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Purpose: This study aimed to assess prognosis of patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) by combining [18F]-FDG positron emission tomography (PET)/CT parameters and clinical indices. Methods: Clinical data and PET/CT parameters of 133 NDMM patients were retrospectively analyzed for associations between clinical indices and PET/CT parameters. Independent predictors of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were determined. A new prognostic prediction system (NPPS) was constructed based on our findings. Prediction effectiveness was compared among the NPPS, International Staging System (ISS), Revised ISS (R-ISS), and R2-ISS. Results: Prevalence of elevated β2-microglobulin, serum creatinine (sCr), serum calcium (sCa), and C-reactive protein concentrations was higher in patients with higher SUVmax (≥ 5.3). Prevalence of elevated sCa, sCr, and extramedullary disease (EMD) was higher in patients with a higher number of focal lesions (≥ 10). SUVmax, serum free-light chain (sFLC) ratio, and EMD were independent predictors of PFS and OS. The NPPS used SUVmax, sFLC ratio, and EMD could effectively predict OS and was more effective at prognostication than the ISS, R-ISS, and R2-ISS. Conclusions: [18F]-FDG PET/CT parameters play a significant role in predicting prognosis in NDMM patients. The NPPS based on SUVmax, sFLC ratio, and EMD outperformed the ISS, R-ISS, and R2-ISS in prognostication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate recognition of driving intentions can delay upshifts under the intention of quick acceleration to maximize vehicle power performance; avoid frequent gear changes in automatic transmissions for rapid deceleration intention and make all power to flow to the bucket in the desire for fast motion of cylinders. However, due to the ambiguity of the human intentions and multiple meanings of depressing on the accelerator pedal in wheel loader, it is difficult to recognize driving intention. Nevertheless, the driver’s intentions are directly reflected in the accelerator pedal, brake pedal and hydraulic valve control handle. By detecting these observable signals such as the signals of acceleration pedal’s displacement and velocity, brake pedal’s displacement and velocity and valve status Gaussian Mixture – Hidden Markov Model(MGHMM) can recognize the unobservable driving intentions. The experiment is done in Simulink and the results show that MGHMM can recognize driving intentions as expected.

Digesting scheelite by using H2SO4–H3PO4 is an environment-friendly and low-cost technology. The key approach to achieving efficient scheelite decomposition involves providing a good environment with uniform material composition for the growth of calcium sulfate. Therefore, numerical simulation of gypsum particle suspensions in a square stirred tank with a frame-type agitator for leaching scheelite was investigated. Simulated optimized results showed that the homogeneity of a multiphase flow system increased with the speed of the agitator. Reducing off-bottom clearance eased the dispersion of gypsum into the liquid. Adding baffles increased turbulence intensity and axial velocity in the tank, which eased solid suspension. The suspension improved, together with increases in the torque and power requirements of the agitator when the speed changed and baffled were added. However, when the solid suspension improved, the stirring torque and power slightly decreased, under a different off-bottom clearance of the agitator. Meanwhile, with residence time distribution as an evaluation criterion, the experimental results verified that the flow characteristics of the solid particles improved after optimization. This study can provide a theoretical basis and guidance for the optimization of the design and enlargement test of the stirred tank for leaching scheelite with sulfuric–phosphorous mixed acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digesting scheelite by using H2SO4–H3PO4 is an environment-friendly and low-cost technology. The key approach to achieving efficient scheelite decomposition involves providing a good environment with uniform material composition for the growth of calcium sulfate. Therefore, numerical simulation of gypsum particle suspensions in a square stirred tank with a frame-type agitator for leaching scheelite was investigated. Simulated optimized results showed that the homogeneity of a multiphase flow system increased with the speed of the agitator. Reducing off-bottom clearance eased the dispersion of gypsum into the liquid. Adding baffles increased turbulence intensity and axial velocity in the tank, which eased solid suspension. The suspension improved, together with increases in the torque and power requirements of the agitator when the speed changed and baffled were added. However, when the solid suspension improved, the stirring torque and power slightly decreased, under a different off-bottom clearance of the agitator. Meanwhile, with residence time distribution as an evaluation criterion, the experimental results verified that the flow characteristics of the solid particles improved after optimization. This study can provide a theoretical basis and guidance for the optimization of the design and enlargement test of the stirred tank for leaching scheelite with sulfuric–phosphorous mixed acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problem of shift shock during the inertia phase caused by generalized disturbances in wheel loaders and other construction instruments, a robust double closed-loop tracking control method based on an improved disturbance observer (DOB) has been proposed. In this method, the inner loop robustly suppresses disturbance and the outer loop realizes trajectory tracking. The improved DOB based on a nominal disturbance value (NDV) can enhance the disturbance suppression ability of the inner loop when a large part of the generalized disturbance is determinable. The model matching method transforms the outer loop into a transfer function to meet the expected performance. A disturbance compensation controller eliminates the nominal disturbance in the system. A feedforward compensation controller eliminates the influence of reference inputs in the system. Considering the inertia phase of a fixed-axis automatic transmission of a wheel loader, the proposed method was applied to the driveline simulation platform of a specific type of wheel loader. Random loads under actual working conditions were considered as the input load of the simulation platform. The simulation results indicated that the DOB based on the NDV method has better disturbance suppression capability, more accurate tracking capability and smaller shift shock than the conventional DOB method. The proposed control method exhibits robustness under 10%, 50% and 90% of the maximum load. The highest shift shock is 4.94% of the manual shift shock and it is effectively reduced. Thus, robust and smooth inertia phase shift control of the automatic transmission can be realized. This study presents an effective method for solving robust disturbance suppression control problems and tracking control problem under large generalized disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To study the clinical value of thyroid imaging in differentiate the origin cervical mass., Method: Sixty-nine patients with cervical mass were subjected to 99mTc-pertechnetate imaging. 99Tc-MIBI hot spot imaging and perfusion imaging were performed in some of patients with cold or cool nodules. The findings of thyroid imaging were compared with follow up and histopathologic results., Result: Thirty-three of 69 patients were found with thyroid nodules, 36 patients mass were outside thyroid. Twelve of 33 thyroid nodules were found to be subacute thyroiditis. Two cases regarded as thyroglossal duct cyst were found to be ectopic thyroid glands. Twenty-seven of 36 masses out side thyroid were thyroglossal duct cysts., Conclusion: 99m Tc-pertechnetate imaging, 99mTc-MIBI hot spot imaging and perfusion imaging are useful to differentiate the origin of cervical mass, and differentiate ectopic thyroid from thyroglossal duct cyst.