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Disaster risk assessment is the foundation to carry out a comprehensive disaster reduction. Despite a growing body of literature on this subject, dynamic risk assessment concerning the temporal characteristic of disaster risk receives relatively inadequate attention in previous research. This paper focuses on analyzing the temporal disaster risk over a period to enable decision makers to understand the risk variation explicitly and hence take long-term countermeasures for improving the prevention and mitigation of hazards. It is achieved by firstly evaluating the risk temporally and then aggregating the alternatives through a hybrid clustering method based on the similarity between risk vectors. The proposed method is employed to two case studies of China concerning public health events and natural disasters respectively. The risk variation disclosed brings insight into the properties of investigated alternatives and therefore contributes to effective disaster reduction.

The Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) is a new framework to evaluate nutritional status. It has been validated mostly by retrospective studies, which often failed to follow the framework as recommended due to their retrospective nature. This study aims to validate GLIM with a large prospective study and investigate its role in predicting short-term surgical outcomes.Patients who underwent abdominal surgery for digestive cancer in our center were prospectively included between January 2020 and December 2020. Data collected included demographic information, clinical and pathological information, lab results, and computed tomography scans. Muscle strength, physical performances, quality of life and cancer symptom burden were evaluated upon admission. Multiple tools for nutritional risk screening were used. Nutritional status was evaluated with Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) and GLIM. Postoperative outcomes collected included return of gastrointestinal function, postoperative length of stay, complications, 30-day readmission and 30-day mortality.A total of 1115 patients were evaluated with GLIM criteria. Inter-rater reliability was good [k = 0.76, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.72-0.80]. The accuracy of GLIM diagnosis compared to the semi-gold standard SGA varied with the screening method used. GLIM with MNA-SF screening [area under the curve (AUC): 0.78] and GLIM without screening (AUC: 0.77) were the two most accurate protocols, and there was no significant difference between the two from a clinical perspective. GLIM can predict preoperative nutritional status, functional status, symptom burden and quality of life. It can also predict complications after surgery [odds ratio (OR) = 2.31, 95% CI: 1.67-3.21], especially infection related complications (OR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.38-3.49) and wound healing related complications (OR = 2.54, 95% CI: 1.38-4.71).GLIM malnutrition criteria showed good inner-rater reliability and moderate agreement with SGA. GLIM can be used to predict preoperative nutritional status, functional status, cancer related symptoms, and quality of life. It can also predict postoperative outcomes especially complications that are related to infection and wound healing. In surgical candidates, the screening process could potentially be skipped so that GLIM assessment can be faster, more accessible, and more sensitive.

Open abdominal surgery is frequently related to excessive inflammation and a compromised intestinal barrier, leading to poor clinical outcomes. The administration of beta-1 blocker has been shown to effectively reduce inflammation and preserve intestinal barrier function in patients with sepsis, shock, or other critical illnesses. The underlying mechanism of these effects may be associated with the autonomic nervous system's activation via cholecystokinin receptors. This study aimed to investigate the effect of beta-1 blocker on systemic and local inflammatory responses and the intestinal barrier function in the context of open abdominal surgery.A rat model of open abdominal surgery was induced through peritoneal air exposure for 3 hours and treated via gavage with the beta-1 blocker, metoprolol, or saline. Cholecystokinin-receptor antagonists were administered before the metoprolol treatment. Peritoneal lavage fluid, serum, and tissues were collected 24 hours after surgery to determine systemic and local inflammation and intestinal integrity.The intervention with metoprolol significantly reduced serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 (P.05) and peritoneal interleukin-6 (P.01) compared with those of animals treated with saline. The intestinal myeloperoxidase indicating the influx of neutrophils was also significantly prevented by the administration of metoprolol (P.05). Above all, this intervention resulted in a significant decrease in serum D-lactate and intestinal fatty acid-binding protein, intestinal permeability, bacterial translocation, and Chiu's score for intestinal mucosa injury (P.05). However, the anti-inflammatory and intestinal integrity protective effects of metoprolol were prevented by the blockage of cholecystokinin receptors (P.05).Our data indicate that beta-1 blocker reduces systemic and local inflammatory responses and preserves intestinal barrier function after open abdominal surgery through a mechanism that depends on cholecystokinin receptors. Clinically, these findings imply that perioperative intervention with a beta-1 blocker may be an effective new therapy to enhance recovery after open abdominal surgery.

The efficient utilization of renewable biogas has attracted ever-increasing interest in the past few decades. Ni–Ce1−xZrxO2 supported on monolithic SiC-F (named Ni–Ce1−xZrxO2/SiC-F) is developed and applied in biogas reforming. Monolithic Ni–Ce1−xZrxO2/SiC-F catalysts were comprehensively characterized by ICP-AES, XRD, SEM, HR-TEM, CO2-TPD, etc. The promotional roles of Ce1−xZrxO2 in coke elimination as well as CO2 activation were deeply analyzed via in situ CH4-TPSR/CO2-TPO and in situ H2-TPR/CO2-TPSR. Ni–Ce1−xZrxO2/SiC-F exhibits satisfactory catalytic activity and ability to inhibit sintering and coke-deposition due to (a) the homogeneous dispersion of Ni nanoparticles (NPs) and (b) the strong interaction between Ce1−xZrxO2 solid solutions and Ni NPs. At 900 °C and a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 24 000 mL gcat−1 h−1, an excellent CH4/CO2 conversion of 90/92% was initially achieved over the Ni–Ce1−xZrxO2/SiC-F catalyst, followed by a slight decrease after 150 h, but remained basically stable for the next 250 h.

Malnutrition characterized by the involuntary loss of body weight and skeletal muscle can be the result of both aging and malignancy. As a result, geriatric patients could face an increased nutritional risk. This study aimed to investigate the nutritional and functional status of geriatric patients and their association with postoperative complications.Patients who underwent abdominal surgery for digestive cancer in our center between January 2020 and August 2021 were included in the study. Computed tomography scans were collected to evaluate muscle mass and density. Changes in body weight, muscle strength, physical performances, nutritional risk, and status were evaluated upon admission. Postoperative outcomes collected included postoperative length of stay, complications, and 30-d readmission.A total of 1513 patients were included for the analysis. Of these, 72.8% were at risk for malnutrition (70.3% in the non-geriatric group and 75.4% in the geriatric group; P = 0.031), and 28.9% had malnutrition according to the Subjective Global Assessment (26.0% in the non-geriatric group and 31.8% in the geriatric group; P = 0.016). Compared with younger patients, geriatric patients have decreased muscle mass (skeletal muscle index, 44.8 versus 47.4; P0.001) and skeletal muscle density. Significant weight loss and loss of skeletal muscle occurred concurrently in 18.8% of the patients and were more frequent in the geriatric group (22.3% versus 14.7%; P0.001). In multivariate analysis, an age of 65 y or older (odds ratio [OR], 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-1.86; P = 0.014), a serum albumin level ≤4.11 g/dL (OR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.03-1.77; P = 0.03), skeletal muscle loss (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.28-2.24; P0.001), declined functional status (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.14-1.98; P = 0.004), systematic inflammation (OR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.09-2.8; P = 0.026), and significant weight loss (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.06-2.85; P = 0.017) were independent predictors of overall postoperative complications. Although there was a trend of interactions between advanced age, skeletal muscle loss, and significant weight loss, multivariate analysis showed none of the interactions were significantly predictive of overall postoperative complications.Geriatric patients are at greater risk for malnutrition. Their declined nutritional and functional status together with advanced age could increase the risk for postoperative complications. Nutrition evaluation should be part of the preoperative workup, and timely interventions should be initiated if needed, especially in geriatric patients.

Surgical resection is the primary and most effective treatment for cancer patients. While such a traumatic intervention often accompanies different degrees of postoperative risk largely depending on the patient's health status. Due to the high prevalence of malnutrition or low cardiorespiratory fitness in elderly cancer patients, prehabilitation is an optimal program to reduce postoperative complications and enhance recovery from surgical trauma. An increasing body of evidence suggests that improving nutrition and taking aerobic exercise or strength training prior to major surgery can help reduce postoperative morbidity, mortality, or length of stay. However, there are still controversies regarding the manner, intensity, or duration of preoperative nutrition and exercise training in elderly patients, as well as the impact on delaying cancer treatment. This article reviews the impact of prehabilitation on improving postoperative outcomes in the multi-modal or single-modal pathway, aiming to maximize its effectiveness and increase medical practitioners' attention on enhancing the physical condition of the elderly cancer patients preoperatively.

Bio-fuels have been proposed as an ideal alternative fuel to conventional fossil fuel due to the advantages of renewability and low pollution. Herein, to greatly enhance the catalytic activity and selectivity of for the production of second generation biodiesel, designed and developed five kinds of catalysts with different ratios (3/1, 5/3, 1/1, 3/5, 1/3) of Co to Ni. The composite catalyst was characterized by XRD, XPS and HRTEM techniques. The activity and selectivity of the catalyst were evaluated by the hydrodeoxidization of oleic acid. It was found that the hydrodeoxygenation activity and selectivity of CoxNi1−xP/SiO2 catalyst was closely related to the proportion of Co/Ni. The selectivity of C17 followed the decreasing order: 3/5 > 1/3 ≈ 1/1 > 5/3 > 3/1 (Co/Ni ratios). Clearly, among all the samples, the catalyst with 3/5 Co/Ni ratio exhibits the best conversion rate and selectivity of 97% and 86% for the production of C17, respectively. The high activity and selectivity of CoxNi1−xP/SiO2 were dominantly attributed to the synergistic effects and the uniform dispersion of Co and Ni species on the SiO2 supports. In particular, the CoxNi1−xP/SiO2 shows the more advantages than the high activity for Ni-based catalysts and high selectivity for Co-based catalysts. It is expected that the catalyst has the great potential to be used in the practical industrial production.

The efficient conversion of renewable biogas has attracted ever-increasing interest in past decades. Ni-CeO2-Al2O3 supported on monolithic SiC-foam (denoted as Ni/CeO2-Al2O3/SCF) is designed and applied in biogas reforming. The monolithic Ni/CeO2-Al2O3/SCF catalysts were deeply characterized by XRD, ICP-AES, SEM, HR-TEM, CO2-TPD, etc. The cycle between CeO2-Al2O3 and CeAlO3 was verified by in-situ CH4/CO2-TPSR, and the catalytic role of CeAlO3 in coke elimination and CO2 activation was further confirmed. Due to the uniform distribution of Ni nanoparticles (NPS) and the activation of CO2 by CeAlO3, Ni/CeAlO3-Al2O3/SCF shows excellent catalytic stability to inhibit sintering and eliminate carbon deposition. At 900 °C and a gas hourly space velocity (GSHV) of 24000 mL gCat-1h−1, excellent CH4/CO2 conversion of 86/99% are initially achieved over Ni/CeAlO3-Al2O3/SCF catalyst, followed by slight decrease after 140 h, and remain basically stable for the next 260 h.

In this work, Ni-Mo2C/MgO catalysts were prepared by sol-gel method with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) as the carbon source and dispersant, and applied in the dry reforming of biogas. The roles of ratio of Ni/Mo as well as β-CD on the catalytic activity and stability were analyzed. Systematic characterizations analysis such as XRD, XPS, and TEM confirm that Mo2C can only form under the condition of pre-reduction and carburization, confirming that metallic Ni nanoparticles promote the carbonization process of Mo2C, and that β-CD as a carbon source is of great necessity for the formation of Mo2C. In the dry reforming of biogas, the formation of Mo2C significantly impacts the catalytic activity and stability, which is beneficial for CO2 activation and coke removal via the redox cycle. Ni-Mo2C/MgO catalysts with optimized Ni and Mo contents of 7 and 15 wt%, respectively, exhibit the best catalytic activity and stability for the dry reforming of biogas. The CH4 and CO2 conversion rates remained above 90% and 85%, respectively, for 200 h at 850 °C and WHSV = 30,000 ml. g−1. h−1.

Sustainable transformation of methane into methanol feedstock syngas is a promising direction in future energy generation. A monolithic SiC-foam (SiC-foam, denoted as SCf) supported structured Ni-SrO composite nanomaterial was prepared via reducing the SrNiO3 perovskite. The Ni-SrO/SCf displays a stronger resistance to Ni-sintering/coke-deposition than the unmodified Ni/SCf due to its uniform Ni distribution as well as the strong Ni-SrO interaction. In the presence of Ni-SrO/SCf sample at a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 24,000 mLCH4 CO2 gCat−1 h − 1 and an operating temperature of 850 °C, the initial conversion rate of biogas (CH4/CO2) was 70/94%, which gradually dropped to 55/72% within 40 h, but its activity remained stable for the next 60 h. By contrast, the conversion rate of biogas (CH4/CO2) in the presence of Ni/SCf sample was decreased rapidly from 60/80 to 50/65% within 20 h, due to the severe coke deposition and Ni-sintering.

A monolithic silicon carbide foam (SiC-foam) structured nickel and lanthanum oxide (Ni-La2O3) nanocomposite catalyst is developed via reducing the nickel oxide and lanthanum oxide (NiO-La2O3) precursor that can be grown onto SiC-foam surface by depositing the needed citric acid gel followed by calcination at 750 °C. By taking the advantages of homogeneous component-distribution and strong Ni-La2O3 interactions in the Ni-La2O3 nanocomposites, this catalyst delivers much enhanced coke-depositing/Ni-sintering resistance than the unmodified counterpart of Ni-La2O3/alumina (Al2O3) in the titled reaction. At 850 °C, a weight hourly space velocity (WSHV) is set as 24,000 mLCH4-CO2 gCat−1 h−1, methane/carbon dioxide (CH4/CO2) conversions of 71/85% are initially achieved on the Ni-La2O3/SiC-foam catalyst followed by progressively decreased to 60/72% within 50 h (h), but remain almost unchanged for the next 50 h. On the contrary, the CH4/CO2 conversions on the Ni-La2O3/Al2O3 catalyst rapidly drop from 49/71% to 24/40% within only 25 h due to its serious Ni-sintering and coke deposition.

This paper presents the design and characterisation of FORTIS (4T Test Image Sensor), which is a low noise, CMOS monolithic active pixel sensor for scientific applications. The pixels present in FORTIS are based around the four transistor (4T) pixel architecture, which is already widely used in the commercial imaging community. The sensor design contains thirteen different variants of the 4T pixel architecture to investigate the effects of changing its core parameters. The variants include differences in the pixel pitch, the diode size, the in-pixel source follower, and the capacitance of the floating diffusion node (the input node of the in-pixel source follower). Processing variations have also been studied, which include varying the resistivity of the epitaxial layer and investigating the effects of a special deep p-well layer. By varying these parameters, the 4T pixel architecture can be optimised for scientific applications where detection of small amounts of charge is required.

The fretting phenomenon in electrical contacts, which induces electrical distortions (or noise) and high contact resistance, is believed to be one of the main causes of failure for electrical systems used in the automotive industry. In order to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of fretting effects, a thick film position sensor for real time in situ measurement of relative movement at the contact point for connectors has been designed. The in-house fabricated sensor was produced by screen printing a strip of resistor on an alumina substrate. Based on the potential divider working principle, the measured voltage output from the sensor corresponded to the relative position of the contact point. A resolution of 5 µm was achieved. This paper focuses on the investigations of the accuracy and thermal stability of the thick film position sensor when subjected to a series of laboratory tests.

Experiments aimed at investigating the possible factors affecting the temperature performance of thick-film resistors are presented. Particular emphasis is given to the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of thick film strain gauges printed on both alumina and stainless steel substrates. The results confirmed that the resistance versus temperature curve is nearly parabolic, but showed that Tmin, the temperature at which the TCR changes to zero, is largely affected by the choice of resistor and substrate materials and also the thickness of the thick-film resistors. A possible explanation is proposed for the observed relationship between resistor thickness and TCR. Other factors, such as the thickness of the substrates, the choice of conductor materials, and whether single- or double-sided printing of the substrate was employed in fabrication were found to make little difference to the temperature performance of the thick-film resistors.

Results are presented from a programme of research aimed at establishing the mechanisms behind the effects of fabrication parameter variation on the performance of thick film strain gauges on steel substrates. The research is aimed at describing the effect on the repeatability of the device characteristics due to different choices of materials, thicknesses of printed layers, firing regimes and geometry of the gauges. In particular the effects of load and temperature on the offset and gain characteristics of a variety of different sensor constructions have been explored. The sensors described here are of a type where the applied strain is parallel to the measured resistance path but orthogonal to the substrate (k33). It has been found that these devices exhibit different characteristics to conventional thick film strain gauges that can help explain the mechanisms affecting gain and offset changes caused by temperature fluctuations and mechanical deformation.

This paper shows that the dimension of internal structure of a component can be measured remotely to a resolution better than 5 μm by use of the combination of high resolution optical microscopy and image processing. A specialised high resolution, long working distance and diffraction limited lens was used to image within the component. A series of digital images were made to map spatially the interior of the component. An edge detector was then used to localise the specific location of features in order that an accurate internal measurement could be made. A visualisation of the internal surface finish was also achieved.

Since the absorption of ultraviolet radiation in the atmosphere is strong, it is difficult to image solar UV radiation using ground-based telescopes. While, the moon which has no atmosphere and has stability geological structure and low magnetic field, observing the sun on the moon is more suitable than observing the sun on the earth. This paper describes the design of lunar-based solar telescope which can image the sun in three wavelength: long-wave IR (8-12μm), visible (400-900nm) and UV(100-400nm). The telescope is mainly composed of two parts: reflective telescope and splitting system. This design effectively avoids the material restrictions of IR and UV imaging optical systems. The rationality of the optical system design of the common aperture multi-wavelength telescope was proved by comparing the results with the images get by single wavelength solar telescopes all over the world. Compared the images took under different weather, the importance of the proposition of lunar-based devise is proved. Combined the splitters and the spectral response range of detectors, the UV, visible and IR can be split and imaged by different detectors.

The far ultraviolet scanning imaging spectrometer (FUSIS) is used to measure the composition and distribution of the main molecules and atoms in the Earth's upper atmosphere. It is an important instrument in investigation of the physical and chemical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere. FUSIS works between 120nm to 180nm, its spectral resolution is better than 1.0nm and its spatial resolution is 8 pixels. This paper describes a kind of ground calibration method and facility of FUSIS. The FUV light is invisible, so all works must be done in high vacuum. The calibration facility includes the FUV light source, collimator, and the vacuum chamber. The pumps of vacuum system can debase the pressure down to 5×10-5Pa. Calibration experiments are accomplished in the vacuum chamber. The spectral calibration of FUSIS is achieved with the linear interpolation method. The radiation transfer function is deduced. But some factors in the function such as reflection components' reflectivity and detector's quantum efficiency are hard to test accurately. So we use a radiation correction matrix instead of the transfer function in practice. Assuming the FUSIS instrument is a blackbox, the matrix can be tested by experiments. FUSIS can get the absolute radiation intensity of target by calling the matrix.

It is the astigmatism that leads the traditional imaging spectrometer based on Czerny-Turner to have low spatial resolution. And it is discovered that when the distance between concave mirror and grating, x , is equal to the twice of focal length, ƒ, of the mirror, S II = S III = 0 and the aberration is the least as well as the astigmatism is eliminated greatly. Meanwhile the toroidal mirror is presented to correct the astigmatism, and as well the aberration caused by the large FOV is corrected by optimizing the surface tilt. Then both of the spatial and spectral resolutions are improved. Finally a Czerny-Turner imaging spectrometer working in FUV (120 nm ~ 180 nm) with 2.5° FOV is designed, and its focal length is 147.61 mm, its F number is 3.93. MTF of this imaging spectrometer is more than 0.39 at 20 lp/mm in the total wavelength band of FOV, which satisfied the requirements of imaging spectrometer working on satellite in FUV.

A random edge is the center of an in-focus-strip which is formed by viewing a vertical surface through a conventional microscope. The in-focus-strip is the image of the surface which locates inside the depth of the field of the microscope. The image of the surface which locates outside of the depth of the field is blurred and contains only low frequency illumination profile. The location of this random edge has been used to make internal measurements within holes as small as 200 microns in diameter. A specialized edge detector has been designed to 'find' the center within the in-focused region. The detector first locates the in- focus-strip. It then extracts the surface background detail from the out-of-focus part of the image. This out-of-focus information is used to effectively normalize the intensity distribution over the image. The image is then smoothed to remove random noise. The location of the center of the in- focus-strip is then found from the application of a weighting function constructed from the position of individual details located within the edge region. This method has been used in measuring inside a 0.25 mm diameter hole. The hole is used to carry the coolant through a turbine blade. The accuracy of the measurement is better then +/- micrometers .

A non-destructive method used to estimate internal surface roughness of a small hole (0.2 mm in diameter and 0.7 mm in depth) is described. The first step of this method is to reconstruct a shadow pattern image of the internal surface from a series of optically sectioned images of the surface. The surface roughness parameters are then calculated from this shadow pattern image. The method is verified by measuring a known flat surface and comparing the results with stylus measurements.