of emergency response is influenced not only by the efficiency of each department alternative but also by the coordination effect among different department alternatives. This paper proposes a collaborative emergency decision making (CEDM) approach considering the synergy among different department alternatives based on the best–worst method (BWM) and TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese of interactive and multiple attribute decision making) method within an interval 2-tuple linguistic environment. First, the evaluation information provided by decision makers (DMs) is represented by interval 2-tuple linguistic variables to reflect and model the underlying diversity and uncertainty. On the basis of the DMs’ evaluations, the individual and collaborative performance evaluations of multi-alternative combinations composed of different department alternatives are constructed. Then, the BWM is extended into interval 2-tuple linguistic environment to obtain the weights of evaluation criteria, where the group decision making is taken into account in an interval fuzzy mathematical programming model. Furthermore, to derive more practical and accurate decision results, an interval 2-tuple linguistic TODIM (ITL-TODIM) method is proposed by considering the DMs’ psychological behaviours. In the developed ITL-TODIM method, both the gain and loss degrees of one alternative relative to another are simultaneously computed. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method. Sensitivity and comparative analyses are also provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed approach.

Predicting bladder cancer outcomes is important for patients’ treatments, and it’s common to predict the outcomes from omics data. However, using a single type of omics data suffers from data noise since individual omics type represents only one single view of bladder cancer patients. In this study, we have estimated bladder cancer prognosis by integrating multi-omics data including RNA-seq, miRNA-seq, DNA methylation, and copy number variation data. To effectively integrate the multi-omics data, we have developed a transfer-learning based Cox proportional hazards network (TCAP) by utilizing an integrated loss function consisted of two modules: the data reconstruction module to ensure learning a representative hidden layer for the input data, and the proportional hazard module to estimate patients’ risks. The experiments on 336 patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) showed that our method achieved a concordance index (C-index) of 0.665, which is higher than previous methods. In consideration of the expense to obtain multi-omics data in clinics, we fitted the risks estimated from TCAP by training an XGboost model based on mRNA data only. The model achieved a reasonable C-index of 0.621, and independent tests on three additional datasets achieved an average C-index of 0.637 $$\pm$$ 0.047. The essentially same result as the one achieved on TCGA dataset indicates the robustness of our model. Based on the risk subgroups divided by TCAP, we identified 12 candidate genes that affected the survival of bladder cancer patients, among which 7 genes (58.3%) have been proved to associate with bladder cancer through literature review. In summary, the results indicated that we have constructed an accurate and robust model for predicting bladder cancer outcomes.

The western region of China has always been the main battlefield for poverty alleviation. It is essential to explore the interaction mechanism between the infrastructure perfection and residents’ living standards on a small scale to accurately reduce poverty and narrow the gap between the rich and poor residents. Taking poverty-stricken counties in Qinghai Province as the research unit, we constructed a coupling coordination model between infrastructure perfection and living standards to compare and analyze temporal and spatial differentiation patterns. Further, we introduced and improved the barycentric coupling model to analyze the synergistic evolution. The results showed that, from 2002 to 2018, (1) infrastructure perfection and living standards demonstrated an overall growth trend, and spatial agglomeration characteristics were obvious. Counties with better infrastructure perfection and living standards were concentrated in the northeast, and poorer standards were concentrated in southwestern. (2) The degree of coupling coordination changed from the initial antagonistic to coordination coupling, but level of coordination was low, and 50% of counties were still below the medium level. Spatial differentiation was obvious. The development speed of the degree of coupling coordination in the northeast was obviously faster than that in southwest counties, showing a pattern of “high in the northeast and low in the southwest”. (3) Infrastructure perfection played an active role on multidimensional poverty, and poverty reduction of infrastructure was feasible. Spatially, the coupling center of gravity was located in the eastern part of Qinghai Province. Therefore, infrastructure construction in the western should be strengthened in the future.

Visual background extraction algorithm (ViBe) uses the first frame image to initialize the background model, which can easily introduce the “ghost”. Because ViBe uses the fixed segmentation threshold to achieve the foreground and background segmentation, the detection results in many false detections for the highly dynamic background. To solve these problems, an improved ghost suppression and adaptive Visual Background Extraction algorithm is proposed in this paper. Firstly, with the pixel’s temporal and spatial information, the historical pixels of a certain combination are used to initialize the background model in the odd frames of the video sequence. Secondly, the background sample set combined with the neighborhood pixels are used to determine a complex degree of the background, to acquire the adaptive segmentation threshold. Thirdly, the update rate is adjusted based on the complexity of the background. Finally, the detected result goes through a post-processing to achieve better detection results. The experimental results show that the improved algorithm will not only quickly suppress the “ghost”, but also have a better detection in a complex dynamic background.

There is limited understanding of the combined effects of discrete climate extremes and chronic environmental changes on ecosystem processes and functioning. We assessed the interactions of extreme drought timing (45 days, in spring or summer) and nitrogen (N) addition in a full factorial field experiment in a Leymus chinensis-dominated meadow steppe in northeast China. We evaluated the resistance and recovery of the grassland (calculated in terms of aboveground biomass) to these two drought events. The spring drought reduced aboveground biomass by 28% in the unfertilized plots and by 33% in the fertilized plots, and the effects persisted during the subsequent post-drought period within the same growing season; however, the summer drought had no significant influence on aboveground biomass. Although there were no significant interactive effects between drought timing and N addition, we observed a potential trend of N addition increasing the proportion of aboveground biomass suppressed by spring drought but not summer drought. Moreover, the drought resistance of the aboveground biomass was positively correlated with the response of the belowground biomass to drought. One year after the extreme drought events, the spring drought effects on aboveground and belowground biomass were negligible. Our results indicate that the drought sensitivity of productivity likely depends on the phenological and morphological traits of the single highly dominant species (Leymus chinensis) in this meadow steppe.

In the era of big data remarked by high dimensionality and large sample size, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) problems demand efficient algorithms. Both static and dynamic strategies based on screening test principle have been proposed recently, in order to safely filter out irrelevant atoms from the dictionary. However, such strategies only work well for LASSO problems with large regularization parameters, and lose their efficiency for those with small regularization parameters. This paper presents a novel greedy screening test strategy to accelerate solving LASSO problems with small regularization parameters, as well as its effectiveness through adoption of a relatively larger regularization parameter which filters out irrelevant atoms in every iteration. Further more, the convergence proof of the greedy strategy is given, and the computational complexity of LASSO solvers integrated with this strategy is investigated. Numerical experiments on both synthetic and real data sets support the effectiveness of this greedy strategy, and the results show it outperforms both the static and dynamic strategies for LASSO problems with small regularization parameters.

The endogenous release of nutrients from sediments contributes to the eutrophication of landscape water to a certain degree, which depends on the characteristics of sediments. The study explored the characteristics of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) released from two different sediments, which were deposited from reclaimed water (SRW) or surface water (SSW) respectively in Xi’an moat. This paper aimed to compare the effects of nutrient release from SRW and SSW on the water quality. Results showed that the maximum increase rates reached 1.21 mg TN/(L·day) and 0.11 mg TP/(L·day), respectively, in the overlying water of SRW, which were 1.6 and 2.8 times those of SSW. The released amounts of SRW were 0.192 mg TN/g and 0.038 mg TP/g, which were 4.1 and 12.7 times those of SSW. Meanwhile, the densities of benthic algae in SRW and SSW were 5.605 × 109 and 2.846 × 108 cells/L, respectively. Moreover, the species number and individual sizes of benthic algae in SRW were also larger than those in SSW, which played an important role in the nitrogen circulation. Unexpectedly, oxidation reduction potential (ORP) level of SRW was lower than that of SSW, although SRW has a higher dissolved oxygen level. Therefore, the N and P concentrations in the overlying water of SRW were considerably higher than those of SSW, which was mainly attributed to the higher nutrient contents and lower ORP in SRW.

Background Identifying molecular subtypes of ovarian cancer is important. Compared to identify subtypes using single omics data, the multi-omics data analysis can utilize more information. Autoencoder has been widely used to construct lower dimensional representation for multi-omics feature integration. However, learning in the deep architectures in Autoencoder is difficult for achieving satisfied generalization performance. To solve this problem, we proposed a novel deep learning-based framework to robustly identify ovarian cancer subtypes by using denoising Autoencoder. Results In proposed method, the composite features of multi-omics data in the Cancer Genome Atlas were produced by denoising Autoencoder, and then the generated low-dimensional features were input into k-means for clustering. At last based on the clustering results, we built the light-weighted classification model with L1-penalized logistic regression method. Furthermore, we applied the differential expression analysis and WGCNA analysis to select target genes related to molecular subtypes. We identified 34 biomarkers and 19 KEGG pathways associated with ovarian cancer. Conclusions The independent test results in three GEO datasets proved the robustness of our model. The literature reviewing show 19 (56%) biomarkers and 8(42.1%) KEGG pathways identified based on the classification subtypes have been proved to be associated with ovarian cancer. The outcomes indicate that our proposed method is feasible and can provide reliable results.

The effect of inorganic additive flame retardant on fire hazard of polyurethane exterior insulation material was experimentally investigated by the cone calorimeter (Cone) and thermal gravimetric–differential thermal analysis. The aluminum trihydrate (ATH) and magnesium hydroxide (MDH) were considered as the inorganic additive flame retardants in the experiments. The results indicated that compared to pure rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF), the RPUF containing inorganic flame retardant could significantly enhance fire resistance and thermal stability. Especially for RPUF, the ratio of MDH and ATH was 1:3, the ignition delay time was extended for about 14.33 s as well as the values of peak heat release rate and the total heat release were reduced by about 50.79 kW m−2 and 2.60 MJ m−2. Also, the peak values of the carbon monoxide release rate were decreased to 0.0096 g s−1. Further, the decomposition process of the RPUFs in nitrogen and air was compared and analyzed. It was found that they could be divided into two stages and three stages, respectively, and small fluctuations of the second stage in air were corresponded to the decomposition of ATH and MDH. Besides, the compressive properties were proved to decrease with the increased additive amount of the metal hydroxides. Based on the experimental results and the classic dynamics methods, the activation energy (Eα) and the pre-exponential factor (A) were obtained and it turned out that the addition of inorganic flame retardant could enlarge the values of Eα and A, which helped to reduce the fire hazard.

The thermal behavior of nitrocellulose (NC) with different nitrogen contents has been widely investigated in previous works. However, most of the experiments were carried out under high heating rates, a situation in which it is difficult to capture minor changes during the thermal decomposition process. In the present study, the thermal characteristics of NC with different nitrogen contents were theoretically and experimentally investigated using a CALVET heat flux calorimeter C80 at heating rates from 0.2 to 0.8 °C/min. Before thermal analysis, the results of high-precision scanning electron microscopy showed that more cracks and coarser surfaces were detected on NC fibers with higher nitrogen contents. It was found that a “turning point” was detected on the heat flow curves of NC with higher nitrogen contents. Furthermore, the heat flow curves of NC transformed from “bell shape” to “right triangles” with increases in the nitrogen content, which suggested that NC with high nitrogen contents exhibited autocatalysis characteristics under low heating rates. This characteristic was also confirmed by the isothermal experiment results that showed the autocatalytic properties became increasingly obvious by increasing the isothermal temperature. Moreover, the relevant chemical kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were obtained. The heat of the reaction (ΔH) increased and the activation energy values in the initial stages of NC decomposition decreased as the nitrogen content was increased. Furthermore, the critical explosion temperature (Tb), which is as an important parameter to evaluate the thermal hazard of NC, decreased by elevating the nitrogen content.

Two types of diacetatozirconic acid–yttria molds which were labeled as ZYW mold (diacetatozirconic acid–yttria mold with traces of ammonium metatungstate in the slurry) and ZY mold (diacetatozirconic acid–yttria mold without ammonium metatungstate) were prepared by traditional investment casting. The ZYW and ZY molds were sintered in a carbon-reducing atmosphere and in air, respectively, at 1550 °C for 4 h. Interactions between Ti–47Al–2Cr–2Nb (at%) alloys and the molds at 1650 °C for 30 min were studied. The microstructures of the metal–mold interfaces and the presence of inclusions and oxygen contamination in the TiAl bulk alloy were analyzed, and the influences of ammonium metatungstate were discussed. The results indicate that WO3 releases O into the TiAl melt, introducing tungsten metal into the alloy matrix. The TiAl alloy ingots cast in the ZY molds had the fewest inclusions and the lowest oxygen contamination.

The adsorption performance of color compounds in sugar juice was investigated using modified sugarcane bagasse as an adsorbent. The adsorption of color compounds was investigated at different operating conditions including adsorbent dosage, pH, and contact duration. Three kinetic models and two isotherms were applied to describe the adsorption process and evaluate the adsorption equilibrium, respectively. Results showed that the adsorption was optimum at an adsorbent dosage of 0.05 g/mL and at pH 5 for 30 min, which yielded 59.18 % of decolorization rate. Adsorption kinetics indicated that the process followed the pseudo-second-order chemisorption model. The adsorption behavior was well described by the Freundlich isotherm model, showing a multilayer capacity for color compounds. Moreover, the regeneration studies showed the adsorbent had a good reuse performance over several regeneration cycles. These results suggest that the modified sugarcane bagasse is an inexpensive and efficient adsorbent, which has potential application for removing color compounds from sugar juice.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is safe and effective for patients with aortic stenosis (AS) who have a high operative risk. However, there is still debate on the effect of TAVI in AS patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (REF). The objective of the review is to clarify the efficacy of TAVI and the impact of REF on the 30-day and midterm mortality in these patients.Studies on TAVI were searched in PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases and were included in this review following predefined criteria. Data were extracted and pooled risk ratios (RR) were synthesized to explore the relationship between REF and 30-day plus midterm mortality.Twenty-eight studies comprising 14,099 patients were included in the analysis of the association of REF with the prognosis of patients after TAVI. An average increase in left ventricular ejection fraction of 8-10 % was observed among these patients after TAVI. REF was not related to the 30-day mortality [RR = 1.90, 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 0.80-4.47]; however, it was related to the midterm mortality (RR = 1.49, 95 %CI = 1.14-1.93) of patients undergoing TAVI. Patients with low-flow and low-gradient AS had a higher 30-day mortality (RR = 1.54, 95 %CI = 1.11-2.13) and midterm mortality rate (RR = 1.69, 95 %CI = 1.33-2.14) compared with AS patients without these characteristics. The mortality of TAVI patients was significantly lower than that of those undergoing conservative therapy, and was similar to that of patients undergoing surgical aortic valve replacement.REF was not associated with 30-day mortality, but it was associated with the midterm mortality of TAVI patients. Patients with REF could benefit from TAVI compared with conservative therapy.

We have established a set of laboratory measurements which is used for capturing element gammma spectrum. Standard captured gamma ray spectra for ten elements, including Si, Ca, Fe, are obtained using the measurements for the first time in China. We also simulated the capture gamma ray spectra of the ten elements using Monte Carlo methodology with the same parameters of our experimental measurements. Comparing the experiment and simulation results with the data from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Nuclear Data Center, we obtained the standard captured gamma ray spectra of the ten elements, which, as calibration spectra, are used to calibrate the raw spectrum in data processing. This method solved the key problem during the conversion from the original measuring spectrum to the yield of each element in the data processing. The method can effectively improve the accuracy of the element yield calculation.

Fibrinogen (Fib) was considered to be a potential risk factor for the prognosis of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), but there was lack of the evidence from Chinese contemporary population. 3020 consecutive patients with CAD confirmed by coronary angiography were enrolled and were grouped into 2 categories by the optimal Fib cut-off value (3.17 g/L) for all-cause mortality prediction. The end points were all-cause mortality and cardiac mortality. Cumulative survival curves showed that the risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher in patients with Fib ≥3.17 g/L compared to those with Fib p p = 0.002). Subgroup analysis showed that elevated Fib levels were predictive for the risk of all-cause mortality in the subgroups according to age, medical history and diagnosis. COX multivariate regression analysis showed that plasma Fib levels remained independently associated with all-cause mortality after adjustment for multiple cardiovascular risk factors (all-cause mortality, HR 2.01, CI 1.51–2.68, p

To enhance the nitrogen removal, a systemic monitoring of the biological and hydrological parameters of Carrousel oxidation ditch in Chongqing Jingkou Wastewater Treatment Plant was carried out to study the feasibility of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND). The variation and distribution of parameters such as flow velocity, concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) and mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) in oxidation ditch were monitored and analyzed, which were major control factors for SND. The results showed that, the dimensional distribution of flow velocity, DO and MLSS were affected significantly by the operation condition of the aeration wheels. With all the four aeration wheels being in operation, DO and flow velocity were higher and the mixing of MLSS was sufficient. With three aeration wheels being in operation, the flow velocity in most of the bottom areas was enough to meet the basic requirements of no deposition, and the anaerobic region and aerobic region could exist simultaneously in one oxidation ditch, which was helpful to the process of SND. According to spatial distribution characteristics of the flow velocity, DO and soluble components under optimized condition, different functional zones of biochemical reaction in the Carrousel oxidation ditch system were defined, which might contribute to the optimization control and SND of Carrousel oxidation ditch.

Gravity/inertial combination navigation is a leading issue in realizing passive navigation onboard a submarine. A new rotation-fitting gravity matching algorithm, based on the Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) algorithm, is proposed in this paper. The algorithm is based on the principle of least mean-square-error criterion, and searches for a certain matched trajectory that runs parallel to a trace indicated by an inertial navigation system on a gravity base map. A rotation is then made clockwise or counterclockwise through a certain angle around the matched trajectory to look for an optimal matched trajectory within a certain angle span range, and through weighted fitting with another eight suboptimal matched trajectories, the endpoint of the fitted trajectory is considered the optimal matched position. In analysis of the algorithm reliability and matching error, the results from simulation indicate that the optimal position can be obtained effectively in real time, and the positioning accuracy improves by 35% and up to 1.05 nautical miles using the proposed algorithm compared with using the widely employed TERCOM and SITAN methods. Current gravity-aided navigation can benefit from implementation of this new algorithm in terms of better reliability and positioning accuracy.

The topic of self-assembly of cylinder-forming diblock copolymers (DBCPs) under spherical shell confinement in different surface fields is explored using real-space self-consistent field theory calculations (SCFT). Using this approach we observed various microstructures of cylinder-forming DBCPs at different confinement dimensions and surface fields. From detailed searching for the microdomain morphologies, an obvious conclusion is that the interactions between the confinement surface and the polymers have a great effect on the self-assembly. Most of the microstructures are unique and not reported in bulk or under planar and cylindrical confinements.

Reef-bank reservoirs are an important target for petroleum exploration in marine carbonates and also an essential supplemental area for oil and gas production in China. Due to the diversity of reservoirs and the extreme heterogeneity of reef-banks, it is very difficult to discriminate the sedimentary facies and lithologies in reef-bank reservoirs using conventional well logs. The borehole image log provides clear identification of sedimentary structures and textures and is an ideal tool for discriminating sedimentary facies and lithologies. After examining a large number of borehole images and cores, we propose nine typical patterns for borehole image interpretation and a method that uses these patterns to discriminate sedimentary facies and lithologies in reef-bank reservoirs automatically. We also develop software with user-friendly interface. The results of applications in reef-bank reservoirs in the middle Tarim Basin and northeast Sichuan have proved that the proposed method and the corresponding software are quite effective.

In the past few years, network RTK positioning technology, especially the VRS( virtual reference stations)technology, has been widely used in some parts of China and many countries of the world. In this paper, the authors mainly discuss the principle of VRS technology with corresponding formula deduction, and give detailed descriptions of VRS corrections and virtual observations generation algorithm as well as their applications.

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) results from loss of function of a 1.0- to 1.5-Mb domain of imprinted, paternally expressed genes in human Chromosome (Chr) 15q11-q13. The loss of imprinted gene expression in the homologous region in mouse Chr 7C leads to a similar neonatal PWS phenotype. Several protein-coding genes in the human PWS region are intronless, possibly arising by retrotransposition. Here we present evidence for continued acquisition of genes by the mouse PWS region during evolution. Bioinformatic analyses identified a BAC containing four genes, Mkrn3, Magel2, Ndn, Frat3, and the Atp5l-ps1 pseudogene, the latter two genes derived from recent L1-mediated retrotransposition. Analyses of eight overlapping BACs indicate that these genes are clustered within 120 kb in two inbred strains, in the order tel-Atp5l-ps1-Frat3-Mkrn3-Magel2-Ndn-cen. Imprinting analyses show that Frat3 is differentially methylated and expressed solely from the paternal allele in a transgenic mouse model of Angelman syndrome, with no expression from the maternal allele in a mouse model of PWS. Loss of Frat3 expression may, therefore, contribute to the phenotype of mouse models of PWS. The identification of five intronless genes in a small genomic interval suggests that this region is prone to retroposition in germ cells or their zygotic and embryonic cell precursors, and that it allows the subsequent functional expression of these foreign sequences. The recent evolutionary acquisition of genes that adopt the same imprint as older, flanking genes indicates that the newly acquired genes become 'innocent bystanders' of a primary epigenetic signal causing imprinting in the PWS domain.