A CT-Based Airway Segmentation Using U2^2-net Trained by the Dice Loss Function

Airway segmentation from chest computed tomography scans has played an essential role in the pulmonary disease diagnosis. The computer-assisted airway segmentation based on the U-net architecture is more efficient and accurate compared to the manual segmentation. In this paper we employ the U$^2$-net trained by the Dice loss function to model the airway tree from the multi-site CT scans based on 299 training CT scans provided by the ATM'22. The derived saliency probability map from the training is applied to the validation data to extract the corresponding airway trees. The observation shows that the majority of the segmented airway trees behave well from the perspective of accuracy and connectivity. Refinements such as non-airway regions labeling and removing are applied to certain obtained airway tree models to display the largest component of the binary results.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Effects of Physicochemical Properties and Microbial Communities of Fermented Soybean Products on the Formation of Biogenic Amines

The study was carried out to evaluate the contents of common biogenic amines, microbial community diversity and physicochemical indicators of seven samples of fermented liquid soybean products and seven samples of fermented solid soybean products. The results showed that the total amount of biogenic amines in defatted soy sauce, steamed fish soy sauce and oyster reduced salt soy sauce were all higher than 8 000 mg/L and significantly higher than those in the other samples (P < 0.05). The pH and Kjeldahl nitrogen contents of the samples were negatively correlated with the total content of biogenic amines, while water activity (factor loading 0.413), total acid content (factor loading 0.399) and salinity (factor loading 0.330) had a greater positive effect on the production of biogenic amines. Pseudomonas spp. and Bacillus spp. were positively and negatively correlated with the content of biogenic amines, respectively. The results of the study provide a theoretical basis for the development of relevant standards

Microwave‐Assisted Pyrolysis of Biomass for Bio‐Oil Production

Microwave‐assisted pyrolysis (MAP) is a new thermochemical process that converts biomass to bio‐oil. Compared with the conventional electrical heating pyrolysis, MAP is more rapid, efficient, selective, controllable, and flexible. This chapter provides an up‐to‐date knowledge of bio‐oil production from microwave‐assisted pyrolysis of biomass. The chemical, physical, and energy properties of bio‐oils obtained from microwave‐assisted pyrolysis of biomass are described in comparison with those from conventional pyrolysis, the characteristics of microwave‐assisted pyrolysis as affected by biomass feedstock properties, microwave heating operations, use of exogenous microwave absorbents, and catalysts are discussed. With the advantages it offers and the further research and development recommended, microwave‐assisted pyrolysis has a bright future in production of bio‐oils that can effectively narrow the energy gap and reduce negative environmental impacts of our energy production and application practice

Parameter Design for the Energy Regeneration System of Series Hydraulic Hybrid Bus

This paper simplifies the energy recovery process in the series hydraulic hybrid bus’ energy regeneration system into a process in which the main axle’s moment of inertia drives the secondary element variable delivery pump/motor and brings hydraulic oil from the oil tank to the accumulator. This process enables braking of the vehicle and also allows recovery of energy to the accumulator. Based on the flow equation for the secondary element variable delivery pump/motor and the torque equilibrium equation for its axle, the force equilibrium equation for vehicle braking and the pressure variation and flow continuity equations for the accumulator, simulation studies are conducted to analyze the effects of various system parameters, such as accumulator capacity, displacement of the secondary element variable delivery pump/motor, initial operating pressure of the system, etc. on system performance during regenerative braking

Fungal pretreatment of raw digested piggery wastewater enhancing the survival of algae as biofuel feedstock

Abstract Background Understanding about the impact of white rot fungi on indigenous bacterial communities, NH 4 + and turbidity in digested piggery wastewater, will allow the optimization of wastewater treatment methods and its use as a feasible medium for algal growth. Here, the white rot fungi were inoculated into undiluted and unsterilized digested piggery wastewater under different temperatures and pH regimes in order to lower the pretreatment cost. Diversity and abundance of the bacterial communities in the pretreated wastewater were assessed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis coupled with 16S rDNA sequencing. Results The research showed a significant reduction on the microbial diversity with the presence of white rot fungi which occur at pH 6. The distribution and presence of bacteria taxa were strongly correlated with NH 4 + concentration, pH, and the presence of white rot fungi. Variance partition analysis also showed that the effect on the chlorophyll content of algae in fungi-filtered wastewater was as the following hierarchy: bacterial diversity\ua0>\ua0NH 4 + \ua0>\ua0turbidity. Therefore, the algae in treated wastewater with less abundance of bacteria proliferated more successfully, indicating that bacterial community not only played an important role in algal growth but also imposed a strong top-down control on the algal population. The algae grown in wastewater treated with fungi reached the highest specific growth rate (0.033\ua0day \u22121 ), whereas the controls displayed the negative specific growth rate. The fatty acid composition varied markedly in C16:0 and C18:0 between these treatments, with a higher content of C16:0. Conclusions This study firstly showed that Chlorella can grow as cost-effective biofuel feedstocks in undiluted and unsterilized digested wastewater with high ammonium concentration and dark brown color because the bacterial abundance of digested piggery wastewater could be reduced greatly by the white rot fungi