Modeling Rainfall Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) and Establishing Climate Change Existence in Uyo-Nigeria Using Non-Stationary Approach

This study aims at establishing if climate change exists in the Niger Delta environment using non-stationary rainfall Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) modelling incorporating time-variant parameters. To compute the intensity levels, the open-access R-studio software was used based on the General Extreme Value (GEV) distribution function. Among the four linear parameter models adopted for integrating time as a covariate, the fourth linear model incorporating scale and location with the shape function constant produced the least corrected Akaike Information Criteria (AICc), varying between 306.191 to 101.497 for 15 and 1440 minutes, respectively, selected for calibration of the GEV distribution equation. The non-stationary intensities yielded higher values above those of stationary models, proving that the assumption of stationary IDF models underestimated extreme events. The difference of 13.71 mm/hr (22.71%) to 14.26 mm/hr (17.0%) intensities implies an underestimation of the peak flood from a stationary IDF curve. The statistical difference at a 95% confidence level between stationary and non-stationary models was significant, confirming evidence of climatic change influenced by time-variant parameters. Consequently, emphasis should be on applying shorter-duration storms for design purposes occurring with higher intensities to help reduce the flood risk and resultant infrastructural failures.

Anisotropic time-dependent behaviors of shale under direct shearing and associated empirical creep models

Understanding the anisotropic creep behaviors of shale under direct shearing is a challenging issue.In this context,we conducted shear-creep and steady-creep tests on shale with five bedding orientations (i.e.0°,30°,45°,60°,and 90°),under multiple levels of direct shearing for the first time.The results show that the anisotropic creep of shale exhibits a significant stress-dependent behavior.Under a low shear stress,the creep compliance of shale increases linearly with the logarithm of time at all bedding orientations,and the increase depends on the bedding orientation and creep time.Under high shear stress conditions,the creep compliance of shale is minimal when the bedding orientation is 0°,and the steady-creep rate of shale increases significantly with increasing bedding orientations of 30°,45°,60°,and 90°.The stress-strain values corresponding to the inception of the accelerated creep stage show an increasing and then decreasing trend with the bedding orientation.A semilogarithmic model that could reflect the stress dependence of the steady-creep rate while considering the hardening and damage process is proposed.The model minimizes the deviation of the calculated steady-state creep rate from the observed value and reveals the behavior of the bedding orientation's influence on the steady-creep rate.The applicability of the five classical empirical creep models is quantitatively evaluated.It shows that the logarithmic model can well explain the experimental creep strain and creep rate,and it can accurately predict long-term shear creep deformation.Based on an improved logarithmic model,the variations in creep parameters with shear stress and bedding orientations are discussed.With abovementioned findings,a mathematical method for constructing an anisotropic shear creep model of shale is proposed,which can characterize the nonlinear dependence of the anisotropic shear creep behavior of shale on the bedding orientation.

Genetically modified non-human primate models for research on neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases(NDs)are a group of debilitating neurological disorders that primarily affect elderly populations and include Alzheimer's disease(AD),Parkinson's disease(PD),Huntington's disease(HD),and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS).Currently,there are no therapies available that can delay,stop,or reverse the pathological progression of NDs in clinical settings.As the population ages,NDs are imposing a huge burden on public health systems and affected families.Animal models are important tools for preclinical investigations to understand disease pathogenesis and test potential treatments.While numerous rodent models of NDs have been developed to enhance our understanding of disease mechanisms,the limited success of translating findings from animal models to clinical practice suggests that there is still a need to bridge this translation gap.Old World nonhuman primates(NHPs),such as rhesus,cynomolgus,and vervet monkeys,are phylogenetically,physiologically,biochemically,and behaviorally most relevant to humans.This is particularly evident in the similarity of the structure and function of their central nervous systems,rendering such species uniquely valuable for neuroscience research.Recently,the development of several genetically modified NHP models of NDs has successfully recapitulated key pathologies and revealed novel mechanisms.This review focuses on the efficacy of NHPs in modeling NDs and the novel pathological insights gained,as well as the challenges associated with the generation of such models and the complexities involved in their subsequent analysis.

Effects of mesenchymal stem cell on dopaminergic neurons,motor and memory functions in animal models of Parkinson's disease:a systematic review and meta-analysis

Parkinson’s disease is chara cterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars com pacta,and although restoring striatal dopamine levels may improve symptoms,no treatment can cure or reve rse the disease itself.Stem cell therapy has a regenerative effect and is being actively studied as a candidate for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.Mesenchymal stem cells are considered a promising option due to fewer ethical concerns,a lower risk of immune rejection,and a lower risk of teratogenicity.We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the therapeutic effects of mesenchymal stem cells and their derivatives on motor function,memory,and preservation of dopamine rgic neurons in a Parkinson’s disease animal model.We searched bibliographic databases(PubMed/MEDLINE,Embase,CENTRAL,Scopus,and Web of Science)to identify articles and included only pee r-reviewed in vivo interve ntional animal studies published in any language through J une 28,2023.The study utilized the random-effect model to estimate the 95%confidence intervals(CI)of the standard mean differences(SMD)between the treatment and control groups.We use the systematic review center for laboratory animal expe rimentation’s risk of bias tool and the collaborative approach to meta-analysis and review of animal studies checklist for study quality assessment.A total of 33studies with data from 840 Parkinson’s disease model animals were included in the meta-analysis.Treatment with mesenchymal stem cells significantly improved motor function as assessed by the amphetamine-induced rotational test.Among the stem cell types,the bone marrow MSCs with neurotrophic factor group showed la rgest effect size(SMD[95%CI]=-6.21[-9.50 to-2.93],P=0.0001,I^(2)=0.0%).The stem cell treatment group had significantly more tyrosine hydroxylase positive dopamine rgic neurons in the striatum([95%CI]=1.04[0.59 to 1.49],P=0.0001,I^(2)=65.1%)and substantia nigra(SMD[95%CI]=1.38[0.89 to 1.87],P=0.0001,I^(2)=75.3%),indicating a protective effect on dopaminergic neurons.Subgroup analysis of the amphetamine-induced rotation test showed a significant reduction only in the intracranial-striatum route(SMD[95%CI]=-2.59[-3.25 to-1.94],P=0.0001,I^(2)=74.4%).The memory test showed significant improvement only in the intravenous route(SMD[95%CI]=4.80[1.84 to 7.76],P=0.027,I^(2)=79.6%).Mesenchymal stem cells have been shown to positively impact motor function and memory function and protect dopaminergic neurons in preclinical models of Parkinson’s disease.Further research is required to determine the optimal stem cell types,modifications,transplanted cell numbe rs,and delivery methods for these protocols.

Assessing the Performance of CMIP6 Models in Simulating Droughts across Global Drylands

Both the attribution of historical change and future projections of droughts rely heavily on climate modeling. However,reasonable drought simulations have remained a challenge, and the related performances of the current state-of-the-art Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6(CMIP6) models remain unknown. Here, both the strengths and weaknesses of CMIP6 models in simulating droughts and corresponding hydrothermal conditions in drylands are assessed.While the general patterns of simulated meteorological elements in drylands resemble the observations, the annual precipitation is overestimated by ~33%(with a model spread of 2.3%–77.2%), along with an underestimation of potential evapotranspiration(PET) by ~32%(17.5%–47.2%). The water deficit condition, measured by the difference between precipitation and PET, is 50%(29.1%–71.7%) weaker than observations. The CMIP6 models show weaknesses in capturing the climate mean drought characteristics in drylands, particularly with the occurrence and duration largely underestimated in the hyperarid Afro-Asian areas. Nonetheless, the drought-associated meteorological anomalies, including reduced precipitation, warmer temperatures, higher evaporative demand, and increased water deficit conditions, are reasonably reproduced. The simulated magnitude of precipitation(water deficit) associated with dryland droughts is overestimated by 28%(24%) compared to observations. The observed increasing trends in drought fractional area,occurrence, and corresponding meteorological anomalies during 1980–2014 are reasonably reproduced. Still, the increase in drought characteristics, associated precipitation and water deficit are obviously underestimated after the late 1990s,especially for mild and moderate droughts, indicative of a weaker response of dryland drought changes to global warming in CMIP6 models. Our results suggest that it is imperative to employ bias correction approaches in drought-related studies over drylands by using CMIP6 outputs.

Immunobiology of COVID-19: Mechanistic and therapeutic insights from animal models

The distribution of the immune system throughout the body complicates in vitro assessments of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)immunobiology,often resulting in a lack of reproducibility when extrapolated to the whole organism.Consequently,developing animal models is imperative for a comprehensive understanding of the pathology and immunology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)infection.This review summarizes current progress related to COVID-19 animal models,including non-human primates(NHPs),mice,and hamsters,with a focus on their roles in exploring the mechanisms of immunopathology,immune protection,and long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection,as well as their application in immunoprevention and immunotherapy of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Differences among these animal models and their specific applications are also highlighted,as no single model can fully encapsulate all aspects of COVID-19.To effectively address the challenges posed by COVID-19,it is essential to select appropriate animal models that can accurately replicate both fatal and non-fatal infections with varying courses and severities.Optimizing animal model libraries and associated research tools is key to resolving the global COVID-19 pandemic,serving as a robust resource for future emerging infectious diseases.

Large animal models for Huntington's disease research

Huntington'sdisease(HD)isahereditary neurodegenerative disorder for which there is currently no effectivetreatmentavailable.Consequently,the development of appropriate disease models is critical to thoroughly investigate disease progression.The genetic basis of HD involves the abnormal expansion of CAG repeats in the huntingtin(HTT)gene,leading to the expansion of a polyglutamine repeat in the HTT protein.Mutant HTT carrying the expanded polyglutamine repeat undergoes misfolding and forms aggregates in the brain,which precipitate selective neuronal loss in specific brain regions.Animal models play an important role in elucidating the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders such as HD and in identifying potential therapeutic targets.Due to the marked species differences between rodents and larger animals,substantial efforts have been directed toward establishing large animal models for HD research.These models are pivotal for advancing the discovery of novel therapeutic targets,enhancing effective drug delivery methods,and improving treatment outcomes.We have explored the advantages of utilizing large animal models,particularly pigs,in previous reviews.Since then,however,significant progress has been made in developing more sophisticated animal models that faithfully replicate the typical pathology of HD.In the current review,we provide a comprehensive overview of large animal models of HD,incorporating recent findings regarding the establishment of HD knock-in(KI)pigs and their genetic therapy.We also explore the utilization of large animal models in HD research,with a focus on sheep,non-human primates(NHPs),and pigs.Our objective is to provide valuable insights into the application of these large animal models for the investigation and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

Enhancing Deep Learning Soil Moisture Forecasting Models by Integrating Physics-based Models

Accurate soil moisture(SM)prediction is critical for understanding hydrological processes.Physics-based(PB)models exhibit large uncertainties in SM predictions arising from uncertain parameterizations and insufficient representation of land-surface processes.In addition to PB models,deep learning(DL)models have been widely used in SM predictions recently.However,few pure DL models have notably high success rates due to lacking physical information.Thus,we developed hybrid models to effectively integrate the outputs of PB models into DL models to improve SM predictions.To this end,we first developed a hybrid model based on the attention mechanism to take advantage of PB models at each forecast time scale(attention model).We further built an ensemble model that combined the advantages of different hybrid schemes(ensemble model).We utilized SM forecasts from the Global Forecast System to enhance the convolutional long short-term memory(ConvLSTM)model for 1–16 days of SM predictions.The performances of the proposed hybrid models were investigated and compared with two existing hybrid models.The results showed that the attention model could leverage benefits of PB models and achieved the best predictability of drought events among the different hybrid models.Moreover,the ensemble model performed best among all hybrid models at all forecast time scales and different soil conditions.It is highlighted that the ensemble model outperformed the pure DL model over 79.5%of in situ stations for 16-day predictions.These findings suggest that our proposed hybrid models can adequately exploit the benefits of PB model outputs to aid DL models in making SM predictions.

Genetically modified pigs:Emerging animal models for hereditary hearing loss

Hereditary hearing loss(HHL),a genetic disorder that impairs auditory function,significantly affects quality of life and incurs substantial economic losses for society.To investigate the underlying causes of HHL and evaluate therapeutic outcomes,appropriate animal models are necessary.Pigs have been extensively used as valuable large animal models in biomedical research.In this review,we highlight the advantages of pig models in terms of ear anatomy,inner ear morphology,and electrophysiological characteristics,as well as recent advancements in the development of distinct genetically modified porcine models of hearing loss.Additionally,we discuss the prospects,challenges,and recommendations regarding the use pig models in HHL research.Overall,this review provides insights and perspectives for future studies on HHL using porcine models.

Use of machine learning models for the prognostication of liver transplantation: A systematic review

BACKGROUND Liver transplantation(LT)is a life-saving intervention for patients with end-stage liver disease.However,the equitable allocation of scarce donor organs remains a formidable challenge.Prognostic tools are pivotal in identifying the most suitable transplant candidates.Traditionally,scoring systems like the model for end-stage liver disease have been instrumental in this process.Nevertheless,the landscape of prognostication is undergoing a transformation with the integration of machine learning(ML)and artificial intelligence models.AIM To assess the utility of ML models in prognostication for LT,comparing their performance and reliability to established traditional scoring systems.METHODS Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines,we conducted a thorough and standardized literature search using the PubMed/MEDLINE database.Our search imposed no restrictions on publication year,age,or gender.Exclusion criteria encompassed non-English studies,review articles,case reports,conference papers,studies with missing data,or those exhibiting evident methodological flaws.RESULTS Our search yielded a total of 64 articles,with 23 meeting the inclusion criteria.Among the selected studies,60.8%originated from the United States and China combined.Only one pediatric study met the criteria.Notably,91%of the studies were published within the past five years.ML models consistently demonstrated satisfactory to excellent area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values(ranging from 0.6 to 1)across all studies,surpassing the performance of traditional scoring systems.Random forest exhibited superior predictive capabilities for 90-d mortality following LT,sepsis,and acute kidney injury(AKI).In contrast,gradient boosting excelled in predicting the risk of graft-versus-host disease,pneumonia,and AKI.CONCLUSION This study underscores the potential of ML models in guiding decisions related to allograft allocation and LT,marking a significant evolution in the field of prognostication.

U-Net Models for Representing Wind Stress Anomalies over the Tropical Pacific and Their Integrations with an Intermediate Coupled Model for ENSO Studies

El Niño-Southern Oscillation(ENSO)is the strongest interannual climate mode influencing the coupled ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific,and numerous dynamical and statistical models have been developed to simulate and predict it.In some simplified coupled ocean-atmosphere models,the relationship between sea surface temperature(SST)anomalies and wind stress(τ)anomalies can be constructed by statistical methods,such as singular value decomposition(SVD).In recent years,the applications of artificial intelligence(AI)to climate modeling have shown promising prospects,and the integrations of AI-based models with dynamical models are active areas of research.This study constructs U-Net models for representing the relationship between SSTAs andτanomalies in the tropical Pacific;the UNet-derivedτmodel,denoted asτUNet,is then used to replace the original SVD-basedτmodel of an intermediate coupled model(ICM),forming a newly AI-integrated ICM,referred to as ICM-UNet.The simulation results obtained from ICM-UNet demonstrate their ability to represent the spatiotemporal variability of oceanic and atmospheric anomaly fields in the equatorial Pacific.In the ocean-only case study,theτUNet-derived wind stress anomaly fields are used to force the ocean component of the ICM,the results of which also indicate reasonable simulations of typical ENSO events.These results demonstrate the feasibility of integrating an AI-derived model with a physics-based dynamical model for ENSO modeling studies.Furthermore,the successful integration of the dynamical ocean models with the AI-based atmospheric wind model provides a novel approach to ocean-atmosphere interaction modeling studies.

Neurophysiological, histological, and behavioral characterization of animal models of distraction spinal cord injury: a systematic review

Distraction spinal cord injury is caused by some degree of distraction or longitudinal tension on the spinal cord and commonly occurs in patients who undergo corrective operation for severe spinal deformity.With the increased degree and duration of distraction,spinal cord injuries become more serious in terms of their neurophysiology,histology,and behavior.Very few studies have been published on the specific characteristics of distraction spinal cord injury.In this study,we systematically review 22 related studies involving animal models of distraction spinal cord injury,focusing particularly on the neurophysiological,histological,and behavioral characteristics of this disease.In addition,we summarize the mechanisms underlying primary and secondary injuries caused by distraction spinal cord injury and clarify the effects of different degrees and durations of distraction on the primary injuries associated with spinal cord injury.We provide new concepts for the establishment of a model of distraction spinal cord injury and related basic research,and provide reference guidelines for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Fractal Fractional Order Operators in Computational Techniques for Mathematical Models in Epidemiology

New fractional operators, the COVID-19 model has been studied in this paper. By using different numericaltechniques and the time fractional parameters, the mechanical characteristics of the fractional order model areidentified. The uniqueness and existence have been established. Themodel’sUlam-Hyers stability analysis has beenfound. In order to justify the theoretical results, numerical simulations are carried out for the presented methodin the range of fractional order to show the implications of fractional and fractal orders.We applied very effectivenumerical techniques to obtain the solutions of themodel and simulations. Also, we present conditions of existencefor a solution to the proposed epidemicmodel and to calculate the reproduction number in certain state conditionsof the analyzed dynamic system. COVID-19 fractional order model for the case of Wuhan, China, is offered foranalysis with simulations in order to determine the possible efficacy of Coronavirus disease transmission in theCommunity. For this reason, we employed the COVID-19 fractal fractional derivative model in the example ofWuhan, China, with the given beginning conditions. In conclusion, again the mathematical models with fractionaloperators can facilitate the improvement of decision-making for measures to be taken in the management of anepidemic situation.

Theoretical investigation on axial cyclic performance of monopile in sands using interface constitutive models

Cyclic loads generated by environmental factors,such as winds,waves,and trains,will likely lead to performance degradation in pile foundations,resulting in issues like permanent displacement accumulation and bearing capacity attenuation.This paper presents a semi-analytical solution for predicting the axial cyclic behavior of piles in sands.The solution relies on two enhanced nonlinear load-transfer models considering stress-strain hysteresis and cyclic degradation in the pile-soil interaction.Model parameters are calibrated through cyclic shear tests of the sand-steel interface and laboratory geotechnical testing of sands.A novel aspect involves the meticulous formulation of the shaft loadtransfer function using an interface constitutive model,which inherently inherits the interface model’s advantages,such as capturing hysteresis,hardening,degradation,and particle breakage.The semi-analytical solution is computed numerically using the matrix displacement method,and the calculated values are validated through model tests performed on non-displacement and displacement piles in sands.The results demonstrate that the predicted values show excellent agreement with the measured values for both the static and cyclic responses of piles in sands.The displacement pile response,including factors such as bearing capacity,mobilized shaft resistance,and convergence rate of permanent settlement,exhibit improvements compared to non-displacement piles attributed to the soil squeezing effect.This methodology presents an innovative analytical framework,allowing for integrating cyclic interface models into the theoretical investigation of pile responses.

Research status and application of artificial intelligence large models in the oil and gas industry

This article elucidates the concept of large model technology,summarizes the research status of large model technology both domestically and internationally,provides an overview of the application status of large models in vertical industries,outlines the challenges and issues confronted in applying large models in the oil and gas sector,and offers prospects for the application of large models in the oil and gas industry.The existing large models can be briefly divided into three categories:large language models,visual large models,and multimodal large models.The application of large models in the oil and gas industry is still in its infancy.Based on open-source large language models,some oil and gas enterprises have released large language model products using methods like fine-tuning and retrieval augmented generation.Scholars have attempted to develop scenario-specific models for oil and gas operations by using visual/multimodal foundation models.A few researchers have constructed pre-trained foundation models for seismic data processing and interpretation,as well as core analysis.The application of large models in the oil and gas industry faces challenges such as current data quantity and quality being difficult to support the training of large models,high research and development costs,and poor algorithm autonomy and control.The application of large models should be guided by the needs of oil and gas business,taking the application of large models as an opportunity to improve data lifecycle management,enhance data governance capabilities,promote the construction of computing power,strengthen the construction of“artificial intelligence+energy”composite teams,and boost the autonomy and control of large model technology.

Dynamics of Advantageous Mutant Spread in Spatial Death-Birth and Birth-Death Moran Models

The spread of an advantageous mutation through a population is of fundamental interest in population genetics. While the classical Moran model is formulated for a well-mixed population, it has long been recognized that in real-world applications, the population usually has an explicit spatial structure which can significantly influence the dynamics. In the context of cancer initiation in epithelial tissue, several recent works have analyzed the dynamics of advantageous mutant spread on integer lattices, using the biased voter model from particle systems theory. In this spatial version of the Moran model, individuals first reproduce according to their fitness and then replace a neighboring individual. From a biological standpoint, the opposite dynamics, where individuals first die and are then replaced by a neighboring individual according to its fitness, are equally relevant. Here, we investigate this death-birth analogue of the biased voter model. We construct the process mathematically, derive the associated dual process, establish bounds on the survival probability of a single mutant, and prove that the process has an asymptotic shape. We also briefly discuss alternative birth-death and death-birth dynamics, depending on how the mutant fitness advantage affects the dynamics. We show that birth-death and death-birth formulations of the biased voter model are equivalent when fitness affects the former event of each update of the model, whereas the birth-death model is fundamentally different from the death-birth model when fitness affects the latter event.

Evolution and Prospects of Foundation Models: From Large Language Models to Large Multimodal Models

Since the 1950s,when the Turing Test was introduced,there has been notable progress in machine language intelligence.Language modeling,crucial for AI development,has evolved from statistical to neural models over the last two decades.Recently,transformer-based Pre-trained Language Models(PLM)have excelled in Natural Language Processing(NLP)tasks by leveraging large-scale training corpora.Increasing the scale of these models enhances performance significantly,introducing abilities like context learning that smaller models lack.The advancement in Large Language Models,exemplified by the development of ChatGPT,has made significant impacts both academically and industrially,capturing widespread societal interest.This survey provides an overview of the development and prospects from Large Language Models(LLM)to Large Multimodal Models(LMM).It first discusses the contributions and technological advancements of LLMs in the field of natural language processing,especially in text generation and language understanding.Then,it turns to the discussion of LMMs,which integrates various data modalities such as text,images,and sound,demonstrating advanced capabilities in understanding and generating cross-modal content,paving new pathways for the adaptability and flexibility of AI systems.Finally,the survey highlights the prospects of LMMs in terms of technological development and application potential,while also pointing out challenges in data integration,cross-modal understanding accuracy,providing a comprehensive perspective on the latest developments in this field.

The relationship between compartment models and their stochastic counterparts:A comparative study with examples of the COVID-19 epidemic modeling

Deterministic compartment models(CMs)and stochastic models,including stochastic CMs and agent-based models,are widely utilized in epidemic modeling.However,the relationship between CMs and their corresponding stochastic models is not well understood.The present study aimed to address this gap by conducting a comparative study using the susceptible,exposed,infectious,and recovered(SEIR)model and its extended CMs from the coronavirus disease 2019 modeling literature.We demonstrated the equivalence of the numerical solution of CMs using the Euler scheme and their stochastic counterparts through theoretical analysis and simulations.Based on this equivalence,we proposed an efficient model calibration method that could replicate the exact solution of CMs in the corresponding stochastic models through parameter adjustment.The advancement in calibration techniques enhanced the accuracy of stochastic modeling in capturing the dynamics of epidemics.However,it should be noted that discrete-time stochastic models cannot perfectly reproduce the exact solution of continuous-time CMs.Additionally,we proposed a new stochastic compartment and agent mixed model as an alternative to agent-based models for large-scale population simulations with a limited number of agents.This model offered a balance between computational efficiency and accuracy.The results of this research contributed to the comparison and unification of deterministic CMs and stochastic models in epidemic modeling.Furthermore,the results had implications for the development of hybrid models that integrated the strengths of both frameworks.Overall,the present study has provided valuable epidemic modeling techniques and their practical applications for understanding and controlling the spread of infectious diseases.

An improved interval model updating method via adaptive Kriging models

Interval model updating(IMU)methods have been widely used in uncertain model updating due to their low requirements for sample data.However,the surrogate model in IMU methods mostly adopts the one-time construction method.This makes the accuracy of the surrogate model highly dependent on the experience of users and affects the accuracy of IMU methods.Therefore,an improved IMU method via the adaptive Kriging models is proposed.This method transforms the objective function of the IMU problem into two deterministic global optimization problems about the upper bound and the interval diameter through universal grey numbers.These optimization problems are addressed through the adaptive Kriging models and the particle swarm optimization(PSO)method to quantify the uncertain parameters,and the IMU is accomplished.During the construction of these adaptive Kriging models,the sample space is gridded according to sensitivity information.Local sampling is then performed in key subspaces based on the maximum mean square error(MMSE)criterion.The interval division coefficient and random sampling coefficient are adaptively adjusted without human interference until the model meets accuracy requirements.The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by a numerical example of a three-degree-of-freedom mass-spring system and an experimental example of a butted cylindrical shell.The results show that the updated results of the interval model are in good agreement with the experimental results.

Analysis of the inflection points of height-diameter models

The inflection point is an important feature of sigmoidal height-diameter(H-D)models.It is often cited as one of the properties favoring sigmoidal model forms.However,there are very few studies analyzing the inflection points of H-D models.The goals of this study were to theoretically and empirically examine the behaviors of inflection points of six common H-D models with a regional dataset.The six models were the Wykoff(WYK),Schumacher(SCH),Curtis(CUR),HossfeldⅣ(HOS),von Bertalanffy-Richards(VBR),and Gompertz(GPZ)models.The models were first fitted in their base forms with tree species as random effects and were then expanded to include functional traits and spatial distribution.The distributions of the estimated inflection points were similar between the two-parameter models WYK,SCH,and CUR,but were different between the threeparameter models HOS,VBR,and GPZ.GPZ produced some of the largest inflection points.HOS and VBR produced concave H-D curves without inflection points for 12.7%and 39.7%of the tree species.Evergreen species or decreasing shade tolerance resulted in larger inflection points.The trends in the estimated inflection points of HOS and VBR were entirely opposite across the landscape.Furthermore,HOS could produce concave H-D curves for portions of the landscape.Based on the studied behaviors,the choice between two-parameter models may not matter.We recommend comparing seve ral three-parameter model forms for consistency in estimated inflection points before deciding on one.Believing sigmoidal models to have inflection points does not necessarily mean that they will produce fitted curves with one.Our study highlights the need to integrate analysis of inflection points into modeling H-D relationships.