Primary biliary cirrhosis degree assessment by acoustic radiation force impulse imaging and hepatic fibrosis indicators

AIM: To evaluate the assessment of primary biliary cirrhosis degree by acoustic radiation force impulse imaging (ARFI) and hepatic fibrosis indicators. METHODS: One hundred and twenty patients who developed liver cirrhosis secondary to primary biliary cirrhosis were selected as the observation group, with the degree of patient liver cirrhosis graded by Child-Pugh (CP) score. Sixty healthy individuals were selected as the control group. The four indicators of hepatic fibrosis were detected in all research objects, including hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN), type III collagen (PC III), and type IV collagen (IV-C). The liver parenchyma hardness value (LS) was then measured by ARFI technique. LS and the four indicators of liver fibrosis (HA, LN, PC III, and IV-C) were observed in different grade CP scores. The diagnostic value of LS and the four indicators of liver fibrosis in determining liver cirrhosis degree with PBC, whether used alone or in combination, were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: LS and the four indicators of liver fibrosis within the three classes (A, B, and C) of CP scores in the observation group were higher than in the control group, with C class > B class > A class; the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.01). Although AUC values of LS within the three classes of CP scores were higher than in the four indicators of liver fibrosis, sensitivity and specificity were unstable. The ROC curves of LS combined with the four indicators of liver fibrosis revealed that: AUC and sensitivity in all indicators combined in the A class of CP score were higher than in LS alone, albeit with slightly decreased specificity; AUC and specificity in all indicators combined in the B class of CP score were higher than in LS alone, with unchanged sensitivity; AUC values (0.967), sensitivity (97.4%), and specificity (90%) of all indicators combined in the C class of CP score were higher than in LS alone (0.936, 92.1%, 83.3%). CONCLUSION: The diagnostic value of PBC cirrhosis degree in liver cirrhosis degree assessment by ARFI combined with the four indicators of serum liver fibrosis is of satisfactory effectiveness and has important clinical application value.

Characterization,identification and life prediction of acoustic emission signals of tensile damage for HSR gearbox housing material

Purpose-This study aims to ensure the operation safety of high speed trains,it is necessary to carry out nondestructive monitoring of the tensile damage of the gearbox housing material in rail time,yet the traditional tests of mechanical property can hardly meet this requirement.Design/methodology/approach-In this study the acoustic emission(AE)technology is applied in the tensile tests of the gearbox housing material of an high-speed rail(HSR)train,during which the acoustic signatures are acquired for parameter analysis.Afterward,the support vector machine(SVM)classifier is introduced to identify and classify the characteristic parameters extracted,on which basis the SVM is improved and the weighted support vector machine(WSVM)method is applied to effectively reduce the misidentification of the SVM classifier.Through the study of the law of relations between the characteristic values and the tensile life,a degradation model of the gearbox housing material amid tensile is built.Findings-The results show that the growth rate of the logarithmic hit count of AE signals and that of logarithmic amplitude can well characterize the stage of the material tensile process,and the WSVM method can improve the classification accuracy of the imbalanced data to above 94%.The degradation model built can identify the damage occurred to the HSR gearbox housing material amid the tensile process and predict the service life remains.Originality/value-The results of this study provide new concepts for the life prediction of tensile samples,and more further tests should be conducted to verify the conclusion of this research.

Research on Electromagnetic Acoustic Emission Signal Recognition Based on Local Mean Decomposition and Least Squares Support Vector Machine

Electromagnetic acoustic emission technology is one of nondestructive testing, which can be used for defect detection of metal specimens. In this study, round and cracked metal specimens, round metal specimens, and intact metal specimens were prepared. And the electromagnetic acoustic emission signals of the three specimens were collected. In addition, the local mean decomposition(LMD), Autoregressive model(AR model) and least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) algorithms were combined to identify the eletromagnetic acoustic emission signals of round and cracked, round, and intact specimens. According to the algorithm recognition results, the recognition accuracy of can reach above 97.5%, which has a higher recognition rate compared with SVM and BP neural network. The results of the study show that the algorithm is able to identify quickly and accurately crack defect in metal specimens.

Advances in Effects of Sound Waves on Plants

Sound waves technology has been applied to different plants. It has been found that sound waves were at different frequencies, sound pressure levels （SPLs）, exposure periods, and distances from the source of sound influence plant growth. Experiments have been conducted in the open field and under greenhouse growing conditions with different levels of audible sound frequencies and sound pressure levels. Sound waves at 1 kHz and 100 dB for 1 h within a distance of 0.20 m could significantly promote the division and cell wall fluidity of callus cells and also significantly enhance the activity of protective enzymes and endogenous hormones. Sound waves stimulation could increase the plant plasma-membrane IT-ATPase activity, the contents of soluble sugar, soluble protein, and amylase activity of callus. Moreover, sound waves could increase the content of RNA and the level of transcription. Stress-induced genes could switch on under sound stimulation. Sound waves at 0.1-1 kHz and SPL of （70＋5） dB for 3 h from plant acoustic frequency technology （PAFT） generator within a distance ranged from 30 to 60 m every other day significantly increased the yield of sweet pepper, cucumber and tomato by 30.05, 37.1 and 13.2%, respectively. Furthermore, the yield of lettuce, spinach, cotton, rice, and wheat were increased by 19.6, 22.7, 11.4, 5.7, and 17.0%, respectively. Sound waves may also strengthen plant immune systems. It has been proved that spider mite, aphids, gray mold, late blight and virus disease of tomatoes in the greenhouses decreased by 6.0, 8.0, 9.0, 11.0, and 8.0%, respectively, and the sheath blight office was reduced by 50%. This paper provides an overview of literature for the effects of sound waves on various growth parameters of plant at different growth stages.

Current Trends and Perspectives of Detection and Location for Buried Non-Metallic Pipelines

Buried pipelines are an essential component of the urban infrastructure of modern cities.Traditional buried pipes are mainly made of metal materials.With the development of material science and technology in recent years,non-metallic pipes,such as plastic pipes,ceramic pipes,and concrete pipes,are increasingly taking the place of pipes made from metal in various pipeline networks such as water supply,drainage,heat,industry,oil,and gas.The location technologies for the location of the buried metal pipeline have become mature,but detection and location technologies for the non-metallic pipelines are still developing.In this paper,current trends and future perspectives of detection and location of buried non-metallic pipelines are summarized.Initially,this paper reviews and analyzes electromagnetic induction technologies,electromagnetic wave technologies,and other physics-based technologies.It then focuses on acoustic detection and location technologies,and finally introduces emerging technologies.Then the technical characteristics of each detection and location method have been compared,with their strengths and weaknesses identified.The current trends and future perspectives of each buried non-metallic pipeline detection and location technology have also been defined.Finally,some suggestions for the future development of buried non-metallic pipeline detection and location technologies are provided.

The design and simulation of new downhole vibration device about acoustic oil recovery technology

More and more oilfields are using acoustic technology to enhance oil recovery.In order to know the mechanism of acoustic oil recovery technology,the sound radiator of a new downhole vibration device is modeled and analyzed.Based on the theoretical background,this paper firstly analyzes the acoustic mechanism for the oil reservoir and then makes a acoustic response analysis on the sound radiator model for frequency and time-domain investigation by using professional acoustic simulation softwareeLMS Virtual.lab Acoustics,finally calculates the acoustic transmission loss in the downhole oil reservoir.The research reveals that firstly,acoustic waves have influences on the oil&water fluidity in the oil reservoir,the oil pressure gradient and the interfacial tension of capillary;secondly,the acoustic radiation power and sound pressure of field point attain a peak on the natural frequency of the sound radiator;thirdly,with the acoustic impact,the sound pressure of oil reservoir would fluctuate so as to improve the oil recovery ratio;the last but not the least one is both the sound pressure of oil reservoir point and the transmission loss of rock have a positive correlation with the vibration frequency.Therefore,it is of great importance for the research of vibration frequency and structure optimization of sound radiator.

The course of science and technology,and acoustics:past,present and future——turning to information acoustics

In this paper, the historical development of acoustics has been briefly reviewed. It can be concluded that acoustics study has been developed along with the same atream of the historical developments of science and technology, the category of acoustics has changed from the nature-oriented and passive physical acoustics to the human-oriented and active information acoustics. It has been extended over a variety of wide fields.

Effect of TGO on the tensile failure behavior of thermal barrier coatings

Thermally grown oxide(TGO)may be generated in thermal barrier coatings(TBCs)after high-temperature oxidation.TGO increases the internal stress of the coatings,leading to the spalling of the coatings.Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy were used to investigate the growth characteristics,microstructure,and composition of TGO after high-temperature oxidation for 0,10,30,and 50 h,and the results were systematically compared.Acoustic emission(AE)signals and the strain on the coating surface under static load were measured with AE technology and digital image correlation.Results showed that TGO gradually grew and thickened with the increase in oxidation time.The thickened TGO had preferential multi-cracks at the interface of TGO and the bond layer and delayed the strain on the surface of the coating under tensile load.TGO growth resulted in the generation of pores at the interface between the TGO and bond layer.The pores produced by TGO under tensile load delayed the generation of surface cracks and thus prolonged the failure time of TBCs.