Chaos in a Discrete Delay Population Model

This paper is concerned with chaos in a discrete delay population model. The map of the model is proved to be chaotic in the sense of both Devaney and Li-Yorke under some conditions, by employing the snap-back repeller theory. Some computer simulations are provided to visualize the theoretical result

S3^3R: Self-supervised Spectral Regression for Hyperspectral Histopathology Image Classification

Benefited from the rich and detailed spectral information in hyperspectral images (HSI), HSI offers great potential for a wide variety of medical applications such as computational pathology. But, the lack of adequate annotated data and the high spatiospectral dimensions of HSIs usually make classification networks prone to overfit. Thus, learning a general representation which can be transferred to the downstream tasks is imperative. To our knowledge, no appropriate self-supervised pre-training method has been designed for histopathology HSIs. In this paper, we introduce an efficient and effective Self-supervised Spectral Regression (S$^3$R) method, which exploits the low rank characteristic in the spectral domain of HSI. More concretely, we propose to learn a set of linear coefficients that can be used to represent one band by the remaining bands via masking out these bands. Then, the band is restored by using the learned coefficients to reweight the remaining bands. Two pre-text tasks are designed: (1)S$^3$R-CR, which regresses the linear coefficients, so that the pre-trained model understands the inherent structures of HSIs and the pathological characteristics of different morphologies; (2)S$^3$R-BR, which regresses the missing band, making the model to learn the holistic semantics of HSIs. Compared to prior arts i.e., contrastive learning methods, which focuses on natural images, S$^3$R converges at least 3 times faster, and achieves significant improvements up to 14% in accuracy when transferring to HSI classification tasks

Nonlinear fatigue damage of cracked cement paste after grouting enhancement

Grouting reinforcement is an important part of modern engineering and has grown in popularity due to the benefits of grouting enhancement on cyclic loading. Understanding the fatigue mechanism of grouting-enhanced structures is vital to the design and the long-term stability analysis of such structures. In this study, the fatigue mechanical properties of cracked cement paste after epoxy resin grouting enhancement under different cyclic conditions were investigated in the laboratory and an inverted S-shaped curve was proposed to describe the damage accumulation. The test results indicated that the fatigue axial deformation can be divided into three stages: the initial stage, constant velocity stage and accelerating stage. The irreversible deformation can be used to describe the damage accumulation. The fatigue process is significantly affected by the upper limit stress level and the stress amplitude. In addition, the exponential relationship between stress amplitude and fatigue life was obtained. The proposed S-shaped curve was validated by an experimental fatigue strain test. The tests result upon various load conditions and crack types represented a good agreement with the predicted data

Diagnosis of Uterine Rupture with Ultrasound: An Unusual Presentation with Extrusion of Fetus into the Broad Ligament at Second Trimester

We describe an unusual case of uterine rupture caused by intra-amniotic ethacridine used for second trimester pregnancy termination. Ultrasound revealed no amniotic sac or fetal parts in the uterine cavity; instead, major parts of the dead fetus enclosed by membranous demarcation were found expulsed to the left side of the uterus. This membranous structure enclosing products of conception on one side of the uterus was detected by ultrasound and turned out to be the broad ligament. Uterine rupture was confirmed at surgery, and the fetus was expelled into the broad ligament through the lateral wall. The ultrasound findings may help to confirm this rare type of uterine rupture