Reflections on,and Improvements of,the Mediation Functions of People's Assessors

Legislatively,the people’s assessors are defined as individuals who share judicial power.However,in the context of dispute resolutions,their role is restricted by the courts,which affects the extent of their assessorial activities.It is imperative to reconsider the implications of the people’s assessors’deep involvement in mediation from the standpoint of societal division of labor.To enhance this division of labor,it is advisable that the people’s assessors relinquish their mediation roles.It is necessary to redefine the distinctions between people’s assessors,judges,and people’s mediators,including specially invited mediators.This would not only make up the deficiencies in the role of professional judges but also relieve the tension between judicial professionalism and popular accountability.

Environmental impact improvements due to introducing automation into underground copper mines

A life-cycle assessment(LCA) model was developed to comparatively analyze the use of manual and automated mining equipment in underground copper mine sites.Processes and key variables that were determined to contribute to the environmental impact of operations were identified for six mine sites in a range of geographical locations around the world.Our model successfully calculated carbon dioxide(CO_(2) eq.) emissions to within 4.9% of the reported annual emissions from the site's respective companies.The implementation of automation was found to decrease global warming potential by a range of 11.4%-18.0% or 3.9-17.9 kg CO_(2) eq./t ore.The model was also used to estimate the average reductions across several impact potentials including,acidification(11.9%-17.8%),eutrophication(7.6%-13.7%),and human toxicity(16.0%-20.0%).World-wide the mining industry is moving toward introducing significantly more automation to enhance productivity and safety.This novel work demonstrates an important third dimension that can support this move,reduced environmental impact.

Improvements of Fiber Yield and Fiber Fineness by Expressing the iaaM Gene in Cotton Seed Coat

Cotton,the most important natural fiber crop in the world,is a mainstay in China's economy.However,for over two decades,cotton yields both in China and U.S.have been at a plateau.

Properties of Basic Soils in Different Types and Improvements and Uses in Burundi

SoiI in Africa is one of the most infertiIe soiIs on the earth. With soiIs in Burundi as study objects, the soiI-forming conditions, the properties of basic soiI types, and soiI improvement were discussed, which provides a reference for the decision maker and the rational deveIopment and utiIization of soiI in Burundi.

Morphological Evolution and Its Response to the Navigational Improvements in the North Passage,Yangtze Estuary

By use of bathymetric chart, recent change of the riverbed in the North Passage of the Yangtze Estuary has been studied in this paper. The main channel of the upper, middle and lower （section） in the North Passage has been successively eroded and its groin field significantly deposited. At the same time, sediment has been deposited on the entrance region. Erosion and deposition had responded rapidly to the construction of the regulation engineering. There was about one year duration of lagging between erosion in the deep channel and the construction of the regulation engineering. The siltation lag of time in the groin field varied with the initial depth, but the average deposited thickness was about 0.5 m per year. Volumetric analysis demonstrates that there is a increasing trend of siltation in the North Passage after 2002, because of the difference in duration and quantity between erosion in the deep channel and deposition in the groin field. The water volume of the North Passage was reduced by =9% （280 million m^3） between 2002 and 2006. Sediment budget reveals that the main sediment deposited in the North Passage takes its source from the river and the ocean. The decreasing water volume was attributable to shoaling in the groin field. Its triggering factors for increased sedimentation are the navigational improvements（jetties and groins） after 1998, which altered the passage boundary and destroyed the equilibrium state on the average ebb and flood sediment fluxes. The establishment of a stable estuary is attributed to a reduction in depth of the groin field. The forecast on the sediment deposition quantity and continuous infilling time in the groin system is about 325 × 10^6m^3 and 6 - 7 years, respectively.

Design of functionalized fluorescent ionic liquid and its application for achieving significant improvements in Al^3t detecting

Specific fluorophore was introduced into ionic liquid based on its tunability,thus a kind of novel fluorescent ionic liquid probe[P66614][HQS]was designed,synthesized and characterized.Compared with non-fluorescent HQS,ionic liquid[P66614][HQS]emitted a certain amount of fluorescence,which could be attributed to the well-delocalized frontier orbitals and its charge transfer character,as demonstrated by quantum chemical calculation.Considering the interaction of[P66614][HQS]with metal ions,the application for detecting specific substance as a chemical sensor,such as Al3+was investigated.Compared with the traditional probe HQS,significant improvements in Al^3+detecting was achieved by[P66614][HQS]with stronger binding ability,better sensitivity and selectivity.The better performance of[P66614][HQS]was contributed to the changed charge distribution,leading to the stronger binding interaction.We believe that this new fluorescent ionic liquid exhibited unique properties in detecting Al^3+in aqueous solution,which would broaden the application of ionic liquids.

Improvements for Manipulating DNA with Optical Tweezers

Recently, numerous biological macromolecular experiments have been conducted with optical tweezers. For the single molecular stretching experiment with optical tweezers, three ways to determine the initial adhesion point of DNA on the coverslip are described in this work. In addition, a new method through analyzing the displacement variance of the trapped particle to obtain the trap height is introduced. Using our proposed methods, the obtained force-extension curve for the operated dsDNA agrees well with the worm-like chain model. These improved methods are also applicable to other related biological macromolecular experiments requiring high precision.

Monitoring Response of Diadromous Populations to Fish Passage Improvements on a Massachusetts Coastal Stream

One technical fishway and two innovative nature-like fishways were installed at three dams on the Acushnet River in Acushnet, Massachusetts to facilitate migration of river herring and juvenile American eels （elvers）. Pre-construction and post-construction monitoring of river herring and elver populations used census counting and abundance estimation, respectively. Numbers of adult river herring returning to the upstream spawning grounds during the pre-construction phase were very low; elver counts declined during the pre-construction period and served as baseline levels to determine the effectiveness of the new fishways. Post-construction monitoring of river herring and elvers indicated an increasing trend of spawning adult river herring returning to the spawning grounds, with the total count in the fourth year of post-construction representing an increase of 1,140% over baseline, pre-construction conditions. Results also show increased elver recruitment into the river as well as increased proportions of elvers accessing habitat in the upper watershed that was mostly inaccessible prior to fishway installation. The new fishways at the three dams on the river have improved diadromous fish passage, thereby increasing the probability of restoring healthy populations of river herring and American eels to the Acushnet River system.

Context Sensitive Solutions： A Case Study of Jamestown Corridor Improvements in Virginia

This paper deals with a case study of a context-sensitive solution of the Jamestown Corridor, located along James City County and the City of Williamsburg in Virginia. The corridor is an important passageway to many tourist attractions in the Historic Triangle of Hampton Roads. During the improvement process, the project should minimize the congestions impacts, maximize convenience, safety and reliability of the surrounding transportation systems, minimize social impact to the local community and address long-term capacity issues. Through the project, the agencies involved learned that projects near any of the historic resources must be context-sensitive and should include all stakeholders early and often to make sure that a comprehensive schedule was developed. They also learned that time should be considered for review and input from key regional stakeholders for a variety of issues.

Improvements of Surgical Technique in Establishment of Rat Orthotopic Pulmonary Transplantation Model Using Cuffs

In order to establish more simple and effective rat orthotopic lung transplantation models, 20 rats were divided into donor and recipient groups. Rat lung transplantation models were established by using improved cuff technique. All the 10 operations were accomplished successfully. The mean operative time of recipients was 45 ± 4 min. The survival time was over 30 days after lung transplantation. The checks of X-ray were almost normal. There was no significant difference in the blood gas analysis before and after clipping the right hilum （P〉. 05）. This method is more simple, applicable and requires less time.

Improvements of marine clay slurries using chemicale-physical combined method(CPCM)

In this paper, the effectiveness, applicability and validity of chemicalephysical combined methods（CPCMs） for treatment of marine clay （MC） slurries were evaluated. The method CPCM1 combineschemical stabilization and vacuum preloading （VP）, while CPCM2 is similar to CPCM1 but includes boththe application of surcharge and use of geo-bags to provide confinement during surcharge preloading.The key advantage of CPCM2 using geo-bags is that the surcharge can be immediately applied on thechemically stabilized slurries. Two types of geo-bags were investigated under simulated land filling anddyke conditions, respectively. The test results show that the shear strength （cu） of treated slurry byCPCM2 is generally much higher than that by CPCM1. Besides, the use of CPCM2 can significantly reducethe treatment time due to the short drainage paths created by geo-bags. Overall, CPCM2 allows fasterconsolidation and higher preloading that help to achieve higher mechanical properties of the stabilizedslurry. There are consistent relationships between cU and water content of slurries treated by CPCM2.Several important observations were also made based on comparisons of experimental data. 2015 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting byElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Technological Characters and Improvements on Type SLC-S Precalciner Kiln

In this paper the problems on SP kiln period is discussed, whichlead to low CaCO_3 decarbon- ation rate in the hot meal, so that kilncoating is vulnerable and material frequently falls off and blocksthe pre- heater. Excellent effects are achieved when skipping the SPkiln period, neglecting the function of the dividing gate below theC4 preheater and sending the material completely into the calciner.

TBI Technique Improvements for Anesthetized Pediatric Patients Based on Near-Miss Incident Reporting

Purpose: To share our clinical experience of an optimized and comprehensive pediatric TBI technique. Methods and Materials: Through the use of incident learning, safety-critical areas were identified in our procedure for total body irradiation (TBI) for pediatric patients under anesthesia for bone-marrow transplant. The previous procedure lacked flexibility to accommodate various requests from the anesthesia team due to the wide range of patient sizes. To address this issue and to improve the process overall, we updated our procedure for TBI simulation, dosimetry planning, patient setup during treatment, and in vivo dosimetry. A simulation form was redesigned with additional detailed instructions and documentation requirements. The dose calculation procedure was reformulated to remove dependence on setup variations. Tissue compensation determination and therefore dose uniformity were improved by introducing rigorous calculation methods. Calculations were performed on 28 previously-treated patients to compare the dose uniformity using the new versus previous methods. Results: The new procedures improve interdepartmental communication, simplify the workflow, decrease the risk of treating patients in a setup that differs from that used during the simulation, and reduce dose heterogeneity. The new compensator design significantly improved patient dose uniformity: 0.8% ± 0.4% (new method) vs. 4.2% ± 2.3% (previous method) (p Conclusion: A near-miss incident reporting system was used to improve the safety and quality of pediatric TBI procedures under anesthesia.

Improvements of Google Neural Machine Translation

Machine Translation has been playing an important role in modern society due to its effectiveness and efficiency,but the great demand for corpus makes it difficult for users to use traditional Machine Translation systems.To solve this problem and improve translation quality,in November 2016,Google introduces Google Neural Machine Translation system,which implements the latest techniques to achieve better outcomes.The conspicuous achievement has been proved by experiments using BLEU score to measure performance of different systems.With GNMT,the gap between human and machine translation is narrowing.

Comparisons and Improvements of Key Operating Characteristics of Current Source Converter Applied in HVDC System

Because of its controlled power factor and no commutation failure,current source converter(CSC)made up of reverse-blocking IGCTs(RB-IGCTs)offers broad application prospects in the field of HVDC system.Valve voltage and power operating range as the most important operating characteristics should be paid attention to but they are always contradictory.First,the relationship between valve voltage and modulation index is obtained.In particular,valve voltage of converter under the three typical modulation methods is compared,analyzed,and verified.Second,with the help of the independent control strategy and coordinated control strategy of both ends,power operating ranges of the three modulation methods are comprehensively analyzed and compared.Third,in order to solve power coupling at a low active power,the improved coordination control strategy at both ends in this paper is proposed and the relationships among active power,reactive power,DC current and phase angle difference are given in detail.Finally,a 500 kV/3 kA simulation system was built in PSCAD/EMTDC to obtain comparison results of the key operating characteristics of CSC under different modulation methods and the converter can realize unity power operation under random active power after adopting the improved coordinated control strategy,and DC current does not decrease to zero,verifying effectiveness of the coordinated control strategy.

中美大陆区域气溶胶成分消光贡献研究综述

气溶胶消光作用是影响大气能见度的主控因素,气溶胶浓度、成分与其散射和吸收特性的非线性关系导致其对能见度的影响存在较大不确定性。1988~2008年美国IMPROVE(Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments)能见度监测网络各区域的重构细颗粒物(RCFM)浓度范围为1.4~19.4μg m^(-3),重构气溶胶消光系数为10.0~172.5 Mm^(-1)(1 Mm^(-1)=10^(-6) m^(-1))。2006~2018年中国各地区已有观测的平均细颗粒物PM2.5浓度为14.3~188.3μg m^(-3),对应的重构消光系数为52.6~1044.0 Mm^(-1)。美国地区PM2.5浓度水平与我国三亚地区相当;硫酸盐是气溶胶消光的最大贡献成分,占比可高达77%;其次是有机物,最大可达50%;而硝酸盐只有在南加州对气溶胶消光的贡献较大,超过了30%。同时,由于东部的相对湿度高于西部,东部和西部的消光差异比气溶胶浓度的差异更显著。在我国,硫酸盐和有机物同样是消光的主要成分,贡献分别为21%~57%和21%~39%;硝酸盐只在华中地区是主要的消光成分,超过了30%。我国气溶胶浓度和消光水平显著高于美国地区,当前广泛使用的气溶胶消光IMPROVE方程存在较高误差,消光系数低值高估和高值低估范围可达-60%~35%;并且污染越严重,消光低估越显著。采用较大误差的气溶胶消光算法将直接影响我国大气污染防治与蓝天计划的准确实施,随着我国大气污染防治工作的深入开展,急需针对我国各类环境和气候区域进行气溶胶成分消光的精准核算与溯源研究,为我国大气能见度提升提供关键科技支撑。

Assessment of compressive strength of jet grouting by machine learning

Jet grouting is one of the most popular soil improvement techniques,but its design usually involves great uncertainties that can lead to economic cost overruns in construction projects.The high dispersion in the properties of the improved material leads to designers assuming a conservative,arbitrary and unjustified strength,which is even sometimes subjected to the results of the test fields.The present paper presents an approach for prediction of the uniaxial compressive strength(UCS)of jet grouting columns based on the analysis of several machine learning algorithms on a database of 854 results mainly collected from different research papers.The selected machine learning model(extremely randomized trees)relates the soil type and various parameters of the technique to the value of the compressive strength.Despite the complex mechanism that surrounds the jet grouting process,evidenced by the high dispersion and low correlation of the variables studied,the trained model allows to optimally predict the values of compressive strength with a significant improvement with respect to the existing works.Consequently,this work proposes for the first time a reliable and easily applicable approach for estimation of the compressive strength of jet grouting columns.

Application of GNSS-PPP on Dynamic Deformation Monitoring of Offshore Platforms

The real-time dynamic deformation monitoring of offshore platforms under environmental excitation is crucial to their safe operation.Although Global Navigation Satellite System-Precise Point Positioning(GNSS-PPP)has been considered for this purpose,its monitoring accuracy is relatively low.Moreover,the influence of background noise on the dynamic monitoring accuracy of GNSS-PPP remains unclear.Hence,it is imperative to further validate the feasibility of GNSS-PPP for deformation monitoring of offshore platforms.To address these concerns,vibration table tests with different amplitudes and frequencies are conducted.The results demonstrate that GNSS-PPP can effectively monitor horizontal vibration displacement as low as±30 mm,which is consistent with GNSS-RTK.Furthermore,the spectral characteristic of background noise in GNSS-PPP is similar to that of GNSS-RTK(Real Time Kinematic).Building on this observation,an improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise(CEEMDAN)has been proposed to de-noise the data and enhance the dynamic monitoring accuracy of GNSS-PPP.Field monitoring application research is also undertaken,successfully extracting and analyzing the dynamic deformation of an offshore platform structure under environmental excitation using GNSS-PPP monitoring in conjunction with improved CEEMDAN de-noising.By comparing the de-noised dynamic deformation trajectories of the offshore platform during different periods,it is observed that the platform exhibits reversible alternating vibration responses under environmental excitation,with more pronounced displacement deformation in the direction of load action.The research results confirm the feasibility and potential of GNSS-PPP for dynamic deformation monitoring of offshore platforms.

Rock mass quality prediction on tunnel faces with incomplete multi-source dataset via tree-augmented naive Bayesian network

Rock mass quality serves as a vital index for predicting the stability and safety status of rock tunnel faces.In tunneling practice,the rock mass quality is often assessed via a combination of qualitative and quantitative parameters.However,due to the harsh on-site construction conditions,it is rather difficult to obtain some of the evaluation parameters which are essential for the rock mass quality prediction.In this study,a novel improved Swin Transformer is proposed to detect,segment,and quantify rock mass characteristic parameters such as water leakage,fractures,weak interlayers.The site experiment results demonstrate that the improved Swin Transformer achieves optimal segmentation results and achieving accuracies of 92%,81%,and 86%for water leakage,fractures,and weak interlayers,respectively.A multisource rock tunnel face characteristic(RTFC)dataset includes 11 parameters for predicting rock mass quality is established.Considering the limitations in predictive performance of incomplete evaluation parameters exist in this dataset,a novel tree-augmented naive Bayesian network(BN)is proposed to address the challenge of the incomplete dataset and achieved a prediction accuracy of 88%.In comparison with other commonly used Machine Learning models the proposed BN-based approach proved an improved performance on predicting the rock mass quality with the incomplete dataset.By utilizing the established BN,a further sensitivity analysis is conducted to quantitatively evaluate the importance of the various parameters,results indicate that the rock strength and fractures parameter exert the most significant influence on rock mass quality.

Identification of SSR markers linked to the abscission of cotton boll traits and mining germplasm in Cotton

Background Cotton is an economically important crop.It is crucial to find an effective method to improve cotton yield,and one approach is to decrease the abscission of cotton bolls and buds.However,the lack of knowledge of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying cotton boll abscission traits has hindered genetic improvements.Results Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between boll abscission rates 1(AR1)and boll abscission rates 2(AR2).A genome-wide association study was conducted on 145 loci that exhibited high polymorphism and were uniformly distributed across 26 chromosomes(pair).The study revealed 18,46,and 62 markers that were significantly associated with boll abscission,fiber quality,and yield traits(P<0.05),explaining 1.75%–7.13%,1.16%–9.58%,and 1.40%–5.44%of the phenotypic variation,respectively.Notably,the marker MON_SHIN-1584b was associated with the cotton boll abscission trait,whereas MON_CGR5732a was associated with cotton boll abscission and fiber quality traits.Thirteen of the marker loci identified in this study had been previously reported.Based on phenotypic effects,six typical cultivars with elite alleles related to cotton boll abscission,fiber quality,and yield traits were identified.These cultivars hold great promise for widespread utilization in breeding programs.Conclusions These results lay the foundation for understanding the molecular regulatory mechanism of cotton boll abscission and provide data for the future improvement of cotton breeding.