Malignant melanoma of the penis and urethra: one case report

We present a case of a patient with malignant melanoma of the glans penis and urethra, which was found in a 53-year-old man with nonhealing ulcerative penile lesion and bilateral, clinically palpable inguinal lymphadenopathies at diagnosis. A diagnostic biopsy showed the characteristics of a melanoma. We treated the patient with total penectomy and bilateral inguinal lymph node dissection. After surgery, chemotherapy with bleomycin, vincristine and cisplatin and immunotherapy with thymosin injection were started. No recurrence or metastasis occurred during the 3 years after the operation. Melanoma of the penis is very rare, and early diagnosis is important because the patient prognosis is very poor

Correlations among physical properties of pervious concrete with different aggregate sizes and mix proportions

Permeable pavement material can benefit urban environment. Here in this work, different aggregate sizes and mix proportions were used to manufacture pervious pavement concrete and investigate correlations among its properties. The porosity, permeability, compressive strength, inner structure, thermal conductivity, and abrasion resistance of the specimens were obtained. Results showed lower aggregate-to-cement ratios and higher water-to-cement ratios led to porosity reduction, which decreased the permeability coefficient but increased the compressive strength, thermal conductivity, and abrasion resistance of the pervious concrete. Compared to the mixes, the aggregate sizes affected the physical properties of pervious concrete less. However, the sizes of pores and cement in the pervious concrete were more affected by aggregate sizes than by mixes. Moreover, the porosity, permeability coefficient, and compressive strength of the pervious concrete can be correlated by the power law, whereas the correlation between the porosity and abrasion resistance index can be fitted by a linear law.Comment: This article is published on https://doi.org/10.1080/14680629.2024.233119

Silica-supported dichlorophosphate: a recoverable cyclodehydrant for the eco-friendly synthesis of 2,5-disubstituted 1,3,4-oxadiazoles under solvent-free and microwave irradiation conditions

A series of symmetrical and unsymmetrical 2,5-disubstituted 1,3,4-oxadiazoles were efficiently synthesized from the cyclodehydration of diacylhydrazines by using silica-supported dichlorophosphate as a recoverable cyclodehydrant in solvent-free medium under microwave irradiation. This protocol has advantages of no corrosion, no environmental pollution, accelerated rate, high yield and simple work-up procedure

Fluids flow in granular aggregate packings reconstructed by high-energy X-ray computed tomography and lattice Boltzmann method

Properties of fluids flow in granular aggregates are important for the design of pervious infrastructures used to alleviate urban water-logging problems. Here in this work, five groups of aggregates packing with similar average porosities but varying particle sizes were scanned by a high-energy X-ray computed tomography (X-CT) facility. The structures of the packings were reconstructed. Porosities were calculated and compared with those measured by the volume and mass of infilled water in the packing. Then pore networks were extracted and analyzed. Simulations of fluids flow in the packings were performed by using a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with BGK (Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook) collision model in the pore-network domain of the packings. Results showed wall effect on the porosity of aggregates packing was significant and the influence increased with the aggregate sizes. In addition, Poisson law and power law can be used to fit the coordination number and coordination volume of the packing's pore network, respectively. Moreover, the mass flow rates of fluids in the aggregates were affected by the porosities. On the two-dimensional slices, the mass flow rate decreased when the slice porosity increased. But for the three-dimensional blocks, the average mass flow rate increased with the volume porosity. And the permeability of the aggregates packing showed correlating change trend with the average pore diameter and fitting parameters of coordination volumes, when the sizes of aggregates changed. Though the limitation of merging interfaces causing fluctuation and discontinuity on micro parameters of fluid flow existed, the methods and results here may provide knowledge and insights for numerical simulations and optimal design of aggregate-based materials.Comment: This article is published on https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compfluid.2023.10578

Two⁃dimensional correlation infrared spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging to detect the changes of polysaccharide during the drying process of Polygonatum sibiricum

ObjectiveTo study the changes of polysaccharide in the drying process of "one steam and one preparation" of Polygonatum sibiricum.MethodsThe slices were steamed by atmospheric pressure water isolation steaming, and then dried by heat pump at 60 ℃. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR), hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and middle and far infrared spectroscopy were used to analyze the characteristic spectra of the drying process of Polygonatum sibiricum, and the changes of polysaccharide during the drying process were studied by combining two-dimensional correlation infrared spectroscopy (2D-IR) analysis method.ResultsThe content of polysaccharide was 3.39% after steam heating for 11 h, and 6.67% after drying for 11 h. The content of polysaccharide showed a gradual increase during the drying process. Through two-dimensional correlation analysis, it was showed that the characteristic functional groups of polysaccharides were constantly changing. And at 1 016 cm-1, the sequence of functional group changes was C—H stretching of —CH2 → stretching and deformation of O—H group in water → stretching vibration of N—H group → combination of O—H stretching and C—O stretching → combination of C—H stretching and C—C stretching → glucopyranoside. HSI technology combined with chemometrics, PLSR was used to establish the spectral prediction model of polysaccharide, and the Rp2 of the model was 0.903.ConclusionInfrared spectroscopy, HSI technology combined with 2D-IR technology can well monitor the changes of polysaccharide in the drying process of Polygonatum sibiricum

Benthic Habitat Quality Assessment in Estuarine Intertidal Flats Based on Long-Term Data with Focus on Responses to Eco-Restoration Activity

A long-term assessment of the benthic habitat quality of intertidal flats in Liaohe Estuary was conducted by three integrating ecological indices, AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index (AMBI), Multivariate-AMBI (M-AMBI), and Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H′) based on macrobenthos data from 2013 to 2020. The results showed that the macrobenthic communities were characterized by indifferent and sensitive species of AMBI ecological groups. The annual ranges of H′, AMBI, and M-AMBI were 0.77–1.56, 1.44–3.73 and 0.36–0.54, respectively. Noticeable differences were found among assessment obtained by these biotic indices. Approximately 100%, 24%, and 78% sampling sites had “moderate”, “poor”, and “bad” statuses as assessed by H′, AMBI, and M-AMBI, respectively. Compared with H′ and AMBI, M-AMBI may be more applicable to evaluate the benthic habitat quality of intertidal flats in Liaohe Estuary. Results suggest that the benthic habitat quality in the middle parts of intertidal flats still had an unacceptable status and has not improved radically to date after large-scale “mariculture ponds restored to intertidal flats”.publishedVersio

Detection of Pork Freshness Using NIR Hyperspectral Imaging Based on Genetic Algorithm and Deep Neural Network

To evaluate the effectiveness of a deep learning which is based intelligent assisted hyperspectral imaging system on the detection of pork freshness indicators, volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), total viable count (TVC), and 900~2500 nm near-infrared spectral data were collected from pork which were refrigerated at 4 ℃ for 12 days. Based on Python's TensorFlow and Keras platform, hyperspectral data was processed and a quantitative detection model of deep neural network was also established. And the characteristic spectral bands related to pork freshness were selected by genetic algorithm (GA). The results showed that the performance of the spectral model could be improved significantly by selecting the band of genetic algorithm. When the number of spectral bands reached 35 and 50, the prediction accuracy of GA+ANN model was higher than that of full-band linear regression model. The predictive performance of TVC was better than that of TVB-N, and the best Rp2 and RMSEP of TVC were 0.877 and 0.575, respectively. The best Rp2 and RMSEP for TVB-N were 0.826 and 1.01, respectively. In addition, it was also found that the NIR band selected by genetic algorithm had a high coincidence with the molecular vibration absorption bands of meat, such as O-H, N-H, C=O and so on. This study provides a new method which can be used for processing the near-infrared and hyperspectral data, and also provides a technical reference for rapid nondestructive testing of pork and other meat freshness

Quantitative Evaluation of the Environmental Quality of New Rural Communities-a Case Study of Henan Province, China

Abstract: The construction of new rural communities is an important measure to promote the integration of urban and rural areas. The environmental quality of new rural communities represents the residential suitability of the communities. The evaluation of the environmental quality can help promote the healthy development of new rural communities. The present study combines AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Lead Solution) for the evaluation and ordering of the environmental quality of 28 new rural communities in Henan Province, China. The AHP model containing four hierarchies is constructed: objective hierarchy, principle hierarchy, index hierarchy and factor hierarchy. The principle hierarchy is composed of 3 factors: social environment, material environment and ecological environment; the index hierarchy consists of 7 factors: service environment, civilized environment, planning environment, architectural environment, facility environment, greening environment, sanitation environment; the factor hierarchy consists of 14 factors: life service, health service, education degree, neighborhood relationship, spatial layout, functional layout, architectural style, architectural functions, infrastructure, public facilities, percentage of green open space, leisure and entertainment facilities, garbage treatment rate and wastewater treatment rate. By AHP model, the weight of the factors in every hierarchy is obtained and TOPSIS is employed for the ordering of the environmental quality of the 28 new rural communities. The results show: in the environmental evaluation, spatial layout, functional layout, architectural functions, infrastructure and neighborhood relationship have a relatively higher weight and more importance should be attached to these respects. The ordering of environmental quality of new rural communities has a high discrimination. The five communities with the highest environmental quality (representing 17.8% of the total communities) are R 13 , R 6 , R 24 , R 23 and R 28 . The result can effectively reflect the environmental quality of new rural communities. On the one hand, this result can provide the basis for the transform and restructuring of the existing communities; on the other hand, it can be used as the reference for the quality control of newly-built communities, so that the objectives of new rural community construction will be met