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Local model-agnostic Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), such as LIME or SHAP, has recently gained popularity among researchers and data scientists for explaining black box Machine Learning (ML) models. In the industry, practitioners focus not only on how these explanations can validate their models but also on how they can help maintain trust from end-users. Some studies attempted to measure this ability by quantifying what they refer to as the explainability or interpretability of ML models. In this paper, we introduce a new method for measuring explainability with reference to an approximated human model. We develop a human-friendly interface to strategically collect human decision-making and translate it into a set of logical rules and intuitions, or simply annotations. These annotations are then compared with the local explanations derived from common XAI tools. Through a human survey, we demonstrate that it is possible to quantify human intuition and empirically compare it to a given explanation, enabling a practical quantification of explainability. By relying on this new method, we identified several potential flaws in today’s ML selection process. Furthermore, we demonstrate how our method can help to better evaluate ML models.

China’s approach to air pollution control has been shown successful in East Asian countries and even elsewhere in the world. The analysis of the evolution and control of air pollution in China over the past 75 years can be used as a reference for developing countries suffering from air pollution resulting from urbanization. Based on the sorting and mining of relevant indicators, data and policy texts from the areas of population, economy, space and social urbanization, the findings suggest that the presence of air pollution and its changing forms indeed have complex interactive relationships with the process of urbanization. Specifically: (1) the feature of air pollution has changed from “single pollutant and pollution source to multiple pollutants and pollution source, local pollution to regional pollution, light pollution to heavy compound pollution” as a result of urbanization, the emphasizing of construction and the neglect of governance, the emphasizing of economics and the neglect of ecology, and the emphasizing of immediate interests over long-term interests; (2) the interactive relationship between air pollution and urbanization has also gone through three stages from being irrelevant each other to “urbanization determines air pollution” and then “air pollution restricts urbanization”; (3) this has forced air pollution control to shift from the traditional “treating symptoms” to “high-quality urbanization”, thus promoting air pollution and urbanization to move “from confrontation to unification”. Therefore, air pollution control is not a simple technical issue; one of the keys lies in exploring how to adjust the urbanization model, so as to achieve the “win–win” of urbanization and air pollution control.

BackgroundRecent research showed that probiotics treatment may reduce insulin resistance, regulate lipid metabolism, raise liver enzyme levels, and ameliorate inflammation in individuals with metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). However, the possible effects of probiotic use on the progression of hepatic steatosis (HS) have not been identified. The purpose of this study was to investigate this in a large population database.MethodsThe cross-sectional research was conducted among adults with complete data on probiotic yogurt consumption and HS in the 2011–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Probiotic yogurt consumption was assessed using a dietary supplement questionnaire, while HS was evaluated with HS index (HSI). To explore their relationship, weighted univariate regression analysis, subgroup analysis, and interaction analysis were conducted. To evaluate the causal association between yogurt consumption and NAFLD, mendelian randomization analysis (MR) were performed. A restricted cubic spline (RCS) was used to analyze the relationship curve between the leves of yogurt consumption and hepatic steatosis.ResultsA total of 7,891 participants were included in the study represented 146.7 million non-institutionalized residents of the United States, of whom 4,322 (54.77%) were diagnosed with HS. Multivariable logistic regression showed probiotic yogurt consumption had significantly inverse relationship for HS (OR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.72–0.97, p = 0.02) after adjusting for all covariates. Once more, the independent relationship between probiotic yogurt consumption and HS was verified by subgroup analysis and interaction analysis. The MR analysis results indicate that there is no causal relationship between yogurt consumption and NAFLD. The RCS model demonstrated a robust J-shaped link between yogurt consumption and HS, revealing a significant decrease in risk within the lower range of yogurt consumption, which attained the lowest risk close to 0.4 cup.ConclusionAccording to the NHANES data, the consumption of probiotics and yogurt has a beneficial effect on HS, whereas the MR results indicated it was not related to NAFLD. The RCS analysis indicates a J-shaped relationship between yogurt consumption and HS, which may account for the inconsistency in the results. Based on these findings, we recommend that adults take half a cup of yogurt daily.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is an epidemic animal infectious disease worldwide, causing huge economic losses to the global swine industry. Fas-associated death domain (FADD) was previously reported to be an adaptor protein that functions in transferring the apoptotic signals regulated by the death receptors. In the current study, we unravel its unidentified role in promoting type I interferon (IFN) production during PRRS virus (PRRSV) infection. We identified that FADD inhibited PRRSV infection via promotion of type I IFN transcription. Overexpression of FADD suppressed the replication of PRRSV, while knockout of FADD increased viral titer and nucleocapsid protein expression. Mechanistically, FADD promoted mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein (MAVS)-mediated production of IFN-β and some IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). Furthermore, FADD exerted anti-PRRSV effects in a MAVS-dependent manner and increased the type I IFN signaling during PRRSV infection. This study highlights the importance of FADD in PRRSV replication, which may have implications for the future control of PRRS.

A general and high-efficiency C-alkylation of oxindoles and barbituric acids has been developed by a Cp∗Ir complex [Cp∗Ir (2,2′-bpyO)(OH)]Na with a bipyridine-based functional ligand. In particular, H2O was selected as the solvent instead of the organic solvent in this catalytic system. Through mild reaction conditions gave a variety of corresponding alkylated heterocyclic compounds with good to excellent yields. More importantly, the gram-scale C-alkylation reaction was successfully carried out with good yield using a common route with only a single purification by column chromatography.

Nitrogen (N) is an essential factor for crop yield. Here, we characterized 605 genes from 25 gene families that form the complex gene networks of N utilization pathway in Brassica napus. We found unequal gene distribution between the An- and Cn-sub-genomes, and that genes derived from Brassica rapa were more retained. Transcriptome analysis indicated that N utilization pathway gene activity shifted in a spatio-temporal manner in B. napus. A low N (LN) stress RNA-seq of B. napus seedling leaves and roots was generated, which proved that most N utilization related genes were sensitive to LN stress, thereby forming co-expression network modules. Nine candidate genes in N utilization pathway were confirmed to be significantly induced under N deficiency conditions in B. napus roots, indicating their potential roles in LN stress response process. Analyses of 22 representative species confirmed that the N utilization gene networks were widely present in plants ranging from Chlorophyta to angiosperms with a rapid expansion trend. Consistent with B. napus, the genes in this pathway commonly showed a wide and conserved expression profile in response to N stress in other plants. The network, genes, and gene-regulatory modules identified here represent resources that may enhance the N utilization efficiency or the LN tolerance of B. napus.

Image segmentation is a key part of ore separation process based on X-ray images, and its segmentation result directly affects the accuracy of ore classification. In the field of ore production, the conventional segmentation method is difficult to meet the requirements of real-time, robustness and accuracy during ore segmentation process. In order to solve the above problems, this article proposes an ore segmentation method dealing with pseudo-dual-energy X-ray image which is composed of contour extraction module, concave point detection module and concave point matching module. In the contour extraction module, the image is firstly cut into two parts with high and low energy, then the adaptive threshold is used to obtain the ore binary image. After filtering and morphological operation, the image contour is obtained from the binary image. Concave point detection module uses vector to detect concave points on contour. As the main contribution of this article, the concave point matching module can remove the influence of boundary interference concave points by drawing the auxiliary line and judging the relative position of auxiliary line and ore contour. With the matching concave points connected, the whole ore segmentation is completed. In order to verify the effectiveness of this method, a comparative experiment was conducted between the proposed method and conventional segmentation method using X-ray images of antimony ore as data samples. The result of industrial experiment shows that the proposed intelligent segmentation method can remove the interference of pseudo concave points on the contour, achieve accuracy segmentation result, and satisfy the requirements of processing X-ray image of ore.

Abstract Background Escherichia coli adapted to carbon-limiting conditions is generally geared for energy-efficient carbon utilization. This includes also the efficient utilization of glucose, which serves as a source for cellular building blocks as well as energy. Thus, catabolic and anabolic functions are balanced under these conditions to minimize wasteful carbon utilization. Exposure to glucose excess interferes with the fine-tuned coupling of anabolism and catabolism leading to the so-called carbon overflow metabolism noticeable through acetate formation and eventually growth inhibition. Results Cellular adaptations towards sudden but timely limited carbon excess conditions were analyzed by exposing slow-growing cells in steady state glucose-limited continuous culture to a single glucose pulse. Concentrations of metabolites as well as time-dependent transcriptome alterations were analyzed and a transcriptional network analysis performed to determine the most relevant transcription and sigma factor combinations which govern these adaptations. Down-regulation of genes related to carbon catabolism is observed mainly at the level of substrate uptake and downstream of pyruvate and not in between in the glycolytic pathway. It is mainly accomplished through the reduced activity of CRP-cAMP and through an increased influence of phosphorylated ArcA. The initiated transcriptomic change is directed towards down-regulation of genes, which contribute to active movement, carbon uptake and catabolic carbon processing, in particular to down-regulation of genes which contribute to efficient energy generation. Long-term changes persisting after glucose depletion and consumption of acetete encompassed reduced expression of genes related to active cell movement and enhanced expression of genes related to acid resistance, in particular acid resistance system 2 (GABA shunt) which can be also considered as an inefficient bypass of the TCA cycle. Conclusions Our analysis revealed that the major part of the trancriptomic response towards the glucose pulse is not directed towards enhanced cell proliferation but towards protection against excessive intracellular accumulation of potentially harmful concentration of metabolites including among others energy rich compounds such as ATP. Thus, resources are mainly utilized to cope with “overfeeding” and not for growth including long-lasting changes which may compromise the cells future ability to perform optimally under carbon-limiting conditions (reduced motility and ineffective substrate utilization).

Abstract Background Giant hiatal hernia is defined as those with more than 30% of the stomach herniating into the chest cavity. The transabdominal laparoscopic approach is the well-established repair form for giant hiatal hernia. To our best knowledge, reports on post-operative gastric outlet obstruction of giant hiatal hernia repair have been scanty up till now. Case presentation A 45-year-old female patient was referred to the Emergency Department of our hospital with a chief complaint of acute right epigastric pain for 2 days. Physical examination revealed mild tenderness in the right epigastrium, without rebound tenderness or guarding. The abdominal computed tomography scan revealed a large low-density gastric artifact in the lower mediastinum—giant hiatal hernia. The barium swallow esophagogram and gastroscopy also confirmed the presence of a giant hiatal hernia. A transabdominal laparoscopic operation for reduction of the hernia contents and repair of the hiatal defect was performed. Her right epigastric pain alleviated obviously on the first postoperative day. On post-operative day five, however, she was presented with nausea and vomiting independent of meals. The nasogastric tube was inserted and kept in the stomach for 7 days. After removing the nasogastric tube, severe nausea and vomiting of the patient occurred again. Barium swallow revealed gastroptosis and enfoldment in the duodenal bulb, which indicated the presence of gastric outlet obstruction. Gastrojejunostomy was performed for her to relieve the gastric outlet obstruction. The patient was discharged on the tenth day after the second operation without any discomfort. During the regular follow-up period, she felt well and was satisfied with her status. Conclusions Facing the giant hiatal hernia repair, the reduction of the hernia contents and repair of the hiatal defect being well operated on are insufficient, and we must watch out the anatomical variation, like the deviation of partial intra-abdominal organs from their normal positions, as well as paying attention to the protection of abdominal vagal nerve during the operation. Post-operative gastric outlet obstruction of giant hiatal hernia repair is rare, while gastrojejunostomy can successfully relieve the gastric outlet obstruction.

BackgroundAs a novel inflammatory marker, Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index (SII) has not been studied with hepatic steatosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relationship between SII and hepatic steatosis.MethodsIn the cross-sectional investigation, adults having complete information on SII, hepatic steatosis, and bariatric surgery from the 2015–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were included. Hepatic steatosis was evaluated with heaptic steatosis index (HSI). The platelet count × neutrophil count/lymphocyte count was used to compute SII. We investigated the independent interaction between SII and hepatic steatosis using weighted multivariable regression analysis and subgroup analysis. To explore the potential relationship between SII, bariatric surgery and hepatic steatosis by controlling potential confounders by propensity score matching.ResultsThe study involved 10505 participants in total, 5937 (56.5%) of whom had hepatic steatosis according to the diagnosis. After adjusted for covariates, multivariable logistic regression revealed that high SII level was an independent risk factor for hepatic steatosis (OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.10-1.52, P 0.01). Unexpectedly, bariatric surgery reduced SII even after PSM corrected for differences of BMI and HSI.ConclusionsIn US adults, SII was positively correlated with an increase in hepatic steatosis. The SII may be a simple and affordable way to identify hepatic steatosis. Bariatric surgery may reduce SII without resorting to weight loss. This needs to be verified in additional prospective research.

Abstract Background Recently it was shown that production of recombinant proteins in E. coli BL21(DE3) using pET based expression vectors leads to metabolic stress comparable to a carbon overfeeding response. Opposite to original expectations generation of energy as well as catabolic provision of precursor metabolites were excluded as limiting factors for growth and protein production. On the contrary, accumulation of ATP and precursor metabolites revealed their ample formation but insufficient withdrawal as a result of protein production mediated constraints in anabolic pathways. Thus, not limitation but excess of energy and precursor metabolites were identified as being connected to the protein production associated metabolic burden. Results Here we show that the protein production associated accumulation of energy and catabolic precursor metabolites is not unique to E. coli BL21(DE3) but also occurs in E. coli K12. Most notably, it was demonstrated that the IPTG-induced production of hFGF-2 using a tac-promoter based expression vector in the E. coli K12 strain TG1 was leading to persistent accumulation of key regulatory molecules such as ATP, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate and pyruvate. Conclusions Excessive energy generation, respectively, accumulation of ATP during recombinant protein production is not unique to the BL21(DE3)/T7 promoter based expression system but also observed in the E. coli K12 strain TG1 using another promoter/vector combination. These findings confirm that energy is not a limiting factor for recombinant protein production. Moreover, the data also show that an accelerated glycolytic pathway flux aggravates the protein production associated “metabolic burden”. Under conditions of compromised anabolic capacities cells are not able to reorganize their metabolic enzyme repertoire as required for reduced carbon processing.

Artificial intelligence has drawn more and more attention for both research and application in the field of medicine. It has considerable potential for urological cancer detection, therapy, and prognosis prediction due to its ability to choose features in data to complete a particular task autonomously. Although the clinical application of AI is still immature and faces drawbacks such as insufficient data and a lack of prospective clinical trials, AI will play an essential role in individualization and the whole management of cancers as research progresses. In this review, we summarize the applications and studies of AI in major urological cancers, including tumor diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis prediction. Moreover, we discuss the current challenges and future applications of AI.

Introduction: As a member of annexin family proteins, annexin A3 (ANXA3) has 36-kDa and 33-kDa isoforms. ANXA3 plays crucial roles in the tumorigenesis, aggressiveness and drug-resistance of cancers. However, previous studies mainly focused on the role of total ANXA3 in cancers without distinguishing the distinction between the two isoforms, the role of 33-kDa ANXA3 in cancer remains unclear. Objectives: Current work aimed to investigate the function and regulation mechanism of 33-kDa ANXA3 in hepatocarcinoma. Methods: The expressions of ANXA3, CRKL, Rac1, c-Myc and pAkt were analyzed in hepatocarcinoma specimens by Western blotting. The biological function of 33-kDa ANXA3 in the growth, metastasis, apoptosis, angiogenesis, chemoresistance of hepatocarcinoma cells with the underlying molecular mechanism were investigated using gain-of-function strategy in vitro or in vivo. Results: 33-kDa ANXA3 was remarkably upregulated in tumor tissues compared with corresponding normal liver tissues of hepatocarcinoma patients. Its stable knockdown decreased the in vivo tumor growing velocity and malignancy of hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells transplanted in nude mice. The in vitro experimental results indicated 33-kDa ANXA3 knockdown suppressed the proliferation, colony forming, migration and invasion abilities of HepG2 cells through downregulating CRKL, Rap1b, Rac1, pMEK, pERK2 and c-Myc in ERK pathway; inhibited angiogenesisability of HepG2 cells through inactivating PI3K/Akt-HIF pathway; induced apoptosis and enhanced chemoresistance of HepG2 cells through increasing Bax/decreasing Bcl-2 expressions and inactivating caspase 9/caspase 3 in intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Accordingly, CRKL, Rac1, c-Myc and pAkt were also upregulated in hepatocarcinoma patients ’ tumor tissues compared with corresponding normal liver tissues. Conclusions: The overexpression of 33-kDa ANXA3 is involved in the clinical progression of hepatocarcinoma and in the malignancy, angiogenesis and apoptosis of hepatocarcinoma cells. It is of potential use in hepatocarcinoma diagnosis and treatment.

Background: This study aimed to analyze the landscape of publications on bariatric metabolic surgery through machine learning and help experts and scholars from various disciplines better understand bariatric metabolic surgery’s hot topics and trends. Methods: In January 2021, publications indexed in PubMed under the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) term ‘Bariatric Surgery’ from 1946 to 2020 were downloaded. Python was used to extract publication dates, abstracts, and research topics from the metadata of publications for bibliometric evaluation. Descriptive statistical analysis, social network analysis (SNA), and topic modeling with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) were used to reveal bariatric metabolic surgery publication growth trends, landscape, and research topics. Results: A total of 21,798 records of bariatric metabolic surgery–related literature data were collected from PubMed. The number of publications indexed to bariatric metabolic surgery had expanded rapidly. Obesity Surgery and Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases are currently the most published journals in bariatric metabolic surgery. The bariatric metabolic surgery research mainly included five topics: bariatric surgery intervention, clinical case management, basic research, body contour, and surgical risk study. Conclusion: Despite a rapid increase in bariatric metabolic surgery–related publications, few studies were still on quality of life, psychological status, and long-term follow-up. In addition, basic research has gradually increased, but the mechanism of bariatric metabolic surgery remains to be further studied. It is predicted that the above research fields may become potential hot topics in the future.

Background: TP53 mutations are the most frequent mutations in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and affect the occurrence and development of this cancer type. Therefore, it is essential to clarify the function and mechanism of TP53 mutations in HCC.Methods: We performed a sequence of bioinformatic analyses to elucidate the characteristics of TP53 mutations in HCC. We downloaded the data of hepatocellular carcinoma from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and used different R packages for serial analyses, including gene mutation analysis, copy number variation analysis, analysis of the tumor mutational burden and microsatellite instability, differential gene expression analysis, and functional enrichment analysis of TP53 mutations, and performed gene set enrichment analysis. We established a protein-protein interaction network using the STRING online database and used the Cytoscape software for network visualization, and hub gene screening. In addition, we performed anticancer drug sensitivity analysis using data from the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer. Immune infiltration and prognosis analyses were also performed.Results: Missense mutations accounted for a great proportion of HCC mutations, the frequency of single nucleotide polymorphisms was high, and C > T was the most common form of single nucleotide variations. TP53 had a mutation rate of 30% and was the most commonly mutated gene in HCC. In the TP53 mutant group, the tumor mutational burden (p < 0.001), drug sensitivity (p < 0.05), ESTIMATE score (p = 0.038), and stromal score (p < 0.001) dramatically decreased. The Cytoscape software screened ten hub genes, including CT45A1, XAGE1B, CT55, GAGE2A, PASD1, MAGEA4, CTAG2, MAGEA10, MAGEC1, and SAGE1. The prognostic model showed a poor prognosis in the TP53 mutation group compared with that in the wild-type group (overall survival, p = 0.023). Univariate and multivariate cox regression analyses revealed that TP53 mutation was an independent risk factor for the prognosis of HCC patients (p

Abstract Background Recombinant protein production can be stressful to the host organism. The extent of stress is determined by the specific properties of the recombinant transcript and protein, by the rates of transcription and translation, and by the environmental conditions encountered during the production process. Results The impact of the transcription of the T7-promoter controlled genes encoding human basic fibroblast growth factor (hFGF-2) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) as well as the translation into the recombinant protein on the growth properties of the production host E. coli BL21(DE3) were investigated. This was done by using expression vectors where the promoter region or the ribosome binding site(s) or both were removed. It is shown that already transcription without protein translation imposes a metabolic burden on the host cell. Translation of the transcript into large amounts of a properly folded protein does not show any effect on cell growth in the best case, e.g. high-level production of GFP in Luria–Bertani medium. However, translation appears to contribute to the metabolic burden if it is connected to protein folding associated problems, e.g. inclusion body formation. Conclusion The so-called metabolic burden of recombinant protein production is mainly attributed to transcription but can be enhanced through translation and those processes following translation (e.g. protein folding and degradation, heat-shock responses).

Abstract The impact of recombinant protein production on carbon and energy metabolism in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) was studied through transcriptome and proteome analysis of cells induced in carbon‐limited fed‐batch cultures during either fast or slow growth. Production of human basic fibroblast growth factor (pET expression system, T7 promoter) during fast growth leads to a macroscopically observable response classifiable into two consecutive steps: i. apparently unperturbed growth and respiration with concomitant formation of pyruvate and acetate followed by ii. inhibition of growth, respiratory activity and glucose uptake. Down‐regulation of genes involved in sugar and acetate uptake, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and respiratory energy generation started already during apparently unperturbed growth with the exceptions of up‐regulated genes encoding the less energy efficient NADH dehydrogenase and terminal oxidases. A transcription factor target gene network analysis revealed that observed changes are mainly attributable to the vanishing influence of the transcription factor CRP‐cAMP but also to a strong down‐regulation of AcrA‐P repressed genes. Moreover, down‐regulation of MalT activated and up‐regulation of PdhR repressed genes contribute among others to the reorganization of the transcriptome. The main drivers were identified as accumulating metabolites, for example, pyruvate, which affect transcription factor activity. The resulting restructured proteome leads to reduced glucose uptake, TCA cycle, and respiratory capacities this way decreasing catabolic carbon breakdown and metabolite accumulation. At slow growth, the production provoked transcriptome rearrangements are more subtle not leading to a macroscopically evident response. In summary, the transcriptomic response towards recombinant gene expression mimics a carbon or nutrient up‐shift response aiming to match catabolic carbon processing with compromised anabolic capacities of induced cells. It is not the reason for growth inhibition and the metabolic burden but the cellular attempt to attenuate the “toxic effect” of recombinant gene expression by reducing carbon catabolism.

The 3D refinement modeling of the orebody provides an important guarantee for the estimation of the resources and reserves of an ore deposit. Implicit modeling techniques can effectively improve the efficiency of orebody modeling and facilitate the dynamic updating of the model. However, due to the problems of ambiguity and missing features during implicit surface interpolation and implicit surface reconstruction, the mesh models of orebodies obtained by means of implicit modeling techniques do not easily snap to the geological feature points and feature polylines obtained based on geological sampling data. In essence, all models are inaccurate, but geological sampling data are very useful and valuable, which should be accurately and effectively involved in the orebody modeling process. This would help to improve the reliability of resource estimation and mining design. The main contribution of this paper is the proposal of a method for accurately snapping orebody features after implicit modeling. This method enables the orebody model to snap accurately to the geological feature points and feature polylines and realizes the accurate clipping of the model boundary. We tested the method with real geological datasets. The results showed that the method is applicable and effective when the geological feature points and feature polylines are close to those of the orebody mesh model and the shape trend changes little, and the model can thus meet the practical application requirements of mines.

The influence of microwave pretreatment on grindability of lead-zinc ore was studied through comparison analysis on the changes of particle size distribution, percentage of below 0.074 mm, energy consumption, and other indexes of grinding products before and after microwave pretreatment in the ball milling process. The results showed that the grindability of lead-zinc ore was improved obviously by microwave pretreatment. The particle size distribution curve of the grinding products was obviously higher than that of the samples without microwave irradiation. The yield of size fraction below 0.074 mm was also improved in a certain degree. Pulsed microwave irradiation was more effective than continuous microwave irradiation when other microwave parameters were consistent. The comprehensive energy consumption of lead-zinc ore pretreated by different microwave parameters was lower than that without microwave irradiation under the same grinding fineness. The total energy consumption was down by 30.1% when irradiated for 15 s at 7 kW power, and it was lower than that without microwave irradiated. The results showed that pulsed microwave pretreatment was more effective in reducing the comprehensive energy consumption of grinding process for lead-zinc ore. And water quenching after microwave irradiation can improve the grindability and reduce the energy consumption of grinding for lead-zinc ore.

The normal estimation of cross-contour polylines largely determines the implicit orebody modeling result. However, traditional methods cannot estimate normals effectively due to the complex topological adjacency relationship of the cross-contour polylines manually interpreted in the process of exploration and production. In this work, we present an orebody implicit modeling method based on the normal estimation of cross-contour polylines. The improved method consists of three stages: (1) estimating the normals of cross-contour polylines by using the least square plane fitting method based on principal component analysis; (2) reorienting the normal directions by using the method based on the normal propagation; (3) using an implicit function to construct an orebody model. The innovation of this method is that it can automatically estimate the normals of the cross-contour polylines and reorient normal directions without manual intervention. Experimental results show that the proposed method has the advantages of a small amount of calculation, high efficiency and strong reliability. Moreover, this normal estimation method is useful to improve the automation of implicit orebody modeling.

In this paper, to update the orebody model based on the given interpreted geological information, we present a local dynamic updating method of the orebody model that allows the interactive construction of the constraint deformation conditions and the dynamic updating of the mesh model. The rules for constructing deformation constraints based on the control polylines are discussed. Because only part of the model is updated, the updated mesh is effective and the overall quality is satisfactory. Our main contribution is that we propose a local dynamic updating method for the orebody model based on mesh reconstruction and mesh deformation. This method can automatically update a given 3D orebody model based on a set of unordered geological interpretation lines. Moreover, we implement a deformation neighborhood region search method based on the specified ring radius and a local constrained mesh deformation algorithm for the orebody model. Finally, we test the method and show the model update results with real geological datasets, which proves that this method is effective for the local updating of orebody models.

In this paper, we propose a novel mesh repairing method for repairing voids from several meshes to ensure a desired topological correctness. The input to our method is several closed and manifold meshes without labels. The basic idea of the method is to search for and repair voids based on a multi-labeled mesh data structure and the idea of graph theory. We propose the judgment rules of voids between the input meshes and the method of void repairing based on the specified model priorities. It consists of three steps: (a) converting the input meshes into a multi-labeled mesh; (b) searching for quasi-voids using the breadth-first searching algorithm and determining true voids via the judgment rules of voids; (c) repairing voids by modifying mesh labels. The method can repair the voids accurately and only few invalid triangular facets are removed. In general, the method can repair meshes with one hundred thousand facets in approximately one second on very modest hardware. Moreover, it can be easily extended to process large-scale polygon models with millions of polygons. The experimental results of several data sets show the reliability and performance of the void repairing method based on the multi-labeled triangular mesh.

This paper describes the development of a graphene-based dry flexible electrocardiography (ECG) electrode and a portable wireless ECG measurement system. First, graphene films on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates and graphene paper were used to construct the ECG electrode. Then, a graphene textile was synthesized for the fabrication of a wearable ECG monitoring system. The structure and the electrical properties of the graphene electrodes were evaluated using Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and alternating current impedance spectroscopy. ECG signals were then collected from healthy subjects using the developed graphene electrode and portable measurement system. The results show that the graphene electrode was able to acquire the typical characteristics and features of human ECG signals with a high signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio in different states of motion. A week-long continuous wearability test showed no degradation in the ECG signal quality over time. The graphene-based flexible electrode demonstrates comfortability, good biocompatibility, and high electrophysiological detection sensitivity. The graphene electrode also combines the potential for use in long-term wearable dynamic cardiac activity monitoring systems with convenience and comfort for use in home health care of elderly and high-risk adults.