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Soil direct burial is widely used for laying power cables because of its advantages of short construction period and good heat dissipation performance. During the burial process, various laying conditions have an important impact on the temperature rise and load capacity of the cable. In this paper, in order to investigate the influences of various laying conditions such as backfilling sand, adding concrete protection plates and installing sleeves on the temperature field and load capacity of direct buried cables, Comsol finite element simulation software is applied and electromagnetic field, thermal field and fluid field are modeled on 110 kV cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) power cables. The results show that backfilling with sand increases the cable load capacity, and the increase of the cable load capacity slows down with the increase of the backfilling thickness. The adding concrete protection plate has less effect on the load capacity, and the increase of the load capacity is less than 0.5% compared with that without the cover. The filling high thermal conductivity material in the drainage tube increases the cable load capacity, and the increase of the load capacity is higher than 50% when all three phases are filled with high thermal conductivity material and the middle phase is filled with high thermal conductivity material compared with the case without the filling. Compared with the case of no filling, the increase of load capacity when all three phases are filled with high thermal conductivity material, the middle phase is filled with high thermal conductivity material, and the other two phases are filled with low thermal conductivity material is higher than 50%. When the above factors are considered at the same time, it is favorable to the increase of cable load capacity.

Objective: To explore whether the upper and/or middle mediastinal nodes (UMMN) should be dissected in Siewert type II adenocarcinoma (AC) according to the incidence of lymph node metastasis. Additionally, to investigate the association between the length of esophageal involvement (LEI) and the UMMN metastases. Methods: A cohort with Siewert type II AC who were operated on by a surgical team that routinely treated esophagogastric junction (EGJ) tumors with esophagectomy and extended lymphadenectomy were assessed retrospectively. The primary endpoint of the research was the metastasis rate of UMMN. Results: A total of 94 patients with EGJ tumor from July 2018 to September 2022 were enrolled. Station 106recR (6.4%, 6/94) was the only station among upper mediastinal nodes (UMN) that presented positive nodes. Middle mediastinal nodes (MMN) metastases of station 107, 109 and station 108 were 2.1% (2/94) and 5.0% (4/80), respectively. Among the 11 patients with MMN or UMN metastases, 63.6% (7/11) had lesser than seven metastatic nodes, and 54.5% (6/11) had a pathological N stage ≤2. LEI >3 cm (p = 0.042) showed a higher risk for MMN metastases in univariable logistic analysis. However, no independent risk factor for mediastinal node metastases was detected. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the incidence of positive MMN and UMN is relatively low in resectable Siewert type II AC, which indicated that it is not necessary to perform a routine dissection upon these stations. LEI >3 cm might be associated with higher risk for mediastinal node metastasis. Certain patients could benefit from extended lymphadenectomy since most of the patients with positive MMN or UMN have a limited number of metastatic nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep Neural Network (DNN)-based point cloud semantic segmentation has presented significant breakthrough using large-scale labeled aerial laser point cloud datasets. However, annotating such large-scaled point clouds is time-consuming. Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) is a promising approach to this problem by pre-training a DNN model utilizing unlabeled samples followed by a fine-tuned downstream task involving very limited labels. The traditional contrastive learning for point clouds selects the hardest negative samples by solely relying on the distance between the embedded features derived from the learning process, potentially evolving some negative samples from the same classes to reduce the contrastive learning effectiveness. This work proposes a hard-negative sample-aware self-supervised contrastive learning algorithm to pre-train the model for semantic segmentation. We designed a k-means clustering-based Absolute Positive And Negative samples (AbsPAN) strategy to filter the possible false-negative samples. Experiments on two typical ALS benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed method is more appealing than supervised training schemes without pre-training. Especially when the labels are severely inadequate (10% of the ISPRS training set), the results obtained by the proposed HAVANA method still exceed 94% of the supervised paradigm performance with full training set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement of vehicle technology, there is a growing demand for vehicle comfort in addition to the focus on safety and functionality. On certain accident-prone sections of highways, such as entrance and exit ramps, tunnels, and downhill stretches, continuous speed bumps are typically installed to remind vehicles to reduce their speed. However, while enhancing safety, these measures also introduce a degree of discomfort for passengers and drivers alike. Vehicle speed and the type of road speed bump are key factors influencing vehicle comfort. In order to improve the ride comfort, this paper investigates the problem of adaptive speed control for vehicles passing over different types of continuous speed bumps and proposes a method for solving the optimal speed. In this research, a 4-degree-of-freedom vehicle suspension model and a road excitation model are employed to simulate vehicle vibrations. Simulation optimisation is performed using MATLAB in conjunction with an immune algorithm to obtain the optimal vehicle speeds for traversing three types of continuous speed bumps – sinusoidal, rectangular, and trapezoidal – while adhering to specified constraints. The simulation results demonstrate that this optimisation algorithm effectively enhances the ride comfort of vehicles when navigating speed bumps. The algorithm, when applied, reduces vehicle vertical displacement, acceleration, suspension deflection, and tyre load to varying degrees when crossing speed bumps. It also reduces tyre ground clearance to some extent, achieving a balance between comfort and safety. Furthermore, the study identifies the range of comfortable vehicle speeds for traversing these three types of speed bumps, providing valuable insights for selecting the appropriate speed bump design on roads with varying speed limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electricity consumption behavior of the inhabitants is a major contributor to the uncertainty of the residential load system. Human-caused uncertainty may have a distributional component, but it is not well understood, which limits further understanding the stochastic component of load forecasting. This study proposes a short-term load-interval forecasting method considering the stochastic features caused by users' electricity consumption behavior. The proposed method is composed of two parts: load-point forecasting using singular spectrum analysis and long short-term memory (SSA-LSTM), and load boundaries forecasting using statistical analysis. Firstly, the load sequence is decomposed and recombined using SSA to obtain regular and stochastic subsequences. Then, the load-point forecasting LSTM network model is trained from the regular subsequence. Subsequently, the load boundaries related to load consumption consistency are forecasted by statistical analysis. Finally, the forecasting results are combined to obtain the load-interval forecasting result. The case study reveals that compared with other common methods, the proposed method can forecast the load interval more accurately and stably based on the load time series. By using the proposed method, the evaluation index coverage rates (CRs) are (17.50%, 1.95%, 1.05%, 0.97%, 7.80%, 4.55%, 9.52%, 1.11%), (17.95%, 3.02%, 1.49%, 5.49%, 5.03%, 1.66%, 1.49%), (19.79%, 2.79%, 1.43%, 1.18%, 3.37%, 1.42%) higher than the compared methods, and the interval average convergences (IACs) are (−18.19%, −8.15%, 3.97%), (36.97%, 21.92%, 22.59%), (12.31%, 21.59%, 7.22%) compared to the existing methods in three different counties, respectively, which shows that the proposed method has better overall performance and applicability through our discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial concentration is an important indicator to measure the degree of water pollution. Realizing rapid and accurate quantification of bacterial concentration in water is of great significance for ensuring water safety and maintaining human health. This paper proposes a method for rapid determination of bacterial concentration by multiwavelength transmission spectroscopy combined with partial least squares regression. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is selected because it is a common indicator microorganism for assessing water pollution status, and it is easy to handle. First, we measure the transmission spectra for E. coli suspensions in the region from 200 to 900 nm and analyze the differences in the spectral characteristics at different concentrations; subsequently, considering that the concentration is affected by the instrument linearity and other factors, the sensitivity, correlation, and detection ability of the spectra at different wavelengths with the change of concentration are analyzed, and the optimal characteristic band is selected according to its wavelength variation characteristics; finally, the determination of E. coli concentrations are completed by using the optimal characteristic band spectra combined with partial least squares regression. We calculate the bacterial concentration, compared with the plate counting, the maximum relative error is 4.500%, the average relative error is 0.677%, respectively, which is less than 5%, and their accuracy and stability are all better than those calculated by the single-wavelength method. This study provides a reference for the rapid and accurate detection of bacterial concentration in water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The segmentation of airborne laser scanning (ALS) point clouds remains a challenge in remote sensing and photogrammetry. Deep learning methods, such as KPCONV, have proven effective on various datasets. However, the rigid convolutional kernel strategy of KPCONV limits its potential use for 3D object segmentation due to its uniform approach. To address this issue, we propose an Integrated Point Convolution (IPCONV) based on KPCONV, which utilizes two different convolution kernel point generation strategies, one cylindrical and one a spherical cone, for more efficient learning of point cloud data features. We propose a customizable Multi-Shape Neighborhood System (MSNS) to balance the relationship between these convolution kernel point generations. Experiments on the ISPRS benchmark dataset, LASDU dataset, and DFC2019 dataset demonstrate the validity of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to compare the feasibility of nab‐paclitaxel plus platinum‐based chemotherapy (nabTP) versus paclitaxel plus platinum‐based chemotherapy (TP) with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) as a neoadjuvant modality for locally resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: Between April 2019 and March 2022, we identified ESCC patients who received neoadjuvant immunotherapy with both nabTP (n = 213) and TP (n = 98) at our institution and Henan Cancer Hospital. The patients in the ICIs‐nabTP and ICIs‐TP groups were pair‐matched (1:1) for tumor location, sex, smoking, drinking, clinical T and N stage. The primary endpoint was the hazard of 30‐day major postoperative complications. Second, logistic models were applied to estimate the risk factors for pathological complete response (pCR) rate. Results: All patients underwent esophagectomy with R0 resection. A statistically significant increase in the risk of developing major pulmonary (odds ratio [OR], 1.182; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.530–2.635; p = 0.683), anastomotic (OR, 1.881; 95% CI: 0.607–5.830; p = 0.267), cardiac (OR, 1.000; 95% CI: 0.426–2.349; p = 1.000) complications after neoadjuvant immunotherapy plus nabTP was not observed. The median interval to surgery was 39 days in the ICIs‐nabTP group versus 44 days in the ICIs‐TP group (p = 0.119). There was no 30‐day mortality in each group. However, there was a slight difference in the 30‐day readmission rate (p = 0.043) and the incidence of hydropneumothorax (p = 0.027) between the two groups. The pCR rates of the ICIs‐nabTP and ICIs‐TP group were 36.7 and 21.4%, respectively (p = 0.018). Conclusions: It appears to be feasible to add immunotherapy to nabTP regimen for locally advanced ESCC. Compared with TP, nabTP plus ICIs can achieve a better pCR rate in ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal laminated composites are widely used in industrial and commercial applications due to their excellent overall performance. In this study, the copper/graphene-aluminum-copper/graphene (Cu/Gr-Al-Cu/Gr) laminated composites were prepared by ingenious hot pressing design. Raman, optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), van der Pauw (vdP), and X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) were used to investigate the graphene status, interface bonding, diffusion layer thickness, electrical conductivity, Miller indices and secondary phases, respectively. The results demonstrate that the Cu-Al interfaces in the Cu/Gr-Al-Cu/Gr composites were free of pores, cracks and other defects and bonded well. The number of graphene layers was varied by regulating the thickness of the Cu/Gr layer, with the Cu/Gr foils fabricated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The electrical conductivity of the composite was significantly improved by the induced high-quality interfaces Cu/Gr structure. The increased number of graphene layers is beneficial for enhancing the electrical conductivity of the Cu/Gr-Al-Cu/Gr composite, and the highest conductivity improved by 20.5% compared to that of raw Al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to investigate the value and efficiency of routine brain MRI or CT in the preoperative workup for patients with potentially resectable (cT1‐4aN0‐3) thoracic esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC). Methods: This was a prospective cross‐sectional clinical trial (ChiCTR1800020304). A total of 385 patients with potentially resectable (cT1‐4aN0‐3) thoracic ESCC diagnosed from October 2018 to August 2020 were included. Plain brain MRI or CT was performed preoperatively to detect brain metastases (BrM). The primary endpoint was BrM detected by imaging. Results: Of all 385 patients, the rate of positive brain MRI/CT findings was 1% (n = 4). BrM Patients received chemoradiotherapy, and the median OS was 6 months (95% CI: 4.303–7.697). All 381 remaining patients with initial negative brain MRI/CT diagnosis revealed no brain‐associated symptoms within 6 months. The median follow‐up for patients without BrM was 20 months (range, from 6 to 32). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of plain MRI or CT to detect BrM were all 100%. Conclusions: Preoperative plain MRI or CT is an effective method to detect BrM for potentially resectable (cT1‐4aN0‐3) thoracic ESCC. However, due to the low incidence, the value of brain MRI/CT as a routinely preoperational examination in potentially resectable esophageal squamous cell cancer is rather limited. Therefore, preoperative brain MRI/CT should not be recommended as a routine preoperative examination for ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This retrospective study aimed to explore risk factors for liver metastases (LiM) in patients with esophageal cancer (EC) and to identify prognostic factors in patients initially diagnosed with LiM. Methods: A total of 28 654 EC patients were retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database from 2010 to 2018. A multivariate logistic regression model was utilized to identify risk factors for LiM. A Cox regression model was used to identify prognostic factors for patients with LiM. Results: Of 28 654 EC patients, 4062 (14.2%) had LiM at diagnosis. The median overall survival (OS) for patients with and without LiM was 6.00 (95% CI: 5.70–6.30) months and 15.00 (95% CI: 14.64–15.36) months, respectively. Variables significantly associated with LiM included gender, age, tumor site, histology, tumor grade, tumor size, clinical T stage, clinical N stage, bone metastases (BoM), brain metastases (BrM) and lung metastases (LuM). Variables independently predicting survival for EC patients with LiM were age, histology, tumor grade, BoM, BrM, LuM, and chemotherapy. A risk prediction model and two survival prediction models were then constructed revealing satisfactory predictive accuracy. Conclusions: Based on the largest known cohort of EC, independent predictors of LiM and prognostic indicators of survival for patients with LiM were identified. Two models for predicting survival as well as a risk prediction model were developed with robust predictive accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Root system characteristics are of fundamental importance to soil improvement and underground resource acquisition in riparian buffer strips. Root architectural traits determine the in situ space‐filling properties of a root system. The aims of this study were to examine the grassland root morphological characteristics in the vegetation zone from the lower reaches of Yellow River. Five natural homogeneous grasslands including Imperata cylindrica, Phragmites australis, Cynodon dactylon, Artemisia argyi and Juncellus serotinus were selected. Seven root architecture parameters including fractal dimension, total root length, total root surface area, total root volume, average diameter, root crossing number and root tip number were analyzed, and comprehensive scores were evaluated using principal component analysis. The results showed that average root diameter of the five herbaceous plants was ranged from 0.42 to 0.78 mm. The total root length, total root surface area, total root volume, root crossing number and root tip number of I. cylindrica and P. australis were significantly higher than those of C. dactylon, A. argyi and J. serotinus. The main factors influencing root architecture were average diameter, total root surface area and total root volume through principal component analysis. I. cylindrica had the highest comprehensive score, followed by P. australis, A. argyi, C. dactylon and J. serotinus. I. cylindrica and P. australis would be good competitors for both soil resource acquisition and soil quality improvement due to their root traits. These results could provide a scientific basis for evaluating the ecological function of riparian vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in fire protection discipline has been sufficiently proved to be useful, but has encountered many barriers in China. Among which, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are considered sensitive to adoption costs and external funding support, play a critical role in the BIM adoption process in fire protection discipline. Therefore, identifying and analyzing the barriers of BIM application are essential to help small- and medium-sized fire protection enterprises to overcome these barriers. In this study, semantic analysis, which includes word frequency analysis and coword analysis, based on literature review was utilized to identify the main barriers. 20 main barriers, which were classified into software, people, organization, and environment group, were obtained. Then, Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis were utilized to hierarchically analyze and categorize the main barriers of BIM application in Chinese SMFEs. The findings revealed that the lack of external support and the lack of BIM laws and regulations applicable to fire protection discipline are the key barriers in general for the application of BIM in SMFEs. For the barriers at the enterprise level, through further analysis and discussion based on barriers in the people and organization clusters, the lack of funding support for proper BIM training and the lack of organization culture support were concluded as the key barriers of BIM application inside the scope of SMFEs. According to 80-20 principle, more effort should be focused on the key barriers to gain maximum management effect. The research result categorizes the barriers for easy intervention of fire protection enterprises' managers and policymakers. It contributes to the nascent studies of BIM application and provides guidance for the application of BIM in fire protection discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the digital development of the construction industry, a new competence model of CPM (construction project manager) to meet the new requirements is highly needed. However, there is still a paucity of research on CPM competences in the new era, and no new CPM competence model has been constructed. To address this problem, this study uses data mining method to collect 2387 big data of recruitment advertisement in the Chinese construction market between August 2020 and October 2021 to construct a competence model of CPM in the digital era, which is called the Diamond model. The Diamond model consists of nine key competences, among which digital capability is a newly emerging one. The digital capability for CPMs is identified and classified into three levels, i.e., technology, knowledge and management. The requirements from the industry for the digital capability of CPM are mostly at the technology and knowledge levels. The results of the study provide a clear reference for both the demand and supply sides of CPM talents. Based on this, construction enterprises can formulate more accurate recruitment strategies, practitioners can dynamically benchmark themselves to the ever-changing industry needs and education, and training parties can better bridge the talent gap. Furthermore, the introduction of digital capability into the CPM competence system also provides a solid departure point for further follow-up research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When autonomous vehicles pass through uneven roads, especially the consecutive speed control humps (SCHs) on expressways, the speed of them will have a significant influence on the safety and comfort of driving. How to automatically select the most appropriate speed has become a practical research subject. This paper studies the nonlinear vibration process of the suspension system when the autonomous vehicle passes through the SCHs on a highway. Firstly, the paper establishes a four-degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) nonlinear half-vehicle model and a stimulation function of trapezoidal SCHs and then uses the Runge–Kutta method to numerically solve the differential equations of motion of the suspension system. In the next part, the paper chooses the genetic algorithm to build a multi-objective optimization problem model, which selects the vertical displacement of the vehicle body, the suspension's dynamic deflection and the dynamic load of the tire as optimization objectives and combines the method of the unified objective function to find the optimal passing speed. Finally, the paper designs and carries out the solution process of the multi-objective optimization problem for the vehicle under three scenarios, conventional passive suspension, semi-active suspension, active suspension, and compares the optimized state with the pre-optimized state to prove the effectiveness of the optimization model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a variety of underlying factors influencing what and how people communicate in their daily life. The ability to capture and utilize these factors enables the conversational systems to generate favorable responses and set up amicable connections with users. In this work, we investigate two major factors in response generation, i.e., emotion and intention. To explore the dependency between them, we develop a hierarchical variational model that predicts in sequence the emotion and intention to be conveyed in a response. The response can then be generated word-by-word based on the predictions. We also apply a novel adversarial-augmented inference network to facilitate model training. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model as well as the novel adversarial objective. The hypothesis that emotion shapes human communication behavior is also validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In China, open surgical approaches for esophageal cancer (EC) can be divided into two techniques, the right- and left- transthoracic esophagectomy. Although there is an increasing number of instances that use the right side, the optimal surgical technique remains unclear. Based in a large cancer center with rich experience of both transthoracic side approaches, this study compared the long-term survival of patients treated by these two surgical techniques. Methods: The patients included in this study underwent a right transthoracic esophagectomy (Right, McKeown) or left transthoracic esophagectomy (Left, Sweet, or chest neck dual-incision) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) between January 2015 and October 2018. The overall survival(OS) rate and perioperative data between the two groups were then retrospectively analyzed. Results: We included 437 patients who underwent Right (n = 202) and Left (n = 235) approaches for ESCC. There was a significantly longer median operative time (250 vs. 190 min, P < 0.001) and longer median postoperative hospital stay (17 vs. 14 days, P < 0.001) in the Right side group. The OS at 5-years was 49.9% in the Right group and 52.45% in the Left group; hazard ratio (HR) (95% CI): 1.002 (0.752–1.337), p = 0.987. Conclusions: For middle thoracic ESCC without suspected lymph node metastasis in the upper mediastinum, the esophagectomy through the Left thoracic approach could achieve the same OS as the Right side, with better short-term outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To fully elucidate the relationship of serum fibrinogen and the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods: The concentrations of serum fibrinogen were measured by the Clauss method in a total of 1331 operable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients from the past 3 years. The correlation of serum fibrinogen concentration and patient outcome and clinical pathological factors was tested. Results: Hyperfibrinogenemia was significantly correlated with advanced pathological T stage and TNM stage. Serum fibrinogen was determined as a worse independent survival predictor in ESCC by survival analysis. The hazard ratio was 1.672 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.043–2.681). A subgroup analysis further elucidated a significant correlation between hyperfibrinogenemia and younger age (P=0.011), being female (P=0.002), not having a history of smoking (p<0.001) or alcohol consumption (p<0.001), pathological N0 stage (P=0.002), and early pathological TNM stage (I-II) (P=0.004). Conclusion: This research showed that preoperative serum fibrinogen is an independent prognostic factor for survival in ESCC, especially for the early pathological TNM stage (I-II) and N0 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigated the risk factors for severe weight loss (SWL) within one year after minimally invasive McKeown esophagectomy. Methods: Esophageal cancer patients who underwent McKeown esophagectomy between January and July 2017 were prospectively enrolled. Preoperative body weight (PBW) was chosen as the initial body weight. Results: Forty‐four patients were enrolled and successfully followed up for one year. Median weight loss was 7.4% (quartile: 5.3–8.1%) and 12.6% (quartile: 8.8–17.7%) four weeks and one year after surgery, respectively. Accelerated weight loss occurred during the first two weeks after discharge, with median weight loss of 5.6% (quartile: 4.2–7.1%). Multivariable analysis showed that age ≥ 70 years (odds ratio [OR] 7.65; P = 0.030), preoperative sarcopenia (OR 7.18; P = 0.030), the first surgery in the daily schedule (OR 6.87; P = 0.032) and vocal cord paralysis (OR 12.30; P = 0.046) were independent risk factors for short‐term (4 weeks) SWL (> 7.5% PBW), while an American Society of Anesthesiologists score of 3–4 (OR 6.58; P = 0.047), a high fat‐free mass (OR 21.91; P = 0.003), and vocal cord paralysis (OR 25.83; P = 0.017) were independent risk factors for long‐term (1 year) SWL (> 13.0% PBW) after esophagectomy. Postoperative symptoms of insomnia, appetite loss, dysphagia, eating difficulties, and taste issues were also related to SWL. Conclusions: In esophageal cancer patients who have undergone esophagectomy, the first two weeks after hospital discharge is a key period for nutrition intervention. Patients with associated factors for SWL require postoperative nutrition support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Sharir and Solomon (2015), Sharir and Solomon showed that the number of incidences between m distinct points and n distinct lines in R 4 is (1) O ∗ m 2 ∕ 5 n 4 ∕ 5 + m 1 ∕ 2 n 1 ∕ 2 q 1 ∕ 4 + m 2 ∕ 3 n 1 ∕ 3 s 1 ∕ 3 + m + n , provided that no 2-flat contains more than s lines, and no hyperplane or quadric contains more than q lines, where the O ∗ hides a multiplicative factor of 2 c log m for some absolute constant c . In this paper we prove that, for integers m , n satisfying n 9 ∕ 8 < m < n 3 ∕ 2 , there exist m points and n lines on the quadratic hypersurface in R 4 { ( x 1 , x 2 , x 3 , x 4 ) ∈ R 4 ∣ x 1 = x 2 2 + x 3 2 − x 4 2 } , such that (i) at most s = O ( 1 ) lines lie on any 2-flat, (ii) at most q = O ( n ∕ m 1 ∕ 3 ) lines lie on any hyperplane, and (iii) the number of incidences between the points and the lines is Θ ( m 2 ∕ 3 n 1 ∕ 2 ) , which is asymptotically larger than the upper bound in (1) , when n 9 ∕ 8 < m < n 3 ∕ 2 . This shows that the assumption that no quadric contains more than q lines (in the above mentioned theorem of Sharir and Solomon (2015)) is necessary in this regime of m and n . By a suitable projection from this quadratic hypersurface onto R 3 , we obtain m points and n lines in R 3 , with at most s = O ( 1 ) lines on a common plane, such that the number of incidences between the m points and the n lines is Θ ( m 2 ∕ 3 n 1 ∕ 2 ) . It remains an interesting question to determine if this bound is also tight in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The objective of this study was to describe a cosmetic skin incision for resection of large anterior mediastinal masses, and to review our experience with this technique. Methods From 1999 to 2010, 55 patients with a diagnosis of large anterior mediastinal masses underwent 'goblet'-shaped skin incision with midline sternotomy. The complications, mortality, details of surgery, and duration of hospital stay were observed from review. Patients were monitored via follow-up for a duration of one year after surgery. Results The mean hospital stay was nine days. Wound complications of infection were observed in one patient. There were no other complications, such as hematoma formation, necrosis of skin flap, split or infection of the sternum. No related mortality was recorded within the 30-day postoperative period. All of the patients verbalized the benefits of this technique, particularly the possibility of wearing open-collared clothing, as a result of the cosmetic chest wall and a camouflaging scar below the angle of Louis. At the follow-up periods, 52 of the patients were found to be well. Three patients did not complete follow-up at our facility. Conclusion Our primary experience with this procedure proved it was safe. The technique allows excellent access to the mediastinum and complete removal of large anterior mediastinal masses that are complicated with adjacent midline cardiovascular structures. This technique also provides a better cosmetic result than the standard vertical incision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliable operation of photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems is related to the security and stability of the power grid and is the focus of current research. At present, the reliability evaluation of PV power generation systems is mostly calculated by applying the standard failure rate of each component, ignoring the impact of thermal environment changes on the failure rate. This paper will use the fault tree theory to establish the reliability assessment method of PV power plants, model the PV power plants working in the variable environment through the hardware-in-the-loop simulation system, and analyze the influence of the thermal characteristics of the inverter's key components on the reliability of the PV power plant. Studies have shown that the overall reliability of bus capacitors, inverters, and PV power plants is reduced by 18.4%, 30%, and 18.7%, respectively, compared to when the thermal characteristics of bus capacitors are not considered. It can be seen that thermal attenuation has a great influence on the reliability of the PV power generation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a one‐dimensional phenomenological constitutive model designed to describe two‐way shape memory effect (TWSME) and its associated cyclic degradation. The model utilizes the logistic function to formulate the phase transformation equation, incorporates the expansion of key parameters into their respective fatigue functions to characterize the fatigue phenomenon, and integrates a phase transformation rate regulation function into the differential form of the phase transformation equation. This integration facilitates the control over the entire phase transformation process and the simulation of incomplete transformations. The model is distinguished by its comprehensive functionality, simple form, ease of calculation, and the clear and direct influence of key parameters. Furthermore, it offers a degree of flexibility because each function within the framework is replaceable. The simulation of the TWSME strain and recovery stress hysteresis loop deformation has been successfully conducted, enabling the description of internal hysteresis loops caused by incomplete transformation. The validity of the model is corroborated by comparing it with existing experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power systems optimization is generally subject to the compromise between performance and cost. The 2021 Texas grid outage illustrates the worldwide dangers for the regional-centralized power grid, with comparable advantages to safety and flexibility for the distributed energy system. The storage of household batteries helps balance grid load and increase system stability and flexibility. However, household storage battery is still not widely used today because of its high costs. Currently, research on increasing household battery storage applicability is focused largely on optimizing economic strategies, such as configuration, dispatching and subsidy policies, which rely substantially more on technologies and financial perspectives. Consumers are not 'rational' individuals, and non-economic incentives can affect their decisions without raising prices. This paper consequently proposes to encourage users to acquire household battery storage to increase efficiency of power dispatching and economic advantages based on behavioral economics. In this paper, an empirical research builds upon the utility model of behavioral economics incentives and purchase willingness. Moreover, the multi-objective genetic algorithm is utilized to optimize the dispatching of household battery storage by using grid variance and user revenues as optimizing goals. The results of this paper show that the behavioral economics incentive improves intention to buy the household battery energy storage by 10.7% without raising subsidies. By improving the energy dispatching strategy, peak-load shifting performance and user revenues are improved by 4.2% and 10.6%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]