Face Recognition with Facial Occlusion Based on Local Cycle Graph Structure Operator

Facial occlusion is a difficulty in the field of face recognition. The lack of features caused by occlusion may reduce the face recognition rate greatly. How to extract the identified features from the occluded faces has a profound effect on face recognition. This chapter presents a Local Cycle Graph Structure (LCGS) operator, which makes full use of the information of the pixels around the target pixel with its neighborhood of 3 × 3. Thus, the recognition with the extracted features is more efficient. We apply the extreme learning machine (ELM) classifier to train and test the features extracted by LCGS algorithm. In the experiment, we use the olivetti research laboratory (ORL) database to simulate occlusion randomly and use the AR database for physical occlusion. Physical coverings include scarves and sunglasses. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm yields a state-of-the-art performance

Severe Recurrent Necrotizing Myopathy in Pregnancy: A Case Report

Pregnancy in patients with necrotizing autoimmune myopathy without identified antibodies is rarely reported. We report a case involving a 26-year-old woman with antibody-negative autoimmune necrotizing myopathy who experienced a relapse during pregnancy. Before pregnancy, the patient's myopathy symptoms and elevated serum creatine kinase levels had been successfully controlled with oral prednisone and tacrolimus for 1 year. However, she discontinued the therapy on her own accord, with the aim of conceiving. During pregnancy, she experienced a very severe relapse of muscle weakness and dyspnea and her creatine kinase level increased to >8,000 U/L. After she was treated with intravenous immunoglobulin, oral prednisone, and tacrolimus, she slowly recovered and delivered a healthy neonate. She continues to take oral tacrolimus (3 mg/day) and has remained symptom-free 2 years later

Screening and identification of the dominant antigens of the African swine fever virus

African swine fever is a highly lethal contagious disease of pigs for which there is no vaccine. Its causative agent African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a highly complex enveloped DNA virus encoding more than 150 open reading frames. The antigenicity of ASFV is still unclear at present. In this study, 35 proteins of ASFV were expressed by Escherichia coli, and ELISA was developed for the detection of antibodies against these proteins. p30, p54, and p22 were presented as the major antigens of ASFV, positively reacting with all five clinical ASFV-positive pig sera, and 10 pig sera experimentally infected by ASFV. Five proteins (pB475L, pC129R, pE199L, pE184L, and pK145R) reacted well with ASFV-positive sera. The p30 induced a rapid and strong antibody immune response during ASFV infection. These results will promote the development of subunit vaccines and serum diagnostic methods against ASFV

Electrochemical Deposition of Pure-Nickel Microstructures with Controllable Size

Pure nickel microstructures have been widely used in MEMS and have great application potential as a sacrificial mandrel for fabricating terahertz micro-cavity components. The performance of MEMS and terahertz micro-cavity components can be significantly improved through the use of high-quality pure nickel microstructures. Up to now, microfabrication techniques, such as laser micromachining, wire electrical-discharge machining, and cold-spray additive manufacturing, have been used to machine various types of such microstructures. However, huge challenges are involved in using these micromachining techniques to fabricate pure-nickel microstructures with controllable size and good dimensional accuracy, surface roughness, and edge radius. In this paper, taking the example of a pure-nickel rectangular mandrel that corresponds to the size of the end face of a 1.7-THz rectangular waveguide cavity, the machining processes for the electrochemical deposition of pure-nickel microstructures with controllable size, high dimensional accuracy, and good surface roughness and edge radius are discussed systematically. This proposed method can be used to manufacture various types of high-quality pure-nickel microstructures

Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of adjustment disorder new module-20 in breast cancer patients

BACKGROUND: After the new definition of adjustment disorder (AjD) by the International Classification of Diseases-11(ICD-11), AjD has attracted more and more attention. Adjustment disorder new module-20 (ADNM-20), which is used to diagnose AjD, has been verified in some countries, but it has not been verified in China. As a result, the purpose of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Chinese version of the Adjustment disorder new module-20 (ADNM-20) in female breast cancer patients. METHODS: The ADNM-20 translated into Chinese employed the translation and back translation technique. Three hundred fifty four newly diagnosed (< 1 year) female breast cancer patients were recruited from Tongji Hospital and Hubei Cancer Hospital in Hubei, China. The patients completed the self-report questionnaire including demographic characteristics and the scale ADNM-20. Data on psychometric properties were evaluated in terms of internal consistency, item-total correlations, test-retest reliability, and factorial validity. RESULTS: ADNM-20 core symptoms included 8 items and two factors, which were extracted by using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). It could explain 61.74% of the total variance. ADNM-20 accessory symptoms including 12 items and four factors, which were extracted by using EFA. It could explain 68.34% of the total variance. Cronbach's α coefficient for ADNM-20 was 0.93, split-half reliability was 0.87, and the test-retest correlation coefficient was 0.74. The correlation coefficient between each subscale was ranged from 0.53 to 0.71 (P < 0.01), while the correlation coefficient between the subscales and total scale was ranged from 0.79 to 0.89 (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The study verified the validity and reliability of the Chinese version of ADNM-20. It is applicable to measure the prevalence of adjustment disorder in the breast cancer population

Research on Constructing a Healing Environment for the Street Spaces of a High-Density City: Using Street Spaces in Macao’s Old City Area

It is commonly recognized that street spaces in high-density cities are able to cause negative impacts in terms of residents&rsquo; physical and mental health. This research intends to investigate and analyze how residents use street spaces in a high-density city in order to construct a healing environment for these street spaces. The research was conducted in Macao&rsquo;s old town by using spatial syntax methods to define the research areas, and implemented on-site observations that evaluated the age of the residents in the space and the conditions of their usage of the space. The study collected data through expert grading and employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process to calculate the weight of each indicator in order to attain accurate and objective research outcomes. The evaluation results indicate that the current Macao street spaces are poor healing environments. By analyzing the effective factors for constructing a healing environment in these street spaces, so that residents can get more space for healing when they use it, the paper aims to provide a model example for those who are involved with city governance, planning and design

Classification, grading criteria and quantitative expression of earth fissures: a case study in Daming Area, North China Plain

Observation, description and preliminary analysis are important means in studies on earth fissures. As a phenomenon of surface fractures, earth fissures are formed under the joint action of exogenetic and endogenetic forces and their development can be characterized by parameters of length, width, depth, fractal dimension and influential width. Based on their length, we deduced a ‘length-grade conversion equation’ and divided earth fissures into 10 grades. In addition, we also deduced a series functions to describe the contribution of fissure-inducing forces including active fault, earthquake, groundwater withdrawal and ancient river channels based on their roles in fissure formation and their affecting conditions. These functions provide the criteria for classification of earth fissures. In order to verify the effectiveness of these methods, we took Daming fracture zone on the North China Plain as an example to quantitatively calculate the control factors of the earth fissures in this area. Moreover, we proposed various plane expression methods for single and grouped earth fissures that could be used to improve the relevant studies on earth fissures

Long-Term Physical and Mechanical Properties and Microstructures of Fly-Ash-Based Geopolymer Composite Incorporating Carbide Slag

The long-term property development of fly ash (FA)-based geopolymer (FA–GEO) incorporating industrial solid waste carbide slag (CS) for up to 360 d is still unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the fresh, physical, and mechanical properties and microstructures of FA–GEO composites with CS and to evaluate the effects of CS when the composites were cured for 360 d. FA–GEO composites with CS were manufactured using FA (as an aluminosilicate precursor), CS (as a calcium additive), NaOH solution (as an alkali activator), and standard sand (as a fine aggregate). The fresh property and long-term physical properties were measured, including fluidity, bulk density, porosity, and drying shrinkage. The flexural and compressive strengths at 60 d and 360 d were tested. Furthermore, the microstructures and gel products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The results show that the additional 20.0% CS reduces the fluidity and increases the conductivity of FA–GEO composites. Bulk densities were decreased, porosities were increased, and drying shrinkages were decreased as the CS content was increased from 0.0% to 20.0% at 360 d. Room temperature is a better curing condition to obtain a higher long-term mechanical strength. The addition of 20.0% CS is more beneficial to the improvement of long-term flexural strength and toughness at room temperature. The gel products in CS–FA–GEO with 20.0% CS are mainly determined as the mixtures of sodium aluminosilicate (N–A–S–H) gel and calcium silicate hydration (C–S–H) gel, besides the surficial pan-alkali. The research results provide an experimental basis for the reuse of CS in various scenarios