Design of bolted side-plated reinforced-concrete beams with partial interaction

Existing reinforced-concrete (RC) beams can be effectively strengthened by anchoring steel plates to the side faces of the beams using bolts, which is known as the bolted side-plating (BSP) technique. Previous studies have found that the performance of BSP beams is primarily controlled by the degree of partial interaction at the steel-RC interface, which can be conveniently quantified by the strain and curvature factors. In this paper, a new simplified flexural design procedure for BSP beams taking into account partial interaction is presented. Some optimum ranges of strain and curvature factors are first introduced to the flexural design of BSP beams. By ensuring the flexural capacity of a BSP beam is higher than the design moment, the preliminary size of steel plates and the arrangement of bolts can be determined. Following this, the maximum design slips and minimum design strain and curvature factors are calculated and back-checked to ensure the target flexural capacity of the BSP beam has been achieved. An example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the optimised design method for BSP beams, considering the effect of partial interaction under realistic loading conditions.published_or_final_versio

Intelligent depression detection with asynchronous federated optimization.

The growth of population and the various intensive life pressures everyday deepen the competitions among people. Tens of millions of people each year suffer from depression and only a fraction receives adequate treatment. The development of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, and QQ provides more convenient communication and provides a new emotional vent window. People communicate with their friends, sharing their opinions, and shooting videos to reflect their feelings. It provides an opportunity to detect depression in social networks. Although depression detection using social networks has reflected the established connectivity across users, fewer researchers consider the data security and privacy-preserving schemes. Therefore, we advocate the federated learning technique as an efficient and scalable method, where it enables the handling of a massive number of edge devices in parallel. In this study, we conduct the depression analysis on the basis of an online microblog called Weibo. A novel algorithm termed as CNN Asynchronous Federated optimization (CAFed) is proposed based on federated learning to improve the communication cost and convergence rate. It is shown that our proposed method can effectively protect users' privacy under the premise of ensuring the accuracy of prediction. The proposed method converges faster than the Federated Averaging (FedAvg) for non-convex problems. Federated learning techniques can identify quality solutions of mental health problems among Weibo users

Emerging therapeutic potential of group 2 innate lymphoid cells in acute kidney injury

Copyright © 2019 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Acute kidney injury (AKI) remains a global challenge and, despite the availability of dialysis and transplantation, can be fatal. Those that survive an AKI are at increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease and end stage renal failure. Understanding the fundamental mechanisms underpinning the pathophysiology of AKI is critical for developing novel strategies for diagnosis and treatment. A growing body of evidence indicates that amplifying type 2 immunity may have therapeutic potential in kidney injury and disease. Of particular interest are the recently described subset of innate immune cells, termed group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). Group 2 ILCs are crucial tissue-resident immune cells that maintain homeostasis and regulate tissue repair at multiple organ sites, including the kidney. They are critical mediators of type 2 immune responses following infection and injury. The existing literature suggests that activation of group 2 ILCs and production of a local type 2 immune milieu is protective against renal injury and associated pathology. In this review, we describe the emerging role for group 2 ILCs in renal homeostasis and repair. We provide an in-depth discussion of the most recent literature that use preclinical models of AKI and assess the therapeutic effect of modulating group 2 ILC function. We debate the potential for targeting these cells as novel cellular therapies in AKI and discuss the implications for future studies and translation. Copyright © 2019 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

UAV Swarm Mission Planning in Dynamic Environment Using Consensus-Based Bundle Algorithm.

To solve the real-time complex mission-planning problem for Multiple heterogeneous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the dynamic environments, this paper addresses a new approach by effectively adapting the Consensus-Based Bundle Algorithms (CBBA) under the constraints of task timing, limited UAV resources, diverse types of tasks, dynamic addition of tasks, and real-time requirements. We introduce the dynamic task generation mechanism, which satisfied the task timing constraints. The tasks that require the cooperation of multiple UAVs are simplified into multiple sub-tasks to perform by a single UAV independently. We also introduce the asynchronous task allocation mechanism. This mechanism reduces the computational complexity of the algorithm and the communication time between UAVs. The partial task redistribution mechanism has been adopted for achieving the dynamic task allocation. The real-time performance of the algorithm is assured on the premise of optimal results. The feasibility and real-time performance of the algorithm are validated by conducting dynamic simulation experiments

A fast time-domain EM-TCAD coupled simulation framework via matrix exponential

We present a fast time-domain multiphysics simulation framework that combines full-wave electromagnetism (EM) and carrier transport in semiconductor devices (TCAD). The proposed framework features a division of linear and nonlinear components in the EM-TCAD coupled system. The former is extracted and handled independently with high efficiency by a matrix exponential approach assisted with Krylov subspace method. The latter is treated by ordinary Newton's method yet with a much sparser Jacobian matrix that leads to substantial speedup in solving the linear system of equations. More convenient error management and adaptive control are also available through the linear and nonlinear decoupling. © 2012 ACM.published_or_final_versio

Dietary exposure assessment of aflatoxins of residents in Guangxi

Objective To evaluate the exposure of aflatoxins and their potential health risks of residents in Guangxi. Methods The concentration data of aflatoxins from food safety monitoring in Guangxi in 2013-2017 and the food consumption data from nutrition and health investigation in 2012 were obtained. Based on deterministic assessment model and margin of exposure (MOE), the dietary exposure to projected risks for liver cancer was calculated. Results The average dietary exposure and the highly exposure (P95) of aflatoxins B1 (AFB1) were 10.38 and 25.49 ng/kg BW, respectively. The MOE values were 16 and 7, the average risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was 0.37 cases/105 people, and the risk for HCC in highly exposed was 0.92 cases/105 people. It was indicated that the main dietary sources of AFB1 were vegetable oil (mainly peanut oil), which was contributed more than 72.17%. Assuming that the standard limit was strictly implemented, the average exposure of AFB1 was 5.13 ng/kg BW, with a 50.58% reduction. Conclusion It should be paid more attention to the potential health risks caused by dietary exposure of AFB1 of residents in Guangxi, especially the low age group and vegetable oils

Group analysis and exact solutions of a class of variable coefficient nonlinear telegraph equations

A complete group classification of a class of variable coefficient (1+1)-dimensional telegraph equations $f(x)u_{tt}=(H(u)u_x)_x+K(u)u_x$, is given, by using a compatibility method and additional equivalence transformations. A number of new interesting nonlinear invariant models which have non-trivial invariance algebras are obtained. Furthermore, the possible additional equivalence transformations between equations from the class under consideration are investigated. Exact solutions of special forms of these equations are also constructed via classical Lie method and generalized conditional transformations. Local conservation laws with characteristics of order 0 of the class under consideration are classified with respect to the group of equivalence transformations.Comment: 23 page

Polymorphism of the pig-implantation protein 3 (preis3) gene and its association with litter size traits

The pre-implantation protein 3 (prei3), which might play a role in pre-implantation embryogenesis, is one of the promising candidate genes for litter size traits in pigs. In this study, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP: T802G) in intron 6 of the pig prei3 gene was detected and a genotyping assay for this SNP was developed. An association study for this SNP with litter size was performed in two independent populations. One population consisted of crossbred sows derived from Landrace, Large White, Chinese Tongcheng and/or Chinese Meishan (Line DIV). The other population constituted of crossbred animals derived from Chinese Qingping and Duroc (QD). Statistical analysis demonstrated that, in first parity, 2.65 more piglets were born and 3.82 more piglets were born alive in sows in Line DIV with genotype TT than with genotype GG. For second and subsequent litters, in both the DIV and QD lines there were significant differences in the number of piglets born alive between TG and GG sows, with the TG sows producing more piglets born alive than the GG sows. These results suggest that the prei3 SNP is significantly associated with litter size in the two populations studied, and could be useful in selection for increasing litter size in pigs. Further investigations on more pig populations with large sample sizes are needed to confirm this. South African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 36(3) 2006: 209-21

A Robust Peak-to-Average Power Ratio Reduction Scheme by Inserting Dummy Signals with Enhanced Partial Transmit Sequence in OFDM Systems.

Peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is one of the main drawbacks in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. High PAPR forces the power amplifier to back off in order to operate in its linear region, which degrades the power efficiency of the system. Several PAPR reduction techniques have been developed, but most of them have not considered both complexity and PAPR reduction. In this paper, a novel PAPR reduction scheme based on the insertion of dummy sequences to an enhanced partial transmit sequence is proposed. By applying this scheme the PAPR performance is enhanced compared to the conventional methods while the complexity is significantly reduced. Numerical analysis is carried out with OFDM signal and QPSK modulation

Synthesis, characterization and structure of the dimmer complex [ni（tssb）（phen）h2o]·c2h5oh·0.5h2o

2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe