Multichannel surface EMG decomposition based on measurement correlation and LMMSE

A method based on measurement correlation (MC) and linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) for multichannel surface electromyography (sEMG) signal decomposition was developed in this study. This MC-LMMSE method gradually and iteratively increases the correlation between an optimized vector and a reconstructed matrix that is correlated with the measurement matrix. The performance of the proposed MC-LMMSE method was evaluated with both simulated and experimental sEMG signals. Simulation results show that the MC-LMMSE method can successfully reconstruct up to 53 innervation pulse trains with a true positive rate greater than 95%. The performance of the MC-LMMSE method was also evaluated using experimental sEMG signals collected with a 64-channel electrode array from the first dorsal interosseous muscles of three subjects at different contraction levels. A maximum of 16 motor units were successfully extracted from these multichannel experimental sEMG signals. The performance of the MC-LMMSE method was further evaluated with multichannel experimental sEMG data by using the “two sources” method. The large population of common MUs extracted from the two independent subgroups of sEMG signals demonstrates the reliability of the MC-LMMSE method in multichannel sEMG decomposition

Prognostic implications of plasma fibrinogen and serum Creactive protein levels in non-small cell lung cancer resection and survival

Purpose: To investigate the prognostic implications of plasma fibrinogen and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in tumour resection and survival following successful tumour resection in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods: One hundred and fifty-three NSCLC patients who underwent surgical resection at a tertiary care hospital from January 2006 through December 2010 were enrolled. Pre-operative serum CRP and plasma fibrinogen levels were  measured. The levels of these biomarkers correlated with tumour size and pathologic TNM stage. The possibility of complete resection and associated findings are reported.Results: Plasma fibrinogen (r = 0.381, p = 0.002) and serum CRP (r = 0.471, p < 0.001) levels were positively associated with tumour diameter. Increased levels of these biomarkers were significantly associated with sex, smoking status, histological type, tumour stage, and clinical stage. Partial tumour resection occurred in 28 % (27/95) of patients with an increased plasma fibrinogen level compared to 10 % (6/58) with a normal fibrinogen level (p = 0.008), and in 30 % (29/97) of patients with an increased serum CRP level compared to 11 % (6/56) with a normal CRP level (p = 0.006). Patients with elevated CRP and fibrinogen concentrations demonstrated higher susceptibility to disease advancement andsurvival compared to patients with normal fibrinogen and CRP levels.Conclusion: Pre-operative functional concentrations of serum CRP and plasma fibrinogen could serve as indicators of tumour resectability wherein a high tumour resection rate is possible in patients with favourable pre-operative levels of these biomarkers. Increased concentrations of serum CRP and plasma fibrinogen are associated with poor overall survival and progression-free survival.Key words: Plasma fibrinogen, serum C-reactive protein, biomarker, non-small cell lung cance

Type-II Ising Pairing in Few-Layer Stanene

Spin-orbit coupling has proven indispensable in realizing topological materials and more recently Ising pairing in two-dimensional superconductors. This pairing mechanism relies on inversion symmetry breaking and sustains anomalously large in-plane polarizing magnetic fields whose upper limit is expected to diverge at low temperatures, although experimental demonstration of this has remained elusive due to the required fields. In this work, the recently discovered superconductor few-layer stanene, i.e. epitaxially strained $\alpha$-Sn, is shown to exhibit a new type of Ising pairing between carriers residing in bands with different orbital indices near the $\Gamma$-point. The bands are split as a result of spin-orbit locking without the participation of inversion symmetry breaking. The in-plane upper critical field is strongly enhanced at ultra-low temperature and reveals the sought for upturn

Methanation Catalyst for Low CO Concentration

A Ni-based catalyst supported by γ-Al2O3 was prepared by impregnation method, and the catalyst was used in a low CO and CO2 concentration methanation system. The effect of temperature, pressure and space velocity on the methanation reaction was investigated in an experimental fixed-bed reactor. The methanation reaction was operated at the conditions of 190-240°C, 3000-24000ml•g-1•h-1 and 1.5-3.5MPa. The results show that temperature and space velocity play important role on the reaction. With the increase of reaction temperature the CO and CO2 conversion increase and the selectivity of CH4 increase. And with the increase of the space velocity the conversion of CO and CO2 and the selectivity of CH4 decrease sharply