Robust Group Linkage

We study the problem of group linkage: linking records that refer to entities in the same group. Applications for group linkage include finding businesses in the same chain, finding conference attendees from the same affiliation, finding players from the same team, etc. Group linkage faces challenges not present for traditional record linkage. First, although different members in the same group can share some similar global values of an attribute, they represent different entities so can also have distinct local values for the same or different attributes, requiring a high tolerance for value diversity. Second, groups can be huge (with tens of thousands of records), requiring high scalability even after using good blocking strategies. We present a two-stage algorithm: the first stage identifies cores containing records that are very likely to belong to the same group, while being robust to possible erroneous values; the second stage collects strong evidence from the cores and leverages it for merging more records into the same group, while being tolerant to differences in local values of an attribute. Experimental results show the high effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithm on various real-world data sets

Epistemic Uncertainty Quantification of Seismic Damage Assessment

The damage-based structural seismic performance evaluations are widely used in seismic design and risk evaluation of civil facilities. Due to the large uncertainties rooted in this procedure, the application of damage quantification results is still a challenge for researchers and engineers. Uncertainties in damage assessment procedure are important consideration in performance evaluation and design of structures against earthquakes. Due to lack of knowledge or incomplete, inaccurate, unclear information in the modeling, simulation, and design, there are limitations in using only one framework (probability theory) to quantify uncertainty in a system because of the impreciseness of data or knowledge. In this work, a methodology based on the evidence theory is presented for quantifying the epistemic uncertainty of damage assessment procedure. The proposed methodology is applied to seismic damage assessment procedure while considering various sources of uncertainty emanating from experimental force-displacement data of reinforced concrete column. In order to alleviate the computational difficulties in the evidence theory-based uncertainty quantification analysis (UQ), a differential evolution-based computational strategy for efficient calculation of the propagated belief structure in a system with evidence theory is presented here. Finally, a seismic damage assessment example is investigated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method

Effect of Exercise on Enteric Nervous System and the Dysfunction of Colon in Type 2 Diabetes Rat

[Objective] Enteric nervous system (ENS), as a local nervous system, is relatively independent to ectogenic innervation of gastrointestinal tract. This study would observe the effect of aerobic exercise and dietary patterns on enteric function in type Ⅱdiabetes rats and analyze its enteric nervous mechanism. [Methods] The rat model of Type 2 diabetic was induced by feeging high lipid food and injection of streptozotocin (30mg/kg, i.p.), and the rats were divided into 4 groups: diabetes control group (DC), high fat dietgroup (HFD), exercisegroup (E) and exercise combined with high fat diet group（E+HFD）. Some other healthy rats were arranged into normal control group (NC). The rats in E group and E+HFD group performed 8-week swimming training (5 times/week, 60 min/time ). The colon Samples were collected at the end of 8th week for observation of the pathological changes by HE staining , transmission electron microscope (TEM) and for detection of colonic tension and expression of PGP9.5, SP and VIP. [Results] 1) Diabetes induced significant myenteric plexus damages and marked neurons reduction, while exercise protected the enteric nervous system from injuries(Figure1); 2) The expression of SP significantly increased in rats with long-term aerobic exercise combined with a reasonable diet. However, high-fat diet combined with exercise can not upregulate SP obviously; 3) The positive expression of VIP in colon significantly increased in both E group and E+HFD group; 4) Aerobic exercise attenuated atrophy and increased tension in colonic smooth muscles. [Conclusion] Diabetes induces muscular atrophy and tension attenuation in colonic smooth muscle, which can be reversed in some extent by aerobic exercise through the remolding of enteric nervous system

Key issues and development direction of petroleum geology research of source rock strata in China

After more than 20 years of technological advancements, the novel field of oil and gas production from source rock strata, which comprise tight and shale oil and gas reservoirs, has become the major contributor to the increase in unconventional oil and gas reserves in China. Accordingly, this field has gradually entered a new stage of revolutionary development. The oil and gas production in China from source rock strata will achieve sustainable development in the future. Different types of source rock strata present distinct challenges and require diverse development paths. Based on the geological conditions of source rock strata in China, this study focuses on identifying the “sweet areas” among hydrocarbon accumulations. It specifically analyzes the key development issues of tight oil, tight gas, shale oil, shale gas, and coal-bed methane, while proposing potential solutions and identifying the possible directions for future development. This study aims to provide a reference for scientists concerned with the development of unconventional oil and gas reserves in China.Cited as: Li, J., Yang, Z., Wu, S., Pan, S. Key issues and development direction of petroleum geology research on source rock strata in China. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2021, 5(2): 121-126, doi: 10.46690/ager.2021.02.0