Progress in non-invasive detection of liver fibrosis

Liver fibrosis is an important pathological precondition for hepatocellular carcinoma.The degree of hepatic fibrosis is positively correlated with liver cancer.Liver fibrosis is a series of pathological and physiological process related to liver cell necrosis and degeneration after chronic liver injury,which finally leads to extracellular matrix and collagen deposition.The early detection and precise staging of fibrosis and cirrhosis are very important for early diagnosis and timely initiation of appropriate therapeutic regimens.The risk of severe liver fibrosis finally progressing to liver carcinoma is＆gt;50%.It is known that biopsy is the gold standard for the diagnosis and staging of liver fibrosis.However,this method has some limitations,such as the potential for pain,sampling variability,and low patient acceptance.Furthermore,the necessity of obtaining a tissue diagnosis of liver fibrosis still remains controversial.An increasing number of reliable non-invasive approaches are now available that are widely applied in clinical practice,mostly in cases of viral hepatitis,resulting in a significantly decreased need for liver biopsy.In fact,the noninvasive detection and evaluation of liver cirrhosis now has good accuracy due to current serum markers,ultrasound imaging,and magnetic resonance imaging quantification techniques.A prominent advantage of the non-invasive detection and assessment of liver fibrosis is that liver fibrosis can be monitored repeatedly and easily in the same patient.Serum biomarkers have the advantages of high applicability（〉95%）and good reproducibility.However,their results can be influenced by different patient conditions because none of these markers are liver-specific.The most promising techniques appear to be transient elastography and magnetic resonance elastography because they provide reliable results for the detection of fibrosis in the advanced stages,and future developments promise to increase the reliability and accuracy of the staging of hepatic fibrosis.This article aims to describe the recent progress in the development of non-invasive assessment methods for the staging of liver fibrosis,with a special emphasize on computer-aided quantitative and deep learning methods.

A model of sea surface temperature front detection based on a threshold interval

A model （Bayesian oceanic front detection, BOFD） of sea surface temperature （SST） front detection in satel- lite-derived SST images based on a threshold interval is presented, to be used in different applications such as climatic and environmental studies or fisheries. The model first computes the SST gradient by using a Sobel algorithm template. On the basis of the gradient value, the threshold interval is determined by a gradi- ent cumulative histogram. According to this threshold interval, front candidates can be acquired and prior probability and likelihood can be calculated. Whether or not the candidates are front points can be deter- mined by using the Bayesian decision theory. The model is evaluated on the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer images of part of the Kuroshio front region. Results are compared with those obtained by using several SST front detection methods proposed in the literature. This comparison shows that the BOFD not only suppresses noise and small-scale fronts, but also retains continuous fronts.

Detection of the End Point Temperature of Thermal Denatured Protein in Fish and Chicken Meat Through SDS-PAGE Electrophoresis

Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was applied in the detection of the end point temperature (EPT) of thermal denatured protein in fish and meat in this study. It was also used in studying the thermal denatured temperature range of proteins in salmon and chicken meat. The results show that the temperature ranges of denatured proteins were from 65 ℃ to 75 ℃ , and these temperature ranges were influenced by the processing methods. Through SDS-PAGE, the features of repeated heating thermal denatured proteins under the same temperature and processing time were studied. The electrophoresis patterns of thermal denatured proteins determined through repeated heating at the same temperature did not exhibit any change. For the detection of cooked fish and meat samples, they were subjected to applying the SDS-PAGE method, which revealed an EPT ranging from 60 ℃ to 80 ℃ .

Preparation of polythiophene/WO_3 organic-inorganic hybrids and their gas sensing properties for NO_2 detection at low temperature

Polythiophene/WO3（PTP/WO3）organic-inorganic hybrids were synthesized by an in situ chemical oxidative polymerization method,and char- acterized by X-ray diffraction（XRD）,transmission electron microscopy（TEM）and thermo-gravimetric analysis（TGA）.The Polythiophene/ WO3 hybrids have higher thermal stability than pure polythiophene,which is beneficial to potential application as chemical sensors.Gas sensing measurements demonstrate that the gas sensor based on the Polythiophene/WO3 hybrids has high response and good selectivity for de- tecting NO2 of ppm level at low temperature.Both the operating temperature and PTP contents have an influence on the response of PTP/WO3 hybrids to NO2.The 10 wt%PTP/WO3 hybrid showed the highest response at low operating temperature of 70-C.It is expected that the PTP/WO3 hybrids can be potentially used as gas sensor material for detecting the low concentration of NO2 at low temperature.

Detection of Land-Use and Surface Temperature Change at Different Resolutions

Understanding the relationship between land-use/land-cover change (LULCC) and environment is seriously important to manage arid land. However, information on how environmental factors influence the LULCC patterns at different scales in arid area is lacking. This paper investigates the application of RS/GIS for detecting LULCC and assessing its impact on surface temperature in the Ismailia Governorate, Egypt. Landsat images have been utilized to quantify the changes from 1984 to 2011. The images were pre-processed using calibration techniques and the geometric and atmos- pheric corrections were performed. Different ratios, indices, and optimized index factor were implemented to decide the best band combination. Supervised classification using Maximum Likelihood technique and spatial reclassification have been employed. Six land-use/land-cover categories (urban, vegetation, waterlogged 1 and 2, bare land, and water) were identified. The highest overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient is 93.04% and 80.65%, respectively. The integration of RS and GIS was further applied to examine the impact of land-use change on surface temperatures. The results revealed a notable land-use change in the study area. The Built-up area has rapidly increased in Ismailia during the 27 years pe- riod. The built-up area (37.65?C in 1984 and 43.876?C in 2011) and Barren land (37.34?C in 1984 and 42.801?C in 2011) exhibit the highest surface radiant temperature, while vegetated surfaces (28.73?C in 1984 and 32.96?C in 2011), water (25.94?C in 1984 and 27.32?C in 2011), waterlogged1 (34.54?C in 1984 and 35.60?C in 2011) recorded low radiant temperature respectively. Waterlogged2 is the class that shows an unexpected radiant temperature (26.38?C in 1984 and 27.75?C in 2011). The urban development between 1984 and 2011 has given rise to an average of 6.23?C in surface radiant temperature. During 27 years, the change rate of land-use types which are decreased are barren land (1.12% an- nually) and waterlogged1 and 2 (0.76 and 6.61% annually). The area of vegetation, water, and built-up are increased by 0.98%, 0.82%, and 0.61% per year, respectively.

Performance Analysis of Temperature and Strain Simultaneous Measurement System Based on Heterodyne Detection of Brillouin Scattering

Microwave heterodyne detection can be used to measure the temperature and strain distribution along a fiber with high accuracy in a Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry （BOTDR） system. This method involves simultaneous measurement of Brillouin scattering and Rayleigh scattering in fiber, and scanning of Brillouin spectrum to obtain the desired information. This paper presents a simultaneous measurement system of temperature and strain based on microwave detection and analyzed the system performances such as measurement accuracy, dynamic range, and spatial resolution theoretically. The analysis shows that the system can achieve a temperature resolution of 1°C and a strain resolution of 100 μs.

CLOF Based Outlier Detection Algorithm of Temperature Data for Ethylene Cracking Furnace

The flue temperature is one of the important indicators to characterize the combustion state of an ethylene cracker furnace,the outliers of temperature data can lead to the false alarm.Conventional outlier detection algorithms such as the Isolation Forest algorithm and 3-sigma principle cannot detect the outliers accurately.In order to improve the detection accuracy and reduce the computational complexity,an outlier detection algorithm for flue temperature data based on the CLOF(Clipping Local Outlier Factor,CLOF)algorithm is proposed.The algorithm preprocesses the normalized data using the cluster pruning algorithm,and realizes the high accuracy and high efficiency outlier detection in the outliers candidate set.Using the flue temperature data of an ethylene cracking furnace in a petrochemical plant,the main parameters of the CLOF algorithm are selected according to the experimental results,and the outlier detection effect of the Isolation Forest algorithm,the 3-sigma principle,the conventional LOF algorithm and the CLOF algorithm are compared and analyzed.The results show that the appropriate clipping coefficient in the CLOF algorithm can significantly improve the detection efficiency and detection accuracy.Compared with the outlier detection results of the Isolation Forest algorithm and 3-sigma principle,the accuracy of the CLOF detection results is increased,and the amount of data calculation is significantly reduced.

Gold Nanoparticles/Thermochromic Composite Film on Screen-Printed Electrodes for Simultaneous Detection of Protein and Temperature

In this study, gold nanoparticles and thermochromic composite films modified screen-printed carbon electrodes (TM-AuNPsSPCEs) were developed as a platform for the simultaneous detection of protein and temperature. The TM-AuNPs composited film had better sensitivity resulting from the gold nanoparticles amplification effect. A phase transition model analysis of TM-AuNPs films found that the TM-AuNPs films had three-phase transition intervals (<45℃, 45℃ to 80℃ and >80℃) which accommodated the temperature requirements for protein denaturation. When used to detect different concentrations of haemoglobin (Hb) solution, the TM-AuNPs modified SPCEs had a better sensitivity in detecting the different concentrations in comparison to TM and AuNP modified SPCEs which showed no clear sensitivity towards the different Hb concentrations. The dual detection and excellent sensitivity show a good application prospect for the study of the TM-AuNPs composite film.

Detection of the anthropogenic signal and urbanization effects in extreme temperature changes in eastern China

作为中国经济最发达的地区,中国东部受到城市热岛效应和温室气体排放等人类活动的明显影响.本文利用最新的观测和全球气候模式资料,对极端温度强度,频率和持续时间等16个极端温度指数进行了检测归因分析,研究了人为强迫和城市化效应对中国东部极端温度变化的影响.结果表明,近年来极端温度持续增暖,极端暖事件增加,极端冷事件减少.新一代全球气候模式能够合理地反映这些变暖特征,但是部分模式可能高估或低估了观测到的变化.基于最优指纹方法的双信号检测表明,人为信号和城市化效应只能在暖夜和冷夜两个频率指标上同时被检测并分离,其变化约三分之二可归因于人类活动,剩余的三分之一可归因于城市化效应.而在极端温度其他指数的变化中,只有人类活动的影响能够被检测到.

Miniaturized power detection module operating in millimeter wave band

The miniaturized broadband detection module can be embedded into the microwave application system such as the front end of the transmitter to detect the power or other parameters in real time.It is highly prospective in military and scientific research.In this paper,a broadband power detection module operating at 26.5 GHz-40.0 GHz is designed by using low-barrier Schottky diode as the detector and a comparator for threshold output.This module can dynamically detect the power range between-10 dBm and 10 dBm with the detection accuracy of 0.1 dB.Further,the temperature compensation circuit is also applied to improve the measurement error.As a result,the resulted error low to±1 dB in the temperature range of -55℃ to +85℃ is achieved.The designed module is encapsulated by a Kovar alloy with a small volume of 9 mm×6 mm×3 mm.This endows the designed module the advantages of small size,easy integration,and low cost,and even it is applicable to high-reliability environments such as satellites.

Damage warning of suspension bridges based on neural networks under changing temperature conditions

This paper aims at successive structural damage detection of long-span bridges under changing temperature conditions.First,the frequency-temperature correlation models of bridges are formulated by means of artificial neural network techniques to eliminate the temperature effects on the measured modal frequencies.Then,the measured modal frequencies under various temperatures are normalized to a reference temperature,based on which the auto-associative network is trained to monitor signal damage occurrences by means of neural-network-based novelty detection techniques.The effectiveness of the proposed approach is examined in the Runyang Suspension Bridge using 236-day health monitoring data.The results reveal that the seasonal change of environmental temperature accounts for variations in the measured modal frequencies with averaged variances of 2.0%.And the approach exhibits good capability for detecting the damage-induced 0.1% variance of modal frequencies and it is suitable for online condition monitoring of suspension bridges.

Diagnostic aids for detection of oral precancerous conditions

Oral cancer has a tendency to be detected at late stage which is detrimental to the patients because of its high mortality and morbidity rates. Early detection of oral cancer is therefore important to reduce the burden of this devastating disease. In this review article, the most common oral precancerous lesions are discussed and the importance of early diagnosis is emphasized. In addition, the most common non-invasive oral cancer devices that can aid the general practitioners in early diagnosis are also discussed.

Temperature effect on the structural strains of an ancient Tibetan building based on long-term monitoring data

Many studies have indicated that structural strain will be significantly influenced by temperature variations,and a good understanding of the effect of temperature on structural strain is essential.A structural health monitoring system has been installed in a typical Tibetan timber building to measure the structural strains and ambient temperature since 2012.This paper presents the correlation between temperature and strain data from the monitored structure.A method combining singular spectrum analysis and polynomial regression is proposed for modeling the temperature induced strains in the structure.Singular spectrum analysis is applied to smooth the temperature data,and the correlation between the resulting temperature time series and the measured strains is obtained by polynomial regression.Parameters of the singular spectrum analysis and the regression model are selected to have the least regression error.Results show that the proposed method has both good reproduction and prediction capabilities for temperature induced strains,and that the method is accurate and effective for eliminating the effect of temperature from the measured strain.A standardized Novelty Index based on the residual strain is also used for the condition assessment of the structure.

Rare Earth Doped Optical Fibers for Temperature Sensing Utilizing Ratio-Based Technology

A new and practical fluorescence temperature detecting system based on fluorescence intensity ratio was proposed . The background theory of fluorescence intensity-ratio method was presented simply. And the characters of rare earth doped samples were detailed. The erbium-doped fiber was chosen as the sensing element. The energy levels of 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 are responsible for the emission of radiation at approximately 530 and 555 nm. The erbium-doped (960 ppm) fiber of length 20 cm and core diameter 3.2μm was used as the sensing part. A silica photodiode transfers the fluorescence signal to electric signal, then the ratio of the average of the two different signals was calculated by the computer and the temperature was obtained. The ratio R of the intensity resulting from the transition between the two levels varies proportionly with temperature interval from 293 K to 373 K. The sensitivity of the sensor is approximately 0.05 K-1.

Non-invasive prenatal molecular detection of a fetal point mutation for congenital adrenal hyperplasia using co-amplification at lower denaturation temperature PCR

Conventional prenatal diagnosis relies on invasive chorionic biopsy or amniocentesis, which increases the risk of miscarriage, and is undertaken at 11-20 weeks gestation.1 The discovery of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma has, however, offered a new strategy for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis.2 Cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma has been used for the determination of fetal gender3 and RHD status4 as well as testing certain monogenic diseases such as 13-thalassemia5 and cystic fibrosis.6 However,

High-sensitive terahertz detection by parametric up-conversion using nanosecond pulsed laser

A high-sensitive terahertz detector operating at room temperature was demonstrated based on parametric upconversion.A nanosecond 1064-nm Nd:YAG laser was used to pump the parametric up-conversion detector and the upconversion from terahertz wave to NIR laser was realized in a lithium niobate crystal.The minimum detectable terahertz energy of 9 p J was realized with the detection dynamic range of 54 d B,which was three orders of magnitude higher than that of commercial Golay cell.The detectable terahertz frequency range of the detection system was 0.90 Thz–1.83 THz.Besides,the effects of pump energy and effective gain length on the detection sensitivity were studied in experiment.The results showed that higher pump energy and longer effective gain length are helpful for improving the detection sensitivity of parametric up-conversion detector.

Comparisons of Two Cloud-Detection Schemes for Infrared Radiance Observations

The cloud-detection procedure developed by McNally and Watts(MW03) was added to the Weather Research and Forecasting Data Assimilation System. To provide some guidelines for setting up cloud-detection schemes, this study compares the MW03 scheme to the Multivariate and Minimum Residual(MMR) scheme for both simulated and real Advanced Infrared Sounder(AIRS) radiances. Results show that there is a high level of consistency between the results from simulated and real AIRS data. As expected, both cloud-detection schemes perform well in finding the cloud-contaminated channels based on the channels' peak levels. The clouddetection results from MW03 are sensitive to the prescribed brightness temperature innovation threshold and brightness temperature gradient threshold. When increasing the brightness temperature innovation threshold for MW03 to roughly eight times the default threshold, the two cloud-detection schemes produce consistent data rejection distributions overall for high channels. MMR generally retains more data for long-wave channels. For both cloud-detection schemes, there is a high level of consistency between the cloud-free pixels and the visible/near-IR(Vis/NIR) cloud mask.

Trend Analysis of the Mean Annual Temperature in Rwanda during the Last Fifty Two Years

Climate change and global warming are widely recognized as the most significant environmental dilemma the world is experiencing today. Recent studies have shown that the Earth’s surface air temperature has increased by 0.6°C - 0.8°C during the 20th century, along with changes in the hydrological cycle. This has alerted the international community and brought great interest to climate scientists leading to several studies on climate trend detection at various scales. This paper examines the long-term modification of the near surface air temperature in Rwanda. Time series of near surface air temperature data for the period ranging from 1958 to 2010 for five weather observatories were collected from the Rwanda National Meteorological Service. Variations and trends of annual mean temperature time series were examined. The cumulative sum charts (CUSUM) and bootstrapping and the sequential version of the Mann Kendall Rank Statistic were used for the detection of abrupt changes. Regression analysis was performed for the trends and the Mann-Kendall Rank Statistic Test was used for the examination of their significance. Statistically significant abrupt changes and trends have been detected. The major change point in the annual mean temperature occurred around 1977-1979. The analysis of the annual mean temperature showed for all observatories a not very significant cooling trend during the period ranging from 1958 to 1977-1979 while a significant warming trend was furthermore observed for the period after the 1977-1979 where Kigali, the Capital of Rwanda, presented the highest values of the slope (0.0455/year) with high value of coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.6798), the Kendall’s tau statistic (M-K = 0.62), the Kendall Score (S = 328) with a two-sided p-value far less than the confidence level α of 5%). This is most likely explained by the growing population and increasing urbanization and industrialization the country has experienced, especially the Capital City Kigali, during the last decades.

Assimilation of FY-3D MWTS-Ⅱ Radiance with 3D Precipitation Detection and the Impacts on Typhoon Forecasts

Precipitation detection is an essential step in radiance assimilation because the uncertainties in precipitation would affect the radiative transfer calculation and observation errors.The traditional precipitation detection method for microwave only detects clouds and precipitation horizontally,without considering the three-dimensional distribution of clouds.Extending precipitation detection from 2D to 3D is expected to bring more useful information to the data assimilation without using the all-sky approach.In this study,the 3D precipitation detection method is adopted to assimilate Microwave Temperature Sounder-2(MWTS-Ⅱ)onboard the Fengyun-3D,which can dynamically detect the channels above precipitating clouds by considering the near-real-time cloud parameters.Cycling data assimilation and forecasting experiments for Typhoons Lekima(2019)and Mitag(2019)are carried out.Compared with the control experiment,the quantity of assimilated data with the 3D precipitation detection increases by approximately 23%.The quality of the additional MWTS-Ⅱradiance data is close to the clear-sky data.The case studies show that the average root-mean-square errors(RMSE)of prognostic variables are reduced by 1.7%in the upper troposphere,leading to an average reduction of4.53%in typhoon track forecasts.The detailed diagnoses of Typhoon Lekima(2019)further show that the additional MWTS-Ⅱradiances brought by the 3D precipitation detection facilitate portraying a more reasonable circulation situation,thus providing more precise structures.This paper preliminarily proves that 3D precipitation detection has potential added value for increasing satellite data utilization and improving typhoon forecasts.