ALBERT

Description: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become a serious public health problem in recent years in China. Aggregation of CVD risk factors in one individual increases the risk of CVD and the risk increases substantially with each additional risk factor. This study aims to explore the relationship between the number of clustered CVD risk factors and different types of obesity. A multistage stratified random cluster sampling design was used in this population-based cross-sectional study in 2012. Information was collected by face to face interviews. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis test and multiple logistic regression were used in this study. The prevalence of general obesity, central obesity and compound obesity were 0.3%, 36.1% and 14.7%, respectively. The prevalence of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes in the compound obesity group were higher than those in other groups (compound obesity > central obesity > general obesity > non-obesity), while smoking rate in the non-obesity group was higher than those in other groups (non-obesity > general obesity > central obesity > compound obesity). People with obesity were more likely to have one or more CVD risk factor compared with non-obesity subjects (general obesity (OR: 2.27, 95% CI: 1.13–4.56), central obesity (OR: 2.64, 95% CI: 2.41–2.89), compound obesity (OR: 5.09, 95% CI: 4.38–5.90). The results were similar when the number of clustered CVD risk factors was ≥ 2 and ≥ 3. As a conclusion, more than half of the residents in Jilin Province have a problem of obesity, especially central obesity. Government and health department should take measures to improve people’s awareness of central obesity in Jilin Province of China. The prevalence of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes are associated with obesity types. Compound obesity has a greater risk to cluster multiple CVD risk factors than central obesity and general obesity. Taking measures to control obesity will reduce the prevalence of CVD in Jilin Province.

Description: To investigate how the characteristics of interbeds affect hydraulic fracture propagation in the continental shale formation, a series of 300 mm × 300 mm × 300 mm concrete blocks with varying interbeds, based on outcrop observation and core measurement of Chang 7-2 shale formation, were prepared to conduct the hydraulic fracturing experiments. The results reveal that the breakdown pressure increases with the rise of thickness and strength of interbeds under the same in-situ field stress and injection rate. In addition, for the model blocks with thick and high strength interbeds, the hydraulic fracture has difficulty crossing the interbeds and is prone to divert along the bedding faces, and the fracturing effectiveness is not good. However, for the model blocks with thin and low strength interbeds, more long branches are generated along the main fracture, which is beneficial to the formation of the fracture network. What is more, combining the macroscopic descriptions with microscopic observations, the blocks with thinner and lower strength interbeds tend to generate more micro-fractures, and the width of the fractures is relatively larger on the main fracture planes. Based on the experiments, it is indicated that the propagation of hydraulic fractures is strongly influenced by the characteristics of interbeds, and the results are instructive to the understanding and evaluation of the fracability in the continental shale formation.

Description: A few previous studies have illustrated the potentials of compact polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (CP SAR) in ship detection. In this paper, we design a ship detection algorithm of CP SAR from the perspective of computer vision. A ship detection algorithm using the pulsed cosine transform (PCT) visual attention model is proposed to suppress background clutter and highlight conspicuous ship targets. It is the first time that a visual attention model is introduced to CP SAR application. The proposed algorithm is a quick and complete framework for practical use. Polarimetric features—the relative phase δ and volume scattering component—are extracted from m-δ decomposition to eliminate false alarms and modify the PCT model. The constant false alarm rate (CFAR) algorithm based on lognormal distribution is adopted to detect ship targets, after a clutter distribution fitting procedure of the modified saliency map. The proposed method is then tested on three simulated circular-transmit-linear-receive (CTLR) mode images, which covering East Sea of China. Compared with the detection results of SPAN and the saliency map with only single-channel amplitude, the proposed method achieves the highest detection rates and the lowest misidentification rate and highest figure of merit, proving the effectiveness of polarimetric information of compact polarimetric SAR ship detection and the enhancement from the visual attention model.

Description: Nodal staging in breast cancer is a key predictor of prognosis. This paper presents the results of potential clinicopathological predictors of axillary lymph node involvement and develops an efficient prediction model to assist in predicting axillary lymph node metastases. Seventy patients with primary early breast cancer who underwent axillary dissection were evaluated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were performed to evaluate the association between clinicopathological factors and lymph node metastatic status. A logistic regression predictive model was built from 50 randomly selected patients; the model was also applied to the remaining 20 patients to assess its validity. Univariate analysis showed a significant relationship between lymph node involvement and absence of nm-23 (p = 0.010) and Kiss-1 (p = 0.001) expression. Absence of Kiss-1 remained significantly associated with positive axillary node status in the multivariate analysis (p = 0.018). Seven clinicopathological factors were involved in the multivariate logistic regression model: menopausal status, tumor size, ER, PR, HER2, nm-23 and Kiss-1. The model was accurate and discriminating, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.702 when applied to the validation group. Moreover, there is a need discover more specific candidate proteins and molecular biology tools to select more variables which should improve predictive accuracy.

Description: Although previous studies have provided strong evidence that Chinese individuals are exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS) and lack knowledge of its harmful effects, there has not been an in-depth exploration of the variability in exposure and knowledge by geographic region, occupation, and socioeconomic status. The objectives of this study were to examine: (1) the demographic factors associated with the level of knowledge of the harmful effects of smoking; (2) the factors related to implementation of in-home and workplace smoking bans; and (3) geographic differences in being exposed to SHS in government buildings, healthcare facilities, restaurants, public transportations, and schools. We used data from the 2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey-China. Chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis. The results suggested that among Chinese citizens age 15 years and older, there is poor knowledge of the harmful effects of tobacco, and knowledge varies with region and socioeconomic status. Over three-quarters of the households had no smoking restrictions, and a large percentage of workers reported working in places with no smoking ban. In public places, exposure to SHS was high, particularly in rural areas and in the Southwest. These results suggest Chinese individuals are not well informed of smoking and SHS associated risks and are regularly exposed to SHS at home, work and public places.

Description: Urban heat islands (UHIs) created through urbanization can have negative impacts on the lives of people living in cities. They may also vary spatially and temporally over a city. There is, thus, a need for greater understanding of these patterns and their causes. While previous UHI studies focused on only a few cities and/or several explanatory variables, this research provides a comprehensive and comparative characterization of the diurnal and seasonal variation in surface UHI intensities (SUHIIs) across 67 major Chinese cities. The factors associated with the SUHII were assessed by considering a variety of related social, economic and natural factors using a regression tree model. Obvious seasonal variation was observed for the daytime SUHII, and the diurnal variation in SUHII varied seasonally across China. Interestingly, the SUHII varied significantly in character between northern and southern China. Southern China experienced more intense daytime SUHIIs, while the opposite was true for nighttime SUHIIs. Vegetation had the greatest effect in the day time in northern China. In southern China, annual electricity consumption and the number of public buses were found to be important. These results have important theoretical significance and may be of use to mitigate UHI effects.

Description: Algorithms, Vol. 11, Pages 94: Tensor Completion Based on Triple Tubal Nuclear Norm Algorithms doi: 10.3390/a11070094 Authors: Dongxu Wei Andong Wang Xiaoqin Feng Boyu Wang Bo Wang Many tasks in computer vision suffer from missing values in tensor data, i.e., multi-way data array. The recently proposed tensor tubal nuclear norm (TNN) has shown superiority in imputing missing values in 3D visual data, like color images and videos. However, by interpreting in a circulant way, TNN only exploits tube (often carrying temporal/channel information) redundancy in a circulant way while preserving the row and column (often carrying spatial information) relationship. In this paper, a new tensor norm named the triple tubal nuclear norm (TriTNN) is proposed to simultaneously exploit tube, row and column redundancy in a circulant way by using a weighted sum of three TNNs. Thus, more spatial-temporal information can be mined. Further, a TriTNN-based tensor completion model with an ADMM solver is developed. Experiments on color images, videos and LiDAR datasets show the superiority of the proposed TriTNN against state-of-the-art nuclear norm-based tensor norms.

Description: Materials, Vol. 11, Pages 1401: Enhanced Stretch Formability of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Thin Sheet by Induced Precompression and Sequent Annealing Materials doi: 10.3390/ma11081401 Authors: Lifei Wang Bo Song Zhengyong Zhang Hua Zhang Tingzhuang Han Xiaoqing Cao Hongxia Wang Weili Cheng In this study, precompression deformation with a strain level of 5.38% along the transverse direction (TD) at room temperature was conducted on a AZ31 magnesium alloy thin sheet with thickness of 1mm. Then subsequent annealing treatment was carried out at various temperatures (200, 300, 400, and 500 °C) to induce static recrystallization (SRX) and grain growth. The stretch formability was also investigated using the hemispherical test. The results showed that the twinning texture induced by the precompression process was nearly inherited by recrystallized grains after annealing process. Grains grew up and the size increased with the increase of annealing temperature. The largest grain size was obtained when annealing at 400 °C. The mechanical properties including strength and ductility decreased due to the development of coarse grains, however, the stretch formability was enhanced significantly. Indeed, the IE-value increased from 2.83 mm in the as-received Mg alloy sheet to 5.78 mm in the precompressed and 400 °C annealed specimens, leading to an improvement of 104%. This was ascribed to the rotated grain orientation and higher activity of (10–12) twins in coarse grains.

Description: Energies, Vol. 11, Pages 2079: A DC Short-Circuit Fault Ride Through Strategy of MMC-HVDC Based on the Cascaded Star Converter Energies doi: 10.3390/en11082079 Authors: Yingjie Wang Bo Yang Huifang Zuo Haiyuan Liu Haohao Yan A modular multilevel converter based high voltage direct current (MMC-HVDC) with DC fault self-clearing is adopted to deal with the DC short-circuit fault. However, the constant power load characteristic of the sub-modules causes capacitor voltages to diverge and the converter to go out of hot standby. To address this problem, a novel DC short-circuit fault ride through strategy is proposed. According to the polarities of grid voltages, the working or blockage of the upper and lower bridge arms is chosen according to six sections to obtain a cascaded star converter. The capacitor voltages of MMC sub-modules are maintained and balanced through the control similar to the cascaded star converter. Moreover, in order not to change zero crossing, a cluster balancing control method by scaling the amplitudes of the modulated waves is proposed to balance the capacitor voltages between phase clusters. The strategy also achieves the DC Bus line-to-line equipotential and no fault current generated. With the switches of two modes (normal operation and fault ride through operation) after the fault is cleared, the power transfer of MMC-HVDC can be recovered quickly. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed fault ride through strategy is demonstrated on the 21-level MMC-HVDC simulation model in PSCAD/EMTDC.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3107: Spatial–Temporal Evolution and Factor Decomposition for Ecological Pressure of Carbon Footprint in the One Belt and One Road Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093107 Authors: Qipeng Sun Yafang Geng Fei Ma Chao Wang Bo Wang Xiu Wang Wenlin Wang Low-carbon and green development is important to promote the sustainable economic and social development of countries along the One Belt and One Road. These countries have distinct differences in their ability to withstand carbon emission pressures and their driving factors, due to different stages of development and economic characteristics. This paper presents a model of ecological pressure of the carbon footprint in energy consumption (EPcfec), defined by three states: light, balanced, and heavy pressure. The EPcfec was calculated from data on 56 countries along the One Belt and One Road from 1994–2014, and analysis of the data’s temporal and spatial evolutionary rules was conducted. Furthermore, we used the LMDI method to extract the driving forces of EPcfec and evaluated the contribution of these factors to the overall region and seven sub-regions. The results showed that EPcfec growth slowed over time, with the value of EPcfec reaching 3190.51 in 2014. Resource-rich countries have a greater value of EPcfec and are mainly distributed in parts of West Asia, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. The per capita export of goods and services, and the population density on productive land contribute to ecological pressure on the carbon footprint. Energy structure, the influence of international trade on GDP, and energy intensity exerted an inhibitory effect on the ecological pressure of the carbon footprint. This paper proposes mitigation measures for optimizing energy structure, improving energy efficiency, developing low energy consumption, and promoting green international trade. Our results provide support for countries along the One Belt and One Road to mitigate ecological pressures resulting from their carbon footprint.