The Invention relates to a Tobacco Silk Big Data and AI Development Platform and its Application

In recent years, big data and AI technology has been widely used, and the traditional manufacturing industry has also obtained a huge space for technological transformation and upgrading. For tobacco silk production, due to its abundant sensors in the production line and high degree of automation, it has unique advantages in the application of big data and AI technology; At the same time, due to the complexity of its production process and technology, the application of big data and AI technology is facing challenges. Therefore, this paper designed a graphical silk making big data and AI development platform to accelerate the application of big data and AI technology in tobacco processing and manufacturing industry

Towards Secure Blockchain-enabled Internet of Vehicles: Optimizing Consensus Management Using Reputation and Contract Theory

In Internet of Vehicles (IoV), data sharing among vehicles is essential to improve driving safety and enhance vehicular services. To ensure data sharing security and traceability, highefficiency Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus scheme as a hard security solution is utilized to establish blockchain-enabled IoV (BIoV). However, as miners are selected from miner candidates by stake-based voting, it is difficult to defend against voting collusion between the candidates and compromised high-stake vehicles, which introduces serious security challenges to the BIoV. To address such challenges, we propose a soft security enhancement solution including two stages: (i) miner selection and (ii) block verification. In the first stage, a reputation-based voting scheme for the blockchain is proposed to ensure secure miner selection. This scheme evaluates candidates' reputation by using both historical interactions and recommended opinions from other vehicles. The candidates with high reputation are selected to be active miners and standby miners. In the second stage, to prevent internal collusion among the active miners, a newly generated block is further verified and audited by the standby miners. To incentivize the standby miners to participate in block verification, we formulate interactions between the active miners and the standby miners by using contract theory, which takes block verification security and delay into consideration. Numerical results based on a real-world dataset indicate that our schemes are secure and efficient for data sharing in BIoV.Comment: 12 pages, submitted for possible journal publicatio

Global analysis of land-use changes in karst areas and the implications for water resources [Globale Analyse von Landnutzungsänderungen in Karstgebieten und deren Auswirkungen auf die Wasserressourcen]

Karstgebiete weisen wertvolle Grundwasserressourcen und eine hohe Artenvielfalt auf, sind jedoch besonders anfällig für den Klimawandel und menschliche Einflüsse. Landnutzungswandel ist Ursache und Folge von globalen Umweltveränderungen. Die Veröffentlichung von Daten wie denen des Land-Cover-Projektes der Climate Change Initiative (CCI-LC) der europäischen Weltraumbehörde ESA und der World Karst Aquifer Map (WOKAM) hat es ermöglicht, weltweite Landnutzungsveränderungen in Karstgebieten zu untersuchen. In dieser Arbeit wird zunächst die globale Verteilung der Nutzung von Karstlandschaften im Jahr 2020 untersucht, sowie die Charakteristika von Landnutzungsübergängen zwischen 1992 und 2020 analysiert. Dann werden zwei Indikatoren vorgeschlagen, um die räumlichen Merkmale von Landnutzungsveränderungen in globalen Karstgebieten zu identifizieren: Der Anteil von Landnutzungsveränderungen und der dominante Typ von Landnutzungsveränderungen. Schließlich werden drei Beispiele für Landnutzungsveränderungen in Karstgebieten im Detail analysiert. Die Landnutzungstypen und ihre Anteile der globalen Karstgebiete (in abnehmender Größe) sind: Wald (31.78%), kahle Flächen (27.58%), Ackerland (19.02%), Grasland (10.87%), Strauchland (7.21%), Feuchtgebiete (1.67%), Eis und Schnee (1.16%) und urbanes Gebiet (0.71%). Die Gesamtfläche der globalen Landnutzungsveränderungen in Karstgebieten beträgt 1.3 Millionen km², etwa 4.85% der globalen Karstfläche. Der Trend des Landnutzungswandels in den weltweiten Karstgebieten wird von Aufforstung dominiert, ergänzt durch vereinzelte Urbanisierung und landwirtschaftliche Rekultivierung. Die tropischen Klimazonen weisen eine höhere Intensität von Landnutzungsveränderungen auf. Regionen mit landwirtschaftlicher Rekultivierung stimmen weitgehend mit der Bevölkerungsdichte überein. Diese Ergebnisse spiegeln den Einfluss menschlicher Aktivitäten und des Klimawandels auf Landnutzungsveränderungen in globalen Karstgebieten wider und dienen als Grundlage für weitere Forschung und Planung im Bereich des Landressourcenmanagements

Effect of hip fracture on prognosis of acute cerebral infarction

OBJECTIVES: Hip fractures are a worldwide public health problem. The incidence of hip fracture is high among the elderly, and it is an important cause of death and disability in this population. This observational study aimed to investigate the effect of acute hip fracture on the recovery of neurological function and the prognosis of patients with acute cerebral infarction, as well as whether surgical treatment of combined acute fracture can improve the prognosis of patients. METHODS: Thirty patients with acute cerebral infarction combined with acute hip fracture, who were hospitalized in two hospitals between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2019, were included. The patients did not undergo surgical treatment. The control group included patients with common acute cerebral infarction without hip fracture admitted in the same period. The neurological function recovery, hospitalization period, half a year recovery rate, incidence of complications, and one-year mortality rate between the two groups were compared. Eleven patients with acute cerebral infarction combined with hip fracture, who underwent surgical treatment, were selected and compared with those in the non-surgery group. RESULTS: Compared with patients with common acute cerebral infarction, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of those with acute cerebral infarction combined with hip fracture was higher (7.2±5.4 vs. 5.6%±4.3, p=0.034), the hospitalization period was prolonged (16.1±8.9% vs. 12.2±5.3, p=0.041), and the half a year recovery rate was lower (26.7% vs. 53.3%, p=0.016). Additionally, the incidence of pulmonary infection and lower extremity deep vein thrombosis was increased (30% vs. 11.7%, p=0.03; 6.7% vs. 0, p=0.043). The one-year mortality rate of patients with hip fracture was higher than that of patients with common cerebral infarction (23.3% vs. 6.7%, p=0.027). Compared with the non-surgical group, the good recovery rate after half a year of surgical treatment of the group with cerebral infarction and acute hip fracture had an increasing trend, while the hospitalization cycle, incidence of complications, and one-year mortality rate were all decreased, although this was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Acute cerebral infarction combined with hip fracture leads to worse neurological recovery, prolonged hospitalization period, increased complications, decreased patient prognosis, and increased one-year mortality. Surgical treatment improves the prognosis of patients with acute cerebral infarction. These findings may provide insights into the management of acute cerebral infarction

Vibration analysis of a cylinder with slight diameter and thickness variations

The cross section of circular cylinder in their dynamic model is always considered as a perfect circle, which means radii at every point on the circle are the same. In real engineering structure, there are slight fluctuations in shape of the circular cylinder which is different from those in ideal model. Meanwhile, effects of structural fluctuations on its dynamic characteristic are rarely analyzed before. To study problem mentioned above, the geometric shape of a typical, apparently symmetrical cylinder is examined experimentally to demonstrate that a small variation in diameter and thickness indeed exists in practice firstly. Because fluctuations in diameter and thickness of the cylinder are related to each other, we need to separate effects of a slight variation in its diameter and thickness on structural dynamic characteristics to search the key factor of influence. Then, two simplified modes, which are modeled by finite element method, are used to study the effects of diameter or thickness variation alone on the natural frequencies and modal shapes of the free cylinder. It is revealed that the diameter variation described by the simplified model captures the key influencing elements which affect the modal characteristics of the free cylinder. Finally, a free cylinder with both variations is analyzed numerically and the results are verified experimentally. This work illustrates that significant discrepancies inevitably exist between the measured results of an actual free cylinder and an assumed symmetrical model even if there is only a very slight variation in its geometric shape

3D printing high interfacial bonding polyether ether ketone components via pyrolysis reactions

Recently, 3D-printed polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) components have been shown to offer many applications in state-of-the-art electronics, 5G wireless communications, medical implantations, and aerospace components. Nevertheless, a critical barrier that limits the application of 3D printed PEEK components is their weak interfacial bonding strength. Herein, we propose a novel method to improve this unsatisfied situation via the interface plasticizing effect of benzene derivatives obtained from the thermal pyrolysis of trisilanolphenyl polyhedral oligomeric silsequioxane (POSS). Based on this method, the bonding strength of the filaments and interlayers of 3D-printed POSS/PEEK components can reach 82.9 MPa and 59.8 MPa, respectively. Moreover, the enhancing mechanism of the pyrolysis products derived from the POSS is characterized using pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray computed tomography (X-CT). Our proposed strategy broadens the novel design space for developing additional 3D-printed materials with satisfactory interfacial bonding strength

Generative AI-driven Semantic Communication Networks: Architecture, Technologies and Applications

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) has emerged as a rapidly burgeoning field demonstrating significant potential in creating diverse contents intelligently and automatically. To support such artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC) services, future communication systems should fulfill much more stringent requirements (including data rate, throughput, latency, etc.) with limited yet precious spectrum resources. To tackle this challenge, semantic communication (SemCom), dramatically reducing resource consumption via extracting and transmitting semantics, has been deemed as a revolutionary communication scheme. The advanced GAI algorithms facilitate SemCom on sophisticated intelligence for model training, knowledge base construction and channel adaption. Furthermore, GAI algorithms also play an important role in the management of SemCom networks. In this survey, we first overview the basics of GAI and SemCom as well as the synergies of the two technologies. Especially, the GAI-driven SemCom framework is presented, where many GAI models for information creation, SemCom-enabled information transmission and information effectiveness for AIGC are discussed separately. We then delve into the GAI-driven SemCom network management involving with novel management layers, knowledge management, and resource allocation. Finally, we envision several promising use cases, i.e., autonomous driving, smart city, and the Metaverse for a more comprehensive exploration

Coordinated Development of Primary Care Resource Allocation and Economy as Well as Associate Factors in China: a Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

BackgroundThe allocation of medical resources in China has been in an "inverted triangle" state for a long time. The unreasonable allocation of grass-roots medical resources is difficult to meet the increasingly diversified needs of medical services. The coupling and coordination between the allocation of grass-roots medical resources and economic development will affect the level of regional economic development and the service capacity of grass-roots medical institutions. At present, there is a lack of research on the current situation of their coordinated development and how their influencing factors work through combination.ObjectiveTo assess the level of coordinated development of primary care resource allocation and economy in China, and to determine the associated factors, providing a decision-making basis for further improving medical resource allocation and planning.MethodsThe research was carried out from November 2020 to April 2021. Data were collected from China Health Statistics Yearbook 2019 and China Statistical Yearbook 2019. fsQCA was implemented to assess the influence of the number of licensed (assistant) doctors, number of registered nurses, financial subsidy for part of salary, number of beds, number of primary care institutions, regional gross domestic product (GDP) , regional fiscal revenue, per capita disposable income, and per capita GDP (used as conditional variables) on the level of interconnected, coordinated development level of primary care resource allocation and economic level (the outcome variable) in 31 regions of China.ResultsIn 2018, only the mean level of interconnected, and coordinated development of primary care resource allocation and economy in eastern China (0.61) was within the range (0.6, 1.0] of coordinated development, and that in central China (0.50) was within the transitional harmony range (0.4, 0.6], while that in western China (0.38) was within the range of imbalanced and recessional development[0, 0.4]. The coordinated development of primary care resource allocation and economic level were found to be affected by many factors, and it may be facilitated by four configurations of its associated factors revealed by the configuration analysis: (1) number of beds * number of licensed (assistant) doctors * number of registered nurses * number of primary care institutions * financial subsidy for part of salary* ~ per capita disposable income * ~ per capita GDP; (2) ~ number of beds * ~ number of licensed (assistant) doctors * number of registered nurses * number of primary care institutions * ~ financial subsidy for part of salary* regional GDP * ~ per capita disposable income * per capita GDP; (3) number of licensed (assistant) doctors * number of registered nurses * number of primary care institutions * financial subsidy for part of salary * regional GDP * regional fiscal revenue * per capita disposable income * per capita GDP; (4) ~ number of beds * ~ number of licensed (assistant) doctors * ~ number of registered nurses * ~ number of primary care institutions * financial subsidy for part of salary * regional GDP * regional financial income * per capita disposable income * per capita GDP (* for "and", ~ for "not") . And these four configurations could be classified into three types of paths: primary care resource allocation-driven type, primary care resource allocation and economic balance type, and economic development-driven type.ConclusionThe overall level of coordinated development of primary care resource allocation and economy in China was unsatisfactory, with obvious regional differences, which was mainly affected by the number of registered nurses, regional GDP, and regional fiscal revenue, but may be facilitated greatly by the above-mentioned four configurations of associated factors. Therefore, it is suggested that each region chooses one path to achieve high level of interconnected, and coordinated development of primary care resource allocation and economy according to their own resources and conditions, so as to promote the rational primary care resource allocation, and the coordinated development of medical resources and economic level, thereby improving the level of primary care services in China