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Objective: To identify which the combination of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurophysiological monitoring (NM) is reliable in the quantitative and predictive evaluation of spinal cord function. Methods: Data acquisition was collected in 12 patients who underwent spinal cord tumor surgery in our hospital. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) data of the regions of interest (ROIs) on DTI images were obtained. Preoperative NM and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) were performed. Patients were followed up 2 weeks later. European myelopathy score (EMS score) was recorded pre- and post-operatively. Correlation analysis was conducted to evaluate spinal cord function.Results: The average value of ADC in the two ROIs before operation was higher than that in the area without spinal cord compression (P=0.026), while the average value of FA was the opposite (p=0.018). Preoperative FA value significantly decreased in the fiber-interrupted group and the moderate-to-severe-damage group (PConclusion: For spinal cord tumor patients, the combination of preoperative DTI and NM could quantify the postoperative spinal cord function and predict the prognosis more comprehensively. Preoperative FA value is more valuable to reflect the postoperative subjective symptom, while preoperative SEP amplitude is more meaningful to predict the improvement degree of disease.

Correlation filter based tracking algorithms have received significant attention in visual tracking due to their accuracy and speed. However, it is susceptible to distractors and performs poor when it is faced with occlusion and severe deformation. In this paper, we introduce a distractor-aware long-term correlation tracking to distinguish the target and the background. Firstly, the information entropy weighted feature is utilized to deal with different scenarios dynamically. Secondly, in order to facilitate the tracker to distinguish the target from the distractors which lead to inaccurate localization, we propose a novel distractor-aware mask processing. We sample distractor patches and incorporate a binary mask to attenuate the possible negative influences. Thirdly, an improved fast scale searching scheme based on dichotomy is incorporated to provide a tradeoff between the accuracy and efficiency. Finally, the localization ambiguity is detected by using a new criterion based on the variance. It is concluded that introducing the re-detection technique and solving the occlusion play a critical role to facilitate the tracking progress. Furthermore, an adaptive model update strategy is utilized to update the long-term model for alleviating the model drift. Experiments on benchmark database demonstrate that the proposed method achieves good performance compared with other trackers and the strategy can be applied to other trackers.

Correlation filter (CF) based tracking algorithms have tremendously contributed to the field of visual tracking due to the high computational efficiency and competitive performance. Nonetheless, most CF-based trackers are vulnerable to the influence of occlusion and boundary effect, which results in suboptimal performance. In this article, we propose saliency guided visual tracking via correlation filter with log-Gabor filter to robustify its performance under occlusion and boundary effect challenges. Firstly, we propose the CF with log-Gabor filter to get a robust appearance model. The log-Gabor filter is adopted to preprocess the sequence to gain the log-Gabor feature, which provides important cues for tracking since it encodes the texture information. Secondly, considering the prior information, we embed the novel saliency guided adaptive spatial feature selection to filter learning to preserve the spatial structure in the lower manifold and mitigate boundary distortion. Thirdly, the occlusion estimating strategy, performing on-line evaluation of tracking, triggers the motion estimation module to optimize the optimal location. Experiments on benchmark databases demonstrate the enhanced discrimination and interpretability of the proposed tracker and its superiority over other trackers.

A newly developed and structurally characterized titanium complex [Ti(Phen)(OC2H5)2Cl2] (Phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) is reported as a homogeneous pre-catalyst for the selective oxidation of organic sulfides to sulfoxides with a stoichiometric amount of 30% aq. H2O2 in CH3OH at room temperature. This catalytic system showed high yield (95–100%) and good selectivity (92–100%) during the catalytic reaction in a short period of time.

The mechanical property of steel reinforced PP ECC columns under reverse cyclic load is investigated and results are presented in this paper. The influence of reinforcement ratio, curing age and volume fraction of PP fiber on load bearing capacity, energy dissipation and stiffness degradation is investigated. The results highlighted the positive contribution of PP ECC to enhance strength and energy dissipation capacity which is important to evaluate the performance of structures subjected to reverse cyclic loads. According to the experimental study on mechanical behavior of steel reinforced PP ECC columns under reverse cyclic loading, the formula of model parameters related to reinforcement ratio are proposed，it is founded that the restoring force model established is of a certain degree of adaptability.

Two 5-sulfosalicylic acid (H3ssal) and 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen) substituted titanium-oxo-clusters, [Ti6O8 (Hssal)2(Phen)6(H2O)4]·4OH·21H2O (TOC-1) and [Ti4O4(Hssal)4(Phen)4]·18H2O·4NH3 (TOC-2), have been synthesized and fully characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and fluorescence analysis. The structure of TOC-1 is a hexanuclear cluster containing a {Ti6(μ2-O)8} core, where all titanium ions can be described in a distorted octahedral geometry with both 1,10-phenanthroline and 5-sulfosalicylate serving as chelating ligands, while TOC-2 consists of a tetranuclear {Ti4(μ2-O)4} skeleton forming an approximate plane quadrilateral where both 5-sulfosalicylate and 1,10-phenanthroline ligands chelate to the titanium atom and the oxygen atom bridges two titanium atoms. Moreover, catalytic activity for the selective oxidation of sulfides, methyl phenyl sulfide (MPS) and phenyl sulfide (PPS), has also been explored. The results showed that TOCs 1 and 2 exhibit excellent catalytic performance in the oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides with H2O2 as an oxidant. In particular, TOC-1 is an efficient homogeneous catalyst and very interestingly it can be recovered by filtration upon cooling and then reused at least four times without losing activity, which is very rare in the oxygenation of organic sulfides.

Self-healing of ECC (Engineered Cementitious Composites) subjected to cyclic wetting and drying regimes is investigated in this paper. ECC structures subjected to outdoor environmental conditions such as wind and rain runoff can be simulated by accelerated test method of wetting and drying cycles. Uniaxial tensile tests of ECC M45 and ECC 2.8FA specimen are conducted respectively. It is found that crack width of ECC 2.8FA is around 10 μm with increased amount of fly ash, while the crack width of ECC M45 is around 100 μm. New insights about the microstructure and chemical composition analysis of ECC specimens initially cracked to 2% strain and then self-healed under wet-dry cycles are presented.

Two structurally diverse compounds, [Cu(Hbpdc)2(phen)] (1) and [Cu(bpdc)(phen)(H2O)]n (2) (H2bpdc=4,4′-biphenyldicarboxylic acid, phen=1,10-phenanthroline), were synthesized under hydrothermal conditions. Copper atom in 1 is four-coordinated to one bidentate phen ligand and two monodentate partly deprotonated 4,4′-biphenyldicarboxylates. As expected, the structure of 1 is a monomeric species and affords an extended two-dimensional hydrogen bonding architecture. Each copper atom in 2 is five-coordinated to one phen, one water molecule, and two bis-monodentate fully deprotonated 4,4′-biphenyldicarboxylates. Therefore, the structure of 2 is a one-dimensional chain.

For abstracting the periodical spectra of geophysical parameters, there are normally three options, i.e. the periodograms or window spectra method (FFT or BT method), the maximum entropy spectrum estimation method (MEM) and the maximum likelihood spectrum estimation method (MLM). According to the comparison of three kinds of methods of spectral estimation and their application to geophysical study, we come to the conclusion that the MLM is better than MEM in frequency resolution, power estimation, extracting signals from the background with strong noise. Furthermore, it is more efficient in working out numerical values by MLM than by MEM, especially when accurate spectral estimation is made, for example, estimation of the parameters in a system. Among these three methods, MEM shows the highest resolution in frequency, hut the lowest precision in power estimation. In the geomagnetic deep sounding (GDS), power estimation is emphasized. So, the application of MLM to the geomagnetism and earthquake prediction has been examined in this paper and the results are satisfied. The results of analysis with FFT method of a total number of 1460 Ax indices for 1967"~ 1969 at the Beijing Geomagnetic Observatory show that few of the spectral lines can pass the significant test, especially for those lines with period of 27 days near to that of the solar rotation. On the contrary, MLM analysis of the same data MLM shows the most striking peak of the power at a period of near 27.5 days (Figure 1). This is a typical example showing that when strong noise background exist, the MLM is much more efficient than the FFT method.