Responses of seasonal indicators to extreme droughts in southwest China

Significant impact of extreme droughts on human society and ecosystem has occurred in many places of the world, for example, Southwest China (SWC). Considerable research concentrated on analyzing causes and effects of droughts in SWC, but few studies have examined seasonal indicators, such as variations of surface water and vegetation phenology. With the ongoing satellite missions, more and more earth observation data become available to environmental studies. Exploring the responses of seasonal indicators from satellite data to drought is helpful for the future drought forecast and management. This study analyzed the seasonal responses of surface water and vegetation phenology to drought in SWC using the multi-source data including Seasonal Water Area (SWA), Permanent Water Area (PWA), Start of Season (SOS), End of Season (EOS), Length of Season (LOS), precipitation, temperature, solar radiation, evapotranspiration, the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) and data from water conservancy construction. The results showed that SWA and LOS effectively revealed the development and recovery of droughts. There were two obvious drought periods from 2000 to 2017. In the first period (from August 2003 to June 2007), SWA decreased by 11.81% and LOS shortened by 5 days. They reduced by 21.04% and 9 days respectively in the second period (from September 2009 to June 2014), which indicated that there are more severe droughts in the second period. The SOS during two drought periods delayed by 3~6 days in spring, while the EOS advanced 1~3 days in autumn. All of PDSI, SWA and LOS could reflect the period of droughts in SWC, but the LOS and PDSI were very sensitive to the meteorological events, such as precipitation and temperature, while the SWA performed a more stable reaction to drought and could be a good indicator for the drought periodicity. This made it possible for using SWA in drought forecast because of the strong correlation between SWA and drought. Our results improved the understanding of seasonal responses to extreme droughts in SWC, which will be helpful to the drought monitoring and mitigation for different seasons in this ecologically fragile region

A Novel Deep Learning based Automatic Auscultatory Method to Measure Blood Pressure

Background: It is clinically important to develop innovative techniques that can accurately measure blood pressures (BP) automatically. Objectives: This study aimed to present and evaluate a novel automatic BP measurement method based on deep learning method, and to confirm the effects on measured BPs of the position and contact pressure of stethoscope. Methods: 30 healthy subjects were recruited. 9 BP measurements (from three different stethoscope contact pressures and three repeats) were performed on each subject. The convolutional neural network (CNN) was designed and trained to identify the Korotkoff sounds at a beat-by-beat level. Next, a mapping algorithm was developed to relate the identified Korotkoff beats to the corresponding cuff pressures for systolic and diastolic BP (SBP and DBP) determinations. Its performance was evaluated by investigating the effects of the position and contact pressure of stethoscope on measured BPs in comparison with reference manual auscultatory method. Results: The overall measurement errors of the proposed method were 1.4 ± 2.4 mmHg for SBP and 3.3 ± 2.9 mmHg for DBP from all the measurements. In addition, the method demonstrated that there were small SBP differences between the 2 stethoscope positions, respectively at the 3 stethoscope contact pressures, and that DBP from the stethoscope under the cuff was significantly lower than that from outside the cuff by 2.0 mmHg (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Our findings suggested that the deep learning based method was an effective technique to measure BP, and could be developed further to replace the current oscillometric based automatic blood pressure measurement method

Helix grounding electrode with good grounding performance

Grounding electrode is used for discharging current and ensure the safe and stable operation of electrical equipment. Grounding performance of grounding electrode will degradation with limited installation space. This paper proposes helix grounding electrode and builds theoretically and simulating model on the helix grounding electrode. Analyzing grounding surface potential and step voltage distribution, grounding resistance and surface current density distribution. Results show helix grounding electrode can reduce grounding resistance, improve grounding surface potential distribution and the discharging current distribution

Five-Year Clinical Outcomes After XIENCE PRIME Everolimus Elution Coronary Stent System (EECSS) Implantation

Background/aim: This study was aimed at evaluating 5-year effectiveness and safety in participants after XIENCE PRIME Everolimus Elution Coronary Stent System (EECSS) implantation. Materials and methods: From December 2013 to May 2014, 108 patients (127 lesions) were treated with the XIENCE PRIME EECSS. The entire follow-up included annual assessments for 5 years after treatment or until one of the clinical endpoints was reached. We evaluated the 5-year clinical outcomes with Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox regression model. Results: Nearly three-quarters of the participants were men (76.8%), and the average age was 65.6 ± 10.8 years. Bifurcation lesions accounted for 96.1% (122 lesions), and left main lesions accounted for 3.9% (five lesions), with a total count of 127 lesions. The cumulative rate of major adverse cardiac events was as follows: 1 year, 1.9%; 2 year, 4.0%; and 5 year, 10.0%. No definite or probable stent thrombosis was observed, and the rate of target lesion failure was only 3.3% over 5 years. The cumulative rate of major bleeding eventually increased to only 4.4%. Conclusions: The 5-year clinical outcomes were favorable in patients treated with XIENCE PRIME EECSS, and the incidence of stent thrombosis and target lesion failure was relatively low. The incidence of major bleeding gradually increased but remained moderate

Meta-analysis of incidence and risk factors of immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated pneumonia in patients with lung cancer

Objective: To systematically evaluate the incidence and risk factors of immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated pneumonia (CIP) in patients with lung cancer. Methods: The literature evaluating the incidence of CIP and its influencing factors in lung cancer patients were searched, in Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), CNKI Database, WanFang Database, VIP Chinese Biomedical Journal Database, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EBSCOhost, Medline and CINAHL Database from the construction of the library to June 30, 2022. Stata 17.0 software was applied to perform a Meta-analysis of the incidence and risk factors of CIP. Results: A total of 19 articles were included, involving 3 101 patients with lung cancer. The results of Meta-analysis showed that the total incidence of CIP in lung cancer patients was 18% (95%CI:0.14-0.21). Subgroup analysis showed that the incidence of CIP was higher in patients with lung cancer reported in 2021 and 2022, Asian countries and case-control studies. Risk factors included prior chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, prior interstitial pulmonary disease, performance status (PS) score≥2 points and combination therapy. Conclusion: The incidence of CIP is high in lung cancer patients and the occurrence of CIP is affected by many factors. Clinical medical staff should strengthen the identification and screening of risk factors, and intervene early to avoid serious consequences

The Antihistamine Drugs Carbinoxamine Maleate and Chlorpheniramine Maleate Exhibit Potent Antiviral Activity Against a Broad Spectrum of Influenza Viruses

Influenza A viruses (IAV) comprise some of the most common infectious pathogens in humans, and they cause significant mortality and morbidity in immunocompromised people as well as children and the elderly. After screening an FDA-approved drug library containing 1280 compounds by cytopathic effect (CPE) reduction assay using the Cell Counting Kit-8, we found two antihistamines, carbinoxamine maleate (CAM) and S-(+)-chlorpheniramine maleate (SCM) with potent antiviral activity against A/Shanghai/4664T/2013(H7N9) infection with IC50 (half-maximal inhibitory concentration) of 3.56 and 11.84 μM, respectively. Further studies showed that CAM and SCM could also inhibit infection by other influenza A viruses, including A/Shanghai/37T/2009(H1N1), A/Puerto Rico/8/1934(H1N1), A/Guizhou/54/1989(H3N2), and one influenza B virus, B/Shanghai/2017(BY). Mice were challenged intranasally with A/H7N9/4664T/2013 (H7N9) virus and intraperitoneally injected with CAM (10 mg/kg per day) or SCM (1 mg/kg per day) for 5 days. CAM or SCM (10 mg/kg per day) were fully protected against challenge with A/Shanghai/4664T/2013(H7N9). The results from mechanistic studies indicate that both could inhibit influenza virus infection by blocking viral entry into the target cell, the early stage of virus life cycle. However, CAM and SCM neither blocked virus attachment, characteristic of HA activity, nor virus release, characteristic of NA activity. Such data suggest that these two compounds may interfere with the endocytosis process. Thus, we have identified two FDA-approved antihistamine drugs, CAM and SCM, which can be repurposed for inhibiting infection by divergent influenza A strains and one influenza B strain with potential to be used for treatment and prevention of influenza virus infection

Design and Evaluation of Urban Congestion Pricing Policies with Microsimulation of Passenger and Freight

With rapid urbanization and increasing mobility demand, urban traffic congestion has been growing. The contribution of urban freight to congestion has also been increasing due to surging e-commerce demand. Congestion pricing is effective for urban congestion mitigation, yet knowledge about its impacts on the freight sector is insufficient. We propose to design and evaluate congestion pricing policies using integrated microsimulation of urban passenger and freight. First, we extend a state-of-the-art microsimulation system of urban passenger and freight for analyzing pricing strategy impacts. We integrate freight into the passenger components and incorporate cost sensitivity into the system. Specifically, we develop a freight vehicle operations planning model to capture the cost sensitivity of freight carriers in fleet tour planning. Next, we develop methodologies for designing location-specific, vehicle-type-specific, and time-of-day-specific urban congestion pricing policies. We also develop an evaluation methodology to systematically assess three aspects of impacts: social welfare, network level of service (LOS), and behavioral patterns & logistics operations. Finally, we design and evaluate distance-based, cordon-based, and area-based congestion pricing policies for an auto-innovative prototype city. All policies improve total social welfare. The improvement is the greatest under the distance-based policy and the area-based one follows it. We show profiles of passengers and shippers losing or gaining profits under congestion pricing. Passengers losing profits have lower value of time and household income whereas those benefiting are the reverse and have a higher proportion of work activities. Shippers losing profits have smaller business sizes, fewer shipments, lower shipment value whereas those benefiting are the reverse. All policies improve LOS in the toll area, especially the most congested subzones. The distance based and cordon-based policies are most effective during peak periods but the area-based one is less effective during peak periods. We also reveal heterogeneous impacts on behavioral patterns, including passenger’s and carrier’s mode choice, departure time choice, trip length, and logistics operations including shipper’s shipment size & frequency choice, carrier’s vehicle tour planning, etc. Logistics efficiency improves the most for e-commerce shipments and internal tours under the distance-based policy. The evaluation results contribute to the state of knowledge and provide insights for policy-making.Ph.D

Identifying and modeling urban truck daily tour-chaining patterns

Thesis: S.M. in Transportation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 57-60).The main goal of this research is to better understand truck tour patterns in an urban setting and develop models that can describe daily tour-chaining patterns. This research uses truck activity data collected for the Urban Freight Heavy Vehicle Study ongoing in Singapore, which is an advancement in freight data collection studies. The data contain individual truck's Global Positioning System (GPS) traces and rich behavioral details including the activities at stops and operator's characteristics that were processed and verified though a freight data collection platform. Based on the initiative of using post-processed GPS data for tour identification, this paper refines the definition of tour and tour chain to explicitly reflect stop purpose, stop duration, and time of stop. Tour types and daily tour-chaining patterns in the dataset are identified. Further, this paper presents discrete choice models developed to explore factors that influence daily tour-chaining patterns. Identified important factors are: the difference between the number of distinct pickup and delivery locations, geographical spread of distinct pickup and delivery locations, shipment type, time to start work, employment type, land use type, and truck type. The major contributions of the paper are: 1) identifying limitations of the conventional definitions of tour and tour chain and proposing new approaches to reflect logistics practices; 2) explaining the tour-chaining patterns of heavy goods trucks in Singapore; 3) developing tour-chaining pattern choice models that aims serving agent-based simulation platforms.by Peiyu Jing.S.M. in Transportatio

Enhancing the Robustness of Distributed Compression Using Ideas from Channel Coding

We investigate the self error resilience of practical distributed source coding (DSC) approaches at the presence of residual transmission errors. It is firstly shown that the existing asymmetric syndrome-former inverse-syndrome-former framework (ASIF), although simple, general and optimal for the noiseless-channel case, is not sustainable to transmission errors. The vulnerability stems from the underlying binning approach. Using ideas from channel coding, we illuminate a subtle relation between the binning approach and the parity approach, and demonstrate, through the examples of convolutional codes, how the former can be transformed to the latter for stronger self error resilience. Simulation results confirm that the new scheme is much more robust and less error-sensitive than the existing ASIF scheme

Comparative Study of Different Measurement Methods for Characterizing Rheological Properties of Lubrication Layer

The lubrication layer plays a governing role in predicting the pumpability of fresh concrete. To determine the effect of measurement methods on the characterization of the rheological properties of the lubrication layer, different measurement systems, including Sliper, tribometer, and the utilization of a mortar rheometer, were employed. The rheological properties and workability of bulk concrete were measured in parallel to investigate the correlation between them and the rheological properties of the lubrication layer. The results show that the measured values of the rheological parameters of the lubrication layer differ due to the systematic deviation between different measurement methods. The results obtained by both tribometer and mortar rheometer were well-correlated, having a linear relationship with the rheological parameters of bulk concrete. The correlation coefficient between results gained with Sliper and rheological parameters of concrete or lubrication layer determined with other methods was not high enough. Addition friction led to the large accidental error and overestimated yield stress obtained with Sliper. The workability of concrete is only suitable for characterizing the rheological properties of bulk concrete