bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Differences in the Clinical and Hematological Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients with and without Type 2 Diabetes
Authors: Sun Yujing , Zhao Ruxing , Hu Zhao , Wang Weili , Wang Shouyu , Gao Ling , Fei Jianchun , Jian Xiangdong , Li Yu , Zheng Huizhen , Hou Xinguo , Chen Li
Published: December 2020

Objective. To examine whether comorbidity with type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects the clinical and hematological parameters of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Methods. We retrospectively investigated the clinical, imaging, and laboratory characteristics of patients with confirmed COVID-19 who were hospitalized from January 30, 2020 to March 17, 2020, at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. A detailed clinical record was kept for each subject, including the medical history of COVID-19 and physical and laboratory examinations. A total of 164 subjects were eligible for the study, among which 40 patients were comorbid with T2D. Further analysis was conducted in two subcohorts of sex- and age-matched patients with and without T2D to identify hematological and biochemical differences. The laboratory tests, including routine blood tests, serum biochemistry, and coagulation function, were performed upon admission. Results. The two groups showed no significant differences in baseline parameters, including age, sex, chest X-ray, or computed tomography (CT) findings, upon admission. However, patients with T2D showed an increased incidence of diarrhea. T2D patients required more recovery time from pneumonia, as shown by follow-up CT findings, which might contribute to the prolonged hospitalization. Comorbidity with T2D also increased risk of secondary bacterial infection during COVID-19. The T2D group had significantly higher white blood cell and neutrophil counts compared with the nondiabetic group, but T2D patients suffered from more severe lymphocytopenia and inflammation (

P
<
0.05

). Most biochemical parameters showed no significant differences between the two groups (

P
>
0.05

). However, patients with T2D seemed to have a significantly higher risk of developing hyperlactatemia, hyponatremia, and hypocalcemia. Conclusions. COVID-19 patients comorbid with T2D demonstrated distinguishing clinical features and hematological parameters during the infection. It is necessary to develop a different clinical severity scoring system for COVID-19 patients with T2D. This study may provide helpful clues for the assessment and management of COVID-19 in T2D patients.
A Practical Methodology for Production Data Analysis in Carbonate Reservoirs Using New Decline Type Curves
Authors: Jia Zhihao , Cheng Linsong , Wang Peng , Wang Suran , Jia Pin
Published: December 2020

Carbonate reservoirs typically have complex pore structures, so the production wells typically have high production in the early production stage, but they decline rapidly. It is highly challenging to achieve accurate interpretation results. In this paper, a new and practical methodology for production data analysis of fractured and fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs is proposed. Firstly, analytical solutions to characterize the different multipore media and simulate transient production behavior of fractured and fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs during the transient flow regime are presented. Then, a new function

f

q

D

and

f

′

q

D

that related to the dimensionless production rate is introduced, and a series of new decline type curves are drawn to make a clear observation of different flow regimes. In addition, the effects of the storativity ratio, interporosity flow coefficient, skin factor, and dimensionless radial distance of external boundary on production performance are also analyzed. Finally, two example wells from the fractured and fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs are used to perform rate decline analysis with both the Blasingame type curves and the new type curves. The validation of the new method is demonstrated in comparison to the results of well test interpretation. The results show that the curves of

1
/

f

′

q

D

vs.

t

D

are

∧

-shaped for dual-porosity reservoirs and

M

-shaped for triple porosity reservoirs and also indicate that the interpreted parameters such as permeability, skin factor, storativity ratio, and interporosity flow coefficient using new decline type curves are aligned well test interpretation. In correlation with other traditional well test analysis, this approach effectively reduces the multisolution probability of interpretation.
Crowd Motion Editing Based on Mesh Deformation
Authors: Zhang Yong , Zhang Xinyu , Zhang Tao , Yin Baocai
Published: December 2020

Computer simulation is a significant technology on making great scenes of crowd in the film industry. However, current animation making process of crowd motion requires large manual operations which are time-consuming and inconvenient. To solve the above problem, this paper presents an editing method on the basis of mesh deformation that can rapidly and intuitively edit crowd movement trajectories from the perspective of time and space. The method is applied to directly generate and adjust the crowd movement as well as avoid the crash between crowd and obstacles. As for collisions within the crowd that come along with path modification problem, a time-based solution is put forward to avoid this situation by retaining relative positions of individuals. Moreover, an experiment based on a real venue was performed and the result indicates that the proposed method can not only simplify the editing operations but also improve the efficiency of crowd motion editing.
Hybrid Fixed Point Theorem with Applications to Forced Damped Oscillations and Infinite Systems of Fractional Order Differential Equations
Authors: Shoaib Muhammad , Sarwar Muhammad , Abdeljawad Thabet
Published: December 2020

In this manuscript, hybrid common fixed point results in the setting of ab-metric space are established. Our results generalized the results of Fisher, Khan, and Piri et al. for set-valued mapping inb-metric spaces. Applications to forced damped oscillations, infinite systems of fractional order differential equations, and system of functional equations are also studied. We construct an example to support our main result.
An Analytic Characterization of

p
,
q

-White Noise Functionals
Authors: Riahi Anis , Ettaieb Amine , Chammam Wathek , Alhussain Ziyad Ali
Published: December 2020

In this paper, a characterization theorem for the

S

-transform of infinite dimensional distributions of noncommutative white noise corresponding to the

p
,
q

-deformed quantum oscillator algebra is investigated. We derive a unitary operator

U

between the noncommutative

L

2

-space and the

p
,
q

-Fock space which serves to give the construction of a white noise Gel’fand triple. Next, a general characterization theorem is proven for the space of

p
,
q

-Gaussian white noise distributions in terms of new spaces of

p
,
q

-entire functions with certain growth rates determined by Young functions and a suitable

p
,
q

-exponential map.
Multiple Criteria Group Decision-Making Method with Dempster–Shafer Theory and Probabilistic Linguistic Term Sets
Authors: Du Yuanwei , Wang Susu
Published: December 2020

The motivation of this study is to propose a novel multiple criteria group decision-making (MCDGM) method based on Dempster–Shafer theory (DST) and probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) to handle the distinctions between compensatory information at the criterion level and noncompensatory information at the individual level in the process of information fusion. Initially, the information at the individual level is extracted by BPA functions. Then, they are fused with DST considering ignorance and DMs’ reliabilities. Next, the obtained BPA functions are transformed into interval-valued PLTSs with the assistance of intermediate belief and plausibility. Subsequently, the interval-valued PLTSs are converted into standard PLTSs. After normalization, the holistic PLTS is obtained with weighted addition operation and the round function is applied to determine the ultimate evaluation result. Finally, a case simulation study of evaluating the marine ranching ecological security is presented to verify and improve the validity and feasibility of the proposed method and algorithm in practical application. The proposed method and its relevant algorithm are both innovative combination of DST and PLTSs from the perspective of compensatory and noncompensatory features of information, which provides a new angle of view for the development of probabilistic preference theory and is beneficial to apply probabilistic preference theory in practice.
Trichotemnomania in an Adolescent Girl: A Case Report of an Asian Child and Literature Review
Authors: Thadchanamoorthy V. , Thirukumar Markandu , Dayasiri Kavinda , Thamilvannan N. , Jeyakumar Judy
Published: December 2020

Trichotemnomania (TT) refers to cutting or shaving of one’s own hair as a compulsive act. This condition is reported rarely and may be indicative of an underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder. TT may be misdiagnosed with trichotillomania or other disorders such as alopecia areata, tinea capitis, and postinflammatory scars. The diagnosis of trichotemnomania is confirmed by dermoscopic assessment, histopathological changes of hair, and correlation of these findings with clinical history. A fourteen-year-old adolescent girl presented with focal hair loss over forehead for duration of two-weeks and periodic abnormal breathing and poor sleep for 2-month duration. Besides, she had also lost some of pubic hair and hair on the forearm over preceding 24 hours. This patient was assessed by a team including a paediatrician, gynecologist, dermatologist, and psychiatrist to gather focused medical history and to perform physical examination, laboratory investigations, and dermoscopic assessment. It was revealed that she used to shave or cut regularly following stressful situations across various aspects of her life and hyperventilate as a means of relieving her stress. Eventually, she was diagnosed to have trichotemnomania and was started oral sertraline 50 mg/day for one month. Clinical features and her behaviour improved with regular cognitive behavioural therapy, and hairs were demonstrated to grow up normally with change in behaviour. Currently, she does well at school and is off medications and being followed up at the child guidance clinic. Trichotemnomania is a very rare disorder which is characterised by cutting or shaving of one’s own hairs as a compulsive habit. The condition needs careful and detailed assessment by a team of specialists to identify coexisting psychiatric disorders and offer treatment.
Genomic Mutations of Primary and Metastatic Lung Adenocarcinoma in Chinese Patients
Authors: Chen Xinyu , Bu Qing , Yan Xuexin , Li Ye , Yu Qian , Zheng Haiping , Zhao Liang , Zeng Yanwu , Lu Leilei , Lan Dong , Ma Jie
Published: December 2020

Lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Of lung cancer, lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common subtype. Most patients with LUAD would develop into metastasis, which limits the available treatment. Targeted therapy and immunotherapy provided options for those advanced patients. But they also broached up challenges to identify the appropriate patients. This study aims to reveal the landscapes of genomic mutations in primary and metastatic LUAD and their actionability. This study enrolled 636 patients with LUAD, of whom 85 and 551 were from patients with and without metastasis, respectively. Next-generation sequencing technology was used to retrieve their genomic information. Genomic mutations including short nucleotide variation, long variation, copy number variations, and fusions were called. The corresponding actionability was revealed. A comparison of genomic mutations and actionability between primary and metastatic LUAD was performed. In primary tumors, BRCA2 and FAT3 were significantly mutated in older patients; while in metastases, ALK and NOTCH2 were significantly mutated in younger patients. Primary tumors in male patients were significantly mutated in LRP1B and KRAS. Compared to primary tumors, metastases harbored less short nucleotide variations but more copy number variations and fusions. In metastases, chromosome 1 and chromosome 9 had less short nucleotide variations and more CNV than in primary tumors. Genomic variations of activated dendritic cells were more frequently mutated in metastases. EGFR genomic variations were negatively associated with PD-L1 and TMB. Patients with EGFR inhibitor treatment tend to have lower PD-L1 expression. The revealed discrepancy between primary and metastatic lung cancer could help guide the treatment strategies and the development of novel drugs.
Emerging Applications of Blockchain Technology on a Virtual Platform for English Teaching and Learning
Authors: Wang Ping , Qiao Shuhan
Published: December 2020

To extend a broad application of blockchain technology to the fields of online English education, this paper aims to improve a virtual platform for English teaching and learning of landscape design majors, mainly composed of presentation layer, business layer, and data layer by analyzing the performance of the proposed algorithm, and comparing with other existing algorithms. In the platform, through the service layer, the communication between the presentation layer and the data layer is completed, and the data in the data layer is transferred to the presentation layer. The user first establishes a connection with the server in the presentation layer. Using the transmitted data information, the server assigns an identifier to the user and establishes a role model. Users can download the teaching courseware through the server and simulate the real learning scene by controlling the interaction of XAML files. The results show that the virtual teaching platform makes the interconnection of users (students and teachers), machines, and things at any time and any place; realizes information self-verification, transmission, deep unsupervised learning, and management; and gives students a more realistic visual experience in high security.
Optimization of Markov Queuing Model in Hospital Bed Resource Allocation
Authors: Wu Jingna , Chen Bo , Wu Danping , Wang Jianqiang , Peng Xiaodong , Xu Xia
Published: December 2020

Bed resources are the platform in which most medical and health resources in the hospital play a role and carry the core functions of the health service system. How to improve the efficiency of the use of bed resources through scientific management measures and methods and ultimately achieve the optimization of overall health resources is the focus of hospital management teams. This paper analyzes the previous research models of knowledge related to queuing theory in medical services. From the perspective of the hospital and the patient, several indicators such as the average total number of people, the utilization rate of bed resources, the patient stop rate, and the patient average waiting time are defined to measure the performance of the triage queue calling model, which makes the patient queue more reasonable. According to the actual task requirements of a hospital, a Markov queuing strategy based on Markov service is proposed. A mathematical queuing model is constructed, and the process of solving steady-state probability based on Markov theory is analyzed. Through the comparative analysis of simulation experiments, the advantages and disadvantages of the service Markov queuing model and the applicable scope are obtained. Based on the theory of the queuing method, a queuing network model of bed resource allocation is established in principle. Experimental results show that the queuing strategy of bed resource allocation based on Markov optimization effectively improves resource utilization and patient satisfaction and can well meet the individual needs of different patients. It does not only provide specific optimization measures for the object of empirical research but also provides a reference for the development of hospital bed resource allocation in theory.
On-Chip Antenna Design Using the Concepts of Metamaterial and SIW Principles Applicable to Terahertz Integrated Circuits Operating over 0.6–0.622 THz
Authors: Althuwayb Ayman A.
Published: December 2020

This research work presents the investigation of realizing an on-chip antenna based on the metamaterial concept, which is working over the terahertz (THz) band for applications in integrated circuits. The proposed on-chip antenna is constructed of five stacked layers of polyimide and aluminum as top and bottom substrates, radiation patches, ground plane, and feed line. The four square-shaped radiation patches are implemented on the 50 

μ

m top-polyimide substrate, and the feed line is realized on the 50 

μ

m bottom-polyimide layer by designing the simple square microstrip lines, which are all connected to each other and then excited by waveguide port. The ground plane including a coupling square slot has sandwiched between the top- and bottom-polyimide layers. The coupling square slot etched on the ground plane is exactly placed under the patch to optimum transfer the electromagnetic signal from the bottom feed line to the top radiation patch. To achieve high performance parameters without increasing the antenna's physical dimensions, the metamaterial and substrate integrated waveguide properties have been applied to the antenna structure by implementing linear tapered slots on the patch top surfaces and metallic via holes throughout the middle ground plane connecting top and bottom substrates to each other. The slots play the role of series left-handed (LH) capacitors (CL) and the via holes act as shunt LH inductors (LL). The overall dimension of the proposed metamaterial-based on-chip antenna is 1000 × 1000 × 100 μm3. This antenna can cover the frequency band from 0.6 THz to 0.622 THz, which is equal to 20 GHz bandwidth. The radiation gain and efficiency across the operating frequency band varies from 1.1 dBi to 1.8 dBi, and from 58% to 60.5%, respectively. The results confirm that the proposed on-chip antenna with compact dimensions, wide bandwidth over the terahertz domain, low profile, cost effective, simple configuration, and easy to manufacture can be potentially appropriate for terahertz integrated circuits.
A Novel Coevolutionary Approach to Reliability Guaranteed Multi-Workflow Scheduling upon Edge Computing Infrastructures
Authors: Wang Zhenxing , Zheng Wanbo , Chen Peng , Ma Yong , Xia Yunni , Liu Wei , Li Xiaobo , Guo Kunyin
Published: December 2020

Recently, mobile edge computing (MEC) is widely believed to be a promising and powerful paradigm for bringing enterprise applications closer to data sources such as IoT devices or local edge servers. It is capable of energizing novel mobile applications, especially the ultra-latency-sensitive ones, by providing powerful local computing capabilities and lower end-to-end delays. Nevertheless, various challenges, especially the reliability-guaranteed scheduling of multitask business processes in terms of, e.g., workflows, upon distributed edge resources and servers, are yet to be carefully addressed. In this paper, we propose a novel edge-environment-based multi-workflow scheduling method, which incorporates a reliability estimation model for edge-workflows and a coevolutionary algorithm for yielding scheduling decisions. The proposed approach aims at maximizing the reliability, in terms of success rates, of services deployed upon edge infrastructures while minimizing service invocation cost for users. We conduct simulative experimental case studies based on multiple well-known scientific workflow templates and a well-known dataset of edge resource locations as well. Simulative results clearly suggest that our proposed approach outperforms traditional ones in terms of workflow success rate and monetary cost.
Network Pharmacology Approach to Uncover the Mechanism Governing the Effect of Simiao Powder on Knee Osteoarthritis
Authors: Huang Zhengquan , Shi Xiaoqing , Li Xiaochen , Zhang Li , Wu Peng , Mao Jun , Xing Runlin , Zhang Nongshan , Wang Peimin
Published: December 2020

Objective. To explore the molecular mechanism of Simiao powder in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. Methods. Based on oral bioavailability and drug‐likeness, the main active components of Simiao powder were screened using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). GeneCard, OMIM, DisGeNET, DrugBank, PharmGkb, and the Therapeutic Target Database were used to establish target databases for knee osteoarthritis. Cytoscape software was used to construct a visual interactive network diagram of “active ingredient ‐ action target – disease.” The STRING database was used to construct a protein interaction network and analyze related protein interaction relationships. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and Gene Ontology (GO) biological process enrichment analysis were performed on the core targets. Additionally, Discovery Studio software was used for molecular docking verification of active pharmaceutical ingredients and disease targets. Results. Thirty‐seven active components of Simiao powder were screened, including 106 common targets. The results of network analysis showed that the targets were mainly involved in regulating biological processes such as cell metabolism and apoptosis. Simiao powder components were predicted to exert their therapeutic effect on the AGE‐RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, IL‐17 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, Toll‐like receptor signaling pathway, and HIF‐1 signaling pathway. The molecular docking results showed that the active components of Simiao powder had a good match with the targets of IL1B, MMP9, CXCL8, MAPK8, JUN, IL6, MAPK1, EGF, VEGFA, AKT1, and PTGS2. Conclusion. Simiao powder has multisystem, multicomponent, and multitarget characteristics in treating knee osteoarthritis. Its possible mechanism of action includes inhibiting the inflammatory response, regulating immune function, and resisting oxidative stress to control the occurrence and development of the disease. Quercetin, wogonin, kaempferol, beta‐sitosterol, and other active ingredients may be the material basis for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.
Broad Learning System with Locality Sensitive Discriminant Analysis for Hyperspectral Image Classification
Authors: Yao Huang , Zhang Yu , Wei Yantao , Tian Yuan
Published: December 2020

In this paper, we propose a new method for hyperspectral images (HSI) classification, aiming to take advantage of both manifold learning-based feature extraction and neural networks by stacking layers applying locality sensitive discriminant analysis (LSDA) to broad learning system (BLS). BLS has been proven to be a successful model for various machine learning tasks due to its high feature representative capacity introduced by numerous randomly mapped features. However, it also produces redundancy, which is indiscriminate and finally lowers its performance and causes heavy computing demand, especially in cases of the input data bearing high dimensionality. In our work, a manifold learning method is integrated into the BLS by inserting two LSDA layers before the input layer and output layer separate, so the spectral-spatial HSI features are fully utilized to acquire the state-of-the-art classification accuracy. The extensive experiments have shown our method’s superiority.
Estimation and Control for Industrial Products Reliability under Failure Trials
Authors: Wang Kui , Ding Lili
Published: December 2020

In practices, most industrial products are subject to sudden failure and only failure information can be collected, which presents a great challenge for reliability prediction of modern devices. To address this issue, our paper proposes a dynamic reliability estimation and control for industrial products under regular failure trials. The failure trial is performed at different operational time points of the products, which provides sole data source for evaluating the status of industrial products. We use Bayesian approach to dynamically estimate the industrial products when the failure trial is available. The estimated reliability is updated using a point estimate with new available data. To maintain the reliability of products at a desirable status, a reliability control method is presented to monitor the confidence interval of reliability distribution. The lower limit of confidence interval is maintained above a control limit, which indicates that a corresponding quality-assurance action is preferable. The proposed reliability estimation and control approach is demonstrated using a case of light-emitting diodes under failure trials at production process. The obtained results indicate the effectiveness of our estimation and control model.
Morocco’s First Biobank: Establishment, Ethical Issues, Biomedical Research Opportunities, and Challenges
Authors: Lhousni Saida , Belmokhtar Karam Yahya , Belmokhtar Ihab , Elidrissi Errahhali Mounia , Elidrissi Errahhali Manal , Boulouiz Redouane , Tajir Mariam , Charif Majida , Zerrouki Khawla , Benajiba Noufissa , Rkain Maria , Babakhouya Abdeladim , Kouismi Hatim , Thouil Afaf , Latrach Hanane , Amrani Rim , Messaoudi Sahar , Ayyad Anass , Sidqi Zaina , Andaloussi Serraj Khalid , Hamaz Siham , Alaoui Habiba , Bachir Houda , Bentata Yassamine , Haddiya Intissar , Choukri Mohammed , Seddik Rachid , Bennani Amal , Dikhaye Siham , Oneib Bouchra , Elghazouani Fatima , El Mahi Omar , Benzirar Adnane , Oufkir Ayat Allah , Housni Brahim , Mimouni Ahmed , Saadi Hanane , Belahcen Mohammed , El Harroudi Tijani , Ouarzane Meryem , Bellaoui Mohammed
Published: December 2020

Background. Biobanks are highly organized infrastructures that allow the storage of human biological specimens associated with donors’ personal and clinical data. These infrastructures play a key role in the development of translational medical research. In this context, we launched, in November 2015, the first biobank in Morocco (BRO Biobank) in order to promote biomedical research and provide opportunities to include Moroccan and North African ethnic groups in international biomedical studies. Here, we present the setup and the sample characteristics of BRO Biobank. Methods. Patients were recruited at several departments of two major health‐care centers in the city of Oujda. Healthy donors were enrolled during blood donation campaigns all over Eastern Morocco. From each participant, personal, clinical, and biomedical data were collected, and several biospecimens were stored. Standard operating procedures have been established in accordance with international guidelines on human biobanks. Results. Between November 2015 and July 2020, 2446 participants were recruited into the BRO Biobank, of whom 2013 were healthy donors, and 433 were patients. For healthy donors, the median age was 35 years with a range between 18 and 65 years and the consanguinity rate was 28.96%. For patients, the median age was 11 years with a range between 1 day and 83 years. Among these patients, 55% had rare diseases (hemoglobinopathies, intellectual disabilities, disorders of sex differentiation, myopathies, etc.), 13% had lung cancer, 4% suffered from hematological neoplasms, 3% were from the kidney transplantation project, and 25% had unknown diagnoses. The BRO Biobank has collected 5092 biospecimens, including blood, white blood cells, plasma, serum, urine, frozen tissue, FFPE tissue, and nucleic acids. A sample quality control has been implemented and suggested that samples of the BRO Biobank are of high quality and therefore suitable for high‐throughput nucleic acid analysis. Conclusions. The BRO Biobank is the largest sample collection in Morocco, and it is ready to provide samples to national and international research projects. Therefore, the BRO Biobank is a valuable resource for advancing translational medical research.
Effects of Flow Compressibility on Two-Phase Mixing in Supersonic Droplet-Laden Flows
Authors: Ren Zhaoxin , Wang Bing , Zhang Fan
Published: December 2020

This research addresses a numerical analysis on the effects of flow compressibility on the characteristics of droplet dispersion, evaporation, and mixing of fuel and air according to the simulation of the spatially developing supersonic shear flows laden with evaporating n-decane droplets. A sixth-order hybrid WENO numerical scheme is employed for capturing the unsteady wave structures. The influence of inflow convective Mach number (

M

c

), representing the high-speed flow compressibility, on the two-phase mixing is analyzed, in which

M

c

is specified from 0.4 to 1.0. It is found that the shearing vortex is compressed spatially as

M

c

increases, associated with the alternate distributions of compression and expansion regimes in the flow field. The flow compressibility changes not only the vortex structures but also the aerothermal parameters of the shear flows, and further influences the dispersion and evaporation of droplets. The two-phase mixing efficiency is observed to decrease as

M

c

increases.
Stability Evaluation of Deformation (Denudation) of Yuanjue Rock Cave Roof Based on Multisource Monitoring
Authors: Tao Zhigang , Luo Senlin , Wu Di , Qiao Yafei , Zhao Gang , Meng Zhigang
Published: December 2020

The grotto rock mass is a type of cave structure, formed under the complex forces of environment, geology, and human interventions. Many scholars have carried out a lot of work in the protection of cultural relics. However, the research on detection and monitoring methods based on the parametric evolution system remains incomplete. In recent years, with the intersection and integration of disciplines, IoT (IoT: Internet of Things) systems and sensor technologies have developed rapidly. Under this background, a new monitoring system suitable for the protection of cultural relics was independently developed and applied to the protection and research work of Yuanjue rock cave, and the system was corrected and improved in practice. In this paper, according to the complex force characteristics of the sandstone roof of the Yuanjue rock cave at Dazu Rock Carvings and the geological conditions. Initially, a detailed survey of the geological conditions of the Yuanjue rock cave area was conducted; furthermore, according to the unique structural and load characteristics of the outer and inner surfaces of the roof, the monitoring methods and principles of each main control factor were explored, while the layout of monitoring points was optimized; finally, based on the microsensing technology, intelligent high-precision sensing hardware was installed and debugged for each main control factor, while the network was formed to form a multisource monitoring IoT system for the roof stability of the circular sense hole. After nearly half a year of continuous monitoring, the deformation and denudation rules of the roof of Yuanjue Cave were revealed, and a new approach of evaluating roof stability was proposed. This research provided technical support and research ideas for monitoring the stability of similar cultural relics.
A Semisupervised Learning Scheme with Self-Paced Learning for Classifying Breast Cancer Histopathological Images
Authors: Asare Sarpong Kwadwo , You Fei , Nartey Obed Tettey
Published: December 2020

The unavailability of large amounts of well-labeled data poses a significant challenge in many medical imaging tasks. Even in the likelihood of having access to sufficient data, the process of accurately labeling the data is an arduous and time-consuming one, requiring expertise skills. Again, the issue of unbalanced data further compounds the abovementioned problems and presents a considerable challenge for many machine learning algorithms. In lieu of this, the ability to develop algorithms that can exploit large amounts of unlabeled data together with a small amount of labeled data, while demonstrating robustness to data imbalance, can offer promising prospects in building highly efficient classifiers. This work proposes a semisupervised learning method that integrates self-training and self-paced learning to generate and select pseudolabeled samples for classifying breast cancer histopathological images. A novel pseudolabel generation and selection algorithm is introduced in the learning scheme to generate and select highly confident pseudolabeled samples from both well-represented classes to less-represented classes. Such a learning approach improves the performance by jointly learning a model and optimizing the generation of pseudolabels on unlabeled-target data to augment the training data and retraining the model with the generated labels. A class balancing framework that normalizes the class-wise confidence scores is also proposed to prevent the model from ignoring samples from less represented classes (hard-to-learn samples), hence effectively handling the issue of data imbalance. Extensive experimental evaluation of the proposed method on the BreakHis dataset demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Design and Analysis of a Five-Band Polarization-Insensitive Metamaterial Absorber
Authors: Wu Han , Ji Shijun , Zhao Ji , Jiang Chengxin , Dai Handa
Published: December 2020

A five-band metamaterial absorber (MMA) is presented. The proposed absorber consists of a three-layer structure of the top metal resonator, intermediate dielectric layer, and bottom metal plane. The top structure takes the centroid as the center and spreads out in a three-pronged shape with an average of 360°, and the ends bifurcate again. The calculation was carried out by the professional software to iteratively optimize the absorption effect of MMA in the microwave range. The results show that the MA has five peaks at resonant frequencies of 5.984 GHz, 12.232 GHz, 18.128 GHz, 18.414 GHz, and 20.592 GHz, with peaks of 0.9925, 0.9968, 0.9783, 0.9754, and 0.9975. By analyzing the electromagnetic field and surface current distribution of the absorber, the absorption mechanism is further verified, and the corresponding influence on the absorption spectrum is studied according to different polarization angles and incident angles. The effects of different resonator structure size and dielectric layer thickness on absorption rate were also discussed, and the distribution of electromagnetic fields is analyzed to reveal the existence of electric dipole resonance and magnetic resonance. Through comparing experiments and simulations, it is found that the peaks of the 1st, 2nd, and 5th have smaller absorption errors and frequency deviation, while the peaks of the 3rd and 4th have large ones. The five-band absorber has potential application in multiband electromagnetic stealth, bionic sensor, thermal radiation measuring instrument, and so on.
Evaluation and Analysis of Soil Temperature Data over Poyang Lake Basin, China
Authors: Zhan Ming-jin , Xia Lingjun , Zhan Longfei , Wang Yuanhao
Published: December 2020

Soil temperature reflects the impact of local factors, such as the vegetation, soil, and atmosphere of a region. Therefore, it is important to understand the regional variation of soil temperature. However, given the lack of observations with adequate spatial and/or temporal coverage, it is often difficult to use observational data to study the regional variation. Based on the observational data from Nanchang and Ganzhou stations and ERA-Interim/Land reanalysis data, this study analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of soil temperature over Poyang Lake Basin. Four soil depths were examined, 0–7, 7–28, 28–100, and 100–289 cm, recorded as ST1, ST2, ST3, and ST4, respectively. The results showed close correlations between observation data and reanalysis data at different depths. Reanalysis data could reproduce the main spatiotemporal distributions of soil temperature over the Poyang Lake Basin but generally underestimated their magnitudes. Temporally, there was a clear warming trend in the basin. Seasonally, the temperature increase was the most rapid in spring and the slowest in summer, except for ST4, which increased the fastest in spring and the slowest in winter. The temperature increase was faster for ST1 than the other depths. The warming trend was almost the same for ST2, ST3, and ST4. An abrupt change of annual soil temperature at all depths occurred in 1997, and annual soil temperatures at all depths were abnormally low in 1984. Spatially, annual soil temperature decreased with latitude, except for the summer ST1. Because of the high temperature and precipitation in summer, the ST1 values were higher around the lake and the river. The climatic trend of soil temperature generally increased from south to north, which was opposite to the distribution of soil temperature. These findings provide a basis for understanding and assessing the variation of soil temperature in the Poyang Lake Basin.
Shear Thickening Fluids Comparative Analysis Composed of Silica Nanoparticles in Polyethylene Glycol and Starch in Water
Authors: Mankarious Remon A. , Radwan Mostafa A.
Published: December 2020

Shear thickening fluid (STF) occurs in dispersions of highly condensed colloid particles and is categorized as a non-Newtonian fluid whose viscosity increases under shear loading which makes them beneficial in protective and impact resistance applications. The aim of this study is to synthesis two different STFs and characterize their microstructural properties to provide a data base for comparing the final macrobehavior of the two fluids under mechanical testing. Therefore, fumed silica and polyethylene glycol STF and starch with water STF-based dispersions were prepared. The particle size, zeta potential, SEM micrographs, and rheological analysis were performed for each type of STF. The effect of filler concentration was observed by using 10–30 weight% filling material. The rheological properties of STFs show higher viscosity measurements at same shear rates for starch/water STF than silica/PEG with maximum viscosity reaching 523.6 Pa s and 178.9 Pa s, respectively. Larger starch particle size over silica recorded as 303.7 nm and 16.49 nm, respectively, and zeta potential analysis recorded particle electrostatic charges as 22.6 mV and 12.8 mV, respectively, leading to more dispersion stability and obvious thickening effect at higher particle concentration leading to greater jump in viscosity at sudden shear rate. The results indicate the capability of trying more protective applications with more flexibility and less thickness when STF is implemented and a good database for the fluids to choose from according to their behavior.
Evaluating the Fatigue Resistance of the Innovative Modified‐Reinforced Composite Asphalt Mixture
Authors: Shafabakhsh Gholamali , Akbari Mahdi , Bahrami Hossein
Published: December 2020

Fatigue failure is regarded as one of the most common failures in the road pavement and necessitates spending huge cost annually to maintain the road. Asphalt binder modification and asphalt mixture reinforcement are among the commonly used methods to increase the pavement resistance to a failure caused by fatigue. By proposing a modified‐reinforced composite hot mix asphalt (MRC‐HMA), the present study aimed to examine the fatigue life of this mixture with one of the most traditional methods (i.e., four‐point bending beam fatigue test) and compare it at constant strain conditions and the strain levels of 500, 700, and 900 με and a temperature of 20 ± 0.8°C to that of the other three specimens, including control specimens, geogrid‐reinforced (GR‐HMA) specimens, and nanosilica‐modified (NSM‐HMA) specimens with 5% nanosilica. In all experiments, the condition to reach the failure stage was assumed equivalent to a 50% reduction in the stiffness coefficient in each load repetition, and the load was applied semisinusoidal at a frequency of 10 Hz without rest. The results showed that the MRC‐HMA mixture improved the fatigue life at the strain level of 500 μs by about 701, 172.5, and 156.4% compared to the control, NSM‐HMA, and GR‐HMA specimens, respectively. Based on the results, the use of GR‐HMA specimens has almost the same results as NSM‐HMA ones, but the use of the MRC‐HMA mixture can significantly increase the fatigue life of MRC‐HMA in all three levels of strain compared to all specimens studied in the present study. Thus, the introduced mixture can be a proper choice for pavements with heavy or light (with a large amount) traffic loads, which usually have a vast adverse effect on the fatigue behaviour of asphalt mixtures.
Food Expenditure and Food Consumption before and during Ramadan in Moroccan Households
Authors: Barakat Imane , Chamlal Hamid , El jamal Sanaa , Elayachi Mohammed , Belahsen Rekia
Published: December 2020

Fasting in the month of Ramadan is a religious, cultural, and social ritual for Muslims. The benefits it is supposed to provide to people who practice it are often impaired by unhealthy lifestyles including diet. The present research aimed to study risky eating behaviors and the variation in food expenditure of the Moroccan population during Ramadan. This study was conducted in 2018 in 340 households in urban and rural localities in the Rabat-Salé-Kenitra region of Morocco. Information on eating habits was collected by a nutritional survey using the method of dietary history; household food expenditure and sociodemographic characteristics were collected by a questionnaire. The average age of the population is 40 ± 14 years; the majority (40%) has a middle standard of living, and the average food expenditure increased by 50% during Ramadan. The food survey showed a significant increase in energy intake (

p
<
0.001

), carbohydrate intake (

p
<
0.001

), sucrose intake (

p
=
0.02

), sodium intake (

p
<
0.001

), and calcium intake (

p
<
0.001

) and a significant decrease in protein intake (

p
<
0.001

) and lipid intake (

p
<
0.001

), with no significant change in saturated fatty acid intake (

p
=
0.86

) during Ramadan. These results show that some dietary behaviors adopted during Ramadan could promote the development or worsening of overweight and chronic diseases. These data reveal the importance of nutritional education adapted to this sacred month.
Jiaji (EX‐B2)‐Based Electroacupuncture Preconditioning Attenuates Early Ischaemia Reperfusion Injury in the Rat Myocardium
Authors: Xiao Ning , Li Yang , Shao Ming-lu , Cui Hua-feng , Zhang Chang-yun , Kong Su-ping , Zhang Xin , Yu Hui-juan , Tan Qi-wen
Published: December 2020

Background. Acupuncture preconditioning was able to reduce the extent of ischaemia reperfusion (I/R) injury. Previous studies have shown that electroacupuncture (EA) pretreatment at T4‐T5 Jiaji (EX‐B2) acupoints had cardioprotective effects against myocardial I/R injury. However, the molecular mechanism remains inconclusive. Methods. Wistar rats were pretreated with electroacupuncture for 7 days at the Neiguan (PC6), T4‐T5 Jiaji (EX‐B2), Yanglingquan (GB34), and Quchi (LI11) acupoints, which belong to different meridians. Then, we investigated the genome‐wide gene expression profiles of rats prestimulated at these acupoints after I/R injury. Results. Our study revealed previously unknown cardioprotective roles of T4‐T5 Jiaji (EX‐B2) acupoints in the I/R progression. The extent of myocardial injury was significantly decreased in the Jiaji group compared with the I/R group. In addition, our data are among the first to link the EA preconditioning at Neiguan (PC6) acupoints and circadian rhythm in the I/R model. Also, for the first time, we explored the meridian and acupoint specificity involved in EA pretreatment at the heart meridian, in which Yanglingquan and Quchi acupoints were selected as the control group for heart‐divergent‐meridian and nonheart‐meridian acupoints. Conclusions. The present study suggested that EA pretreatment at Jiaji alters genome‐wide gene expression and protects the rat myocardium against I/R injury, which are most likely through neurohumoral regulation.
Energy Flow Analysis of One-Dimensional Structures with Random Properties
Authors: Wang Kun , Fu Yu , Liu Jiafu , Zhang Qi
Published: December 2020

In this work, the energy density responses of one-dimensional structures with random properties are investigated analytically. Based on Green kernels, analytical representations of energy density for vibrating rods and beams are proposed using the superposition of energy waves. Considering random properties in rods and beams, formulations of energy density responses are obtained. Then, the mathematical expectations and variances are derived. And response intervals for random responses are developed. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to validate the proposed formulations, and characteristics of the random energy density responses of rods and beams are analysed. The main contribution of this work is that a new approach to energy density responses is proposed which facilitates the vibration analysis of structures with uncertainty parameters.
Value of Mass Media in Food Safety Information Disclosure from the Perspective of Big Data
Authors: Zou Qiaoling , Ma Jingai , Chu Tao , Zou Lei , Pope Jeannette V. L. , Su Zishun
Published: December 2020

The advent of big data infrastructure has promoted the development of media forms and content. Food safety information disclosure (FSID) is an effective solution to regulate food safety issues. The mass media, government regulatory agencies, and food companies jointly participate in the disclosure of food safety information. Due to social responsibilities and common interests, a tripartite game relationship is formed. After an evolutionary game model was established with China as an example, the mass media’s participation in food safety information disclosure can affect the public’s decision-making, and true disclosure can promote the process and effectiveness; however, false disclosure will have adverse effects on all three parties. The application of big data technology doubles the positive and negative effects. Therefore, the government needs to strengthen the supervision of the mass media’s participation, and food companies need to actively provide correct disclosure information. The media should strengthen their management and use big data rationally, formulate corresponding disclosure strategies, and coordinate the three parties to promote food safety information disclosure.