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In this paper, the smaller plastic scintillator (polystyrene as solvent) tiles are polymerized and shaped by two methods, i.e. injection molding technology and thermal pressing technology by domestic manufacturer, to be operated for more than 10 years in the hadron calorimeter of the Circular Electron Position Collider (CEPC) or other purposes. Other benefits include, researching aging problems, by adding 0.1% material antioxidants of 2,6-Di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (BHT) and without BHT, and according to Van't Hoff rule of equivalent chemical reaction rate of high temperature, the 10 years aging study is simulated in short term. A strobed coincidence setup is arranged to test the light yield of the tile to be measured with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) with ADC read out and a simple trigger system with small solid angle acceptance is adopted. The light yields of measured tiles without BHT decrease by about 26.6% (injection molding technology) and 43.3% (thermal polymerization technology) after ten-year equivalent aging time. Meanwhile, the light yields of the tiles with BHT almost did not change after ten-year equivalent aging time.

As a novel X-ray focusing technology, lobster eye micro-pore optics (MPO) feature both a wide observing field of view and true imaging capability, promising sky monitoring with significantly improved sensitivity and spatial resolution in soft X-rays. Since first proposed by Angel (1979), the optics have been extensively studied, developed and trialed over the past decades. In this Letter, we report on the first-light results from a flight experiment of the Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy ($LEIA$), a pathfinder of the wide-field X-ray telescope of the Einstein Probe mission. The piggyback imager, launched in July 2022, has a mostly un-vignetted field of view of $18.6^\circ \times 18.6^\circ $. Its spatial resolution is in the range of 4$-$7 arcmin in FWHM and the focal spot effective area is 2$-$3 cm$^2$, both showing only mild fluctuations across the field of view. We present images of the Galactic center region, Sco X-1 and the diffuse Cygnus Loop nebular taken in snapshot observations over 0.5$-$4 keV. These are truly wide-field X-ray images of celestial bodies observed, for the first time, by a focusing imaging telescope. Initial analyses of the in-flight data show excellent agreement between the observed images and the on-ground calibration and simulations. The instrument and its characterization are briefly described, as well as the flight experiment. The results provide a solid basis for the development of the present and proposed wide-field X-ray missions using lobster eye MPO., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

This article addresses observation duplication and lack of whole picture problems for ensemble learning with the attention model integrated convolutional recurrent neural network (ACRNN) in imbalanced speech emotion recognition. Firstly, we introduce Bagging with ACRNN and the observation duplication problem. Then Redagging is devised and proved to address the observation duplication problem by generating bootstrap samples from permutations of observations. Moreover, Augagging is proposed to get oversampling learner to participate in majority voting for addressing the lack of whole picture problem. Finally, Extensive experiments on IEMOCAP and Emo-DB samples demonstrate the superiority of our proposed methods (i.e., Redagging and Augagging).

This paper reports about an effort to generate LoD3 models of buildings semi-automatically, with the highest possible level of automation. It is work in progress. We use multi-sensor data like aerial images from a 5-head camera with a GSD of 10 cm, UAV images, and aerial and mobile LiDAR point clouds. We distinguish two cases: LoD2 models are available and they are not. We apply Multi-Photo Geometrically Constrained Least Squares Matching for different kind of point measurements. The regularity of many building façades in Singapore leads us to the idea to generalize the measurement procedure towards using measurement macros (geometrical primitives, i.e. windows, doors, etc.) and combine reality-based with procedural modelling. In parallel we try to model these façade elements from LiDAR point cloud data. In another research line we do building detection by a novel approach to land-cover classification, incorporating features of the façades to improve the classification accuracy. To generate the semantic labels of the façades, we developed a spatially unrelated mean-shift clustering method to yield structurally confined segments. It is the characteristic of automated and even semi-automated procedures that the results need some amount of editing. We therefore work on interactive post-editing approaches on CityGML building models containing semantic information of each surface. Maintaining the semantic information throughout the editing process is essential but often lack the support from current tools. Accordingly, we implement a method to synchronize CityGML models. Overall this project consists of a great number of different algorithmic components, which can only be coarsely explained in this paper.

Standalone photovoltaic power system is one of the feasible solutions in rural electrification. However, due to the intermittent nature of solar energy and significant demand variations due to small load size, energy storage devices are needed to ensure power quality and reliability. Lead-acid battery bank has been widely used in such systems to act as the intermediate buffer to compensate the power mismatch between generation and demand, despite the poor lifetime characteristics and relatively short service life compared to other energy storage devices. Most charge controllers only provide basic battery charging functionality and prevent the battery bank from overcharging and deep-discharging. While other notable aging factors such as frequent charge-discharge transition, high C-rate and surge power are often neglected. This paper presents a smart hybrid energy storage plug-in module that aims to enhance the service life of Lead-acid battery in standalone photovoltaic-battery power systems by mitigating life-limiting factors such as current fluctuations and surge current. This module is designed as a plug-in module that can be adopted directly in existing infrastructure in installed standalone PV-battery power system. The effectiveness of the proposed plug-in module in mitigating battery stresses is simulated in Matlab Simulink with actual solar irradiance data and estimated load profile for a rural community in Sarawak Malaysia. The simulation results are validated experimentally with the scaled-down photovoltaic-battery power system. The effectiveness in mitigating battery stress is quantitatively evaluated with battery health cost function, while the reduction in overall battery cost is analyzed and discussed.

Background Our prospective, open-label, single-arm phase II study investigated the safety and efficacy of DCVAC/LuCa (dendritic cell vaccines for lung cancer) combined with standard carboplatin/pemetrexed in advanced non-squamous (nsq) non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients and methods Eligible patients had stage IV nsq NSCLC without oncogenic drivers and had not received prior systemic cancer therapy. Treatment consisted of carboplatin/pemetrexed for up to 6 cycles followed by 21 cycles of pemetrexed maintenance or until progression or intolerance. Non-progression patients after two cycles of chemotherapy started to receive DCVAC/LuCa subcutaneously (s.c.) on day 15 of cycle 3, and thereafter q3w (day 15 of chemotherapy cycles) for up to 15 doses. Dosing of DCVAC/LuCa s.c. varied among patients depending on the baseline number of leucocytes but remained constant for each single patient. Safety was assessed by adverse events (AEs), treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), serious adverse events (SAEs), and adverse events of special interest (AESIs). Efficacy was measured by overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), time to progression (TTP), and objective response rate (ORR). Results Sixty-one patients were enrolled. In the safety population (n = 60), eight patients (13.33%) had grade 3 or greater TRAEs, and six patients (10.0%) showed SAEs which were not related to leukapheresis or DC vaccination. Six grade 1 AEs were considered to be related to leukapheresis. No AESIs or DCVAC/LuCa-induced AEs were observed. The 2-year survival rate in the modified intention-to-treat population (n = 44) was 52.57%. Median OS was not reached. Median PFS was 8.0 months, median TTP was 10.2 months, and the ORR was 31.82%. Conclusion In treatment-naïve stage IV nsq NSCLC patients without oncogenic drivers, the combination of carboplatin/pemetrexed and DCVAC/LuCa was well tolerated and showed promising efficacy. Therefore, a study to prove our immunotherapeutic concept in a randomized phase III trial is planned., Highlights • We investigated the safety and efficacy of DCVAC/LuCa combined with standard carboplatin/pemetrexed in nsq NSCLC. • The combination therapy showed a favorable tolerability profile in a selected Chinese population. • The 2-year survival rate in the modified intention-to-treat population (n = 44) was 52.57%.

This paper discusses an interactive white cane learning tool for children with visual impairment to familiarize themselves with the use of the white cane. A prototype, named CaneFX, was designed based on motion capture technology which utilizes an accelerometer to understand the motion of the white cane. A microcontroller was implemented to process the data obtained from the accelerometer. Three modes were implemented to detect different white cane motions which are sweeping, tapping and hitting motions and for each motion, a sound is associated with it. Experimental testing was conducted to find an optimal setup of the proposed prototype and evaluate its usability. The results show that the prototype is capable of detecting the motions in real-time with high accuracy on a rough floor surface.

OBJECTIVES Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common and fatal opportunistic co-infection among HIV-infected individuals. While TB-associated mortality predominantly occurs in the first 90 days after admission, such a correlation remains unclear in HIV/TB co-infected patients. Thus, we aimed to investigate the 90-day mortality and associated risk factors among HIV/TB co-infected patients in China. METHODS Adult patients with HIV and a newly confirmed TB diagnosis admitted to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center between September 2009 and August 2017 were enrolled. Clinical and laboratory characteristics, key treatments and outcomes were collected retrospectively. The associations between different factors and early mortality were analysed. RESULTS Of the 485 laboratory-confirmed HIV/TB patients [median (range) age = 39 (19-79) years], 413 (85.15%) were male. Diagnosis was confirmed by culture, pathology and acid-fast bacilli smear alone in 362 (74.6%), 6 (1.2%) and 117 (24.1%) patients, respectively. Multiple drug-/rifampin-resistant TB was detected in 21 (5.8%) of the 367 patients with a positive culture. Rifampin or rifabutin was administered to 402 (82.9%) patients. Additionally, 66 (13.6%) and 86 (17.7%) died within 90 days and 1 year of admission, respectively. Of the 64 TB-related deaths, 59 (92.2%) occurred within 90 days of admission. In Cox regression, central nervous system (CNS) TB [odds ratio (OR) = 2.49, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.46-4.23, P