ALBERT

Description: Clinical rehabilitation assessment is an important part of the therapy process because it is the premise for prescribing suitable rehabilitation interventions. However, the commonly used assessment scales have the following two drawbacks: (1) they are susceptible to subjective factors; (2) they only have several rating levels and are influenced by a ceiling effect, making it impossible to exactly detect any further improvement in the movement. Meanwhile, energy constraints are a primary design consideration in wearable sensor network systems since they are often battery-operated. Traditionally, for wearable sensor network systems that follow the Shannon/Nyquist sampling theorem, there are many data that need to be sampled and transmitted. This paper proposes a novel wearable sensor network system to monitor and quantitatively assess the upper limb motion function, based on compressed sensing technology. With the sparse representation model, less data is transmitted to the computer than with traditional systems. The experimental results show that the accelerometer signals of Bobath handshake and shoulder touch exercises can be compressed, and the length of the compressed signal is less than 1/3 of the raw signal length. More importantly, the reconstruction errors have no influence on the predictive accuracy of the Brunnstrom stage classification model. It also indicated that the proposed system can not only reduce the amount of data during the sampling and transmission processes, but also, the reconstructed accelerometer signals can be used for quantitative assessment without any loss of useful information.

Description: Background: Precocious puberty (PP) currently affects 1 in 5000 children and is 10 times more common in girls. Existing studies have tried to detect an association between phathalic acid esters (PAEs) and PP, but the results did not reach a consensus. Objective: To estimate the association between PAEs and children with PP based on current evidence. Methods: Databases including PubMed (1978 to March 2015), OVID (1946 to March 2015), Web of Science (1970 to March 2015), EBSCO (1976 to March 2015), CNKI (1979 to March 2015), WANFANG DATA (1987 to March 2015), CBM (1978 to March 2015) and CQVIP (1989 to March 2015) were searched to identify all case-control studies that determined the exposure and concentration of PAEs and their metabolites in children with PP. Meta-analysis of the pooled standard mean difference (SMD) and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results: A total of 14 studies involving 2223 subjects were finally included. The pooled estimates showed that PP was associated with di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (DEHP) exposure (OR: 3.90, 95% CI: 2.77 to 5.49). Besides, the concentration of DEHP (SMD: 1.73, 95% CI: 0.54 to 2.91) and di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) (SMD: 4.31, 95% CI: 2.67 to 5.95) in the PP group were significantly higher than those in the control group, respectively, while no difference was detected between case and control groups in either serum or urinary concentration of mono-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (MEHP), monobutyl phthalate (MBP), mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate(MEOHP), mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate (MECPP), monomethyl phthalate (MMP), monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP) or monoethyl phthalate (MEP). Conclusions: Exposure of DEHP and DBP might be associated with PP risk for girls, however, there is no evidence to show an association between the exposure to most PAE metabolites and PP. Given the moderate strength of the results, well-designed cohort studies with large sample size should be performed in future.

Description: The analysis to SF6 decomposed component gases is an efficient diagnostic approach to detect the partial discharge in gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) for the purpose of accessing the operating state of power equipment. This paper applied the Au-doped TiO2 nanotube array sensor (Au-TiO2 NTAs) to detect SF6 decomposed components. The electrochemical constant potential method was adopted in the Au-TiO2 NTAs’ fabrication, and a series of experiments were conducted to test the characteristic SF6 decomposed gases for a thorough investigation of sensing performances. The sensing characteristic curves of intrinsic and Au-doped TiO2 NTAs were compared to study the mechanism of the gas sensing response. The results indicated that the doped Au could change the TiO2 nanotube arrays’ performances of gas sensing selectivity in SF6 decomposed components, as well as reducing the working temperature of TiO2 NTAs.

Description: Water, Vol. 10, Pages 1248: Determining Discharge Characteristics and Limits of Heavy Metals and Metalloids for Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) in China Based on Statistical Methods Water doi: 10.3390/w10091248 Authors: Yuhua Zhou Jing Lei Yu Zhang Jing Zhu Yanna Lu Xuefang Wu Hao Fang Industrial wastewater and sewage are both important sources of heavy metals and metalloids in urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). China has made great efforts to control heavy metal and metalloid pollution by setting discharge limits for WWTPs. There is, however, limited discharge data and no systematic methodology for the derivation of discharge limits. In this study, 14 heavy metals and metalloids (Hg, alkyl mercury, As, Cd, Cr, Cr6+, Pb, Ni, Be, Ag, Cu, Zn, Mn, Se) that are listed in the Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant (GB 18918-2002) were selected for the analysis of discharge characteristics while using the supervised monitoring data from more than 800 WWTPs located in nine provinces in China. Of the 14 heavy metals and metalloids, all but alkyl mercury were detected in the discharge water. There was a high rate of detection of As, Cu, Mn, Se, and there were some samples that exceeded the standard concentrations of Cr, Cr6+, Pb, and Ni. Removal rates of Hg, As, Cd, Cr, Cr6+, Pb, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mn, and Se were higher than 40%, comparable to values from other countries. Hg and As were selected to analyze the influencing factors of effluent and derive discharge limits of WWTPs using a statistical method, because these two metals had more detected data than other metals. The study used supervised monitoring data from Zhejiang WWTPs with 99 for Hg and 112 for As. Based on the delta-lognormal distribution, the results showed that geographic location was significantly closely correlated with Hg (P = 0.027 < 0.05) and As (P ≈ 0 < 0.05) discharge concentrations, while size (for Hg P = 0.695 > 0.05, for As P = 0.088 > 0.05) and influent concentration (R2 < 0.5) were not. Derived Hg and As discharge limits suggest that it is necessary to establish stricter discharge limits for WWTPs, which is more consistent with the real-world situation in China. The study here comprehensively researches the discharge characteristics of heavy metals and metalloids in effluent of WWTPs in China, and developed for the first time in China heavy metals and metalloids discharge limits based on statistical methods. The results may inform special discharge limit settings for WWTPs in China.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3302: The Effect of Independent Director Reputation Incentives on Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093302 Authors: Lei Yu Daojuan Wang Qi Wang This paper examines the effect of independent director reputation incentives on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using an unbalanced panel of 3765 Chinese-listed firms between 2009 and 2014, this study suggests that independent director reputation incentives improve CSR. Furthermore, it is found that this effect is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) than in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In addition, our results also show that the effect of independent director reputation incentives on CSR is moderated by firm size, and this effect is much stronger in relatively larger firms. Together, these results suggest that reputation is an effective mechanism that can motivate independent directors to fulfill their role of monitoring and advising CSR, especially in non-SOEs and relatively larger firms. We add new insights to the research on the topics of independent director system, protection of the stakeholders’ interests, and CSR enhancement.

Description: Energies, Vol. 11, Pages 1508: A New Diagnostic Algorithm for Multiple IGBTs Open Circuit Faults by the Phase Currents for Power Inverter in Electric Vehicles Energies doi: 10.3390/en11061508 Authors: Hongqian Wei Youtong Zhang Lei Yu Mengzhu Zhang Khaled Teffah In order to simplify the application and improve diagnostic speed of the diagnostics, a novel method to diagnose multiple open circuit faults in insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) by three-phase currents for power inverter in electric vehicles is presented. The summation of currents with semi-period phase-difference is described in diagnostic variables with exploration of the current information in faulty condition. In contrast with plentiful existing methods which rely on the motor models and control parameters, this algorithm merely requires phase currents. Meanwhile, the normalized way based on the absolute phase currents and variable parameter moving average method are applied to improve the diagnostic speed and independence of load variation, which contributes to the real-time application in the electric vehicles. Experimental results, using a vector-controlled permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) and digital signal processor MC56F8346, are presented to verify the algorithm effectiveness, showing many features, such as applicability for multiple open circuit faults, well-robustness against false alarms, briefness and agility for the diagnosis function.

Description: : In this paper, an effective method to achieve accurate and efficient torque control of an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) in electric vehicles, based on low-resolution Hall-effect sensors, is proposed. The high-resolution rotor position is estimated by a proportional integral (PI) regulator using the deviation between actual output power and reference output power. This method can compensate for the Hall position sensor mounting error, and estimate rotor position continuously and accurately. The permanent magnetic flux linkage is also estimated based on a current PI controller. Other important parameters, such as the d-axis and q-axis inductances, stator resistance, and energy loss, are measured offline by experiments. The measured parameters are saved as lookup tables which cover the entire current operating range at different current levels. Based on these accurate parameters, a maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) control strategy, combined with the feedforward parameter iteration method, can be achieved for accurate and efficient torque control. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by both simulation and experimental results.

Description: Sensors, Vol. 17, Pages 2005: Multi-Mode GF-3 Satellite Image Geometric Accuracy Verification Using the RPC Model Sensors doi: 10.3390/s17092005 Authors: Taoyang Wang Guo Zhang Lei Yu Ruishan Zhao Mingjun Deng Kai Xu The GaoFen-3 (GF-3) satellite is the first C-band multi-polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite with a resolution up to 1 m in China. It is also the only SAR satellite of the High-Resolution Earth Observation System designed for civilian use. There are 12 different imaging models to meet the needs of different industry users. However, to use SAR satellite images for related applications, they must possess high geometric accuracy. In order to verify the geometric accuracy achieved by the different modes of GF-3 images, we analyze the SAR geometric error source and perform geometric correction tests based on the RPC model with and without ground control points (GCPs) for five imaging modes. These include the spotlight (SL), ultra-fine strip (UFS), Fine Strip I (FSI), Full polarized Strip I (QPSI), and standard strip (SS) modes. Experimental results show that the check point residuals are large and consistent without GCPs, but the root mean square error of the independent checkpoints for the case of four corner control points is better than 1.5 pixels, achieving a similar level of geometric positioning accuracy to that of international satellites. We conclude that the GF-3 satellite can be used for high-accuracy geometric processing and related industry applications.