Preliminary planning of forest roads using ARC GRID

Forest road planning is importaht in logging operations, because it can affect feasibility and cost of forest operations. Due to rapid advances in computer hardware, GIS software, and remote sensing techniques, computer forest road planning models using GIS are becoming practical. DEM data at 30 meter resolution are common and 10 meter resolution exists. Eventually 10 meter resolution will be common and and perhaps 5 meter or better resolution will be available. The objective of this paper is to explore the usefulness of existing "off-the-shelf' GIS software in preliminary forest road planning. I chose ARC/INFO a widely used GlS in the United States by public and private forest managers. I tried two approaches to forest road location. In the first approach I used the available PATHDISTANCE and COSTPATH functions within ARC GRID. In the second approach I developed a supplementary "C" program to calculate earthwork costs for each cell to improve the cost estimates in the shortest path calculation. The earthwork costs included considerations of excavation quantities and type of soil. I compared the results for the two approaches on a 1657 acre section of the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. I found the second approach that included calculation of the earthwork costs to give superior results. The test results suggest that preliminary planning of roads using GIS coupled with supplementary programs may be useful for preliminary road planning, particularly as higher resolution data becomes available. Additional research needs to be done on refining horizontal and vertical geometry considerations within the GRID GIS structure in order to evaluate vehicle performance and to improve estimates of construction quantities

Cisplatin inhibits the proliferation of Saos-2 osteosarcoma cells via the miR-376c/TGFA pathway

The transforming growth factor alpha (TGFA) gene is involved in the proliferation and metastasis of various tumors, but its role in cell sensitivity to cisplatin chemotherapy is unclear. In this study, we investigated the mechanism underlying inhibitory effects of cisplatin on growth and proliferation of osteosarcoma cells. Osteosarcoma and normal skeletal muscle tissues were collected from 26 patients by biopsy. TGFA was silenced or overexpressed in Saos-2 osteosarcoma cells by transfection with TGFA-shRNA or TGFA ORF clone, respectively. MiR-376c was inhibited or overexpressed by transfection of Saos-2 cells with miR-376c sponge or miR-376c mimics, respectively. Cell growth was analyzed by MTT assay and cell proliferation by BrdU assay. MiR-376c and TGFA mRNA expression was detected by quantitative reverse transcription PCR and TGFA protein expression by Western blot. The target relationship between miR-376c and TGFA was assessed by luciferase reporter assay. Both in osteosarcoma tissues and Saos-2 cells, miR-376c expression was significantly decreased and TGFA mRNA expression was significantly increased compared with control. Transfection of Saos-2 cells with TGFA-shRNA silenced TGFA expression and significantly inhibited cell growth and proliferation. TGFA mRNA and protein expression in Saos-2 cells significantly decreased with increasing cisplatin concentrations (2.5–10 mg/L). Transfection with TGFA ORF clone reversed the inhibitory effects of cisplatin on Saos-2 cell proliferation. Compared with cisplatin (10 mg/L) treatment alone, the combined treatment with cisplatin and miR-376c mimics inhibited the proliferation of Saos-2 cells more significantly. MiR-376c suppressed TGFA expression by directly interacting with its 3' UTR region. Overall, cisplatin inhibited the proliferation of Saos-2 cells by upregulating miR-376c and downregulating TGFA expression

Psychological symptoms in Chinese nurses may be associated with predisposition to chronic disease: A cross-sectional study of suboptimal health status

© 2020, The Author(s). Background: Suboptimal health status (SHS) is a reversible state between ideal health and illness and it can be effectively reversed by risk prediction, disease prevention, and personalized medicine under the global background of predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine (PPPM) concepts. More and more Chinese nurses have been troubled by psychological symptoms (PS). The correlation between PS and SHS is unclear in nurses. The purpose of current study is to investigate the prevalence of SHS and PS in Chinese nurses and the relationship between SHS and PS along with predisposing factors as well as to discuss the feasibility of improving health status and preventing diseases according to PPPM concepts in Chinese nurses. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with the cluster sampling method among 9793 registered nurses in Foshan city, China. SHS was evaluated with the Suboptimal Health Status Questionnaire-25 (SHSQ-25). Meanwhile, the PS of depression and anxiety were evaluated with Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) self-assessment questionnaires. The relationship between PS and SHS in Chinese nurses was subsequently analyzed. Results: Among the 9793 participants, 6107 nurses were included in the final analysis. The prevalence of SHS in the participants was 74.21% (4532/6107) while the symptoms of depression and anxiety were 47.62% (2908/6107) and 24.59% (1502/6107) respectively. The prevalence of SHS in the participants with depression and anxiety was significantly higher than those without the symptoms of depression (83.3% vs 16.7%, P \u3c 0.001) and anxiety (94.2% vs 5.8%, P \u3c 0.0001). The ratio of exercise habit was significantly lower than that of non-exercise habit (68.8% vs 78.4%, P \u3c 0.001) in SHS group. Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of SHS and PS in Chinese nurses. PS in Chinese nurses are associated with SHS. Physical exercise is a protective factor for SHS and PS so that the exercise should be strongly recommended as a valuable preventive measure well in the agreement with PPPM philosophy. Along with SDS and SAS, SHSQ-25 should also be highly recommended and applied as a novel predictive/preventive tool for the health measures from the perspectives of PPPM in view of susceptible population and individual screening, the predisposition to chronic disease preventing, personalization of intervention, and the ideal health state restoring

Methylprednisolone as Adjunct to Endovascular Thrombectomy for Large-Vessel Occlusion Stroke

Importance It is uncertain whether intravenous methylprednisolone improves outcomes for patients with acute ischemic stroke due to large-vessel occlusion (LVO) undergoing endovascular thrombectomy. Objective To assess the efficacy and adverse events of adjunctive intravenous low-dose methylprednisolone to endovascular thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke secondary to LVO. Design, Setting, and Participants This investigator-initiated, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was implemented at 82 hospitals in China, enrolling 1680 patients with stroke and proximal intracranial LVO presenting within 24 hours of time last known to be well. Recruitment took place between February 9, 2022, and June 30, 2023, with a final follow-up on September 30, 2023.InterventionsEligible patients were randomly assigned to intravenous methylprednisolone (n = 839) at 2 mg/kg/d or placebo (n = 841) for 3 days adjunctive to endovascular thrombectomy. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary efficacy outcome was disability level at 90 days as measured by the overall distribution of the modified Rankin Scale scores (range, 0 [no symptoms] to 6 [death]). The primary safety outcomes included mortality at 90 days and the incidence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage within 48 hours. Results Among 1680 patients randomized (median age, 69 years; 727 female [43.3%]), 1673 (99.6%) completed the trial. The median 90-day modified Rankin Scale score was 3 (IQR, 1-5) in the methylprednisolone group vs 3 (IQR, 1-6) in the placebo group (adjusted generalized odds ratio for a lower level of disability, 1.10 [95% CI, 0.96-1.25]; P = .17). In the methylprednisolone group, there was a lower mortality rate (23.2% vs 28.5%; adjusted risk ratio, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.71-0.98]; P = .03) and a lower rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (8.6% vs 11.7%; adjusted risk ratio, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.55-0.99]; P = .04) compared with placebo. Conclusions and Relevance Among patients with acute ischemic stroke due to LVO undergoing endovascular thrombectomy, adjunctive methylprednisolone added to endovascular thrombectomy did not significantly improve the degree of overall disability.Trial RegistrationChiCTR.org.cn Identifier: ChiCTR210005172

Performance Optimization of Machine Learning Algorithms Based on Spark

This paper proposes a performance optimization strategy for Spark-based machine learning algorithms in Shuffle and memory data management modules. The Shuffle module is optimized by introducing Observer monitoring module in Spark cluster to achieve task status monitoring and dynamic ShuffleWrite task generation. Meanwhile, an adaptive caching mechanism for RDD data addresses the lack of in-memory data caching. The performance-optimized algorithm performs well in the experiments, with a clustering accuracy of 89% and a response time that is 5% faster than the Random Forest algorithm. In road network traffic state discrimination, the optimized algorithm’s classification decision F-measure value is as high as 99.53%, which is 5.32% higher than that before unoptimization, and the running time is 767 seconds less than that of the unoptimized algorithm when dealing with about 6,880,000 pieces of data, which significantly improves the efficiency and accuracy

Combinatorial Extensions of Terwilliger Algebras and Wreath Products of Association Schemes

We introduce the notion of the combinatorial extension of a Terwilliger algebra by a coherent algebra. By using this notion, we find a simple way to describe the Terwilliger algebras of certain coherent configurations as combinatorial extensions of simpler Terwilliger algebras. In particular, given an association scheme SS and another association scheme RR such that the Terwilliger algebra of RR is isomorphic to a coherent algebra, we prove that the Terwilliger algebra of the wreath product S≀R is isomorphic to the combinatorial extension of the Terwilliger algebra of SS by a coherent algebra. We also show that the Terwilliger algebra of the wreath product WW of rank 22 association schemes can be expressed as the combinatorial extension of adjacency algebras of association schemes induced by the closed subsets of WW. As a direct consequence, we obtain simple conceptual explanations and alternative proofs of many known results on the structures of Terwilliger algebras of wreath products of association schemes

Effects of NaOH solution treatment on the catalytic performances of MCM-49 in liquid alkylation of benzene with ethylene

MCM-49 zeolite was alkali-treated with NaOH solutions under mild and severe conditions. The samples before and after alkali-treatment were both used as catalysts in liquid alkylation reaction of benzene with ethylene. XRD, XRF, TPD, TPO, IR, SEM, (29)Si NMR, N(2) adsorption and desorption techniques were employed to characterize the samples. The mildly alkali-treated samples exhibited higher catalytic stability than the parent HMCM-49, as the amorphous particles on the MCM-49 crystal surface were cleaned and the diffusion of the reactant and product was enhanced. The severe alkali-treatment condition resulted in the selective extraction of silicon atoms and the introduction of extra mesopores. The catalytic stability of the catalysts that had been severely alkali-treated was not as good as that of mildly treated ones, but was still better than that of the parent HMCM-49 catalyst if the alkali-treatment conditions were not too severe. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A Monitoring Method Based on FBG for Concrete Corrosion Cracking

Corrosion cracking of reinforced concrete caused by chloride salt is one of the main determinants of structure durability. Monitoring the entire process of concrete corrosion cracking is critical for assessing the remaining life of the structure and determining if maintenance is needed. Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensing technology is extensively developed in photoelectric monitoring technology and has been used on many projects. FBG can detect the quasi-distribution of strain and temperature under corrosive environments, and thus it is suitable for monitoring reinforced concrete cracking. According to the mechanical principle that corrosion expansion is responsible for the reinforced concrete cracking, a package design of reinforced concrete cracking sensors based on FBG was proposed and investigated in this study. The corresponding relationship between the grating wavelength and strain was calibrated by an equal strength beam test. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by an electrically accelerated corrosion experiment. The fiber grating sensing technology was able to track the corrosion expansion and corrosion cracking in real time and provided data to inform decision-making for the maintenance and management of the engineering structure