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Ponded infiltration is very common in silty mudstone and has a great influence on the stability of related slopes, road cuttings, and tunnels. This paper aims to examine the infiltration performance of silty mudstone and predict the distribution of its water content under ponded conditions. By infiltration tests, the infiltration rate (i), cumulative infiltration (I), and their variations with the infiltration time (t) were obtained. Afterward, the variation of water content (w) with t and depth (s) was analyzed. The results show that the i value decreases with the increase in the degree of saturation, and the I value increases first significantly and then slightly during water infiltration. The entire w–t curve at any s is S-shaped, while the w–s curve at any t is full or half inverse-S-shaped. In addition, an equation was developed for the w–s prediction based on the simplified Gompertz curve model, and it was further extended to the spatial–temporal prediction model of water content. The evaluation results demonstrate that the spatial–temporal prediction model has high accuracy and reliability. The prediction model also indicates that the range of the infiltration-affected zone increases and the rate of increase slows down during water infiltration.

As an efficient tool in handling uncertain issues, Dempster-Shafer evidence theory has been increasingly used in structural health monitoring and damage detection. In applications, however, Dempster-Shafer evidence theory sometimes leads to counter-intuitive results. In this study, a new fusion algorithm of evidence theory is put forward to address various counter-intuitive problems and manage the reliability difference of the evidence. The proposed algorithm comprises the following aspects: (1) Dempster’s combination rule is generalized by introducing the concept of evidence ullage. The new rule allows classical Dempster’s rule and can resolve counter-intuitive problems cause by evidence conflict and evidence compatibility; (2) a reliability assessing method based on a priori and posterior knowledge is proposed. Compared with conventional reliability assessment, the proposed method can reflect the actual evidence reliabilities and can efficiently reduce decision risk. Numerical examples confirm the validity and utility of the proposed algorithm. In addition, an experimental investigation on a spatial truss structure is carried out to illustrate the identified ability of the proposed approach. The results indicate that the fusion algorithm has no strict request on the accuracy and consistency of evidence sources and can efficiently enhance diagnostic accuracy.

Background As thyroid fine needle aspiration (FNA) shows a certain limitation in the diagnosis of conventional smears, novel approaches like liquid-based cytology (LBC) have been gradually applied recently. Studies have shown the difference between the conventional smears (CSs) and liquid-based smears on fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) diagnosis, but the impacts of different liquid-based preparation (LBP) methods, including membrane-based and sedimentation, on diagnosis are still not clear. In this study, the effects of liquid-based smears prepared by different methods on the cytological interpretation were studied. Methods A total of 221 thyroid liquid-based FNAC cases from January 2017 to October 2018 were collected. We retrospectively studied and compared the effects of the membrane-based and sedimentation LBP methods through The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (TBS) diagnosis and risk of malignancy assessment. Besides, we made an evaluation on the diagnostic differences in the effects of different preparation methods on the cell morphology and tissue structure of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) for more accurate FNAC diagnosis. Results Among the 221 cases reviewed, membrane-based method was applied in 153 cases and sedimentation in 68 cases. According to the diagnostic criteria of 2017 TBS, TBSVI and TBSV thyroid could be cytologically diagnosed by membrane-based (49.0% (75/153) and 25.5% (39/153)) and sedimentation (52.9(36/68) and 25(17/68)) methods, and both were confirmed as PTC through histopathological diagnosis after operation, with the malignancy degree as high as 100%. In addition, of the 30 cases that were diagnosed as TBSIII thyroid nodules with the membrane-based method, 15 cases were pathologically malignant after an operation, with the malignancy degree of 50% (15/30), while that in 11 cases using the sedimentation method was 45.4% (5/11). PTC could be detected in both the TBSIV and TBSII thyroid nodules diagnosed by membrane-based method, with the sensitivity of 87.0% (114/131) lower than that by sedimentation method (91.4% (53/58)), showing the lower consistency with the histopathological result (K = 0.635 vs K = 0.757). Among the membrane-based smears, 23.5% (36/153) had fewer follicular epithelial cells, 55.6% (20/36) of which were considered to be suspicious for PTC from cell karyotype and tissue arrangement. While among the sedimentation smears, 16.2% (11/68) had fewer follicular epithelial cells, and 63.6% (7/11) was suspicious for PTC. In 72.5% (95/131) membrane-based smears of PTC, the papillary and swirling structures were not obvious, showing as crowded syncytial cell masses, while in 55.2% (32/58) sedimentation smears, both structures were visible with obvious three-dimensional papillary structure, and the fibrovascular axis still remained. Conclusion LBP technique is feasible for FNAC diagnosis, and the sedimentation shows more advantages, like higher PTC detection rate and good consistency with postoperative histopathological diagnosis. A clear understanding of the subtle differences in the effects of membrane-based and sedimentation methods on the cell morphology and tissue structure could be conducive to the definitive diagnosis of PTC before operation.