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Introduction Types of paper Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: Original research papers, reviews, Research Notes, Short Communication, New technologies, News and Views, Commentary on significant events and topics in global horticultural fields with international interests.

Detection of internal crack growth in polyethylene pipe using guided wave ultrasonic testing

Despite the success of guided wave ultrasonic inspection for internal defect detection in steel pipes,its application on polyethylene(PE)pipe remains relatively unexplored.The growth of internal cracks in PE pipe severely affects its pressure-holding capacity,hence the early detection of internal cracks is crucial for effective pipeline maintenance strategies.This study extends the scope of guided wave-based ultrasonic testing to detect the growth of internal cracks in a natural gas distribution PE pipe.Laboratory experiments and a finite element model were planned to study the wave-crack interaction at different stages of axially oriented internal crack growth with a piezoceramic transducer-based setup arranged in a pitch-catch configuration.Mode dispersion analysis supplemented with preliminary experiments was performed to isolate the optimal inspection frequency,leading to the selection of the T(0,1)mode at 50-kHz for the investigation.A transmission index based on the energy of the T(0,1)mode was developed to trace the extent of simulated crack growth.The findings revealed an inverse linear correlation between the transmission index and the crack depth for crack growth beyond 20%crack depth.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

INTRODUCTION Types of paper Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication:Original research papers,reviews and short communications.Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your submission.Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Introduction Types of paper Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication:Original research papers,Reviews,Short communication.Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your submission.Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.

Study of Axisymmetric Infinite Guide Lined with Locally Reacting Material without Flow Using DtN Operators

The present work proposed a new method for the modeling by the finite element method of the acoustic propagation problems in infinite axisymmetric cylindrical guides lined with locally reacting absorbent materials without flow. The method deals with the development of an efficient transparent boundary condition based on DtN operators. The method developed in this study is successfully applied to a straight axisymmetric lined guide by imposing a mode on one of the artificial boundaries of the truncated guide. The results are in good agreement with analytical solutions. Applying the method for a non-uniform axisymmetric lined guide which is a complex case, proved its effectiveness and the results compared to those of PML layers are in very good agreement.

Comparison of Transrectal Prostate Digital and Ultrasound-Guided Core Biopsies in 400 Men in a Low-and-Middle Income Country

Background: The diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa) relies on clinical assessment with digital rectal examination, serum PSA and histological examination. Limitations in our technical facilities, high financial cost of ultrasound-guided biopsy often prevent us from implementing the guidelines on the practice of prostate biopsy. Methods: We conducted a retrospective and cross-sectional descriptive study comparing digital-guided and ultrasound-guided transrectal prostate biopsy of 400 patients over a period of 12 years in the Yaounde Central Hospital. We reviewed files of patients who underwent digital and ultrasound guided biopsy procedures. Data was analyzed using EPI info 7.0. Parametric variables were reported as means and standard deviations and percentages and counts were used to report categorical variables. Results: Out of the 400 patients, 292 digital-guided transrectal biopsies (73%) and 108 ultrasound-guided transrectal biopsies (27%) were performed in patients who were suspected of having prostate cancer (PCa). Patients were aged between 39 to 90 years. Both procedures were effective in identifying prostate cancer. Gleason score between 2 to 10 detected prostate adenocarcinoma for 301 patients (75.2%). The complications included anal pain, rectal bleeding, hematuria and urinary tract infections, with an occurrence rate similar for both ultrasound-guided (2.25%) and digitally-guided techniques (2.5%). Seven patients (1.75%) required hospitalization for management of complications. The mortality rate was null. Conclusion: Both techniques are effective in detecting PCa with the similar complication rates. Digital-guided trans-rectal prostate biopsy still has its place in a resource-limited setting like ours.

Application of Automated Guided Vehicles in Smart Automated Warehouse Systems:A Survey

Automated Guided Vehicles(AGVs)have been introduced into various applications,such as automated warehouse systems,flexible manufacturing systems,and container terminal systems.However,few publications have outlined problems in need of attention in AGV applications comprehensively.In this paper,several key issues and essential models are presented.First,the advantages and disadvantages of centralized and decentralized AGVs systems were compared;second,warehouse layout and operation optimization were introduced,including some omitted areas,such as AGVs fleet size and electrical energy management;third,AGVs scheduling algorithms in chessboardlike environments were analyzed;fourth,the classical route-planning algorithms for single AGV and multiple AGVs were presented,and some Artificial Intelligence(AI)-based decision-making algorithms were reviewed.Furthermore,a novel idea for accelerating route planning by combining Reinforcement Learning(RL)andDijkstra’s algorithm was presented,and a novel idea of the multi-AGV route-planning method of combining dynamic programming and Monte-Carlo tree search was proposed to reduce the energy cost of systems.

Guided Care护理对接受体外受精-胚胎移植的肥胖型多囊卵巢综合征不孕患者的干预效果

目的 评价Guided Care护理方案对接受体外受精-胚胎移植(IVF-ET)助孕的肥胖型多囊卵巢综合征(PCOS)患者的干预效果。方法 选择2022年1—12月在河南省人民医院生殖中心接受IVF-ET助孕的74例肥胖型PCOS患者作为研究对象,按随机数表法分为观察组(37例)和对照组(37例)。对照组患者接受常规护理,观察组在常规护理基础上接受Guided Care护理。比较两组患者治疗依从性、生活方式及焦虑程度。结果 Guided Care护理可提高患者的就医及服药依从性,改善其生活方式,降低患者的焦虑程度(P<0.05)。结论 Guided Care护理方案可以改善肥胖型PCOS患者的治疗依从性及其生活方式,降低患者的焦虑程度。

基于MATLAB Guide的大学物理光学实验平台

基于大学物理光学实验的要求,利用MATLAB的交互式软件开发工具Guide设计创建交互仿真界面,制作包括实验背景与原理介绍、实验仿真操作、实验数据分析的光学实验仿真平台.同时,此仿真平台运行编译器可脱离MATLAB环境,独立运行程序.并且,该平台弥补了以往光学仿真实验的不足,功能更加全面,操作更加简洁有效,有助于极大地促进教学.

The effect of the guide field on energy conversion during collisionless magnetic reconnection

Magnetic reconnection is well known as an efficient mechanism for transferring magnetic energy into plasma energy.However,how the energy conversion and partition between different species is influenced by the shear angle of the reconnecting magnetic component(i.e.,the guide field strength)is not well understood.Using 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations,we investigated the energy conversion in reconnection with different guide fields.We found that the overall energy conversion first decreases steeply and then increases slowly when the guide field increases fromB_(g)=0 toB_(g)=4.The increase in energy conversion in the large guide field regime is due to the electron energy gain through the perpendicular channelJ_(⊥)·E_(⊥).The overall energy conversion is predominantly contributed byJ_(⊥)·E_(⊥) rather thanJ||E||.We further find that energy conversion mainly occurs within the reconnection front and the flux pileup region.However,the contribution from the fore reconnection front becomes important in large guide field regimes(3<B_(g)≤4)because of the enhanced electron energy gain.

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Article■ Article types Articles commonly fall into one of three main categories: Fulllength articles, Review articles and Short communications.Full-length articles are original, unpublished primary research. Extensions of work that has been published previously in short form such as a Communication are usually acceptable.Short communications must contain original and highly significant work whose high novelty warrants rapid publication.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Article Article types Articles commonly fall into one of three main categories:Fulllength articles,Review articles and Short communications.Full-length articles are original,unpublished primary research.Extensions of work that has been published previously in short form such as a Communication are usually acceptable.Short communications must contain original and highly significant work whose high novelty warrants rapid publication.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Article ■ Article types Articles commonly fall into one of three main categories: Full-length articles, Review articles and Short communications.Full-length articles are original, unpublished primary research. Extensions of work that has been published previously in short form such as a Communication are usually acceptable.

Improved HardNet and Stricter Outlier Filtering to Guide Reliable Matching

As the fundamental problem in the computer vision area,image matching has wide applications in pose estimation,3D reconstruction,image retrieval,etc.Suffering from the influence of external factors,the process of image matching using classical local detectors,e.g.,scale-invariant feature transform(SIFT),and the outlier filtering approaches,e.g.,Random sample consensus(RANSAC),show high computation speed and pool robustness under changing illumination and viewpoints conditions,while image matching approaches with deep learning strategy(such as HardNet,OANet)display reliable achievements in large-scale datasets with challenging scenes.However,the past learning-based approaches are limited to the distinction and quality of the dataset and the training strategy in the image-matching approaches.As an extension of the previous conference paper,this paper proposes an accurate and robust image matching approach using fewer training data in an end-to-end manner,which could be used to estimate the pose error This research first proposes a novel dataset cleaning and construction strategy to eliminate the noise and improve the training efficiency;Secondly,a novel loss named quadratic hinge triplet loss(QHT)is proposed to gather more effective and stable feature matching;Thirdly,in the outlier filtering process,the stricter OANet and bundle adjustment are applied for judging samples by adding the epipolar distance constraint and triangulation constraint to generate more outstanding matches;Finally,to recall the matching pairs,dynamic guided matching is used and then submit the inliers after the PyRANSAC process.Multiple evaluation metrics are used and reported in the 1st place in the Track1 of CVPR Image-Matching Challenge Workshop.The results show that the proposed method has advanced performance in large-scale and challenging Phototourism benchmark.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration pancreatic adenocarcinoma samples yield adequate DNA for next-generation sequencing:A cohort analysis

BACKGROUND Genetic tests are increasingly performed for the management of unresectable pancreatic cancer.For genotyping aimed samples current guidelines recommend using core specimens,although based on moderate quality evidence.However,in clinical practice among the endoscopic ultrasound(EUS) guided tissue acquisition methods,fine needle aspiration(FNA) is the most widely performed.AIM To assess the adequacy for next generation sequencing(NGS) of the DNA yielded from EUS-FNA pancreatic adenocarcinoma(PDAC) samples.METHODS Between November 2018 and December 2021,105 patients with PDAC confirmed by EUS-FNA were included in the study at our tertiary gastroenterology center.Either 22 gauge(G) or 19G FNA needles were used.One pass was dedicated to DNA extraction.DNA concentration and purity(A260/280,A260/230) were assessed by spectrophotometry.We assessed the differences in DNA parameters according to needle size and tumor characteristics(size,location) and the adequacy of the extracted DNA for NGS(defined as A260/280 ≥ 1.7,and DNA yield:≥ 10 ng for amplicon based NGS,≥ 50 ng for whole exome sequencing [WES],≥ 100 ng for whole genome sequencing [WGS]) by analysis of variance and ttest respectively.Moreover,we compared DNA purity parameters across the different DNA yield categories.RESULTS Our cohort included 49% male patients,aged 67.02 ± 8.38 years.The 22G needle was used in 71%of the cases.The DNA parameters across our samples varied as follows:DNA yield:1289 ng(inter quartile range:534.75-3101),A260/280 = 1.85(1.79-1.86),A260/230 = 2.2(1.72-2.36).DNA yield was > 10 ng in all samples and > 100 ng in 93% of them(one sample < 50 ng).There were no significant differences in the concentration and A260/280 between samples by needle size.Needle size was the only independent predictor of A260/230 which was higher in the 22G samples(P =0.038).NGS adequacy rate was 90% for 19G samples regardless of NGS type,and for 22G samples it reached 89% for WGS adequacy and 91% for WES and amplicon based NGS.Samples with DNA yield > 100 ng had significantly higher A260/280(1.89 ± 0.32 vs 1.34 ± 0.42,P = 0.013).Tumor characteristics were not corelated with the DNA parameters.CONCLUSION EUS-FNA PDAC samples yield DNA adequate for subsequent NGS.DNA amount was similar between 22G and 19G FNA needles.DNA purity parameters may vary indirectly with needle size.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

INTRODUCTION Types of paper Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication:Original research papers,reviews and short communications.Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your submission.Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

INTRODUCTION Types of paper Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication:Original research papers,reviews and short communications.Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your submission.Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Introduction Types of paper Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication:Original research papers,Reviews,Short communication.Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your submission.Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.

Guided Dropout: Improving Deep Networks Without Increased Computation

Deep convolution neural networks are going deeper and deeper.How-ever,the complexity of models is prone to overfitting in training.Dropout,one of the crucial tricks,prevents units from co-adapting too much by randomly drop-ping neurons during training.It effectively improves the performance of deep net-works but ignores the importance of the differences between neurons.To optimize this issue,this paper presents a new dropout method called guided dropout,which selects the neurons to switch off according to the differences between the convo-lution kernel and preserves the informative neurons.It uses an unsupervised clus-tering algorithm to cluster similar neurons in each hidden layer,and dropout uses a certain probability within each cluster.Thereby this would preserve the hidden layer neurons with different roles while maintaining the model’s scarcity and gen-eralization,which effectively improves the role of the hidden layer neurons in learning the features.We evaluated our approach compared with two standard dropout networks on three well-established public object detection datasets.Experimental results on multiple datasets show that the method proposed in this paper has been improved on false positives,precision-recall curve and average precision without increasing the amount of computation.It can be seen that the increased performance of guided dropout is thanks to shallow learning in the net-works.The concept of guided dropout would be beneficial to the other vision tasks.

A greedy path planning algorithm based on pre-path-planning and real-time-conflict for multiple automated guided vehicles in large-scale outdoor scenarios

With the wide application of automated guided vehicles(AGVs) in large scale outdoor scenarios with complex terrain,the collaborative work of a large number of AGVs becomes the main trend.The effective multi-agent path finding(MAPF) algorithm is urgently needed to ensure the efficiency and realizability of the whole system. The complex terrain of outdoor scenarios is fully considered by using different values of passage cost to quantify different terrain types. The objective of the MAPF problem is to minimize the cost of passage while the Manhattan distance of paths and the time of passage are also evaluated for a comprehensive comparison. The pre-path-planning and real-time-conflict based greedy(PRG) algorithm is proposed as the solution. Simulation is conducted and the proposed PRG algorithm is compared with waiting-stop A^(*) and conflict based search(CBS) algorithms. Results show that the PRG algorithm outperforms the waiting-stop A^(*) algorithm in all three performance indicators,and it is more applicable than the CBS algorithm when a large number of AGVs are working collaboratively with frequent collisions.