Research on Soil Carbon Storage of Alpine Grassland under Different Uses in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

In recent years, with the temperature rising on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, studies have shown that (Shaoqing Wang et al. 1999; Yuchun Qi et al. 2003) the plateau permafrost has great potential for emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon, nitrogen, because of the remarkable permafrost thermal sensitivity. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a special geographical and ecological unit, which has an important role in global climate change. The study of soil carbon storage of grassland ecosystems in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its distribution characteristics allow the evaluation of different land management. The carbon cycle response and feedback effects of the whole terrestrial ecosystems have important scientific value to the global carbon cycle and global climate change

An enhanced fall detection system for elderly person monitoring using consumer home networks

Various fall-detection solutions have been previously proposed to create a reliable surveillance system for elderly people with high requirements on accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. In this paper, an enhanced fall detection system is proposed for elderly person monitoring that is based on smart sensors worn on the body and operating through consumer home networks. With treble thresholds, accidental falls can be detected in the home healthcare environment. By utilizing information gathered from an accelerometer, cardiotachometer and smart sensors, the impacts of falls can be logged and distinguished from normal daily activities. The proposed system has been deployed in a prototype system as detailed in this paper. From a test group of 30 healthy participants, it was found that the proposed fall detection system can achieve a high detection accuracy of 97.5%, while the sensitivity and specificity are 96.8% and 98.1% respectively. Therefore, this system can reliably be developed and deployed into a consumer product for use as an elderly person monitoring device with high accuracy and a low false positive rate

Uniaxial Tension Simulation Using Real Microstructure-based Representative Volume Elements Model of Dual Phase Steel Plate

AbstractDual-phase steels have become a favored material for car bodies. In this study, the deformation behavior of dual-phase steels under uniaxial tension is investigated by means of 2D Representative Volume Elements (RVE) model. The real metallographic graphs including particle geometry, distribution and morphology are considered in this RVE model. Stress and strain distributions between martensite and ferrite are analyzed. The results show that martensite undertakes most stress without significant strain while ferrite shares the most strain. The tensile failure is the result of the deforming inhomogeneity between martensite phase and ferrite phase, which is the key factor triggering the plastic strain localization on specimen section during the tensile test

CGoDial: A Large-Scale Benchmark for Chinese Goal-oriented Dialog Evaluation

Practical dialog systems need to deal with various knowledge sources, noisy user expressions, and the shortage of annotated data. To better solve the above problems, we propose CGoDial, new challenging and comprehensive Chinese benchmark for multi-domain Goal-oriented Dialog evaluation. It contains 96,763 dialog sessions and 574,949 dialog turns totally, covering three datasets with different knowledge sources: 1) a slot-based dialog (SBD) dataset with table-formed knowledge, 2) a flow-based dialog (FBD) dataset with tree-formed knowledge, and a retrieval-based dialog (RBD) dataset with candidate-formed knowledge. To bridge the gap between academic benchmarks and spoken dialog scenarios, we either collect data from real conversations or add spoken features to existing datasets via crowd-sourcing. The proposed experimental settings include the combinations of training with either the entire training set or a few-shot training set, and testing with either the standard test set or a hard test subset, which can assess model capabilities in terms of general prediction, fast adaptability and reliable robustness.Comment: EMNLP 202

Element dependence of enhancement in optics emission from laser-induced plasma under spatial confinement

In this study, the element dependence of spatial confinement effects in LIBS has been studied. Hemispheric cavities were used to confine laser-induced plasmas from aluminum samples with other trace elements. The enhancement factors were found to be dependent on the elements. Equations describing the element dependent enhancement factors were successfully deduced from the local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions, which have also been verified by the experimental results. Research results show that enhancement factors in LIBS with spatial confinement depend on the temperature, electron density, and compression ratio of plasmas, and vary with elements and atomic/ionic emission lines selected. Generally, emission lines with higher upper level energies have higher enhancement factors. Furthermore, with enhancement factor of a spectral line, temperatures and electron densities of plasmas known, enhancement factors of all the other elements in the plasmas could be estimated by the equations developed in this study

Metaverse customer journeys in tourism: building viable virtual worlds

Purpose – This research examined the use of the metaverse in tourism and hospitality to comprehend better how the technology might shape customer journey management, especially relative to information provision, experiences, and customer benefits. Design/methodology/approach – This explanatory research used a two-stage approach of media analysis and practitioner interviews to analyse the interactions among tourism information provision, customer experiences, and customer benefits in the metaverse. It conceptualized and mapped the consumer journey of the emerging metaverse experience, focusing on the ideas and practices of metaverse design pioneers in tourism and hospitality. Findings – Based on the media analysis and interviews with 27 designers, the MIEB model was proposed, containing three parts (information characteristics, customer experiences, and customer benefits) and 31 supporting items grouped into nine components. Originality/value – One of the unique contributions of this research is the Metaverse – Information – Experiences – Benefits (MIEB) model for applying the metaverse in customer journey management (pre-, during-, and post-trip). The findings contribute to the current literature with this model based on the practical perspectives of metaverse designers and provide insights on how to incorporate the MIEB model in applying the metaverse in tourism and hospitality management. The findings also address existing literature gaps of insufficient research on metaverse management and design through all stages of the customer travel journey and by paying attention to stakeholders' viewpoints, including the media and designers of metaverse applications. Engaging in semi-structured interviews with pioneers of the metaverse in order to gain insights into the design of tourism experiences was also different from other metaverse tourism research, although this is not claimed as a significant point of innovation

Association of One-Carbon Metabolism-Related Vitamins (Folate, B6, B12), Homocysteine and Methionine With the Risk of Lung Cancer: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Studies on serum one-carbon metabolism factors (folate, B6, B12, homocysteine, and methionine) with lung cancer (LC) risk have produced inconsistent results. We aimed to systematically evaluate the association between them.Methods: This study was reported in accordance with the PRISMA Statement and was registered with PROSPERO (no. CRD42018086654). Relevant studies were searched in PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, and CNKI up to February 2018. Random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled standardized mean differences (SMD) or odds ratios (OR), as well as their 95% confidence interval (CI). Sensitivity and subgroup analysis were performed to identify the source of heterogeneity. Publication bias was also assessed.Results: A total of 14 articles (8,097 patients) were included. The concentration of serum folate and vitamin B6 of LC patients were lower than the controls [SMD −0.53, 95% CI (−0.70, −0.35), p = 0.001 and SMD −0.28, 95%CI (−0.53, −0.02), p = 0.001, respectively]. While the concentration of homocysteine of the cases was higher than the controls [SMD 0.41, 95% CI (0.24, 0.59), p = 0.001]. However, there were no significant differences between LC patients and the controls in terms of vitamin B12 and methionine [SMD −0.09, 95% CI (−0.27, 0.09), p = 0.202 and SMD −0.13, 95% CI (−0.36, 0.10), p = 0.001]. Subgroup analysis showed that these results were more significant in Europe, Asia, former and current smokers, and the male population (p-value < 0.05).Conclusions: Serum folate and vitamin B6 might be protective factors against lung carcinogenesis and homocysteine could contribute to LC risk