Machine Vision based Grabbing Objects with Manipulator System Design

In recent years, machine vision technology and robot control technology have attracted lots attention of the researchers. They provide people with fast and efficient services in many fields, which have an increasingly important impact on the modern manufacturing industry and the inspection industry. In this paper, a mechanical vision-based grab control system based on machine vision is developed and analyzed accordingly. This design employs industrial cameras with Gigabit Ethernet ports, six-degree-of-freedom servo drive robots. The Host computer control software is designed on the development platform provided by Microsoft and processed in machine vision image processing. The software has implemented an image processing algorithm. It aims to combine machine vision, robot control and other technologies to achieve precise positioning, recognition and capture of targets. In the end, the proposed method is displayed in the upper computer accordingly

Response Inhibition Deficits in Insomnia Disorder: An Event-Related Potential Study With the Stop-Signal Task

Background: Response inhibition is a hallmark of executive function, which was detected impaired in various psychiatric disorders. However, whether insomnia disorder (ID) impairs response inhibition has caused great controversy.Methods: Using the auditory stop-signal paradigm coupled with event-related potentials (ERPs), we carried out this study to examine whether individuals with ID presented response inhibition deficits and further investigated the neural mechanism correlated to these deficits. Twelve individuals with ID and 13 matched good sleepers (GSs) had participated in this study, and then they performed an auditory stop-signal task (SST) in the laboratory setting with high density EEG recordings.Results: The behavioral results revealed that compared to GSs, patients with ID presented significantly longer stop-signal reaction time (SSRT), suggesting the impairment of motor inhibition among insomniacs. Their reaction time in go trials, however, showed no significant between-group difference. Considering the electrophysiological correlate underlying the longer SSRT, we found reduced P3 amplitude in patients with insomnia in the successful stop trials, which might reflect their poor efficiency of response inhibition. Finally, when we performed exploratory analyses in the failed stop and go trials, patients with ID presented reduced Pe and N1 amplitude in the failed sop trials and go trials respectively.Discussion: Taken together, these findings indicate that individuals with ID would present response inhibition deficits. Moreover, the electrophysiological correlate underlying these deficits mainly revolves around the successful stop P3 component. The present study is the first to investigate the electrophysiological correlate underlying the impaired response inhibition among insomniacs

Impacts of conversion of cropland to grassland on the C-N-P stoichiometric dynamics of soil, microorganisms, and enzymes across China: A synthesis

In response to escalating land degradation, the conversion of cropland to grassland has emerged as a crucial mitigation strategy. This conversion has a significant influence on the stoichiometry of soil, microorganisms, and enzymes, specifically in relation to carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). A meta-analysis was conducted with 371 observations from 122 articles investigating the impacts of cropland to grassland conversion on the C-N-P stoichiometric dynamics of soils, microorganisms, and enzymes across China. The findings revealed that conversion significantly increased soil C:P (9.0%), soil N:P (5.6%), microbial C:N (15.5%), and notably, microbial C:P by 57.9%. This substantial increase in microbial C:P indicates that microbial communities are highly responsive to land use conversion. Contrastingly, the enzyme C:P ratio decreased by 19.8%, suggesting microbial adaptation to changing nutrient availability. The duration of conversion was positively correlated with soil C:P and N:P ratios, implying that relative P availability may decrease as conversion progresses. However, duration was negatively correlated with microbial C:P. Environmental factors such as clay content, mean annual temperature, and mean annual precipitation were positively correlated with microbial C:N and negatively correlated with microbial N:P, while soil pH was inversely correlated with microbial C:N. These results suggest the substantial influence of cropland to grassland conversion on soil, microbial, and enzyme stoichiometry, with particularly pronounced effects on microbial communities. The observed shifts in stoichiometric ratios suggest changes in nutrient cycling and availability following conversion. While these changes are primarily attributed to the land use conversion, we acknowledge that alterations in management practices, such as reduced fertilization, likely contribute to the observed stoichiometric shifts. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering both environmental factors and management practices when implementing grassland conversion initiatives

Enhancing lucerne (Medicago sativa) yield and nutritional quality: a meta-analysis of fertilization types and environmental factors in China

Introduction: Lucerne (Medicago sativa), is a cornerstone of China’s livestock industry, however, due to the backward agronomic strategies and technology, lucerne in China faces cultivation challenges that result in lower productivity and quality than global standards. Therefore, we undertook a meta-analysis to evaluate the impact of five distinct fertilization types on lucerne yield and nutritional quality in various locations in China. The fertilizer practices included manure application, combined mineral fertilizer and manure application (FM), biological fertilizer application, unbalanced application of two or more mineral fertilizer types, and balanced mineral fertilizer application. Furthermore, we investigate influential factors of yield and quality of lucerne under fertilization, including climatic variables (mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature), initial soil properties (soil organic carbon; total nitrogen, pH), and agronomic factors (seeding rate, harvest frequency, and lucerne stand age). Methods: Our study analyzed 53 published papers to discern the most beneficial fertilizer for enhancing lucerne yield and nutritional quality. Results and discussion: The results showed that the fertilizer practices, on average, significantly improved yield by 31.72% and crude protein content by 11.29%, with FM emerging as the most effective, this is because mineral fertilizers provide available nutrients for lucerne, manure provides essential organic matter for microorganisms and improve soil properties. In addition, the fertilizer practices significantly reduced neutral and acid detergent fiber contents by 6.28% and 8.50%, respectively, while increasing ash content and relative feeding value. Furthermore, climatic variables, soil properties, and planting system factors such as sowing date and harvest frequency significantly affected yield and nutritional quality. The practical implications of our results emphasize the need for balanced and strategic fertilizer application to optimize lucerne production and highlight the potential to adjust cultivation practices according to environmental conditions. Balanced and strategic fertilizer application can simultaneously improve soil properties, enhance soil carbon sequestration, and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from the soil, which is a vital measure for realizing sustainable agricultural development

Diet and lifestyle interventions in postpartum women in China: study design and rationale of a multicenter randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>"Doing the month", or "sitting month", is a traditional practice for postpartum women in China and other Asian countries, which includes some taboos against well-accepted healthy diet and lifestyles in general population. Previous studies have shown this practice may be associated with higher prevalence of postpartum problems. The current multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate outcomes of diet and lifestyle interventions in Chinese postpartum women.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The current multicenter RCT will be conducted in three representative areas in China, Shandong province, Hubei province and Guangdong province, which locate in northern, central and southern parts of China, respectively. Women who attend routine pregnancy diagnosis in hospitals or maternal healthcare centers will be invited to take part in this study. At least 800 women who meet our eligibility criteria will be recruited and randomly assigned to the intervention group (n > = 400) and the control group (n > = 400). A three-dimension comprehensive intervention strategy, which incorporates intervention measures simultaneously to individual postpartum woman, their family members and community environment, will be utilized to maximize the effectiveness of intervention. Regular visiting and follow-up will be done in both group; nutrition and health-related measurements will be assessed both before and after the intervention.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>To our knowledge, this current study is the first and largest multicenter RCT which focus on the effectiveness of diet and lifestyle intervention on reducing the incidence rate of postpartum diseases and improving health status in postpartum women. We hypothesize that the intervention will reduce the incidence rates of postpartum diseases and improve nutrition and health status due to a balanced diet and reasonable lifestyle in comparison with the control condition. If so, the results of our study will provide especially important evidence for changes in both the concept and action of traditional postpartum practice in China.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT01039051.</p

Monitoring ice flow velocity of Petermann glacier combined with Sentinel-1 and −2 imagery

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images are commonly used to monitor glacier flow velocity at Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). However, offset-tracking with SAR imagery in summer usually show poor quality because the rapid ice surface freezing-melting cycles contaminating the surface backscattering characteristic, while optical images are less sensitive to this phenomenon. In this study, we combine Sentinel-1 and -2 images to create the glacier velocity time series for the Petermann glacier, located in the northern GrIS. Firstly, the offset-tracking technique is employed to acquire the initial deformation fields with SAR and optical sensors separately, each SAR and/or optical acquisition is tracked with its closest next three acquisitions. Next, after removing the bad matchings, the least squares method based on connected components is employed to calculate the time series of glacier velocity for Sentinel-1 and −2, separately. Finally, these two kinds of derived time series are integrated with a weighted least squares method, where weights are evaluated according to the estimated RMSEs in the last step. Error propagation analysis suggests RMSEs of the single pair of Sentinel-1 and −2 images offset-tracking are ∼ 0.22 m and ∼ 2.5 m for Petermann glaciers. Standard deviation of the difference between Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 measured velocity are ∼ 0.25 m/day. Compared with 6-day velocity fields product, NSIDC (National Snow and Ice Data Center) −0766, which is only derived with Sentinel-1observations, our results show good agreement and less defects in summer. The differences are ∼ 0.20 m/day in non-melting seasons and ∼ 0.34 m/day in summer. Longitudinal velocity differences growing in 2019 and 2020 at ∼ 20 Km up to the terminus are consistency with the crevasse expansion, indicating another calving event is approaching. This research finds that the fusion of Sentinel-1 and −2 offset-tracking results improves the completeness of the ice movement time series for polar glaciers

Application of quantitative computed tomography for assessment of trabecular bone mineral density, microarchitecture and mechanical property.

Osteoporosis is a common metabolic bone disease, causing increased skeletal fragility characterized by a low bone mass and trabecular microarchitectural deterioration. Assessment of the bone mineral density (BMD) is the primary determinant of skeletal fragility. Computed tomography (CT)-based trabecular microarchitectural and mechanical assessments are important methods to evaluate the skeletal strength. In this review, we focus the feasibility of QCT BMD measurement using a calibration phantom or phantomless. The application of QCT could extend the bone mineral density assessment to all patients who underwent a heart, lung, whole-body, and as well as all routine clinical implications of CT scan