Robust model of fresh jujube soluble solids content with near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy

A robust partial least square (PLS) calibration model with high accuracy and stability was established for the measurement of soluble solids content (SSC) of fresh jujube using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopytechnique. Fresh jujube samples were collected in different areas of Taigu and Taiyuan cities, central China in 2008 and 2009. A partial least squares (PLS) calibration model was established based on the NIR spectra of 70 fresh jujube samples collected in 2008. A good calibration result was obtained with correlation coefficient (Rc) of 0.9530 and the root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) of 0.3951 °Brix. Another PLS calibration model was established based on the NIR spectral of 180 samples collected in 2009; it resulted in the Rc of 0.8536 and the RMSEC of 1.1410 °Brix. It could be seen that the accuracy of established PLS models were different when samples harvested in different years were used for the model calibration. In order to improve the accuracy and robustness of model, different numbers (5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40) of samples harvested in 2008 were added to the calibration sample set of the model with samples harvested in 2009, respectively. The established PLS models obtained Rc with the range of 0.8846 to 0.8893 and RMSEC with the range of 1.0248 to 0.9645 °Brix. The obtained results werebetter than the result of the model which was established only with samples harvested in 2009. Moreover, the models established using different numbers of added samples had similar results. Therefore, it was concluded that adding samples from another harvest year could improve the accuracy and robustness of the model for SSC prediction of fresh jujube. The overall results proved that the consideration of samples from different harvest places and years would be useful for establishing an accuracy and robustness spectral model.Keywords: Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, Huping jujube, soluble solids content (SSC), partial least squares (PLS), accuracy, stabilit

Does the traditional Chinese medicine theory of five circuits and six qi improve treatment effectiveness? A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Objective: To evaluate whether the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory of five circuits and six qi (FCSQ) is beneficial in terms of improving clinical effectiveness. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the clinical value of FCSQ theory were reviewed. Multiple databases (China Network Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journals Database, Wanfang Data, SinoMed, Cochrane Library, PubMed, and Embase) were systematically searched from inception to June 12, 2018. Two authors independently extracted the data and performed a methodological quality assessment of the RCTs. RevMan 5.3 software was used for the data analysis. The effect sizes for the primary outcome measures were expressed as relative risks or mean differences with 95% confidence intervals. Results: A total of 13 RCTs were selected, involving 12 types of diseases and 4695 patients. The methodological quality of the RCTs was generally low. Five studies compared the effectiveness of TCM treatments guided by FCSQ theory with conventional TCM therapies, and the remaining eight studies compared the effectiveness of TCM treatments guided by FCSQ theory with biomedical treatments. All of the RCTs reported that the effectiveness of the treatment intervention was better than that of the intervention in the control group. Conclusion: Because of many methodological problems in existing clinical studies, it remains impossible to definitively conclude that FCSQ theory can improve clinical effectiveness. It is difficult to unify the clinical application of FCSQ theory. The feasibility and repeatability of FCSQ as an intervention should be given more attention in future clinical research. Future work should also follow international norms for clinical research implementation and reporting to provide high-quality evidence for evaluating the clinical value of FCSQ theory. Keywords: Five circuits and six qi, Randomized controlled trial, Effectiveness, Evaluatio

Intelligent Evaluation of Marine Corrosion of Q420 Steel Based on Image Recognition Method

Marine engineering materials are prone to serious corrosion damage, which affects the efficiency and reliability of marine equipment. The diversity of corrosion morphology makes it difficult to achieve the quantification and standardization of the microscopic local information on the corroded surface, which is of great significance to reveal the multi-scale corrosion mechanism. In this paper, an image intelligent recognition method for the corrosion damage of Q420 steel in seawater is established, which is based on the gray level co-occurrence matrix, binary image method and fractal model. Through the feature extraction of corrosion morphology, the quantitative analysis of corrosion morphology and the microscopic evaluation of corrosion characteristics are achieved. The image recognition data are consistent with the electrochemical result for most cases, which confirms the validity of this image intelligent recognition method. The average gray value and energy value of corrosion morphology reduces with the Cl− concentration, indicating that the corrosion damage aggravates gradually. The increasing standard deviation and entropy reflects that the randomness of the pit distribution increases. The pitting ratio increases from 20.19% to 51.64% as the Cl− concentration increases from 50% to 200% of the standard solution. However, there exists a discrepancy for high Cl− concentration because of the irregular corrosion morphology and various pit depth. The fractal dimension increases with the complexity of the corroded surface at low Cl− concentration, but the fractal dimension decreases at high Cl− concentration because the corrosion complexity is interfered by the interconnection of corrosion holes due to the accelerated pit evolution

Impact of Long-Term Shaolin Zen Meditation on Emotional Processing in Aging: A Visual ERP Study

The aging process is always accompanied by a decline in cognitive and emotional functions. Although previous studies have identified the positive effects of different meditative practices on emotional and cognitive functions, few studies have investigated the most primitive Chinese meditation—Shaolin Zen meditation. In particular, data are extremely limited regarding the brain mechanism of the effects of Shaolin Zen meditation on cognitive and emotional functions during aging. The current study aimed to explore the effects of long-term Shaolin Zen meditation practice on event-related potentials (ERPs) during facial emotion recognition in aging. ERPs were recorded from 16 monks with long-term meditation experience and 20 controls without meditation experience. The significant age-related degenerative changes in the early ERP components did not present in the meditators but only in the controls without meditation experience. Additionally, we found no group differences in the late P3 component. These findings suggest that long-term Shaolin Zen meditation practice can counteract the age-related cognitive decline in the “down-top” automatic processing of emotional stimuli

Effect of Postoperative Analgesia with the Combination of Dexmedetomidine and Butorphanol after Posterior Spinal Surgery

Background and Objective: Opioid medications used to be the key method for the pain management after spine surgery; most of the opioids may cause many adverse reactions. The purpose of this research was to observe the role of dexmedetomidine combined with butorphanol in the pain management of patients after posterior spinal surgery.Methods: This research was conducted in the First Hospital Affiliated to Jinzhou Medical University, China from May 2018 to January 2019. Sixty patients who underwent posterior spinal surgery were equally divided into two groups randomly: Group B who received butorphanol 0.125 mg/kg and Group DB who received dexmedetomidine (DEX) 0.1 &mu;g/kg/hour plus butorphanol 0.125 mg/kg. The patient-controlled analgesia was conducted to deliver a bolus dose of 0.5 ml. followed by an infusion of 2 ml/hour and a lockout time of 15 minutes. Heart rate, mean arterial pressure, respiration rate, pulse oxygen saturation, visual analog scale score (VAS), and Ramsay sedation score were recorded as follows: 1 hour (T1), 2 hours (T2), 6 hours (T3), 12 hours (T4), and 24 hours (T5) post‑surgery. The total number of buttons pressing of patient controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) and supplementary analgesic agents was observed and adverse drug reactions and total rate of patient satisfaction were evaluated statistically.Results: VAS scores at different intervals in DB group were significantly lower compared with the B group after surgery; while the score of Ramsay sedation was remarkably higher in DB group. The total number of buttons pressing of PCIA was less than that of the B group and the frequency of nausea was notably lower in DB group (p &lt; 0.05). The total rate of satisfaction with analgesia in DB group was higher after surgery.Conclusion: DEX could enhance the analgesic effect of butorphanol after posterior spinal surgery with lesser adverse reactions</p

Naked emergence of an anti-Hale active region

Aims. In order to understand the emergence of the active region, we investigate the emerging process and magnetic properties of a naked anti-Hale active region during the period between August 24 to 25, 2018. Methods. Using the data from Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Soar Dynamic Observatory and the New Vacuum Solar Telescope, we calculated different evolving parameters (such as pole separation, tilt angle) and magnetic parameters (such as vertical electric current, force-free parameter, relative magnetic helicity) during the emergence of the active region. With these calculated parameters and some reasonable assumptions, we use two different methods to estimate the twist of the active region. Results. The magnetic flux and pole separation continue increasing while the tilt angle exhibits a decreasing pattern during the emergence of the active region. The increase of the pole separation is mainly contributed as a result of the enhancement in the longitude direction. A power-law relationship between pole separation and total flux is found during the emergence of the active region. On the other hand, it is found that both the positive and negative electric currents increased equivalently and the average flux-weighted force-free parameter α̃ remains almost consistently positive, on the order of ∼10−8 m−1. The relative magnetic helicity is mainly contributed by the shear term, while the relative magnetic helicity injection flux of the shear term changes its sign at the latter stage of the emergence. The twist number of the whole active region remains on the order of 10−1 turns during the emergence of the active region. Conclusions. We find that the magnetic flux tube with low twist also could emerge into the solar atmosphere

Virtual field method for identifying elastic-plastic constitutive parameters of aluminum alloy laser welding considering kinematic hardening

The local high temperature of laser welding affects the mechanical properties of aluminum alloys. In this paper, a three-dimensional digital image correlation system was used to measure the displacement field of the aluminum alloy-laser welding joint under a uniaxial tensile load. By taking into consideration the metal properties of welded joints, an estimation correction scheme for updating stress was designed for anisotropic materials based on the kinematic hardening process, and the proposed method was then applied to the nonlinear virtual field method, the validity of which was verified by a finite element simulation. The elastic-plastic constitutive parameters of various local regions of the welding joint (fusion zone, heat-affected zone, transition base zone, and base zone) were then retrieved from the measured field data, and the stress–strain relationship of each sub-region was established. The results show that the mechanical properties of the laser-welded joint are weakened while the Poisson’s ratio decreases with the increase of the weld distance. Furthermore, the elastic modulus of the heat-affected zone is evidently lower than that of the other sub-regions, while it also has the lowest yield strength and the highest plastic strain rate. All these results are consistent with the trend of the hardness measurements

Direct synthesis of methanethiol from H2S-rich syngas over sulfided Mo-based catalysts

The direct synthesis of methanethiol from H2S-rich syngas was investigated over sulfided Mo-based catalysts supported on SiO2. K-promoted MO/SiO2 catalysts exhibited a high activity for the synthesis of CH3SH. The incorporation of cobalt into the K-Mo/SiO2 catalyst increased the catalytic activity, but slightly decreased the selectivity to methanethiol. The selected catalysts were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), CO temperature-programmed desorption (CO-TPD), electron spin resonance (ESR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The results showed that the potassium interacts with Mo component and increases the active sites for the CH3SH synthesis by changing the concentration of Mo5+ species after sulfidation. A mechanism for the synthesis of CH3SH was proposed. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Therapeutic Effect and Location of GFP-Labeled Placental Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Hepatic Fibrosis in Rats

Background. Liver fibrosis is a chronic progressive liver disease, but no established effective treatment exists except for liver transplantation. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of human placenta mesenchymal stem cells (hPMSCs) expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) on carbon tetrachloride- (CCl4-) induced liver fibrosis in rats. Methods. Liver fibrosis was induced by subcutaneous injection with CCl4; hPMSCs were directly transplanted into rats through the caudal vein. The therapeutic efficacy of hPMSCs on liver fibrosis was measured by liver function tests, liver elastography, histopathology, Masson’s trichrome and Sirius red staining, and immunohistochemical studies. The expression levels of fibrotic markers, transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), were assessed using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results. We demonstrated that liver fibrosis was significantly dampened in the hPMSC transplantation group according to the Laennec fibrosis scoring system and histological data. The Sirius red-stained collagen area and the elastography score were significantly reduced in the hPMSC-treated group. Meanwhile, hPMSC administration significantly decreased TGF-β1 and α-SMA expression and enhanced liver functions in CCl4-induced fibrotic rats. Conclusion. This study indicates that transplantation of hPMSCs could repair liver fibrosis induced by CCl4 in rats, which may serve as a valuable therapeutic approach to treat liver diseases