Greater Deviation Research Articles

Navigation and Positioning Analysis of Electric Inspection Robot Based on Improved SVM Algorithm

In order to improve the accuracy of electric inspection robot navigation and positioning, an improved SVM algorithm was proposed to improve the accuracy of inspection. The research focuses on sensor calibration technology, lane line detection and robot positioning technology, obstacle detection and tracking technology, and substation road scene understanding technology. The results show that the radar measurement results have great fluctuation and deviation due to the existence of noise, but the results are smoother after EKF estimation. Secondly, the accuracy of the improved SVM classifier in this paper is much higher than that of the traditional method, and the improvement effect is obvious.

Afterpulse effect in measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution.

There is no doubt that measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) is a crucial protocol that is immune to all possible detector side channel attacks. In the preparation phase, a simulation model is usually employed to get a set of optimized parameters, which is utilized for getting a higher secure key rate in reality. With the implementation of high-speed QKD, the afterpulse effect which is an intrinsic characteristic of the single-photon avalanche photodiode is no longer ignorable, this will lead to a great deviation compared with the existing analytical model. Here we develop an afterpulse-compatible MDI-QKD model to get the optimized parameters. Our results indicate that by using our afterpulse-compatible model, we can get a much higher key rate than the prior afterpulse-omitted model. It is significant to take the afterpulse effect into consideration because of the improvement of the system working frequency.

Production of sealed rod sources made from epoxy resin for the Saint-Petersburg brick phantom for the calibration of whole-body counters

Rod sources are a common tool for the calibration of whole-body counters in combination with the Saint-Petersburg brick phantom. Here, a method for the production of such sources in ordinary radiochemical laboratories is presented. The rod sources consist of a tubular capsule of rigid polyvinyl chloride with a radioactive filling of epoxy resin. The method allows the production of rod sources at material costs of about 1 € per rod source and of ten rod sources by one person per day. Quality-assurance measurements were performed regarding the spatial distribution of the activity within the rod sources and the distribution of the activity throughout a set of sources. The relative double standard deviation of the activities of five different segments of single rod sources was 7.1%. The relative double standard deviation within a set of 90 rod sources was 2.8% after those 11% of sources with the greatest deviation from the arithmetic mean were discarded. Tests according to ISO 2919 to certify the rod sources as sealed sources of Class 2 of this standard were successfully conducted. The bending test proved to be the most critical test for the rod sources; the sources were broken by a mass of 12–14 kg, which is only slightly more than the stipulated mass of 10.2 kg. The presented method allows for a cost- and labour-effective production of sealed radioactive rod sources and thus facilitates the application of the Saint-Petersburg brick phantom for calibrations and interlaboratory comparisons of whole-body counters.

STUDY ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN EMERGENCY MONITORING AND GUIDANCE OF POST DISASTER LANDSLIDE AND POST DISASTER ANXIETY BASED ON REMOTE GROUND LASER SCANNING

BackgroundWith the rapid development of China's national economy, people pay more and more attention to disaster prevention and reduction and the impact of landslide disasters. Before the construction of various projects, disaster investigation, assessment and prediction shall be carried out to avoid in advance as much as possible, or necessary preventive measures shall be taken to prevent and reduce the occurrence of disasters as much as possible. The internal causes and treatment of landslide are studied from the aspects of point-to-point, line surface comprehensive prediction and disaster prevention and control. At the same time, the landslide damaged by high-speed and long-distance is also deeply studied. In particular, the prediction of landslide occurrence time has made a breakthrough, forming a theoretical system from treatment to prevention. However, the landslide geological disaster directly endangers the production and life of the people in the disaster area and causes psychological trauma. Accurate monitoring of micro deformation before landslide is of great significance to landslide early warning system. When using ground laser scanning (TLS) technology for landslide monitoring, the traditional point cloud data processing results, that is, comparing the changes of landslides between different surfaces, have a great deviation from the actual monitoring values.Research Objects and MethodsThis paper proposes a method to compare landslide changes by extracting the surface feature points of the monitoring object, and designs two verification experiments, namely Experiment 1 carton tilt change experiment under different design angles and Experiment 2 landslide physical model experiment. Then, in two experiments, this method is used to extract feature points with the same name. Finally, the change of inclination and the settlement of landslide are calculated. In order to test the impact of emotional behavior, this study selected subjects stimulated after the disaster, and selected 60 subjects, including 30 men and 30 women. We used the anxiety scale designed by Kim as the measurement scale, and evaluated the scale by Likert scoring method. Pearson correlation, standard deviation and statistical significance were used to illustrate the correlation. Independent sample t-test was used to verify the difference between high anxiety group and low anxiety group. According to the statistical value of anxiety, participants were divided into three groups: low, medium and high anxiety groups. The questionnaire includes two kinds of anxiety, namely debilitating anxiety and promoting anxiety. The relationship between anxiety and self-efficacy of subjects with different majors and genders was investigated by t-test, univariate, multivariate analysis of variance and regression analysis.ResultsUsing the method proposed in this paper, the change of carton inclination in Experiment 1 and the settlement of landslide surface in different periods in Experiment 2 are obtained, and the error of the results is analyzed to verify the feasibility of the method proposed in this paper. Test participants can effectively alleviate psychological stress and prevent depression. The data showed that the DASS-21 comprehensive score of subjects participating in the test was 1.7 times that of subjects not participating in the test. In contrast, without participation, they are more likely to show depression, anxiety and stress, and tend to be passive in simple coping styles. The improved method can effectively alleviate the psychological pressure of employees and improve the ability to actively deal with pressure. Through the correlation analysis of emotion regulation ability, the data results show that structural equation model is used to investigate the mediating role of core self-evaluation and emotion regulation self-efficacy between stressful life events and life satisfaction. The maximum likelihood estimation method is used to estimate the intermediary effect. The results show that the fitting indexes of this model are χ 2=314.015, df=218, χ 2/df=1.44, CFI=0.958, TLI=0.94, RMSEA=0.043. All paths in the model are significant. According to the effect decomposition principle of path analysis, the total effect from stressful life events to life satisfaction is equal to direct effect plus indirect effect. The total indirect effect in this study is equal to the sum of three specific mediating effects, which is -0.299. The proportion of indirect effect in the total effect is -0.299 / (-0.469) + (-0.299) = 0.389, that is, 38.9% of the effect of stressful life events on life satisfaction is through core self-evaluation and emotion regulation self-efficacy.ConclusionUsing the method proposed in this paper, the visual expression of the internal cause of landslide is realized. This method can calculate the displacement and inclination of key parts in different periods, and obtain the stable state of the monitoring object through comparative analysis. It is consistent with the traditional analysis method, but it improves the efficiency and accuracy, provides reliable data support for the subsequent landslide prediction, and avoids people's property loss and psychological trauma to the greatest extent.AcknowledgementThis work was financially supported by the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Jiangxi Province, China (No. GJJ190944) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China Regional Science Fund Project (42162023).

STABILITY ANALYSIS FOR TRIMARAN PONTOON ARRAY IN WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER – PENDULUM SYSTEM (WEC - PS)

Ocean waves are a renewable energy source with abundant reserves in Indonesia. With the vast waters of Indonesia, the development of a sea wave power plant needs to be developed. This research focuses on the development of easy-operated and maintained ocean wave converter–pendulum system (OWC – PS). The numerical simulation and experimental analysis were conducted to obtain the relation between the motion response of the pontoon array and its pendulum. The pontoon used is the trimaran type, which consists of a cylindrical pontoon as the main hull and two outriggers on its side. This study analyses the most stable array arrangement that produces maximum pitching motion and pendulum deviation. The simulation results show that the largest pitching value is in array 1, i.e., 27.91° for pontoon 1 and 38.92° for pontoon 2, which results in a maximum pendulum deviation of 100 ° for pendulums 1 and 56.2 ° for pendulum 2 over a wave period of 9 seconds. The backward motion of the pendulum in both array configurations tends to have a greater deviation than that of the forward motion. The pendulums of array 1 have different motion characteristics, represented by different deviation values in both pendulums. This phenomenon does not occur in array 2, since both pendulums in array 2 have the same deviation (with only a small discrepancy).

Quantification of individual remyelination during short-term disease course by synthetic magnetic resonance imaging.

MRI is an important diagnostic tool for evaluation of myelin content in multiple sclerosis and other CNS diseases, being especially relevant for studies investigating remyelinating pharmacotherapies. In this study, we evaluated a new synthetic MRI–based myelin estimation in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase deficiency as a treatable primary demyelinating disorder and compared this method with established diffusion tensor imaging in both methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase deficiency patients and healthy controls. This is the first synthetic MRI–based in vivo evaluation of treatment-associated remyelination. 1.5 T synthetic MRI and 3 T diffusion MRI were obtained from three methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase deficiency patients at baseline and 6 months after therapy initiation, as well as from age-matched healthy controls (diffusion tensor imaging: n = 14, synthetic MRI: n = 9). Global and regional synthetic MRI parameters (myelin volume fraction, proton density, and relaxation rates) were compared with diffusion metrics (fractional anisotropy, mean/radial/axial diffusivity) and related to healthy controls by calculating z-scores and z-deviation maps. Whole-brain myelin (% of intracranial volume) of the index patient was reduced to 6 versus 10% in healthy controls, which recovered to a nonetheless subnormal level of 6.6% following initiation of high-dosage betaine. Radial diffusivity was higher at baseline compared with healthy controls (1.34 versus 0.79 × 10−3 mm2/s), recovering at follow-up (1.19 × 10−3 mm2/s). The index patient’s lesion volume diminished by 58% under treatment. Regional analysis within lesion area and atlas-based regions revealed lower mean myelin volume fraction (12.7Baseline/14.71Follow-up%) and relaxation rates, higher proton density, as well as lower fractional anisotropy and higher radial diffusivity (1.08 × 10−3Baseline/0.94 × 10−3Follow-up) compared with healthy controls. The highest z-scores were observed for myelin volume fraction in the posterior thalamic radiation, with greater deviation from controls at baseline and reduced deviation at follow-up. Z-deviations of diffusion metrics were less pronounced for radial and mean diffusivity than for myelin volume fraction. Z-maps for myelin volume fraction of the index patient demonstrated high deviation within and beyond lesion areas, among others in the precentral and postcentral gyrus, as well as in the cerebellum, and partial remission of these alterations at follow-up, while radial diffusivity demonstrated more widespread deviations in supra- and infratentorial regions. Concordant changes of myelin volume fraction and radial diffusivity after treatment initiation, accompanied by dramatic clinical and paraclinical improvement, indicate the consistency of the methods, while myelin volume fraction seems to characterize remyelinated regions more specifically. Synthetic MRI–based myelin volume fraction provides myelin estimation consistent with changes of diffusion metrics to monitor short-term myelin changes on individual patient level.

Adherence to a caloric budget and body weight change vary by season, gender, and BMI: An observational study of daily users of a mobile health app.

Self-monitoring, one of the most important behaviors for successful weight loss, can be facilitated through mobile health applications (mHealth apps). Therefore, it is of interest to determine whether consistent users of these apps succeed in achieving their weight goals. This study used data from an mHealth app that enabled tracking of caloric intake, body weight, and physical activity and provided a caloric budget depending on weight goal. The primary objective was to evaluate adherence to caloric budget and body weight change among the most consistent (i.e., daily) trackers of caloric intake over a calendar year (n=9372, 50% male). Gender-stratified linear mixed models were conducted to examine the effects of quarter of year (Q1-Q4 as season proxies) and body mass index (BMI) group (normal weight, overweight, obesity) on adherence to a caloric budget (kcal/day). Change in body weight was analyzed using a subset of users (n=5808) who entered their weight in the app at least once per week, once per month, or once in Q1 and Q4. Physical activity entries were evaluated in exploratory analyses. Only users with obesity met their caloric budget in Q1. Deviation from budget increased for all groups from Q1 to Q2 (mean change[±standard error of the mean]: +23.7[±1.8] and +39.7[±2.2]kcal/day for female and male users, p<0.001), was stable between Q2 and Q3, and fluctuated thereafter depending on gender and BMI, with greater deviation among males with overweight. Users with obesity with weight entries at least once per month lost the most weight (-6.1[±0.3] and -4.5[±0.3]kg for females and males, p<0.001). Physical activity was highest in the summer months. Among consistent calorie trackers, adherence to a caloric budget and body weight vary by season, gender, and BMI. Self-monitoring of body weight in addition to calorie tracking may lead to improved weight loss outcomes.

Dual feature fusion network: A dual feature fusion network for point cloud completion

Point cloud data in the real world is often affected by occlusion and light reflection, leading to incompleteness of the data. Large-region missing point clouds will cause great deviations in downstream tasks. A dual feature fusion network (DFF-Net) is proposed to improve the accuracy of the completion of a large missing region of the point cloud. First, a dual feature encoder is designed to extract and fuse the global and local features of the input point cloud. Subsequently, a decoder is used to directly generate a point cloud of missing region that retains local details. In order to make the generated point cloud more detailed, a loss function with multiple terms is employed to emphasise the distribution density and visual quality of the generated point cloud. A large number of experiments show that the authors’ DFF-Net is better than the previous state-of-the-art methods in the aspect of point cloud completion.

Copy Number Variant Risk Scores Associated With Cognition, Psychopathology, and Brain Structure in Youths in the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort

Psychiatric and cognitive phenotypes have been associated with a range of specific, rare copy number variants (CNVs). Moreover, IQ is strongly associated with CNV risk scores that model the predicted risk of CNVs across the genome. But the utility of CNV risk scores for psychiatric phenotypes has been sparsely examined. To determine how CNV risk scores, common genetic variation indexed by polygenic scores (PGSs), and environmental factors combine to associate with cognition and psychopathology in a community sample. The Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort is a community-based study examining genetics, psychopathology, neurocognition, and neuroimaging. Participants were recruited through the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia pediatric network. Participants with stable health and fluency in English underwent genotypic and phenotypic characterization from November 5, 2009, through December 30, 2011. Data were analyzed from January 1 through July 30, 2021. The study examined (1) CNV risk scores derived from models of burden, predicted intolerance, and gene dosage sensitivity; (2) PGSs from genomewide association studies related to developmental outcomes; and (3) environmental factors, including trauma exposure and neighborhood socioeconomic status. The study examined (1) neurocognition, with the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery; (2) psychopathology, with structured interviews based on the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children; and (3) brain volume, with magnetic resonance imaging. Participants included 9498 youths aged 8 to 21 years; 4906 (51.7%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 14.2 (3.7) years. After quality control, 18 185 total CNVs greater than 50 kilobases (10 517 deletions and 7668 duplications) were identified in 7101 unrelated participants genotyped on Illumina arrays. In these participants, elevated CNV risk scores were associated with lower overall accuracy on cognitive tests (standardized β = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.10-0.14; P = 7.41 × 10-26); lower accuracy across a range of cognitive subdomains; increased overall psychopathology; increased psychosis-spectrum symptoms; and higher deviation from a normative developmental model of brain volume. Statistical models of developmental outcomes were significantly improved when CNV risk scores were combined with PGSs and environmental factors. In this study, elevated CNV risk scores were associated with lower cognitive ability, higher psychopathology including psychosis-spectrum symptoms, and greater deviations from normative magnetic resonance imaging models of brain development. Together, these results represent a step toward synthesizing rare genetic, common genetic, and environmental factors to understand clinically relevant outcomes in youth.

FC097: Pitfalls in Assessing of Cardiopulmonary Recirculation in HD Patients

Abstract BACKGROUND AND AIMS Cardiopulmonary recirculation (CRP) is one of the most informative instrumental parameters, widely used to predict adverse cardiovascular events in patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD). CRP calculation is based on two indirectly measured estimates: AVF volume blood flow (Qa) and cardiac output (CO). Large CRP variability may cause underestimation of cardiovascular risk in many HD patients. We aimed to study the inter- and inner-observer agreement of Qa and CO. As a second step, we studied the changes in Qa, CO and CPR before and after HD. METHOD The prospective study included 88 patients with native AVF. At the first step, we evaluated the inter- and inner-observer agreement of Qa measurement with color duplex ultrasound (Bland–Altman plots, Figure 1A–D). Two specialists with 5–7 years of experience measured Qa twice on brachial artery, twice on fistula vein. To estimate the maximum relative error in paired measurements we calculated the mean and the absolute mean difference for each pair. Then, the absolute mean difference was divided by mean; the greatest deviations from the average are given in %. After that, they measured CO twice before HD and once after HD. Ultrafiltration during HD was 1.6 ± 0.34 L. RESULTS We observed a good concordance between Qa measurements on brachial artery by one specialist (Figure 1A) and by two specialists (Figure. 1B): deviations were [–13.9%; 13.1%] and [–18.3%; 16.4%], respectively. There was a poor concordance between assessments on brachial artery and fistula vein (Figure 1C), and Qa measurement on fistula vein alone (Figure 1 D). In the latter case, the variance was very high even if measurements were performed by one specialist: deviations were [–37.9%; 39.6%] and [–59.3%; 93.6%], respectively. In all cases, the systematic bias was low, but the deviations were significantly different between measurement methods. The variance of bias increased along with increasing of Qa. We observed a good concordance between CO assessments made by one specialist and between specialists: deviations were [–12.4%; 12.3%] and [–10.5%; 9.1%], respectively. The main pitfall of CPR-based cardiovascular risk stratification is that CO changes significantly after HD (Fig. 2A), while Qa values remain relatively stable (Figure 2B): although Qa difference before and after HD is statistically significant, it seems to be modest. Median CO decrease after HD was 13.4% (26.6% max), while median of Qa decrease was 1.7% (6.1% max). This leads to a significant increase of CPR value after HD, which can reach 40%(! ) in some patients (absolute increase of 0.11) (Figure. 2C). CPR value more than 30% is considered to be an indication for Qa reduction. In our cohort, 17% of the patients had CPR &amp;gt;30% before HD and 42% after HD. CONCLUSION Qa assessment should be performed only on brachial artery. There is a significant decrease in CO after HD even if ultrafiltration was moderate, whereas Qa remains relatively stable. This leads to a significant increase of CPR value in some patients after HD. CPR assessment before HD may lead to underestimation of cardiovascular risk. The decision on Qa reduction to decrease CPR should be based on CPR assessment after HD session.

Excess Heat Factor climatology, trends, and exposure across European Functional Urban Areas

In Europe, regional climate change prospects indicate the urgency of adapting to extreme weather events. While increasing temperature trends have already been detected, in the last decades, the adoption of a European heatwave (HW) early-warning index is not yet consensual, partially due to the significant number of alternative algorithms, in some cases adjusted to the measurement of sector-specific impacts (as per the Expert Team on Climate Risk and Sector-specific Indices (ET-SCI)). In particular, the Excess Heat Factor (EHF) has been shown to accurately predict heat-related human health outcomes, in mid-latitude climates, provided that local summer exposure to excess heat is mostly driven by extreme air temperatures, with a lower contribution from relative humidity. Here, annual summaries of EHF-based HW detection were calculated for the European region, using daily maximum and minimum temperatures from the homogenised version of the E-OBS gridded dataset. Annual HW frequencies, duration, mean magnitude, maximum amplitude, and severity were subject to climatology and trend analysis across the European biogeographical regions, considering the 1961–1990 period as the baseline reference for anomaly detection in the more recent (1991–2018) decades. As HW-dependent morbidity/mortality affects mostly the elderly, an EHF-based HW Exposure Index was also calculated, by multiplying the recent probability of severe events per the number of people aged 65, or more, in the European Functional Urban Areas (FUAs). Results show that recent historical EHF-based patterns diverge across European Biogeographical regions, with a clear latitudinal gradient. Both the historical mean and recent trends point towards the greater exposure in the southern European Mediterranean region, driven by the significant increase of HW frequency, duration and maximum severity, especially in the last 3 decades; conversely, annual maximum EHF intensities (i.e., greatest deviations from the local 90th daily mean temperature) are mostly found in the northern and/or high altitude Boreal, Alpine and Continental regions, as a consequence of the latitudinal effect of local climatology on the HWM/HWA indices (this also translates into greater magnitudes of change, in this regions). Nonetheless, by simultaneously considering the probability of Severe HW occurrence in the last three decades, together with the log transformation of people aged 65 or more, results show that greater HW Exposure Indices affect FUAs across the whole Europe, irrespective of its regional climate, suggesting that more meaningful vulnerability assessments, early warning and adaptation measures should be prioritized accordingly.

Natural mortality and body size in fish populations

Fisheries stock assessments increasingly account for size-dependence in natural mortality rates, usually by modeling mortality as a power function of body length. Various empirical studies have indicated a scaling of mortality with length in the range of − 0.84 to − 1.11, but substantially different scaling exponents ranging from − 0.75 to − 1.5 have been proposed on theoretical grounds or derived from some empirical models. To resolve these controversies and provide a well-supported default estimate of scaling for stock assessments, we re-analyzed two major data sets used in previous studies that supported different scaling exponents, and a combined data set. Both original data sets and the combined data yielded within-population exponents close to − 1 when analyzed using joint-slope mixed-effects models with population as a random effect. When population effects were disregarded, regression models yielded exponents that did not correctly reflect within-population scaling. The greatest deviations from the correct within-population scaling of approximately − 1 occurred in multiple regression models of mortality, size, and growth parameters. We conclude that within- and among-population scaling of natural mortality should be clearly distinguished, and that within-population scaling of natural mortality with length in fish populations is highly consistent at approximately − 1. We also explored empirical models for predicting the intercept of the mortality-length relationship for a given population from growth parameters.

Modelling speech reception thresholds and their improvements due to spatial noise reduction algorithms in bimodal cochlear implant users

Spatial noise reduction algorithms (“beamformers”) can considerably improve speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for bimodal cochlear implant (CI) users. The goal of this study was to model SRTs and SRT-benefit due to beamformers for bimodal CI users. Two existing model approaches varying in computational complexity and binaural processing assumption were compared: (i) the framework of auditory discrimination experiments (FADE) and (ii) the binaural speech intelligibility model (BSIM), both with CI and aided hearing-impaired front-ends. The exact same acoustic scenarios, and open-access beamformers as in the comparison clinical study Zedan et al. (2021) were used to quantify goodness of prediction. FADE was capable of modeling SRTs ab-initio, i.e., no calibration of the model was necessary to achieve high correlations and low root-mean square errors (RMSE) to both, measured SRTs (r = 0.85, RMSE = 2.8 dB) and to measured SRT-benefits (r = 0.96). BSIM achieved somewhat poorer predictions to both, measured SRTs (r = 0.78, RMSE = 6.7 dB) and to measured SRT-benefits (r = 0.91) and needs to be calibrated for matching average SRTs in one condition. Greatest deviations in predictions of BSIM were observed in diffuse multi-talker babble noise, which were not found with FADE. SRT-benefit predictions of both models were similar to instrumental signal-to-noise ratio (iSNR) improvements due to the beamformers. This indicates that FADE is preferrable for modeling absolute SRTs. However, for prediction of SRT-benefit due to spatial noise reduction algorithms in bimodal CI users, the average iSNR is a much simpler approach with similar performance.

Assessing the influence of cardiovascular risk factors on the severity of erectile dysfunction: a multivariate statistical analysis

Introduction. The American Heart Association identifies 7 major factors that affect the condition of the vascular wall: smoking, blood pressure, total cholesterol, glucose, body mass index, physical activity, and diet. The vascular wall lesions most often manifest clinically as vasculogenic erectile dysfunction (ED). Consequently, evaluating patients for the presence of the above risk factors can not only help in the treatment of ED, but can also significantly increase the chances of early detection of cardiac pathology.Purpose of the study. To assess cardiovascular disorder markers’ role in prognosing of the presence or absence of ED and its severity.Materials and methods. The study included 40 patients aged 33 – 60 years. Erectile function was assessed using the device «Androscan – MIT» ("Minimally invasive technologies" LLC, Moscow, Russian Federation) and the IIEF-15 questionnaire. Statistical data processing was carried out using Statistica 12 («StatSoft Inc.», Tusla, CA, USA) и IBMÒ SPSS Statistics 26 («SPSS: An IBM Company», IBM SPSS Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).Results. For patients with more severe ED, a greater deviation of the parameters studied from normal is typical. The most significant impact on the detection of different ED degrees using the device «Androscan – MIT» had TC, HDL, LDL, RP, BMI, triglycerides и HbA1c levels. Based on the androscanning data, a classification tree with two branches (branching conditions — the level of TC and LDL) and four terminal vertices (depending on the degree of ED) was obtained. There were no classification errors predicting ED degrees, which in this case indicates the good significance of the mathematical prediction. Only IIEF-15 scores had the greatest impact on ED detection using IIEF-15. The only condition for branching when constructing classification trees was the number of IIEF-15 points (two branches with three terminal vertices were obtained).Conclusion. Cardiovascular risk factors are predictors of vascular ED, detected by androscanning, while the widespread IIEF-15 questionnaire remains completely dependent on subjective feelings of patients without relying on laboratory and instrumental research methods.

Physical characterization of therapeutic proton delivery through common dental materials.

Dental fixtures are commonplace in an aging, radiation treatment population. The current, local standard of practice in particle therapy is to employ treatment geometries to avoid delivery through implanted dental fixtures. The present study aims to observe the physical effect of delivering therapeutic proton beams through common dental fixture materials as prelude to an eventual goal of assessing the feasibility of using treatment geometries not specified for avoidance of oral implants. A sampling of common dental materials was selected based on prosthodontic consult and was evaluated in terms of relative stopping power and three-dimensional (3D) dose perturbation. Amalgams, porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) crowns consisting of zirconia and non-noble base metals, and lithium disilicate implants were chosen for analysis. Theoretical stopping power (S) and mass stopping power (S/ρ) were calculated using the Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) application, basing stoichiometric compositions of each fixture on published materials data. S and S/ρ were calculated for a range of historically available compositions of amalgams from 1900 until the current era. The perturbance of S and S/ρ as a function of clinically relevant ranges of amalgam compositions for the modern era was analyzed. Water equivalent thickness (WET) and relative stopping power (Srel ) of each material was measured for a clinical spot-scanning proton beam with monoenergies of 159.9 and 228.8MeV with a multi-layer ionization chamber (MLIC). Subsequently, 3D dose perturbation was assessed by delivering proton beams through a custom phantom designed to simulate both en-face and on-edge treatment geometries through the selected materials. A treatment plan mimicking the experimental delivery was constructed in the institutional treatment planning system and calculated using TOPAS-based Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). Experimental results were used to validate the MCS. Finally, treatment planning system (TPS) outputs were compared to MCS to determine the accuracy of the dose calculation model. Historical compositions of amalgams ranged in S from 44.8 to 42.9MeV/cm, with the greatest deviation being observed for the 1900-1959 era. Deviation as a function of amalgam composition from the modern era was most sensitive to proportion of Hg, accounting for deviations up to -4.2% at the greatest clinically relevant concentration. S/ρ was not found to vary greatly between each porcelain and metal alloy material for PFM type crowns. Relative stopping powers ranged between 1.3 and 5.4 for all studied materials, suggesting substantial changes in proton range with respect to water. Film measurements of pristine spots confirm dose perturbance and shortening of proton range, with an upstream shift of each Bragg peak being observed directly behind the installed fixture. At high energies, cold spots were found in all cases directly behind each material feature with a medial fill-in of dose occurring distally. Qualitative agreement of spot perturbance was confirmed between film measurements and MCS. Finally, when comparing integrated depth doses (IDD) by summing over all axial directions, good agreement is observed between TPS and MCS. All dental materials studied substantially perturbed the dosimetry of pristine proton spots both in terms of WET/Srel as well as the spatial distribution of dose. Proton range was quantifiably shortened, and each dental material affected a cold spot directly behind the object with medial dose back-filling was observed distally. MCS and Eclipse dose calculations exhibited good agreement with measurements, suggesting that treatment planning without employing avoidance strategies may be possible with further investigation.

Estimation of the lake trophic state index (TSI) using hyperspectral remote sensing in Northeast China.

The Trophic state index (TSI) is a vital parameter for aquatic ecosystem assessment. Estimating TSI by remote sensing is still a challenge due to the multivariate complexity of the eutrophication process. A comprehensive in situ spectral-biogeochemical dataset for 7 lakes in Northeast China was collected in October 2020. The dataset covers trophic states from oligotrophic to eutrophic, with a wide range of total phosphorus (TP, 0.07-0.2 mg L-1), Secchi disk depth (SDD, 0.1-0.78 m), and chlorophyll a (Chla, 0.11-20.41 μg L-1). Here, we propose an empirical method to estimate TSI from remote sensing data. First, TP, SDD, and Chla were estimated by band ratio/band combination models. Then TSI was estimated using the Carlson model with a high R2 (0.88), a low RMSE (3.87), and a low MRE (6.83%). Synergistic effects between TP, SDD, and Chla dominated the trophic state, changed the distribution of light in the water column, affected the spectral characteristics. Furthermore, the contribution of each parameter for eutrophication were different among the studied lakes from ternary plot. High Chla concentration was the main reason for eutrophication in HMT Lake with 45.4% of contribution more than the other two parameters, However, in XXK Lake, high TP concentrations were the main reason for eutrophication with 66.8% of contribution rather than Chla and SDD. Overall, the trophic state was dominated by TP, and SDD accounted for 85.6% of contribution in all sampled lakes. Additionally, we found using one-parameter index to evaluate the lake trophic state will lead to a great deviation, even with two levels of difference. Therefore, multi-parameter TSI is strongly recommended for the lake trophic state assessment. Summarily, our findings provide a theoretical and methodological basis for future large-scale estimations of lake TSI using satellite image data, help with water quality monitoring and management.

Characteristics Description of Shale Fracture Surface Morphology: A Case Study of Shale Samples from Barnett Shale

Shale reservoirs are the hot issue in unconventional resources. The key to the development of shale reservoirs lies in the complex fractures, which are the only path for fluid to migrate from the matrix to the wellbore in shale reservoirs. Therefore, the characteristics of shale fracture surface morphology directly affect fluid migration in shale reservoirs. However, there are few reports about the characteristics of shale fracture surface morphology as the parallel plate model was commonly used to characterize the fracture, neglecting its surface morphology characteristics and leading to great deviation. Thus, description methods were introduced to characterize shale fracture surface morphology with the aim to provide a foundation for the development of shale resources. Three shale samples were fractured by the Brazilian test, and the height distribution of the fracture surface was captured by a three-dimensional profilometer. Then, three-dimensional fracture surface morphology was regarded as a set of two-dimensional profiles, which converted three-dimensional information into two-dimensional data. Roughness, joint roughness coefficient, fractal dimension, tortuosity, and dip angle were employed to characterize shale fracture surface morphology, and their calculation methods were also, respectively, proposed. It was found that roughness, joint roughness coefficient, fractal dimension, tortuosity, and dip angle were all directional, and they varied greatly along with different directions. Roughness, joint roughness coefficient, fractal dimension, tortuosity, absolute dip angle, and overall trend dip angle were among 0.0834–0.2427 mm, 2.5715–10.9368, 2.1000–2.1364, 1.0732–1.1879, 17.7498°–24.5941°, and −3.7223°–13.3042°, respectively. Joint roughness coefficient, fractal dimension, tortuosity, and dip angle were all positively correlated with roughness.

New Alpha Functions for the Peng-Robinson Cubic Equation of State.

The alpha function is an important part of the attractive term of cubic equation of state (EoS), which affected the predictive accuracy of thermodynamic properties. In this paper, four new alpha functions (Alpha Function-1 to Alpha Function-4) were proposed for the Peng–Robinson (PR) EoS. The proposed alpha functions and their derivatives satisfied the requirements of the thermodynamic consistency test. The four alpha functions with PR EoS were used to predict the thermodynamic properties of 11 kinds of compounds, the average relative deviation (ARD) of Alpha Function-1 and Alpha Function-2 for the prediction of vapor pressures was 0.57%, and the ARDs of Alpha Function-3 and Alpha Function-4 were 0.44 and 0.38%, respectively. The ARDs of Alpha Function-4 for the estimation of enthalpy of vaporization, liquid volume, and liquid isobaric heat capacity of seven kinds of compounds were 1.46, 7.54, and 7.59%, respectively. The proposed three-parameter alpha functions were more accurate than the two-parameter function for the prediction the vapor pressure and enthalpy of vaporization of pure compounds. However, any alpha function used in the attractive term of PR EoS had great deviations for the estimation of liquid volume and isobaric heat capacity.

Специфика интонационных контуров высказываний у пациентов с афазией

The article is devoted to the study and description of the features of the reproduction of intonation contours of utterances of different intentional orientation by patients diagnosed with “complex motor moderate aphasia”. The research focuses on affirmative, imperative and interrogative sentences. It was revealed that the greatest deviations from the standards in the speech of patients are shown when uttering interrogative sentences, and the least serious ones when uttering imperative sentences. This specificity is mostly due to pragmatic factors.

Modulation of the magnetic dynamics of pentagonal-bipyramidal Co(II) complexes by fine-tuning the coordination microenvironment.

Four air-stable mononuclear Co(II) complexes, with the formulas [Co(dapbh)(H2O)(CH3OH)] (1), [Co(Hdapbh)(N3)(CH3OH)]·(CH3OH) (2), [Co(H2aapbh)(CH3OH)2]·(NO3)2 (3) and [Co(H2bapbh)(H2O)(NO3)]·(NO3) (4), have been synthesized and structurally characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. In all of the complexes, the Co(II) centers constrained by the rigid pentadentate ligand H2LR with two protonable hydrogens adopt a heptacoordinated pentagonal-bipyramidal geometry. The combined analyses of magnetic data and ab initio calculations unveil large easy-plane magnetic anisotropies for these complexes (D = +37.338, +37.273, +41.138 and +41.139 cm-1 for 1-4, respectively), which indicate that the chemical alterations of the equatorial ligand and the ligand field strength in the axial positions synergistically fine-tune the magnitude of the D values. Magnetic investigations demonstrate the field-induced single-ion magnetic behavior in complexes 1, 2 and 4 with diverse energy barriers (Ueff) of 12.25 for 1, 44.15 for 2 and 48.72 K for 4, corresponding to the geometrical distortion of the heptacoordinated Co(II) ion. That is, the greatest deviation from the ideal D5h symmetry in 4 is responsible for the highest barrier.