1,069 research outputs found
Controlled Morphological Structure of Ceria Nanoparticles Prepared by Spray Pyrolysis
AbstractCeria based materials have been widely used as catalyst supporters and electrolytes. Different applications require different morphologies, and the microstructural control during the synthesis is crucial. In the study, ceria particles were prepared from various precursors using a spray pyrolysis (SP). Comparing to the hollow and porous particles, the formation mechanism with solid spherical structure is not clarified readily. The ceria particles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetry analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. This experimental result suggests that the morphology is controlled by the precursors and could be related to their decomposed behavior during the heating process in SP
Large scale simulation of watershed mass transport – a case study of Tsengwen reservoir watershed
The Tenth International Symposium on Mitigation of Geo-disasters in Asia Matsue Symposium Place: Shimane Civil Center, Matsue Date: 8 October 2012We present the large scale simulation of watershed mass transport, including landslide, debris-flow and sediment transport. A case study of Tsengwen reservoir watershed under the extreme rainfall triggered by typhoon Morakot is simulated for verification. This approach starts with volume-area relationship formula with inventory method to predict temporal and regional landslide volume production and distribution. Then, debris flow model, Debris-2D, is used to simulate the mass transport of debris-flow from hillslope to fluvial channel. Finally a sediment transport model, NETSTARS, is used for hydraulic and sediment routing in river and reservoir. The integrated simulation for the whole watershed gives a very good agreement with the temporal variation of sediment concentration recorded at the very downstream location
Characterization of the GXXXG motif in the first transmembrane segment of Japanese encephalitis virus precursor membrane (prM) protein
The interaction between prM and E proteins in flavivirus-infected cells is a major driving force for the assembly of flavivirus particles. We used site-directed mutagenesis to study the potential role of the transmembrane domains of the prM proteins of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in prM-E heterodimerization as well as subviral particle formation. Alanine insertion scanning mutagenesis within the GXXXG motif in the first transmembrane segment of JEV prM protein affected the prM-E heterodimerization; its specificity was confirmed by replacing the two glycines of the GXXXG motif with alanine, leucine and valine. The GXXXG motif was found to be conserved in the JEV serocomplex viruses but not other flavivirus groups. These mutants with alanine inserted in the two prM transmembrane segments all impaired subviral particle formation in cell cultures. The prM transmembrane domains of JEV may play importation roles in prM-E heterodimerization and viral particle assembly
Atypical general movements in the general population:Prevalence over the last 15 years and associated factors
Aim To determine the prevalence of atypical general movements (GMs) in the general population, to examine its time trend and associated factors. Methods Participants consisted of 300 infants born in 2016-2018 (current cohort; gestational age 39.4 weeks (27-42); 162 boys), representative of the Dutch population. GMs were assessed at 2-4 months corrected age in terms of GM-complexity (definitely abnormal (DA) or not) and fidgety movements (present or absent). GM-complexity data from a cohort of 455 Dutch infants born in 2001-2002 were used to investigate the time trend. Results In the current cohort, 10 infants (3%) showed DA GM-complexity and 8 (3%) absent fidgety movements. Only one infant had both GM-impairments (0.3%). The prevalence of DA GM-complexity did not differ from that in the 2001-2002 cohort (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.47 [0.53, 4.06]). DA GM-complexity was associated with maternal smoking (adjusted OR = 3.59 [1.56, 8.28]) and marginally with prematurity (adjusted OR = 2.78 [1.00, 7.74]); absence of fidgety movements was curvilinearly associated with assessment age only (OR = 1.06 [1.01, 1.12]). Conclusion In the general population, the prevalence of DA GM-complexity and absent fidgety movements is 3%. The finding that they rarely co-occur and are associated with different factors indicates that GM-assessment needs to address both aspects
ICPR2017 – The Fourth International Conference on Practice Research: overview
This paper reports issues arising from the Fourth International Conference on Practice Research, held in Hong Kong in May 2017. The issues were identified by specially convened group of conference participants, and include the need to develop a better language to describe practice research in terms that make sense to practitioners, improved support for practitioners to conduct research, recognising the different drivers for practice research in different countries, and enhancing practitioners' coordinating and leadership roles
InSpaceType: Reconsider Space Type in Indoor Monocular Depth Estimation
Indoor monocular depth estimation has attracted increasing research interest.
Most previous works have been focusing on methodology, primarily experimenting
with NYU-Depth-V2 (NYUv2) Dataset, and only concentrated on the overall
performance over the test set. However, little is known regarding robustness
and generalization when it comes to applying monocular depth estimation methods
to real-world scenarios where highly varying and diverse functional
\textit{space types} are present such as library or kitchen. A study for
performance breakdown into space types is essential to realize a pretrained
model's performance variance. To facilitate our investigation for robustness
and address limitations of previous works, we collect InSpaceType, a
high-quality and high-resolution RGBD dataset for general indoor environments.
We benchmark 11 recent methods on InSpaceType and find they severely suffer
from performance imbalance concerning space types, which reveals their
underlying bias. We extend our analysis to 4 other datasets, 3 mitigation
approaches, and the ability to generalize to unseen space types. Our work marks
the first in-depth investigation of performance imbalance across space types
for indoor monocular depth estimation, drawing attention to potential safety
concerns for model deployment without considering space types, and further
shedding light on potential ways to improve robustness. See
\url{https://depthcomputation.github.io/DepthPublic} for data
A Novel Two-Layer DAG-based Reactive Protocol for IoT Data Reliability in Metaverse
Many applications, e.g., digital twins, rely on sensing data from Internet of
Things (IoT) networks, which is used to infer event(s) and initiate actions to
affect an environment. This gives rise to concerns relating to data integrity
and provenance. One possible solution to address these concerns is to employ
blockchain. However, blockchain has high resource requirements, thereby making
it unsuitable for use on resource-constrained IoT devices. To this end, this
paper proposes a novel approach, called two-layer directed acyclic graph
(2LDAG), whereby IoT devices only store a digital fingerprint of data generated
by their neighbors. Further, it proposes a novel proof-of-path (PoP) protocol
that allows an operator or digital twin to verify data in an on-demand manner.
The simulation results show 2LDAG has storage and communication cost that is
respectively two and three orders of magnitude lower than traditional
blockchain and also blockchains that use a DAG structure. Moreover, 2LDAG
achieves consensus even when 49\% of nodes are malicious
Typical general movements at 2 to 4 months:Movement complexity, fidgety movements, and their associations with risk factors and SINDA scores
Background: Movement complexity and the presence of fidgety movements (FMs) during general movements (GMs) both reflect aspects of neurological integrity in early infancy. Aim: To assess interrelations between the degree of movement complexity and characteristics of FMs during typical GMs and to investigate associations between mildly impaired GMs and risk factors and neurodevelopmental condition. Study design: Observational cohort study. Subjects: 283 infants (25 born preterm) at 2-4 months corrected age, representative of the general Dutch population. Outcome measures: GMs were classified in terms of GM-complexity (normal or mildly abnormal (MA)) and FMs (clearly present, sporadic, or exaggerated). Concurrent neurological, developmental and socio-emotional status were measured with the Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA). Results: Infants with MA GM-complexity had a higher risk of having sporadic FMs and exaggerated FMs. Perinatal complications were not associated with mildly impaired GMs. MA GM-complexity was associated with advanced maternal age (adjusted OR = 2.29 [1.11, 4.76]) and having a non-native Dutch mother (adjusted OR = 2.93 [1.29, 6.64]). It was also associated with atypical neurological (OR = 7.62 [3.51, 16.54]) and developmental scores (OR = 2.38 [1.16, 4.88]). Sporadic and exaggerated FMs were associated with low-to-middle maternal education (adjusted OR = 2.88, [1.45, 5.72]) and having a non-native Dutch father (adjusted OR = 7.16 [1.41, 36.32]), respectively. However, neither sporadic nor exaggerated FMs were associated with the SINDA outcomes. Conclusions: GM-complexity and FMs are two interrelated but different aspects of GMs. Mild impairments in GM-complexity and FMs share a non-optimal socio-economic background as risk factor, but only MA GM-complexity is associated with a concurrent non-optimal neurodevelopmental condition
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