Novel Active Contour Model for Image Segmentation Based on Local Fuzzy Gaussian Distribution Fitting

A novel active contour model is proposed, which incorporates local information distributions in a fuzzy energy function to effectively deal with the intensity inhomogeneity. Moreover, the proposed model is convex with respect to the variable which is used for extracting the contour. This makes the model independent on the initial condition and suitable for an automatic segmentation. Furthermore, the energy function is minimized in a computationally efficient way by calculating the fuzzy energy alterations directly. Experiments are carried out to prove the performance of the proposed model over some existing methods. The obtained results confirm the efficiency of the method.

Oral Health Management of Three Head and Neck Cancer Patients Performed by Dental Hygienists

Introduction: Oral health management is often difficult in patients after surgical tumor resection and/or radiotherapy due to defects, bulky flaps, limitation of tongue movement, and trismus. In addition, patients who have undergone radiotherapy have serious disabilities such as oral mucositis, mucosal weakening, soft tissue fibrosis, salivary gland disorder, and osteoradionecrosis. Dental hygienists must understand the characteristics of patients after surgical tumor resection and/or radiotherapy. In this report, the oral health management of three patients after maxillectomy, mandibulectomy, and radiotherapy was shown. Case Description: Case 1: A 53-year-old male patient visited our clinic after chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and partial maxillectomy for cancer of the right maxillary gingiva. Case 2: A 65-year-old male patient visited our clinic after radiotherapy for a right-sided tongue cancer, partial mandibulectomy of the right tongue to the oropharynx, a right-sided segmental mandibulectomy and a speech aid and a mandibular prosthesis were provided. Case 3: A 36-year-old female visited our clinic for radiotherapy for left-sided tongue cancer. Dental hygienists provided oral health management to the patients. In oral health management, it was suggested that intervention before cancer treatment, oral hygiene instructions tailored to patients’ symptoms, and frequent professional care are important. Conclusion: Oral health management by dental hygienists is extremely important for patients undergoing maxillofacial cancer treatment to maintain their quality of life in the long term.

A Concept of Dynamically Reconfigurable Real-time Vision System for Autonomous Mobile Robotics

This paper describes specific constraints of vision systems that are dedicated to be embedded in mobile robots. If PC-based hardware architecture is convenient in this field because of its versatility, flexibility, performance, and cost, current real-time operating systems are not completely adapted to long processing with varying duration, and it is often necessary to oversize the system to guarantee fail-safe functioning. Also, interactions with other robotic tasks having more priority are difficult to handle. To answer this problem, we have developed a dynamically reconfigurable vision processing system, based on the innovative features of Cleopatre real-time applicative layer concerning scheduling and fault tolerance. This framework allows to define emergency and optional tasks to ensure a minimal quality of service for the other subsystems of the robot, while allowing to adapt dynamically vision processing chain to an exceptional overlasting vision process or processor overload. Thus, it allows a better cohabitation of several subsystems in a single hardware, and to develop less expensive but safe systems, as they will be designed for the regular case and not rare exceptional ones. Finally, it brings a new way to think and develop vision systems, with pairs of complementary operators.

MXene-Derived Defect-Rich TiO2@rGO as High-Rate Anodes for Full Na Ion Batteries and Capacitors

Sodium ion batteries and capacitors have demonstrated their potential applications for next-generation low-cost energy storage devices.These devices’s rate ability is determined by the fast sodium ion storage behavior in electrode materials.Herein,a defective TiO2@reduced graphene oxide(M-TiO2@rGO)self-supporting foam electrode is constructed via a facile MXene decomposition and graphene oxide self-assembling process.The employment of the MXene parent phase exhibits distinctive advantages,enabling defect engineering,nanoengineering,and fluorine-doped metal oxides.As a result,the M-TiO2@rGO electrode shows a pseudocapacitance-dominated hybrid sodium storage mechanism.The pseudocapacitance-dominated process leads to high capacity,remarkable rate ability,and superior cycling performance.Significantly,an M-TiO2@rGO//Na3 V2(PO4)3 sodium full cell and an M-TiO2@rGO//HPAC sodium ion capacitor are fabricated to demonstrate the promising application of M-TiO2@rGO.The sodium ion battery presents a capacity of 177.1 mAh g-1 at 500 mA g-1 and capacity retention of 74%after 200 cycles.The sodium ion capacitor delivers a maximum energy density of 101.2 Wh kg-1 and a maximum power density of 10,103.7 W kg-1.At 1.0 A g-1,it displays an energy retention of 84.7%after 10,000 cycles.

GIS-based landslide susceptibility modeling:A comparison between fuzzy multi-criteria and machine learning algorithms

Hazards and disasters have always negative impacts on the way of life.Landslide is an overwhelming natural as well as man-made disaster that causes loss of natural resources and human properties throughout theworld.The present study aimed to assess and compare the prediction efficiency of different models in landslide susceptibility in the Kysuca river basin,Slovakia.In this regard,the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory combining with the analytic network process(FDEMATEL-ANP),Naïve Bayes(NB)classifier,and random forest(RF)classifier were considered.Initially,a landslide inventory map was produced with 2000 landslide and nonlandslide points by randomly dividedwith a ratio of 70%:30%for training and testing,respectively.The geospatial database for assessing the landslide susceptibility was generated with the help of 16 landslide conditioning factors by allowing for topographical,hydrological,lithological,and land cover factors.The ReliefF methodwas considered for determining the significance of selected conditioning factors and inclusion in the model building.Consequently,the landslide susceptibility maps(LSMs)were generated using the FDEMATEL-ANP,Naïve Bayes(NB)classifier,and random forest(RF)classifier models.Finally,the area under curve(AUC)and different arithmetic evaluation were used for validating and comparing the results and models.The results revealed that random forest(RF)classifier is a promising and optimum model for landslide susceptibility in the study area with a very high value of area under curve(AUC=0.954),lower value of mean absolute error(MAE=0.1238)and root mean square error(RMSE=0.2555),and higher value of Kappa index(K=0.8435)and overall accuracy(OAC=92.2%).

Spatial Modeling of Soil Lime Requirements with Uncertainty Assessment Using Geostatistical Sequential Indicator Simulation

This work presents and analyses a geostatistical methodology for spatial modelling of Soil Lime Requirements (SLR) considering punctual samples of Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and Base Saturation (BS) soil properties. Geostatistical Sequential Indicator Simulation is used to draw realizations from the joint uncertainty distributions of the CEC and the BS input variables. The joint distributions are accomplished applying the Principal Component Analyses (PCA) approach. The Monte Carlo method for handling error propagations is used to obtain realization values of the SLR model which are considered to compute and store statistics from the output uncertainty model. From these statistics, it is obtained predictions and uncertainty maps that represent the spatial variation of the output variable and the propagated uncertainty respectively. Therefore, the prediction map of the output model is qualified with uncertainty information that should be used on decision making activities related to the planning and management of environmental phenomena. The proposed methodology for SLR modelling presented in this article is illustrated using CEC and BS input sample sets obtained in a farm located in Ponta Grossa city, Paraná state, Brazil.

TI推出精度更高的电芯监测器和电池包监测器,助力汽车制造商延长电动汽车续航里程

德州仪器(TI)推出全新的汽车电芯监测器和电池包监测器。这些监测器提供更高精度的测量功能,可更大程度地增加电动汽车(EV)行驶时间并实现更安全的运行。

一种新型高冲击韧性钛合金Ti-64S

为满足石油、天然气、海洋等行业开采应用需求,本文在Ti-64(Ti-6Al-4V)钛合金基础上进行成分改型,形成了一种室温拉伸性能与Ti-64合金相当,且冲击韧性明显优于原合金的新型钛合金Ti-64S。投工业化Ti-64及Ti-64S铸锭以相同锻造及挤压工艺试验了10622mm挤压管材、Φ25mm棒材及35mm×72mm扁方,并进行了室温拉伸、冲击、断裂韧性、硬度等性能测试及比对。结果表明Ti-64S合金冲击韧性及断裂韧性优于Ti-64,强度、硬度与Ti-64相当。改型合金Ti-64S可完全满足石油等行业开采用P110钢级钢材强度及冲击韧性指标要求,实现以钛材替代该级别钢材,从而大大提高设备耐蚀性能,延长设备使用寿命。

Novel TINF2 gene mutation in dyskeratosis congenita with extremely short telomeres:A case report

BACKGROUND Dyskeratosis congenita is a rare disease characterized by bone marrow failure and a clinical triad of oral leukoplakia,nail dystrophy,and abnormal skin pigmentation.The genetics of dyskeratosis congenita include mutations in genes involved in telomere maintenance,including TINF2.CASE SUMMARY Here,we report a female patient who presented thrombocytopenia,anemia,reticulate hyperpigmentation,dystrophy in fingernails and toenails,and leukoplakia on the tongue.A histopathological study of the skin showed dyskeratocytes;however,a bone marrow biopsy revealed normal cell morphology.The patient was diagnosed with dyskeratosis congenita,but her family history did not reveal significant antecedents.Whole-exome sequencing showed a novel heterozygous punctual mutation in exon 6 from the TINF2 gene,namely,NM_001099274.1:-c.854delp.(Val285-Alafs*32).An analysis of telomere length showed short telomeres relative to the patient’s age.CONCLUSION The disease in this patient was caused by a germline novel mutation of TINF2 in one of her parents.

NiTi40合金微观组织结构的电子显微学分析

采用扫描电子显微分析(SEM)、电子背散射衍射分析(EBSD)、透射电子显微分析(TEM)、高分辨电子显微分析(HRTEM)、高角度环形暗场-扫描透射(HAADF-STEM)等技术手段,对NiTi40(60%Ni+40%Ti,质量分数)合金淬火态样品的微观组织结构进行分析。结果表明:NiTi40合金在950℃、150 min固溶水冷和1050℃、150 min固溶水冷的硬度值相近,为60~61 HRC,但微观组织结构有显著的区别。经950℃固溶水冷后,合金中的粗大第二相主要为NiTi2和Ni3Ti相,还有少量和NiTi2相互伴生的TiC相;经1050℃固溶水冷后,合金中的Ni3Ti相接近完全回溶的,粗大第二相主要为相互伴生的NiTi2及Ti C相。随着固溶温度的升高,合金的晶粒尺寸明显增大,合金晶界处的小晶粒在1050℃固溶时基本消失。经950℃固溶处理,晶内析出相主要为10~20 nm的Ni4Ti3相;经1050℃固溶处理,晶内析出相主要为几十至几百纳米的Ni4Ti3相。

Remote Sensing-based Spatiotemporal Distribution of Grassland Aboveground Biomass and Its Response to Climate Change in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region

The grassland in the Hindu Kush Himalayan(HKH) region is one of the large st and most biodiverse mountain grassland types in the world,and its ecosystem service functions have profound impacts on the sustainable development of the HKH region.Monitoring the spatiotemporal distribution of grassland aboveground biomass(AGB) accurately and quantifying its response to climate change are indispensable sources of information for sustainably managing grassland ecosystems in the HKH region.In this study,a pure vegetation index model(PVIM) was applied to estimate the long-term dynamics of grassland AGB in the HKH region during 2000-2018.We further quantified the response of grassland AGB to climate change(temperature and precipitation) by partial correlation and variance partitioning analyses and then compared their differences with elevation.Our results demonstrated that the grassland AGB predicted by the PVIM had a good linear relationship with the ground sampling data.The grassland AGB distribution pattern showed a decreasing trend from east to west across the HKH region except in the southern Himalayas.From 2000 to 2018,the mean AGB of the HKH region increased at a rate of 1.57 g/(m~2·yr) and ranged from 252.9(2000) to 307.8 g/m~2(2018).AGB had a positive correlation with precipitation in more than 80% of the grassland,and temperature was positively correlated with AGB in approximately half of the region.The change in grassland AGB was more responsive to the cumulative effect of annual precipitation,while it was more sensitive to the change in temperature in the growing season;in addition,the influence of climate varied at different elevations.Moreover,compared with that of temperature,the contribution of precipitation to grassland AGB change was greater in approximately 60% of the grassland,but the differences in the contribution for each climate factor were small between the two temporal scales at elevations over 2000 m.An accurate assessment of the temporal and spatial distributions of grassland AGB and the quantification of its response to climate change are of great significance for grassland management and sustainable development in the HKH region.

Physico-Chemical and Microbiological Analysis of Water of the “Presa De Los Patos” in the Desierto De Los Leones National Park, Mexico

The Desierto de los Leones National Park is a place that features recreational activities for residents and visitors to Mexico City. The Presa de los Patos (Ducks Dam) is one of the many bodies of water that are present in the park. By means of physico-chemical and microbiological analysis, it was determined that the water of the Presa de los Patos cannot be considered potable. The pH range was between 5.5 - 5.9. The turbidity exceeded the values established in the standards (10.7 - 32.3 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU’s)). Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) showed that large amounts of oxygen are needed to oxidize organic matter (106 - 450 mg/L). The amount of coliforms and fecal coliforms exceeds the values established by the standards used (total coliforms 98 - 956 Colony Forming Units (CFU’s), fecal coliforms 78 - 807 CFU’s). Five bacterial genera (Escherichia coli, Pseudomona, Klebsiella, Shigella and Salmonella) were isolated and identified. Most of the bacteria isolated were resistant to ampicillin (90%), while 25% were resistant to ciprofloxacin. The water consumption of the Presa de los Patos is a great risk for the habitants and visitors of the park.

Spring Theory as an Approach to the Unification of Fields

The cosmological constant is necessary to be retained in Einstein’s field equations with value depending on the mass of the source. An overview of the spring theory in astrophysics and cosmology is included in this paper. In short range force, the two interacting particles are point-like vertices connected by a bosonic spring. We also suspect that electron may contain negative sterile neutrino. The self energy of a point charge is not infinite so that renormalisation is not necessary.

Ti-O Magnéli相氧化物的性质、制备与应用研究进展

Ti-O Magnéli相氧化物因具有特殊的结构和性质自发现以来就备受关注。Ti-O Magnéli相氧化物优良的电子导电性、稳定性以及耐腐蚀性使得其在电化学领域应用广泛。综述了Ti-O Magnéli相氧化物的组成、结构、性质及其主要的制备方法,并总结归纳了该材料的主要应用。提供了Ti-O Magnéli相氧化物未来合成与应用研究的方向。

TI推出业界最高精度的全差动可编程增益放大器

日前，德州仪器（TI）宣布推出一款全差动零漂移36V可编程增益放大器（PGA）。该款PGA281在5μV电压下提供同类最低偏移电压，可提高准确度与长期稳定性，并减少未来系统校准需求。且其零漂移架构支持DC高精度与长期稳定。设计人员可在工业信号采集应用中使用PGA281，包括测量测试、应变仪、桥接放大器及医疗仪表等。

TI发布具有业界领先EMC性能的无堵塞高速CAN收发器系列

近日,德州仪器（TI）推出了两个系列的控制器区域网络（CAN）收发器,可满足美国和欧洲汽车制造商所有的电磁兼容性（EMC）工业要求。TCAN1042和TCAN1051CAN收发器系列具有强大的总线故障保护功能、快速CAN灵活的数据速率（FD）和业界最短的环路延迟时间,可以为多种汽车和工业应用提供业界最佳的保护和高性能组合。新型CAN收发器系列的主要特点和优势：

Rapid <i>In-Vitro</i>and <i>In-Vitro</i>Detection of <i>Chalara fraxinea</i>by Means of Mass Spectrometric Techniques

For the first time, mass spectrometric (MS) techniques were employed to rapidly detect the pathogen Chalara fraxinea in-vitro and directly in-vivo in tissues of diseased ash trees caused by C. fraxinea, using a range of characteristic novel secondary metabolites of C. fraxinea as chemical markers for the presence of the pathogen. We have found an evident correlation between the presence and amount of these-only for C. fraxinea characteristic and novel-secondary metabolites (named chalarafraxinines) and the degree of disease of respective infected ash seedlings. As demonstrated in this work, the MS based high-throughput-screening approach constitute an alternative to the time consuming and expensive micro biological isolation procedures for detection of the pathogen C. fraxinea and furthermore, can be used to rapidly test ash genotypes for resistance / susceptibility to C. fraxinea infection.

An Optimal Weight Method for CT Image Denoising

This paper proposes a novel exemplar- based method for reducing noise in computed tomography （CT） images. In the proposed method, denoising is performed on each block with the help of a given database of standard image blocks. For each noisy block, its denoised version is the best sparse positive linear combination of the blocks in the database. We formulate the problem as a constrained optimization problem such that the solution is the denoised block. Experimental results demonstrate the good performance of the proposed method over current state-of-the-art denoising methods, in terms of both objective and subjective evaluations.

Spatial and Temporal Structures of the Macrozoobenthos from the Intertidal Zone of the Kneiss Islands (Central Mediterranean Sea)

The present study analyses the spatio-temporal variability of the macrozoobenthos from the intertidal zone of the Kneiss Islands (Gulf of Gabès, Tunisia). Samples were collected once from 34 stations, while seasonal variations were studied by sampling four times at 12 stations over the period 2013-2014. A total of 159 macrobenthos taxa associated with intertidal Zostera noltei beds are identified from the 34 stations, with a taxonomic dominance of crustaceans (32%), molluscs (29%) and annelids (27%). Abundance varies from 9244 to 36,844 ind·m-2 with a mean value of 14,346 ind·m-2. Analysis of the trophic structure shows that the majority of stations are strongly represented by carnivores (41%), followed by the non-selective deposit feeders (16%). Cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling allow identification of three main benthic assemblages based on species abundance, corresponding to different sediment types and organic matter contents. The seasonal variability in abundance, diversity and community structure is mainly due to spring and summer recruitment. The biotic indices (i.e. AMBI, BO2A and BENTIX) show that the intertidal area of Kneiss Islands exhibits a good ecological status.

TI帮助设计人员进一步降低待机功耗

日前,德州仪器（TI）推出一款具有集成高压栅极驱动器的新型电感-电感-电容（LLC）谐振控制器,实现了业内最低的待机功耗以及更长的系统寿命。UCC256301提供了一种高性价比的系统解决方案,可帮助满足各类AC/DC应用严苛的能效标准,包括数字电视、游戏适配器、台式电脑和笔记本电脑适配器以及电动工具电池充电器。