Risk assessment using transfer learning for grassland fires

© 2019 A new direction of risk assessment research in grassland fire management is data-driven prediction, in which data are collected from particular regions. Since some regions have rich datasets that can easily generate knowledge for risk prediction, and some have no data available, this study addresses how we can leverage the knowledge learned from one grassland risk assessment to assist with a current assessment task. In this paper, we first introduce the transfer learning methodology to map and update risk maps in grassland fire management, and we propose a new grassland fire risk analysis method. In this study, two major grassland areas (Xilingol and Hulunbuir) in northern China are selected as the study areas, and five representative indicators (features) are extracted from grassland fuel, fire climate, accessibility, human and social economy. Taking Xilingol as the source domain (where sufficient labelled data are available) and Hulunbuir as the target domain (which contains insufficient data but requires risk assessment/prediction), we then establish the mapping relationship between grassland fire indicators and the degrees of grassland fire risk by using a transfer learning method. Finally, the fire risk in the Hulunbuir grassland is assessed using the transfer learning method. Experiments show that the prediction accuracy reached 87.5% by using the transfer learning method, representing a significant increase over existing methods

Study on the serum oxidative stress status in silicosis patients

To determine whether oxidative-stress damage play an important role in the mechanism of silicosis, the oxidative stress parameters were investigated in silicosis patients and controls group. 128 silicosis patients and 130 healthy controls were included. The serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and the levels of malonyldialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) were analyzed. The levels of GSH and MDA in silicosis patients were significantly higher than those of the controls group. SOD activity was higher in the silicosis group than that in the controls (p < 0.05) except for III stage. None of the 3 variables examined were associated with the age among both the controls and silicosis patients. The GSH level and SOD activity significantly declined over a prolonged disease period, while MDA levels remained largely unaffected by the disease duration. These results confirmed the role of oxidative stress in the mechanism of silicosis. Therefore, effective antioxidant therapy for inhibiting oxidative stress may be a therapeutic option in silicosis.Key words: Silica, silicosis, superoxide dismutase, glutathione, malondialdehyde

Bio-Inspired Aggregation Control of Carbon Nanotubes for Ultra-Strong Composites

High performance nanocomposites require well dispersion and high alignment of the nanometer-sized components, at a high mass or volume fraction as well. However, the road towards such composite structure is severely hindered due to the easy aggregation of these nanometer-sized components. Here we demonstrate a big step to approach the ideal composite structure for carbon nanotube (CNT) where all the CNTs were highly packed, aligned, and unaggregated, with the impregnated polymers acting as interfacial adhesions and mortars to build up the composite structure. The strategy was based on a bio-inspired aggregation control to limit the CNT aggregation to be sub 20--50 nm, a dimension determined by the CNT growth. After being stretched with full structural relaxation in a multi-step way, the CNT/polymer (bismaleimide) composite yielded super-high tensile strengths up to 6.27--6.94 GPa, more than 100% higher than those of carbon fiber/epoxy composites, and toughnesses up to 117--192 MPa. We anticipate that the present study can be generalized for developing multifunctional and smart nanocomposites where all the surfaces of nanometer-sized components can take part in shear transfer of mechanical, thermal, and electrical signals

Krit1 inhibited proliferation and metastasis of human colon cancer via DPPIV signaling pathway

Oral presentationpublished_or_final_versionThe 15th Annual Research Conference of the Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 16 January 2010. In Hong Kong Medical Journal, 2010, v. 16, suppl. 1, p. 67, abstract no. 11

Safety management of waterway congestions under dynamic risk conditions—A case study of the Yangtze River

With the continuous increase of traffic volume in recent years, inland waterway transportation suffers more and more from congestion problems, which form a major impediment to its development. Thus, it is of great significance for the stakeholders and decision makers to address these congestion issues properly. Fuzzy Techniques for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is widely used for solving Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problems with ambiguity. When taking into account fuzzy TOPSIS, decisions are made in a static scenario with fixed weights assigned to the criteria. However, risk conditions usually vary in real-life cases, which will inevitably affect the preference ranking of the alternatives. To make flexible decisions according to the dynamics of congestion risks and to achieve a rational risk analysis for prioritising congestion risk control options (RCOs), the cost-benefit ratio (CBR) is used in this paper to reflect the change of risk conditions. The hybrid of CBR and fuzzy TOPSIS is illustrated by investigating the congestion risks of the Yangtze River. The ranking of RCOs varies depending on the scenarios with different congestion risk conditions. The research findings indicate that some RCOs (e.g. “Channel dredging and maintenance”, and “Prohibition of navigation”) are more cost effective in the situation of a high level of congestion risk, while the other RCOs (e.g. “Loading restriction”, and “Crew management and training”) are more beneficial in a relatively low congestion risk condition. The proposed methods and the evaluation results provide useful insights for effective safety management of the inland waterway congestions under dynamic risk conditions. © 2017 Elsevier B.V

Development and validation study of a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease risk scoring model among adults in China

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common liver diseases in China. It is usually asymptomatic and transabdominal ultrasound (USS) is the usual means for diagnosis, but it may not be feasible to have USS screening of the whole population. Objective: To develop a risk scoring model for predicting the presence of NAFLD using parameters that can be easily obtain in clinical settings. Methods: A retrospective study on the data of 672 adults who had general health check including a transabdominal ultrasound. Fractional polynomial and multivariable logistic regressions of sociodemographic and biochemical variables on NAFLD were used to identify the predictors. A risk score was assigned to each predictor using the scaled standardized β-coefficient to create a risk prediction algorithm. The accuracy for NAFLD detection by each cut-off score in the risk algorithm was evaluated. Results: The prevalence of NAFLD in our study population was 33.0% (222/672). Six significant factors were selected in the final prediction model. The areas under the curve (AUC) was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.78–0.85). The optimal cut-off score, based on the ROC was 35, with a sensitivity of 76.58% (95% CI: 70.44–81.98%) and specificity of 74.89% (95% CI: 70.62–78.83%). Conclusion: A NAFLD risk scoring model can be used to identify asymptomatic Chinese people who are at risk of NAFLD for further USS investigation.published_or_final_versio

Evidence for genetic association of TBX21 and IFNG with systemic lupus erythematosus in a Chinese Han population

TBX21 recode T-bet which is an important transcription factor that drives the Th1 immune response primarily by promoting expression of the interferon-gamma (IFNG) gene. Recent studies have shown that genetic variants in TBX21 and IFNG are connected with risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The aim of the present study was to replicate these genetic associations with SLE in Anhui Chinese population. Genotyping of 3 variants (rs4794067 in TBX21, rs2069705 and rs2069718 in IFNG) was performed. A total of 3732 subjects were included in the final analysis. The study only identified the association of rs2069705 with SLE susceptibility (T vs. C: odds ratio [OR] = 1.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00-1.26, P = 0.046). Combined analysis with Hong Kong GWAS showed that the OR for rs2069705 was 1.10 (95% CI: 1.01-1.21, P = 0.027). Further pooled analysis with Korean populations involving 10498 subjects showed a more significant association between rs2069705 and SLE (T vs. C: OR = 1.11, 95%CI = 1.04-1.19, P = 0.002; TT + TC vs. CC: OR = 1.11, 95%CI = 1.02-1.21, P = 0.012; TT vs. TC + CC: OR = 1.28, 95%CI = 1.07-1.54, P = 0.008; TT vs. CC: OR = 1.33, 95%CI = 1.10-1.60, P = 0.003). In addition, we also identified a significant genetic interaction between rs2069705 and rs4794067 in Anhui Chinese population. Our study suggests that IFNG and IFNG-TBX21 interaction are involved in SLE susceptibility.published_or_final_versio