Technical Defects Research Articles

Feasibility of active and passive thermal control application for defect identification of building materials and products, enclosures of construction objects

This paper considers one of the most promising and modern methods of non-destructive testing - thermal control. The possibilities and advantages of thermal control for identifying defects of various building materials and products, enclosures of buildings and structures are presented. Brief characteristics of the main defects of building materials, products, and structures are presented. The basic principles of identifying hidden (invisible) and explicit (visible) defects are briefly considered and the practical results of construction defect identification of objects for various purposes using thermal imaging equipment are presented. The zones of thermal temperature anomalies are localized during qualitative analysis of thermograms (the method of active thermal control). The considered example is a fragment of a building enclosure made ceramic bricks with artificially created technical defects. For some enclosures of building structures and constructions, explicit thermal defects were identified from thermal imaging, their qualitative analysis was carried out, and recommendations for their elimination were proposed (method of passive thermal control).

Diagnostic Accuracy and Correlation between Double Inversion Recovery (DIR), FLAIR and T2W Imaging Sequences with EDSS in Detection of Lesions at different Anatomical Regions in MS Patients

The aim of our study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of double inversion recovery (DIR) in detection of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions as well as the correlation between the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) and lesion load measurement detected by DIR, fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T2 weighted imaging (T2WI) in order to reveal the essential role of DIR sequence in assessing clinical inability as a practicable experiment. A total of 97 patients were assessed on a 3T Siemens Skyra MRI scanner using DIR, FLAIR, and T2W_TSE sequences. EDSS was used to assess the physical disability in patients with MS. The diagnostic accuracy of DIR, FLAIR and T2WI sequences was also determined in different anatomical regions. Sensitivity and specificity were assessed by relative operating characteristics/ receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve at different cut off points. Spearman correlation was applied to identify the significant relationships between the number of lesions displayed by DIR, FLAIR and T2WI at different regions and EDSS score. Our results pointed out the highest sensitivity (92.9%) and specificity (73.5%) for the number of lesions in infratentorial region at the cut-off point of 4.5 and the highest correlation between the number of lesions and EDSS was observed in infratentorial region (r= 0.584, p<0.001) for DIR sequence. According to the findings of ROC analysis, the number of lesions detected by DIR technique in the infratentorial region is the best predictor of EDSS as a gold standard. DIR can be used as a complementary technique comparing to conventional T2 and FLAIR sequences and describe physical and cognitive dysfunction as well. Due to the higher potential of the DIR sequence to reveal a greater number of MS lesions and to overcome the technical defect of conventional MRI sequences in the diagnosis of cortical lesions, it is recommended that DIR sequences be routinely added to MRI imaging protocols for patients with MS.

On Observance of the Rules of Legislative Technique when DevelopingStatutory Acts of Altai Krai for Physical Training and Sports

The article is focused on the analysis of the statutory legal acts of Altai Krai for physical training and sports from the standpoint of compliance with the rules of legislative technology. The authors note that there is no single abridgement of such rules, and this, in particular, is the cause of many technical defects in the legislation. Therefore, the position of those researchers who propose to pass a special act is supported, which would enshrine in law the proper requirements and rules of legislative technology. The study has considered the criteria often mentioned by researchers in the relevant literature.Some of them are: compliance with the distribution of the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the subjects of the Russian Federation established by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, lack of excessive duplication of federal legislation, provision of consistency, completeness and detail of legal regulation, present norms regulating relations with reference to regional specificity. The analysishas been applied to: Act of Altai Krai of 11.09.2008 N 68-ЗС «On Physical Training and Sports in Altai Krai» and Statutory Order of Altai Krai Administration dated 04.03.2011 N 100 «On the Strategy for the Development of Physical Training and Sports in Altai Kraifor the Period up to 2020».Overoll, they have received a positive assessment, both in terms of content and writing technique. Yet some problems have been identified. An inconsistency with the distribution of the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation established by the Constitution of the Russian Federation has beennoted, and a proposal has been formulated to exclude the corresponding provision from the regional act. There has been revealed the presence of duplications of federal legislation that do not carry amessage. Examples of norms with their detailed analysis have been given, where the consistency, completeness and detail of legal regulation are not provided. Proposals have been formulated to expand the provisions aimed at addressing issueswith reference to regional specificity.

COMMODITY EVALUATION OF APPLES TREATED WITH 1–METHYLCYCLOPROPENE AFTER HARVEST

The thesis being presented is study on marketable quality of early winter apple fruits cultivars ‘Calville’ and ‘Spartan’ during refrigerated storage under the condition of their post-harvest treatment with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). The suppression of apple’s ripening after harvest is necessary to reduce the losses of marketable fruit quality during storage and receive a high economic effect from the sale of product. SmartFresh technology, based on inhibition of ethylene due to the effect of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), use to improve the quality of the majority of apple’s cultivars. The post–harvest application of 1-MCP effectively restrains the development of physiological disorders such as superficial scald and fruit rot, but sometimes may increase susceptibility to flesh browning, especially stored during 6 or more months. Research objects were early-winter apple cultivars ‘Calville’ and ‘Spartan’, treated after harvest with 1-MCP (‘SmartFreshTM’ 0,068 g·m-3) for 24 h at 5 °C, during storage at 3±1 °C and relative humidity 85–90 % for two, three, four, five and six months (non-treated fruits – control). The value of weight loss, superficial scald, fruit rot and core browning damage carried by weighing of respective factions of fruits. Data are means of three replicates and expressed as a percentage of fruit’s weight before storage. There was a significant increase in more than two times, compared to the control, the yield of standard products and, in particular, higher and first grades of 1-MCP treated fruits after six months of storage in combination with a significant decrease in technical defect, which has a decisive impact on expected proceeds and the level of profitability of storage. The weight losses of both early-winter apple cultivars increased during storage with not-substantial difference between the both treated with 1-MCP and control fruits. During storage standard product fraction of 1-MCP treated fruits both cultivars decreased quadratically with high correlation coefficients. After six months of storage control apples cv. ‘Calville’ had most fruits with superficial scald, core browning and rot, and cv. ‘Spartan’ – with core browning and rot, while the damage product of 1-MCP treated apples consisted mainly of rotting fruits. Consequently, post-harvest treatment of apple fruits with ethylene inhibitor 1-MCP increased the marketable quality and efficiency of the storing of early–winter apple cultivars ‘Calville’ and ‘Spartan’, reducing the intensity of physiological disorder’s and rot’s damage.

Emerging technologies of algae‐based wastewater remediation for bio‐fertilizer production: a promising pathway to sustainable agriculture

AbstractSoil degradation, overuse of chemical fertilizer, and biodiversity loss are serious problems challenging the sustainable development of modern agriculture. In recent years, owing to the advantages of algae biotechnology in nutrients recovery and soil improvement, the integration of algae‐based wastewater remediation and algal bio‐fertilizer production is emerging into the limelight. In this work, we emphasize on the progresses achieved in the fields of biomass production by algae cultivation in wastewater and application of algal bio‐fertilizers. Particularly, three types of algal bio‐fertilizers, including slow‐release bio‐fertilizer, nitrogen‐fixing cyanobacteria, and liquid bio‐fertilizer, widely evaluated and utilized in agriculture are introduced. To prevent the overly optimistic prediction of algal bio‐fertilizer in a real‐world application, we point out the challenges and technical defects, such as presence of new pollution factors in wastewater, high cost of algal biomass, contamination of algal biomass in wastewater, low productivity of algae and valuable components, high water consumption, and potential threats of cyanobacteria to the environment, that prevent the concept of integrating algae‐based wastewater remediation and algal bio‐fertilizer production from becoming a reality. Based on our knowledge and experience, potential solutions to the aforementioned problems are discussed in depth. It is expected that the emerging technologies of algae‐based wastewater remediation for bio‐fertilizer production will bring human beings into a new era of environmentally‐friendly, high‐yield, and resource‐recycling agriculture. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI)

Electrical stimulation therapy of the lower esophageal sphincter in GERD patients—a prospective single-center study

Summary Background Electrical stimulation therapy (EST) of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) for gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) treatment increases LES pressure through chronic stimulation, with a low risk for gastrointestinal side effects and preservation of hiatal anatomy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this novel technique in a high-output specialized reflux center. Methods This is a prospective single-center study including GERD patients indicated for anti-reflux therapy who consented to undergo LES-EST. Patients underwent prospective scheduled follow-up visits including interrogation of the stimulation device, clinical examination, and assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL). Results Within a 4-year period, 37 LES-EST implantations were performed. The majority of patients were male (54.1%), mean BMI was 25.8 (SD 4.4), and mean age was 54.0 (SD 15.8). The median GERD HRQL composite score was 41 (IQR 21–49). Median total % of pH <4 was 10.1 (IQR 4.4–17.3). Six (16.2%) individuals underwent explantation of the entire system (IPG and leads) due to technical defect (n = 4) or failure of therapy (n = 2). HRQL score improved from 41 (IQR 21–49) to 8.50 (IQR 4.25–20.5, p < 0.001) and 9 (23.7%) patients were on at least occasional PPI treatment. Conclusion Due to the low rate of GI side effects and its minimal invasive character preserving the hiatal anatomy, this novel technique might find its place in anti-reflux surgery. However, the considerably high rate of device dysfunction needs further investigation.

Classification of Evaluation Metrics for Project Baseline Schedules

The Evaluation of construction baseline schedules aims to provide a high-quality project schedule. However, obtaining a project schedule free from technical defects remains a challenge to construction planners and schedulers.The result of having a high-quality schedule is achieving the desired project completion dates and avoid any disputes between the construction project parties which may be present due to the technical defects of the schedule itself. Many organizations and consultants had developed some evaluations techniques for assessing the baseline schedules from different prospects. The aim of this study is to classify and filter out the evaluation metrics and parameters of the project baseline schedule, in order to facilitate the schedule reviewing and evaluating process. This is achieved by introducing a clear, arranged and classified evaluation metrics to let the schedule reviewerto list down all the schedule technical defects and convert them into clear comments in order to rectify them and having a schedule free of defects.

Юридическая дефектология в системе гуманитарного знания. Отзыв официального оппонента о диссертации Кожокаря Игоря Петровича на тему «Технико-юридические дефекты в российском праве» (М., 2020. 417 с.), представленной на соискание ученой степени доктора юридических наук по специальности 12.00.01 (теория и история права и государства; история учений о праве и государстве)

Юридическая дефектология в системе гуманитарного знания. Отзыв официального оппонента о диссертации Кожокаря Игоря Петровича на тему «Технико-юридические дефекты в российском праве» (М., 2020. 417 с.), представленной на соискание ученой степени доктора юридических наук по специальности 12.00.01 (теория и история права и государства; история учений о праве и государстве)

Assessment of the technical condition and structural defects at the stage of construction and repair work

Assessment of the technical condition and structural defects at the stage of construction and repair work

Phase stability and microstructure morphology of microwave-sintered magnesia-partially stabilised zirconia

In this work, microwave heating approach was introduced into the preparation process of zirconia materials to overcome the tricky technical defects during the traditional electric arc furnace method. Magnesia-partially stabilised zirconia (MgO-PSZ) with enhanced stability and a uniform microstructure was prepared via microwave heating of a ZrO2 sample manufactured by the electric arc furnace method. The effects of microwave heating on the phase stability properties, microstructure, and surface morphology of the prepared MgO-PSZ sample were evaluated via X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and Scanning electron microscopy, and the obtained results suggested that the stability rate of the MgO-PSZ sample improved from the initial value of 81.19%–94.82% after microwave heating at 1300 °C for 1 h. As a result of the martensitic conversion of ZrO2 material, the m-ZrO2 diffraction peaks were suppressed at the same time. Additionally, a similar changing trend was noticed in the XRD pattern, Raman spectrum, and FT-IR spectrum, indicating a decrease in the m-ZrO2 phase content in the microwave treated products. Furthermore, the microstructure on the surface of the microwave-sintered MgO-PSZ sample was improved in contrast to the raw MgO-PSZ sample, and became relatively more uniform and smooth. This study determined the optimal microwave heating conditions for the preparation of MgO-PSZ material with enhanced performance, and can provided as a good foundation for developing the further related research on zirconia materials preparing by microwave heating technology.

Calibration of MEMS Triaxial Accelerometers Based on the Maximum Likelihood Estimation Method

As a widely used inertial device, a MEMS triaxial accelerometer has zero-bias error, nonorthogonal error, and scale-factor error due to technical defects. Raw readings without calibration might seriously affect the accuracy of inertial navigation system. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct calibration processing before using a MEMS triaxial accelerometer. This paper presents a MEMS triaxial accelerometer calibration method based on the maximum likelihood estimation method. The error of the MEMS triaxial accelerometer comes into question, and the optimal estimation function is established. The calibration parameters are obtained by the Newton iteration method, which is more efficient and accurate. Compared with the least square method, which estimates the parameters of the suboptimal estimation function established under the condition of assuming that the mean of the random noise is zero, the parameters calibrated by the maximum likelihood estimation method are more accurate and stable. Moreover, the proposed method has low computation, which is more functional. Simulation and experimental results using the consumer low-cost MEMS triaxial accelerometer are presented to support the abovementioned superiorities of the maximum likelihood estimation method. The proposed method has the potential to be applied to other triaxial inertial sensors.

Szabo 2-stent technique for coronary bifurcation lesions: procedural and short-term outcomes

BackgroundProvisional 1-stent technique is currently regarded as the default approach for the majority of bifurcation lesions. Nonetheless, 2-stent techniques may be required for complex bifurcations with high compromise risk or fatal consequences of side branch (SB) occlusion. Limitations exist in current approaches, as stents gap, multiple metal layers and stent malapposition caused by imprecise placement with fluoroscopic guide and intrinsic technical defects. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of the novel Szabo 2-stent technique for coronary bifurcation lesions.MethodsIn the Szabo 2-stent technique, one stent is precisely implanted at the SB ostium with Szabo technique resulting in a single strut protruding into the main vessel (MV). After MV rewiring and SB guidewire withdrawal, another stent is implanted in MV followed by proximal optimization technique, SB rewiring, and final kissing inflation (FKI).ResultsThe technique tested successfully in silicone tubes (n = 9) with: procedure duration, 31.2 ± 6.8 min; MV and SB rewiring time, 26.8 ± 11.2 s and 33.3 ± 15 s; easy FKI; and 2.3 ± 0.5 balloons/procedure. Bifurcation lesions (n = 22) were treated with angiographic success in MV and SB, respectively: increased minimal lumen diameter (0.63 ± 0.32 mm to 3.20 ± 0.35 mm; 0.49 ± 0.37 mm to 2.67 ± 0.25 mm); low residual stenosis (12.4 ± 2.4%; 12.4 ± 2.3%); and intravascular ultrasound confirmed (n = 19) full coverage; minimal overlap and malapposition; minimal lumen area (2.4 ± 1.2 mm2; 2.1 ± 1.0 mm2); plaque burden (78.1 ± 11.3%; 71.6 ± 15.5%); and minimal stent area (9.1 ± 1.6 mm2; 6.1 ± 1.3 mm2). Periprocedural cardiac troponin increased in 1 asymptomatic patient without electrocardiographic change. There was no target lesion failure (cardiac death, myocardial infarction, target lesion revascularization) at 6-month follow-up.ConclusionsThe Szabo 2-stent technique for bifurcation lesions provided acceptable safety and efficacy at short-term follow-up.

Features of Terrorist-Oriented Criminality in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Measures of Legal Response to Fight it at the Present Stage

This article examines distinguishing features of terrorist-oriented criminality in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, exploring quantitative indicators of certain types of crimes. It is concluded that the current level of political violence in Vietnam is low. Using a wide range of data sources on composite indicators (Global Terrorism Index, Global Terrorism Database and Global Peace Index), it is concluded that to date Vietnam has recorded a low level of political violence. The research explores basic «criminogenic» conditions or factors that lead to relevant risk of growth of political violence. It should be noted that to some extent ethnic tensions still exist in Vietnam. There is also a great concern about criminal activity of a number of domestic and international terrorist organizations, which, in the short or long term, could disrupt domestic political situation and escalate terrorism. The researchers argue that although political and religious motives (e.g. establishing an Islamic state) underlie certain terrorist activities of international terrorist organizations and the fact that Muslims in Vietnam make up about 0,1 % of the countrys population, Vietnams international commitment to counter-terrorism is likely to make it a target of retaliation by these organizations. In addition, there is a possibility that these organizations may commit terrorist acts within the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to support and fund terrorist activities in the future. We summarized that as at present in force Criminal Code of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam includes special provisions that carry liability for individual acts showing signs of terrorism (arts. 113, 299, 300 CC SRV) and norms within international obligations that cover criminal liability for other crimes of terrorist nature (crimes with indicators of terrorization). The comparative legal analysis of anti-terrorist statutes presented in the 2015 version of the Criminal Code of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam reveals legal and technical defects in certain material elements of terrorist offences. It is noted that Vietnamese legislator distinguishes two forms of terrorism: «traditional» terrorism, which pursues political aims (criminal acts against the peoples government, committed for the purpose of combating it) and terrorism aimed at creating a climate of fear in society.

ПРИМЕНЕНИЕ АКТИВНОГО И ПАССИВНОГО ТЕПЛОВОГО КОНТРОЛЯ В ДЕФЕКТОСКОПИИ СТРОИТЕЛЬНЫХ МАТЕРИАЛОВ И ИЗДЕЛИЙ, ОГРАЖДАЮЩИХ КОНСТРУКЦИЙ ЗДАНИЙ И СООРУЖЕНИЙ

one of the perspective and modern methods of nondestructive testing – thermal control is considered. The possibilities and advantages of thermal control in the identification of defects in various building materials and products, enclosing structures of buildings and structures are given. The short characteristics of the main defects of building materials and products, buildings and structures are proposed. The basic principles of identification of hidden (invisible) and obvious (visible) defects are briefly considered and practical results of construction flaw detection of objects for various purposes with the use of thermal imaging equipment are presented. On the example of a fragment of the enclosing building structure of piece building products in the form of ceramic bricks with artificially created technical defects in the process of qualitative analysis of thermograms zone of thermal temperature anomalies (method of active thermal control) are localized. For some enclosing structures of buildings and structures based on the results of thermal imaging identified obvious thermal defects, their qualitative analysis and recommendations for elimination (method of passive thermal control) are made.

Surgical “New Aortic Carrefour Technique” for Late Open Conversion After Endovascular Aortic Repair

The aim of the study is to report the early and midterm outcomes of late open conversion (LOC) after endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) using the "new aortic carrefour technique" (NACT) for preservation of the stent-graft iliac limbs. Late conversions were defined as explants >6months after previous EVAR. Patients treated for elective or urgent LOC after EVAR with the NACT at a single center (2009-2019), and with ≥6months of follow-up, were included. Briefly, after completing the proximal aortic anastomosis, the endograft iliac limbs were truncated and sutured together to create a "new aortic carrefour" (Veraldi's technique). A Dacron-knitted straight graft was therefore sutured to the newly created aortic bifurcation. Outcomes of interest were as follows: immediate technical success, intraoperative characteristics, and reinterventions. Results are reported as the number (and percentages) or median (and interquartile range [IQR]). During the study period, 433 patients underwent standard EVAR for abdominal aortic aneurysm and 20 underwent LOC. Of these, 9 consecutive patients were deemed suitable and treated with NACT. The indication for conversion was endoleak in 6 (type IA n=1, type II n=4, type III n=1), complete graft thrombosis (n=2), and one case of sac enlargement without any clear signs of endoleak at computed tomography angiography. Of these cases, six were treated electively, while three were treated in urgent setting including one case of rupture. The median procedure, aortic cross-clamping, and distal anastomosis times were 280minutes (IQR: 225-290), 24minutes (IQR: 22-29), and 15minutes (IQR: 14-18), respectively. The median blood loss was 1,600mL (IQR: 700-1,900), and the median hospital stay was 8days (IQR 7-12). None of the patients died and neither required unplanned reintervention within 30days. At a median imaging follow-up of 13months (IQR 8-43), there were no reinterventions due to residual leaks or technical defects. One patient died during follow-up, and the recorded cause of death was heart failure. The use of the NACT with preservation of the original endograft iliac limbs for LOC after EVAR is a safe and feasible technique, which results in a low perioperative morbidity and mortality rate in selected patients. The technique is effective during midterm follow-up and might represent a valuable tool to expand the armamentarium of vascular surgeons for surgical regrafting after EVAR.

On the global solvability of the axisymmetric Boussinesq system with critical regularity

The current paper is principally motivated by establishing the global well-posedness to the three-dimensional Boussinesq system with zero diffusivity in the setting of axisymmetric flows without swirling with v0∈H12(R3)∩Ḃ3,10(R3) and density ρ0∈L2(R3)∩Ḃ3,10(R3). This respectively enhances the two results recently accomplished in Danchin and Paicu (2008) and Hmidi and Rousset (2010). Our formalism is inspired, in particular for the first part from Abidi (2008) concerning the axisymmetric Navier–Stokes equations once v0∈H12(R3) and external force f∈Lloc2(R+;Hβ(R3)), with β>14. This latter regularity on f which is the density in our context is helpless to achieve the global estimates for Boussinesq system. This technical defect forces us to deal once again with a similar proof to that of Abidi (2008) but with f∈Llocβ(R+;L2(R3)) for some β>4. Second, we explore the gained regularity on the density by considering it as an external force in order to apply the study already obtained to the Boussinesq system.

Significance of conditioning pretreatment on enrichment and flotation of oil shale

The effect of stirring and attrition-scrubbing conditioning pretreatment on organic content enrichment was investigated. A relatively coarse particle size (−0.5 + 0.1 mm) was used to avoid high comminution cost, the environmental impact of fines disposal plus their technical defects in the retorting process. The results showed that the pretreatment in acidic medium was promising due to carbonate minerals dissolution leading to higher liberation and cleaning the particles’ surface. The organics % was enriched from 26.5% to 33.2% at pH 3 using the conditioning step only, while after flotation, organics % were increased to 43% with a recovery of 50%.

Analytical value of histological research and application of RNAscope technology in liver diseases

RNAscope is a new generation of in situ hybridization technology and with the advantage of new probe design, it is now being gradually applied to a wide range of research fields, and its research scope is constantly expanding. Our country has large number of liver disease patients, so there is a great demand for histological testing and research evaluation based upon biological information. This technology has unique specificity and sensitivity in situ level, which makes up for the technical defects of immunohistochemistry and traditional in situ hybridization. Realizing the multiplicity and monomolecular level detection, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of nucleic acid level can be carried out in many aspects of the field of liver disease, and the visual evaluation can be achieved by combining it with tissue in situ to highlight the value of "gold standard". This article summarizes the recent year's application of RNAscope technology carried out in liver histology field.

3D reconstruction of small bowel lesions using stereo camera-based capsule endoscopy

Three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of capsule endoscopic images has been attempted for a long time to obtain more information on small bowel structures. Due to the limited hardware resources of capsule size and battery capacity, software approaches have been studied but have mainly exhibited inherent limitations. Recently, stereo camera-based capsule endoscopy, which can perform hardware-enabled 3D reconstruction, has been developed. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of newly developed 3D capsule endoscopy in clinical practice. This study was a prospective, single-arm, feasibility study conducted at two university-affiliated hospitals in South Korea. Small bowel evaluation was performed using a newly developed 3D capsule endoscope for patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, suspected or established Crohn’s disease, small bowel tumors, and abdominal pain of unknown origin. We assessed the technical limitations, performance, and safety of the new capsule endoscope. Thirty-one patients (20 men and 11 women; mean age: 44.5 years) were enrolled. There was no technical defect preventing adequate visualization of the small bowel. The overall completion rate was 77.4%, the detection rate was 64.5%, and there was no capsule retention. All capsule endoscopic procedures were completed uneventfully. In conclusion, newly developed 3D capsule endoscopy was safe and feasible, showing similar performance as conventional capsule endoscopy. Newly added features of 3D reconstruction and size measurement are expected to be useful in the characterization of subepithelial tumours.

An effective framework based on local cores for self-labeled semi-supervised classification

Semi-supervised self-labeled methods apply unlabeled data to improve the performance of classifiers which are trained by labeled data alone. Nevertheless, applying unlabeled data may deteriorate the prediction accuracy. One of the causes is that there are insufficient labeled data for training an initial classifier in self-labeled methods. However, existing solutions for this problem of lacking sufficient initial labeled data still have technical defects. For example, they fail to deal with non-spherical data and improve insufficient initial labeled data effectively, when initial labeled data are extremely scarce. In this paper, we propose an effective semi-supervised self-labeled framework based on local cores, aiming to solve the problem of lacking adequate initial labeled data in self-labeled methods and overcome existing technical defects above. Main ideas of our framework include two sides: (a) inadequate initial labeled data are improved by adding predicted local cores to them, where local cores are predicted by active labeling or co-labeling; (b) we use any semi-supervised self-labeled method to train a given classifier on improved labeled data and updated unlabeled data. In our framework, local cores roughly reveal the data distribution, which helps the proposed framework work on spherical or non-spherical data sets. In addition, local cores also help our framework improve insufficient initial labeled data effectively, even when initial labeled data are extremely scarce. Experiments show that the proposed framework is compatible with tested self-labeled methods, and can help self-labeled methods train a k nearest neighbor or support vector machine, when initial labeled data are insufficient.