High Dimension Multivariate Data Analysis for Small Group Samples of Chemical Volatile Profiles of African Nightshade Species

Quantitative headspace analysis of volatiles emitted by plants or any other living organisms in chemical ecology studies generates large multidimensional data that require extensive mining and refining to extract useful information. More often the number of variables and the quantified volatile compounds exceed the number of observations or samples and hence many traditional statistical analysis methods become inefficient. Here, we employed machine learning algorithm, random forest (RF) in combination with distance-based procedure, similarity percentage (SIMPER) as preprocessing steps to reduce the data dimensionality in the chemical profiles of volatiles from three African nightshade plant species before subjecting the data to non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). In addition, non-parametric methods namely permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) and analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) were applied to test hypothesis of differences among the African nightshade species based on the volatiles profiles and ascertain the patterns revealed by NMDS plots. Our results revealed that there were significant differences among the African nightshade species when the data’s dimension was reduced using RF variable importance and SIMPER, as also supported by NMDS plots that showed S. scabrum being separated from S. villosum and S. sarrachoides based on the reduced data variables. The novelty of our work is on the merits of using data reduction techniques to successfully reveal differences in groups which could have otherwise not been the case if the analysis were performed on the entire original data matrix characterized by small samples. The R code used in the analysis has been shared herein for interested researchers to customise it for their own data of similar nature.

SWOT Analysis and Recommendations for Enhancing Sino-Russian Agricultural Trade Cooperation

With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine conflict,the changes in agricultural trade between China and Russia are receiving more and more attention.This study analyzes the current status of Sino-Russian agricultural trade and employs a SWOT analysis to explore the strengths,weaknesses,opportunities,and threats within their agricultural trading activities.The findings suggest there are opportunities for further optimization and enhancement in the Sino-Russian agricultural trade.Based on this,suggestions proposed include accelerating the development of transportation hubs,facilitating agricultural trade,refining legal frameworks for agricultural exports,and expediting the establishment of economic cooperation zones.

Data envelopment analysis for scale elasticity measurement in the stochastic case:with an application to Indian banking

In the nonparametric data envelopment analysis literature,scale elasticity is evaluated in two alternative ways:using either the technical efficiency model or the cost efficiency model.This evaluation becomes problematic in several situations,for example(a)when input proportions change in the long run,(b)when inputs are heterogeneous,and(c)when firms face ex-ante price uncertainty in making their production decisions.To address these situations,a scale elasticity evaluation was performed using a value-based cost efficiency model.However,this alternative value-based scale elasticity evaluation is sensitive to the uncertainty and variability underlying input and output data.Therefore,in this study,we introduce a stochastic cost-efficiency model based on chance-constrained programming to develop a value-based measure of the scale elasticity of firms facing data uncertainty.An illustrative empirical application to the Indian banking industry comprising 71 banks for eight years(1998–2005)was made to compare inferences about their efficiency and scale properties.The key findings are as follows:First,both the deterministic model and our proposed stochastic model yield distinctly different results concerning the efficiency and scale elasticity scores at various tolerance levels of chance constraints.However,both models yield the same results at a tolerance level of 0.5,implying that the deterministic model is a special case of the stochastic model in that it reveals the same efficiency and returns to scale characterizations of banks.Second,the stochastic model generates higher efficiency scores for inefficient banks than its deterministic counterpart.Third,public banks exhibit higher efficiency than private and foreign banks.Finally,public and old private banks mostly exhibit either decreasing or constant returns to scale,whereas foreign and new private banks experience either increasing or decreasing returns to scale.Although the application of our proposed stochastic model is illustrative,it can be potentially applied to all firms in the information and distribution-intensive industry with high fixed costs,which have ample potential for reaping scale and scope benefits.

Current Situation and Prospect Analysis of Biogas Project in Scale Farms in Chengdu

In order to implement National Sustainable Development of Agriculture 2015-2030 and supply-side reform of agriculture, and seek the way to replace chemical fertilizer by livestock and poultry manure, the animal breeding scale and the demand space for biogas project were analyzed according to the changes in farm scale and farm quantity, the present situation of livestock breeding, the biogas technical pattern and present project quantity in Chengdu. Furthermore, based on the cultivated land area in Chengdu, a principle that ＂land decides production, pro- duction decides fertilizer, and fertilizer decides livestock＂ was proposed, and a pro- gram for the livestock quantity and biogas projects in Chengdu in ＂The 13th Five- Year＂ was suggested. Suggestions were also made for government to modify the allowance standards for biogas project construction.

Analysis of mental health status and related factors in patients with acute cerebral infarction

BACKGROUND Acute cerebral infarction(ACI)is characterized by a high incidence of morbidity,disability,recurrence,death and heavy economic burden,and has become a disease of concern in global researchers.As ACI has serious effects on patients’physical status,life and economy,often causing anxiety,depression and other psychological problems,these problems can lead to the aggravation of physical symptoms;thus,it is very important to understand the factors affecting the mental health of these patients.AIM To understand the elements that affect the mental health of patients who have suffered an ACI.METHODS A questionnaire survey was conducted among patients with ACI admitted to three tertiary hospitals(Quanzhou First Hospital,Fuqing City Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University,and the 900 Hospital of the Joint Service Support Force of the People’s Liberation Army of China)in Fujian Province from January 2022 to December 2022 using the convenience sampling method.ACI inpatients who met the inclusion criteria were selected.Informed consent was obtained from the patients before the investigation,and a face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted using a unified scale.The questionnaire included a general situation questionnaire,Zung’s self-rating depression scale and Zung’s self-rating anxiety scale.All questionnaires were checked by two researchers and then the data were input and sorted using Excel software.The general situation of patients with ACI was analyzed by descriptive statistics,the influence of variables on mental health by the independent sample t test and variance analysis,and the influencing factors on psychological distress were analyzed by multiple stepwise regression.RESULTS The average age of the 220 patients with ACI was 68.64±10.74 years,including 142 males and 78 females.Most of the patients were between 60 and 74 years old,the majority had high school or technical secondary school education,most lived with their spouse,and most lived in cities.The majority of patients had a personal income of 3001 to 5000 RMB yuan per month.The new rural cooperative medical insurance system had the largest number of participants.Most stroke patients were cared for by their spouses and of these patients,52.3%had previously smoked.Univariate analysis showed that gender,age,residence,course of disease,number of previous chronic diseases and smoking history were the main factors affecting the anxiety scores of patients with ACI.Age,living conditions,monthly income,course of disease and knowledge of disease were the primary variables influencing the depression score in patients with ACI.The findings of multivariate analysis revealed that the course of disease and gender were the most important factors influencing patients’anxiety scores,and the course of disease was also the most important factor influencing patients’depression scores.CONCLUSION Long disease course and female patients with ACI were more likely to have psychological problems such as a high incidence of emotional disorders.These groups require more attention and counseling.

Assessment of hindlimb motor recovery affer severe thoracic spinal cord injury in rats: classification of CatWalk XT■ gait analysis parameters

Assessment of locomotion recovery in preclinical studies of experimental spinal cord injury remains challenging. We studied the CatWalk XT■gait analysis for evaluating hindlimb functional recovery in a widely used and clinically relevant thoracic contusion/compression spinal cord injury model in rats. Rats were randomly assigned to either a T9 spinal cord injury or sham laminectomy. Locomotion recovery was assessed using the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan open field rating scale and the CatWalk XT■gait analysis. To determine the potential bias from weight changes, corrected hindlimb(H) values(divided by the unaffected forelimb(F) values) were calculated. Six weeks after injury, cyst formation, astrogliosis, and the deposition of chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycans were assessed by immunohistochemistry staining. Compared with the baseline, a significant spontaneous recovery could be observed in the CatWalk XT■parameters max intensity, mean intensity, max intensity at%, and max contact mean intensity from 4 weeks after injury onwards. Of note, corrected values(H/F) of CatWalk XT■parameters showed a significantly less vulnerability to the weight changes than absolute values, specifically in static parameters. The corrected CatWalk XT■parameters were positively correlated with the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan rating scale scores, cyst formation, the immunointensity of astrogliosis and chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycan deposition. The CatWalk XT■gait analysis and especially its static parameters, therefore, seem to be highly useful in assessing spontaneous recovery of hindlimb function after severe thoracic spinal cord injury. Because many CatWalk XT■parameters of the hindlimbs seem to be affected by body weight changes, using their corrected values might be a valuable option to improve this dependency.

Modified scaled distance regression analysis approach for prediction of blast-induced ground vibration in multi-hole blasting

The blast-induced ground vibration prediction using scaled distance regression analysis is one of the most popular methods employed by engineers for many decades. It uses the maximum charge per delay and distance of monitoring as the major factors for predicting the peak particle velocity(PPV). It is established that the PPV is caused by the maximum charge per delay which varies with the distance of monitoring and site geology. While conducting a production blasting, the waves induced by blasting of different holes interfere destructively with each other, which may result in higher PPV than the predicted value with scaled distance regression analysis. This phenomenon of interference/superimposition of waves is not considered while using scaled distance regression analysis. In this paper, an attempt has been made to compare the predicted values of blast-induced ground vibration using multi-hole trial blasting with single-hole blasting in an opencast coal mine under the same geological condition. Further,the modified prediction equation for the multi-hole trial blasting was obtained using single-hole regression analysis. The error between predicted and actual values of multi-hole blast-induced ground vibration was found to be reduced by 8.5%.

Modified slow-fast analysis method for slow-fast dynamical systems with two scales in frequency domain

A modified slow-fast analysis method is presented for the periodically excited non-autonomous dynamical system with an order gap between the exciting frequency and the natural frequency.By regarding the exciting term as a slow-varying parameter,a generalized autonomous fast subsystem can be defined,the equilibrium branches as well as the bifurcations of which can be employed to account for the mechanism of the bursting oscillations by combining the transformed phase portrait introduced.As an example,a typical periodically excited Hartley model is used to demonstrate the validness of the method,in which the exciting frequency is far less than the natural frequency.The equilibrium branches and their bifurcations of the fast subsystem with the variation of the slow-varying parameter are presented.Bursting oscillations for two typical cases are considered,which reveals that,fold bifurcation may cause the the trajectory to jump between different equilibrium branches,while Hopf bifurcation may cause the trajectory to oscillate around the stable limit cycle.

Analysis and forecasts of investment scale and structure in upstream sector for oil companies based on system dynamics

Oil and gas exploration and production is the most important and key segment in the whole business chain of the petroleum industry.Therefore,oil companies always put much emphasis on making scientific and reasonable decisions about investment scale and structure in the upstream sector,so that they can minimise business risks and obtain high returns.According to the system dynamics theories and methods and based on the actual results from an oil company＇s practice in China,a system dynamics model is built in this paper for analyzing and forecasting the upstream investment scale and structure for an oil company.This model was used to analyze the investment effect of a large oil company in China, and the results showed that the total upstream investment scale will decline slowly in a short period and the investment proportion of different parts should be adjusted if some influencing factors are taken into account.This application practice was compared with the actual data and indicated that the system dynamics（SD） model presented in this paper is a useful tool for analyzing and forecasting of upstream investment scale and structure of oil companies in their investment decisions.

Enhanced Sentiment Analysis Algorithms for Multi-Weight Polarity Selection on Twitter Dataset

Sentiment analysis is based on the orientation of user attitudes and satisfaction towards services and subjects.Different methods and techniques have been introduced to analyze sentiments for obtaining high accuracy.The sentiment analysis accuracy depends mainly on supervised and unsupervised mechanisms.Supervised mechanisms are based on machine learning algorithms that achieve moderate or high accuracy but the manual annotation of data is considered a time-consuming process.In unsupervised mechanisms,a lexicon is constructed for storing polarity terms.The accuracy of analyzing data is considered moderate or low if the lexicon contains small terms.In addition,most research methodologies analyze datasets using only 3-weight polarity that can mainly affect the performance of the analysis process.Applying both methods for obtaining high accuracy and efficiency with low user intervention during the analysis process is considered a challenging process.This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of polarity weights and mechanisms for recent sentiment analysis research.A semi-supervised framework is applied for processing data using both lexicon and machine learning algorithms.An interactive sentiment analysis algorithm is proposed for distributing multi-weight polarities on Arabic lexicons that contain high morphological and linguistic terms.An enhanced scaling algorithm is embedded in the multi-weight algorithm to assign recommended weight polarities automatically.The experimental results are conducted on two datasets to measure the over-all accuracy of proposed algorithms that achieved high results when compared to machine learning algorithms.

Uncertainties of landslide susceptibility prediction:influences of different study area scales and mapping unit scales

This study aims to investigate the effects of different mapping unit scales and study area scales on the uncertainty rules of landslide susceptibility prediction(LSP).To illustrate various study area scales,Ganzhou City in China,its eastern region(Ganzhou East),and Ruijin County in Ganzhou East were chosen.Different mapping unit scales are represented by grid units with spatial resolution of 30 and 60 m,as well as slope units that were extracted by multi-scale segmentation method.The 3855 landslide locations and 21 typical environmental factors in Ganzhou City are first determined to create spatial datasets with input-outputs.Then,landslide susceptibility maps(LSMs)of Ganzhou City,Ganzhou East and Ruijin County are pro-duced using a support vector machine(SVM)and random forest(RF),respectively.The LSMs of the above three regions are then extracted by mask from the LSM of Ganzhou City,along with the LSMs of Ruijin County from Ganzhou East.Additionally,LSMs of Ruijin at various mapping unit scales are generated in accordance.Accuracy and landslide suscepti-bility indexes(LSIs)distribution are used to express LSP uncertainties.The LSP uncertainties under grid units significantly decrease as study area scales decrease from Ganzhou City,Ganzhou East to Ruijin County,whereas those under slope units are less affected by study area scales.Of course,attentions should also be paid to the broader representativeness of large study areas.The LSP accuracy of slope units increases by about 6%–10%compared with those under grid units with 30 m and 60 m resolution in the same study area's scale.The significance of environmental factors exhibits an averaging trend as study area scale increases from small to large.The importance of environmental factors varies greatly with the 60 m grid unit,but it tends to be consistent to some extent in the 30 m grid unit and the slope unit.

Multi-time scale analysis of precipitation variation in Guyuan, China:1957-2005

Morlet wavelet transformation is used in this paper to analyze the multi time scale characteristics of pre cipitation data series from 1957 to 2005 in Guyuan region.The results showed that(1) the annual precipitation evo lution process had obvious multi time scale variation characteristics of 15 25 years,7 12 years and 3 6 years,and different time scales had different oscillation energy densities;(2) the periods at smaller time scales changed more frequently,which often nested in a biggish quasi periodic oscillations,so the concrete time domain should be ana lyzed if necessary;(3) the precipitation had three main periods(22 year,9 year and 4 year) and the 22 year period was especially outstanding,and the analysis of this main period reveals that the precipitation would be in a relative high water period until about 2012.

Numerical Analysis of a Spiral-groove Dry-gas Seal Considering Micro-scale Effects

A dry-gas seal system is a non-contact seal technology that is widely used in different industrial applications.Spiral-groove dry-gas seal utilizes fluid dynamic pressure effects to realize the seal and lubrication processes,while forming a high pressure gas film between two sealing faces due to the deceleration of the gas pumped in or out.There is little research into the effects and the influence on seal performance,if the grooves and the gas film are at the micro-scale.This paper investigates the micro-scale effects on spiral-groove dry-gas seal performance in a numerical solution of a corrected Reynolds equation.The Reynolds equation is discretized by means of the finite difference method with the second order scheme and solved by the successive-over-relaxation（SOR） iterative method.The Knudsen number of the flow in the sealing gas film is changed from 0.005 to 0.120 with a variation of film depth and sealing pressure.The numerical results show that the average pressure in the gas film and the sealed gas leakage increase due to micro-scale effects.The open force is enlarged,while the gas film stiffness is significantly decreased due to micro-scale effects.The friction torque and power consumption remain constant,even in low sealing pressure and spin speed conditions.In this paper,the seal performance at different rotor face spin speeds is also described.The proposed research clarifies the micro-scale effects in a spiral-groove dry-gas seal and their influence on seal performance,which is expected to be useful for the improvement of the design of dry-gas seal systems operating in the slip flow regime.

Validity,Reliability,and Measurement Invariance of the Thai Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale and Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale

Background:In recent years,there has been increased research interest in both smartphone addiction and social media addiction as well as the development of psychometric instruments to assess these constructs.However,there is a lack of psychometric evaluation for instruments assessing smartphone addiction and social media addiction in Thailand.The present study evaluated the psychometric properties and gender measurement invariance of the Thai version of the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale(SABAS)and Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale(BSMAS).Method:A total of 801 Thai university students participated in an online survey from January 2022 to July 2022 which included demographic information,SABAS,BSMAS,and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form(IGDS9-SF).Results:Confirmatory Factor Analyses(CFAs)found that both the SABAS and BSMAS had a one-factor structure.Findings demonstrated adequate psychometric properties of both instruments and also supported measurement invariance across genders.Moreover,scores on the SABAS and BSMAS were correlated with scores on the IGDS9-SF.Conclusion:The results indicated that the SABAS and BSMAS are useful psychometric instruments for assessing the risk of smartphone addiction and social media addiction among Thai young adults.

Multi-scale analysis of earthquake activity in Chinese mainland

Identifying the active and inactive period of earthquakes in Chinese mainland is of great importance for guiding mid-short term, especially short term, earthquake forecast.……

SIMULATION OF CRACK DIAGNOSIS OF ROTOR BASED ON MULTI-SCALE SINGUUR-SPECTRUM ANALYSIS

In the diagnosis of rotor crack based on wavelet analysis, it is a painful task to find out an adaptive mother wavelet as many of them can be chosen and the analytic results of different mother wavelets are yet not the same. For this limitation of wavelet analysis, a novel diagnostic approach of rotor crack based on multi-scale singular-spectrum analysis （MS-SSA） is proposed. Firstly, a Jeffcott model of a cracked rotor is developed and the forth-order Runge-Kutta method is used to solve the motion equations of this rotor to obtain its time response （signals）. Secondly, a comparatively simple approach of MS-SSA is presented and the empirical orthogonal functions of different orders in various scales are regarded as analyzing functions. At last, the signals of the cracked rotor and an uncracked rotor are analyzed using the proposed approach of MS-SSA, and the simulative results are compared. The results show that, the data-adaptive analyzing functions can capture many features of signals and the rotor crack can be identified and diagnosed effectively by comparing the analytic results of signals of the cracked rotor with those of the uncracked rotor using the analyzing functions of different orders.

Temporal and Spatial Scale Dependence of Precipitation Analysis over the Tropical Deep Convective Regime

Data from Goddard cumulus ensemble model experiment are used to study temporal and spatial scale dependence of tropical rainfall separation analysis based on cloud budget during Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment （TOGA COARE）. The analysis shows that the calculations of model domain mean or time-mean grid-scale mean simulation data overestimate the rain rates of the two rainfall types associated with net condensation but they severely underestimate the rain rate of the rainfall type associated with net evaporation and hydrometeor convergence.

Reliability Sensitivity Analysis for Location Scale Family

Many products always operate under various complex environment conditions. To describe the dynamic influence of environment factors on their reliability, a method of reliability sensitivity analysis is proposed. In this method, the location parameter is assumed as a function of relevant environment variables while the scale parameter is assumed as an unknown positive constant. Then, the location parameter function is constructed by using the method of radial basis function. Using the varied environment test data, the log-likelihood function is transformed to a generalized linear expression by describing the indicator as Poisson variable. With the generalized linear model, the maximum likelihood estimations of the model coefficients are obtained. With the reliability model, the reliability sensitivity is obtained. An instance analysis shows that the method is feasible to analyze the dynamic variety characters of reliability along with environment factors and is straightforward for engineering application.

Cost-benefit Analysis of Scale Pig Breeding in Shandong Province Based on Modified Entropy Weight-TOPSIS Model

According to the relevant statistical data in National Agricultural cost-benefit Data Compilation(2001- 2013),we use the modified entropy weight- TOPSIS model to research the cost-benefit status of scale pig breeding in Shandong Province from the perspective of comparing it with that of the entire country and 9 other main pig producing areas. The results show that compared with the national average,the cost-benefit ratio of small scale pig breeding in Shandong Province is lower,while the cost-benefit ratio of medium scale and large scale pig breeding is significantly improved; the cost-benefit ratio of small scale pig breeding in Shandong Province is basically the same as that in 9 other main pig producing areas,while the cost-benefit ratio of medium scale and large scale pig breeding is higher; the output value of main products and the purchase price of piglet are two major bottlenecks restricting the cost-benefit improvement of scale pig breeding in Shandong Province.

Analysis of a Group of Weak Small-Scale Vortexes in the Planetary Boundary Layer in the Mei-yu Front

A mei-yu front process in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River on 23 June 1999 was simulated by using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University-NCAR （PSU/NCAR） Mesoscale Model （MM5） with FDDA （Four Dimension Data Assimilation）. The analysis shows that seven weak small mesoscale vortexes of tens of kilometers, correspondent to surface low trough or mesoscale centers, in the planetary boundary layer （PBL） in the mei-yu front were heavily responsible for the heavy rainfall. Sometimes, several weak small-scale vortexes in the PBL could form a vortex group, some of which would weaken locally, and some would develop to be a meso-α-scale low vortex through combination. The initial dynamical triggering mechanism was related to two strong currents： one was the northeast flow in the PBL at the rear of the mei-yu front, the vortexes occurred exactly at the side of the northeast flow; and the other was the strong southwest low-level jet （LLJ） in front of the Mei-yu front, which moved to the upper of the vortexes. Consequently, there were notable horizontal and vertical wind shears to form positive vorticity in the center of the southwest LLJ. The development of mesoscale convergence in the PBL and divergence above, as well as the vertical positive vorticity column, were related to the small wind column above the nose-shaped velocity contours of the northeast flow embedding southwestward in the PBL, which intensified the horizontal wind shear and the positive vorticity column above the vortexes, baroclinicity and instability.