Effectiveness of Histopathological Examination of Ultrasound-guided Puncture Biopsy Samples for Diagnosis of Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of histopathological examination of ultrasound-guided puncture biopsy samples in extrapulmonary tuberculosis(EPTB).Methods This study was conducted at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.A total of 115patients underwent ultrasound-guided puncture biopsy,followed by MGIT 960 culture(culture),smear,Gene Xpert MTB/RIF(Xpert),and histopathological examination.These assays were performed to evaluate their effectiveness in diagnosing EPTB in comparison to two different diagnostic criteria:liquid culture and composite reference standard(CRS).Results When CRS was used as the reference standard,the sensitivity and specificity of culture,smear,Xpert,and histopathological examination were(44.83%,89.29%),(51.72%,89.29%),(70.11%,96.43%),and(85.06%,82.14%),respectively.Based on liquid culture tests,the sensitivity and specificity of smear,Xpert,and pathological examination were(66.67%,72.60%),(83.33%,63.01%),and(92.86%,45.21%),respectively.Histopathological examination showed the highest sensitivity but lowest specificity.Further,we found that the combination of Xpert and histopathological examination showed a sensitivity of 90.80%and a specificity of 89.29%.Conclusion Ultrasound-guided puncture sampling is safe and effective for the diagnosis of EPTB.Compared with culture,smear,and Xpert,histopathological examination showed higher sensitivity but lower specificity.The combination of histopathology with Xpert showed the best performance characteristics.

Exploring device physics of perovskite solar cell via machine learning with limited samples

Perovskite solar cells(PsCs)have developed tremendously over the past decade.However,the key factors influencing the power conversion efficiency(PCE)of PSCs remain incompletely understood,due to the complexity and coupling of these structural and compositional parameters.In this research,we demon-strate an effective approach to optimize PSCs performance via machine learning(ML).To address chal-lenges posed by limited samples,we propose a feature mask(FM)method,which augments training samples through feature transformation rather than synthetic data.Using this approach,squeeze-and-excitation residual network(SEResNet)model achieves an accuracy with a root-mean-square-error(RMSE)of 0.833%and a Pearson's correlation coefficient(r)of 0.980.Furthermore,we employ the permu-tation importance(PI)algorithm to investigate key features for PCE.Subsequently,we predict PCE through high-throughput screenings,in which we study the relationship between PCE and chemical com-positions.After that,we conduct experiments to validate the consistency between predicted results by ML and experimental results.In this work,ML demonstrates the capability to predict device performance,extract key parameters from complex systems,and accelerate the transition from laboratory findings to commercialapplications.

Mechanical behavior of 2G NPR bolt anchored rock samples under static disturbance loading

The deep mining of coal resources is accompanied by severe environmental challenges and various potential engineering hazards.The implementation of NPR(negative Poisson's ratio)bolts are capable of controlling large deformations in the surrounding rock effectively.This paper focuses on studying the mechanical properties of the NPR bolt under static disturbance load.The deep nonlinear mechanical experimental system was used to study the mechanical behavior of rock samples with different anchored types(unanchored/PR anchored/2G NPR anchored)under static disturbance load.The whole process of rock samples was taken by high-speed camera to obtain the real-time failure characteristics under static disturbance load.At the same time,the acoustic emission signal was collected to obtain the key characteristic parameters of acoustic emission such as acoustic emission count,energy,and frequency.The deformation at the failure of the samples was calculated and analyzed by digital speckle software.The findings indicate that the failure mode of rock is influenced by different types of anchoring.The peak failure strength of 2G NPR bolt anchored rock samples exhibits an increase of 6.5%when compared to the unanchored rock samples.The cumulative count and cumulative energy of acoustic emission exhibit a decrease of 62.16%and 62.90%,respectively.The maximum deformation of bearing capacity exhibits an increase of 59.27%,while the failure time demonstrates a delay of 42.86%.The peak failure strength of the 2G NPR bolt anchored ones under static disturbance load exhibits an increase of 5.94%when compared to the rock anchored by PR(Poisson's ratio)bolt.The cumulative count and cumulative energy of acoustic emission exhibit a decrease of 47.16%and 43.86%,respectively.The maximum deformation of the bearing capacity exhibits an increase of 50.43%,and the failure time demonstrates a delay of 32%.After anchoring by 2G NPR bolt,anchoring support effectively reduces the risk of damage caused by static disturbance load.These results demonstrate that the support effect of 2G NPR bolt materials surpasses that of PR bolt.

Design and Experimentation of Multi-Rod Grain Sampling Machine

In order to enhance grain sampling efficiency, in this work a truss type multi-rod grain sampling machine is designed and tested. The sampling machine primarily consists of truss support mechanism, main carriage mechanism, auxiliary carriage mechanism, sampling rods, and a PLC controller. The movement of the main carriage on the truss, the auxiliary carriage on the main carriage, and the vertical movement of the sampling rods on the auxiliary carriage are controlled through PLC programming. The sampling machine accurately controls the position of the sampling rods, enabling random sampling with six rods to ensure comprehensive and random sampling. Additionally, sampling experiments were conducted, and the results showed that the multi-rod grain sampling machine simultaneously samples with six rods, achieving a sampling frequency of 38 times per hour. The round trip time for the sampling rods is 33 seconds per cycle, and the sampling length direction reaches 18 m. This study provides valuable insights for the design of multi-rod grain sampling machines.

Stochastic sampled-data multi-objective control of active suspension systems for in-wheel motor driven electric vehicles

This paper addresses the sampled-data multi-objective active suspension control problem for an in-wheel motor driven electric vehicle subject to stochastic sampling periods and asynchronous premise variables.The focus is placed on the scenario that the dynamical state of the half-vehicle active suspension system is transmitted over an in-vehicle controller area network that only permits the transmission of sampled data packets.For this purpose,a stochastic sampling mechanism is developed such that the sampling periods can randomly switch among different values with certain mathematical probabilities.Then,an asynchronous fuzzy sampled-data controller,featuring distinct premise variables from the active suspension system,is constructed to eliminate the stringent requirement that the sampled-data controller has to share the same grades of membership.Furthermore,novel criteria for both stability analysis and controller design are derived in order to guarantee that the resultant closed-loop active suspension system is stochastically stable with simultaneous𝐻2 and𝐻∞performance requirements.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed stochastic sampled-data multi-objective control method is verified via several numerical cases studies in both time domain and frequency domain under various road disturbance profiles.

Yarn Quality Prediction for Small Samples Based on AdaBoost Algorithm

In order to solve the problems of weak prediction stability and generalization ability of a neural network algorithm model in the yarn quality prediction research for small samples,a prediction model based on an AdaBoost algorithm(AdaBoost model) was established.A prediction model based on a linear regression algorithm(LR model) and a prediction model based on a multi-layer perceptron neural network algorithm(MLP model) were established for comparison.The prediction experiments of the yarn evenness and the yarn strength were implemented.Determination coefficients and prediction errors were used to evaluate the prediction accuracy of these models,and the K-fold cross validation was used to evaluate the generalization ability of these models.In the prediction experiments,the determination coefficient of the yarn evenness prediction result of the AdaBoost model is 76% and 87% higher than that of the LR model and the MLP model,respectively.The determination coefficient of the yarn strength prediction result of the AdaBoost model is slightly higher than that of the other two models.Considering that the yarn evenness dataset has a weaker linear relationship with the cotton dataset than that of the yarn strength dataset in this paper,the AdaBoost model has the best adaptability for the nonlinear dataset among the three models.In addition,the AdaBoost model shows generally better results in the cross-validation experiments and the series of prediction experiments at eight different training set sample sizes.It is proved that the AdaBoost model not only has good prediction accuracy but also has good prediction stability and generalization ability for small samples.

How do the landslide and non-landslide sampling strategies impact landslide susceptibility assessment? d A catchment-scale case study from China

The aim of this study is to investigate the impacts of the sampling strategy of landslide and non-landslide on the performance of landslide susceptibility assessment(LSA).The study area is the Feiyun catchment in Wenzhou City,Southeast China.Two types of landslides samples,combined with seven non-landslide sampling strategies,resulted in a total of 14 scenarios.The corresponding landslide susceptibility map(LSM)for each scenario was generated using the random forest model.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve and statistical indicators were calculated and used to assess the impact of the dataset sampling strategy.The results showed that higher accuracies were achieved when using the landslide core as positive samples,combined with non-landslide sampling from the very low zone or buffer zone.The results reveal the influence of landslide and non-landslide sampling strategies on the accuracy of LSA,which provides a reference for subsequent researchers aiming to obtain a more reasonable LSM.

Metal Corrosion Rate Prediction of Small Samples Using an Ensemble Technique

Accurate prediction of the internal corrosion rates of oil and gas pipelines could be an effective way to prevent pipeline leaks.In this study,a proposed framework for predicting corrosion rates under a small sample of metal corrosion data in the laboratory was developed to provide a new perspective on how to solve the problem of pipeline corrosion under the condition of insufficient real samples.This approach employed the bagging algorithm to construct a strong learner by integrating several KNN learners.A total of 99 data were collected and split into training and test set with a 9:1 ratio.The training set was used to obtain the best hyperparameters by 10-fold cross-validation and grid search,and the test set was used to determine the performance of the model.The results showed that theMean Absolute Error(MAE)of this framework is 28.06%of the traditional model and outperforms other ensemblemethods.Therefore,the proposed framework is suitable formetal corrosion prediction under small sample conditions.

Airfoil Shape Optimisation Using a Multi-Fidelity Surrogate-Assisted Metaheuristic with a New Multi-Objective Infill Sampling Technique

This work presents multi-fidelity multi-objective infill-sampling surrogate-assisted optimization for airfoil shape optimization.The optimization problem is posed to maximize the lift and drag coefficient ratio subject to airfoil geometry constraints.Computational Fluid Dynamic(CFD)and XFoil tools are used for high and low-fidelity simulations of the airfoil to find the real objective function value.A special multi-objective sub-optimization problem is proposed for multiple points infill sampling exploration to improve the surrogate model constructed.To validate and further assess the proposed methods,a conventional surrogate-assisted optimization method and an infill sampling surrogate-assisted optimization criterion are applied with multi-fidelity simulation,while their numerical performance is investigated.The results obtained show that the proposed technique is the best performer for the demonstrated airfoil shape optimization.According to this study,applying multi-fidelity with multi-objective infill sampling criteria for surrogate-assisted optimization is a powerful design tool.

Development of a loop‑mediated isothermal amplification assay for detection of Austropeplea tomentosa from environmental water samples

Lymnaeid snails are key intermediate hosts for the development and survival of Fasciola spp.,the causative agent of Fascioliasis which are economically important parasites infecting humans and livestock globally.The current control method for treating Fascioliasis is heavily reliant on anthelmintic drugs,particularly Triclabendazole(TCBZ)which has resulted in drug-resistant parasites and poses significant risk as there are no long-term efficacious alternatives available.Sustainable control measures at the farm level could include both parasite and snail control will play an important role in Fasciola spp.control and reduce the reliance on anthelmintic drugs.Implementation of such sustainable control measures requires effective identification of snails on the property however Lymnaeid snails are small and difficult to physically locate.Snail identification using an environmental DNA approach is a recent approach in which physically locating snails are not required.Austropeplea tomentosa,is the primary intermediate snail host for F.hepatica transmission in South-East Australia and we present an in-field loop-mediated isothermal amplification and water filtering method for the detection of A.tomentosa eDNA from water samples to improve current surveillance methods.This methodology is highly sensitive with a detection limit of 5×10^(−6)ng/μL,detected in<20 minutes,with cumulative sample preparation and amplification time under 1 hour.This proposed workflow could assist in monitoring areas to determine the risk of Fascioliasis infection and implement strategies to manage snail populations to ultimately reduce the risk of infection for humans and livestock.

Geochemical Orientation Study of Stream Sediment Samples in the Southern Part of Nuggihalli Schist Belt: Ore Mineral Phases and Their Implications on the Bedrock Potential for Ores

Stream sediment sampling is a significant tool in geochemical exploration. The stream sediment composition reflects the bedrock geology, overburden cover, and metalliferous mineralization. This research article focuses on assessing selected trace element concentrations in stream sediments and interpreting their inter-element relationships using multivariate statistical methods. Tagadur Ranganathaswamy Gudda and its surroundings in the Nuggihalli schist belt of southern India have been investigated in the present work. The geology of the study area is complex, with a diverse range of litho units and evidence of strong structural deformation. The area is known for its mineralization potential for chromite, vanadiferous titanomagnetite, and sulfides. The topography of the region is characterized by an undulating terrain with a radial drainage pattern. Most part of the schist belt is soil covered except the Tagadur Ranganathaswamy Gudda area. For this study, a discrete stream sediment sampling method was adopted to collect the samples. Stream sediment samples were collected using a discrete sampling method and analyzed for trace elements using an ICP-AES spectrophotometer: Fe, Cr, Ti, V, Cu, Ni, Zn, Pb, Mn, Cd, and As have been analyzed. The analytical data were statistically treated using the SPSS software, including descriptive statistics, normalization of data using natural log transformation, and factor analysis with varimax rotation. The transformed data showed a log-normal distribution, indicating the presence of geochemical anomalies. The results of the study provide valuable insights into the geochemical processes and mineralization potential of the study area. The statistical analysis helps in understanding the inter-element relationships and identifying element groups and their implications on bedrock potential mineralization. Additionally, spatial analysis using inverse distance weighting interpolation provides information about the distribution of geochemical parameters across the study area. Overall, this research contributes to the understanding of stream sediment geochemistry and its application in mineral exploration. The findings have implications for future exploration efforts and can aid in the identification of potential ore deposits in the Nuggihalli schist belt and similar geological settings.

Multivariate form of Hermite sampling series

In this paper,we establish a new multivariate Hermite sampling series involving samples from the function itself and its mixed and non-mixed partial derivatives of arbitrary order.This multivariate form of Hermite sampling will be valid for some classes of multivariate entire functions,satisfying certain growth conditions.We will show that many known results included in Commun Korean Math Soc,2002,17:731-740,Turk J Math,2017,41:387-403 and Filomat,2020,34:3339-3347 are special cases of our results.Moreover,we estimate the truncation error of this sampling based on localized sampling without decay assumption.Illustrative examples are also presented.

Liver Transplantation Outcomes of HBV-,HCV-,and Alcohol-induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma in the United States:Analysis of National Inpatient Samples

Objective Liver transplantation is a current treatment option for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).The United States National Inpatient Sample database was utilized to identify risk factors that influence the outcome of liver transplantation,including locoregional recurrence,distant metastasis,and in-hospital mortality,in HCC patients with concurrent hepatitis B infection,hepatitis C infection,or alcoholic cirrhosis.Methods This retrospective cohort study included HCC patients(n=2391)from the National Inpatient Sample database who underwent liver transplantation and were diagnosed with hepatitis B or C virus infection,co-infection with hepatitis B and C,or alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver between 2005 and 2014.Associations between HCC etiology and post-transplant outcomes were examined with multivariate analysis models.Results Liver cirrhosis was due to alcohol in 10.5%of patients,hepatitis B in 6.6%,hepatitis C in 10.8%,and combined hepatitis B and C infection in 24.3%.Distant metastasis was found in 16.7%of patients infected with hepatitis B and 9%of hepatitis C patients.Local recurrence of HCC was significantly more likely to occur in patients with hepatitis B than in those with alcohol-induced disease.Conclusion After liver transplantation,patients with hepatitis B infection have a higher risk of local recurrence and distant metastasis.Postoperative care and patient tracking are essential for liver transplant patients with hepatitis B infection.

Modified DS np Chart Using Generalized Multiple Dependent State Sampling under Time Truncated Life Test

This study presents the design of a modified attributed control chart based on a double sampling(DS)np chart applied in combination with generalized multiple dependent state(GMDS)sampling to monitor the mean life of the product based on the time truncated life test employing theWeibull distribution.The control chart developed supports the examination of the mean lifespan variation for a particular product in the process of manufacturing.Three control limit levels are used:the warning control limit,inner control limit,and outer control limit.Together,they enhance the capability for variation detection.A genetic algorithm can be used for optimization during the in-control process,whereby the optimal parameters can be established for the proposed control chart.The control chart performance is assessed using the average run length,while the influence of the model parameters upon the control chart solution is assessed via sensitivity analysis based on an orthogonal experimental design withmultiple linear regression.A comparative study was conducted based on the out-of-control average run length,in which the developed control chart offered greater sensitivity in the detection of process shifts while making use of smaller samples on average than is the case for existing control charts.Finally,to exhibit the utility of the developed control chart,this paper presents its application using simulated data with parameters drawn from the real set of data.

Effect of sample temperature on femtosecond laser ablation of copper

We conduct an experimental study supported by theoretical analysis of single laser ablating copper to investigate the interactions between laser and material at different sample temperatures,and predict the changes of ablation morphology and lattice temperature.For investigating the effect of sample temperature on femtosecond laser processing,we conduct experiments on and simulate the thermal behavior of femtosecond laser irradiating copper by using a two-temperature model.The simulation results show that both electron peak temperature and the relaxation time needed to reach equilibrium increase as initial sample temperature rises.When the sample temperature rises from 300 K to 600 K,the maximum lattice temperature of the copper surface increases by about 6500 K under femtosecond laser irradiation,and the ablation depth increases by 20%.The simulated ablation depths follow the same general trend as the experimental values.This work provides some theoretical basis and technical support for developing femtosecond laser processing in the field of metal materials.

Multi-Compartment SCFA Quantification in Human

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) play an important role in human biochemistry. They originate primarily from the digestive system through carbohydrates microbial fermentation. Most SCFA produced in the colon are absorbed by the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream to be distributed throughout the body for multiple purposes. At the intestinal level, SCFA play a role in controlling fat storage and fatty acid metabolism. The effects of these beneficial compounds therefore concern overall health. They facilitate energy expenditure and are valuable allies in the fight against obesity and diabetes. SCFA are also involved in the regulation of the levels of several neurotransmitters such as GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid), glutamate, serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Their role is also highlighted in many inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Parkinson’s disease (PD). To have a realistic picture of the distribution of SCFA in different biological compartments of the human body, we propose to study SCFA simultaneously in five human biological samples: feces, saliva, serum, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and urine, as well as in Dried Blood Spot (DBS). To evaluate their concentration and repeatability, we used 10 aliquots from pooled samples, analyzed by 3-nitrophenylhydrazine (3-NPH) derivation and liquid chromatography coupled with high sensitivity mass spectrometry (LC-QqQ-MS). We also evaluated the SCFA assay on Dried Blood Spot (DBS). In this work, we adapted the pre-analytical parts for each sample to be able to use a common calibration curve, thus facilitating multi-assay quantification studies and so being less time-consuming. Moreover, we proposed new daughter ions from the same neutral loss (43 Da) to quantify SCFAs, thus improving the sensitivity. In conclusion, our methodology, based on a unique calibration curve for all samples for each SCFA, is well-suited to quantified them in a clinical context.

Enhancing Deep Learning Semantics:The Diffusion Sampling and Label-Driven Co-Attention Approach

The advent of self-attention mechanisms within Transformer models has significantly propelled the advancement of deep learning algorithms,yielding outstanding achievements across diverse domains.Nonetheless,self-attention mechanisms falter when applied to datasets with intricate semantic content and extensive dependency structures.In response,this paper introduces a Diffusion Sampling and Label-Driven Co-attention Neural Network(DSLD),which adopts a diffusion sampling method to capture more comprehensive semantic information of the data.Additionally,themodel leverages the joint correlation information of labels and data to introduce the computation of text representation,correcting semantic representationbiases in thedata,andincreasing the accuracyof semantic representation.Ultimately,the model computes the corresponding classification results by synthesizing these rich data semantic representations.Experiments on seven benchmark datasets show that our proposed model achieves competitive results compared to state-of-the-art methods.

Application of closed-vessel microwave digestion method for the determination of multi-elements in environmental samples by sequential ICP-AES

A closed-vessel microwave digestion method is described for the rapid dissolution of environmental samples such as foods, soils and sediments. Depending on the sample type, 0.1-0.2 g sample was decomposed with HNO3/H2O2 or HNO3 / H2O2/HF acid mixture in a PTFE digestion vessel by using microwave heating for 2-3 min at 500W of microwave power. The solution, or to which 0.5 g of boric acid was added, was diluted to 25-50 ml and directly determined by sequential ICP-AES. The accuracy of the procedure was validated by the analysis of six standard reference materials for 10 elements. Ail results were in a good agreements with the certified values.

Recent advances in protein conformation sampling by combining machine learning with molecular simulation

The rapid advancement and broad application of machine learning(ML)have driven a groundbreaking revolution in computational biology.One of the most cutting-edge and important applications of ML is its integration with molecular simulations to improve the sampling efficiency of the vast conformational space of large biomolecules.This review focuses on recent studies that utilize ML-based techniques in the exploration of protein conformational landscape.We first highlight the recent development of ML-aided enhanced sampling methods,including heuristic algorithms and neural networks that are designed to refine the selection of reaction coordinates for the construction of bias potential,or facilitate the exploration of the unsampled region of the energy landscape.Further,we review the development of autoencoder based methods that combine molecular simulations and deep learning to expand the search for protein conformations.Lastly,we discuss the cutting-edge methodologies for the one-shot generation of protein conformations with precise Boltzmann weights.Collectively,this review demonstrates the promising potential of machine learning in revolutionizing our insight into the complex conformational ensembles of proteins.

A Railway Fastener Inspection Method Based on Abnormal Sample Generation

Regular fastener detection is necessary to ensure the safety of railways.However,the number of abnormal fasteners is significantly lower than the number of normal fasteners in real railways.Existing supervised inspectionmethods have insufficient detection ability in cases of imbalanced samples.To solve this problem,we propose an approach based on deep convolutional neural networks(DCNNs),which consists of three stages:fastener localization,abnormal fastener sample generation based on saliency detection,and fastener state inspection.First,a lightweight YOLOv5s is designed to achieve fast and precise localization of fastener regions.Then,the foreground clip region of a fastener image is extracted by the designed fastener saliency detection network(F-SDNet),combined with data augmentation to generate a large number of abnormal fastener samples and balance the number of abnormal and normal samples.Finally,a fastener inspection model called Fastener ResNet-8 is constructed by being trained with the augmented fastener dataset.Results show the effectiveness of our proposed method in solving the problem of sample imbalance in fastener detection.Qualitative and quantitative comparisons show that the proposed F-SDNet outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in clip region extraction,reaching MAE and max F-measure of 0.0215 and 0.9635,respectively.In addition,the FPS of the fastener state inspection model reached 86.2,and the average accuracy reached 98.7%on 614 augmented fastener test sets and 99.9%on 7505 real fastener datasets.