Effect of Check Dam on Sediment Load Under Vegetation Restoration in the Hekou-Longmen Region of the Yellow River

With years of vegetation restoration and check dam construction on the Loess Plateau, the sediment load of the middle reaches of the Yellow River have decreased sharply; however, the effects of check dam on this decrease of sediment load with such extensive vegetation restoration remains unclear. In order to further clarify the effects of check dam on sediment load reduction under vegetation restoration, we calculated vegetation coverage and check dam index based on multi-source remote sensing data, and calculated sediment reduction rate caused by human activities by Mann-Kendall statistical test and double cumulative curve, then established regression equations incorporating the check dam index and the sediment reduction rate using data from different geomorphic regions with different vegetation coverages. The results showed that sediment load in the Hekou-Longmen region and its 17 tributaries decreased significantly every year, and the change in sediment load could be divided into 3 typical periods: the base period (P1), the period mainly impacted by check dam construction (P2) and the period with comprehensive impact of check dam construction and vegetation restoration (P3). Compared with sediment load of the tributaries during P1, the sediment load decreased by 60.96% during P2 and by 91.76% during P3. Compared with the contribution of human activities to the reduction in sediment load in P2, the contribution of human activities in P3 increased significantly, while that of precipitation decreased slightly. The sediment reduction effect of check dams is greater in basins with low vegetation coverage than in basins with high vegetation coverage. There are differences in sediment reduction effect of vegetation restorations in different geomorphic regions, and the effect of vegetation restoration alone have certain upper limits. Such as, the upper limit of sediment reduction rate of vegetation restoration for rivers flowing through the sandstorm region is 47.86%. Hence, only combined the construction of check dam with vegetation restoration can it achieve more significant sediment reduction benefit and control soil erosion more effectively.

Ex-Press® Surgery Versus Trabeculectomy for Primary Open Angle Glaucoma with Low Preoperative Intraocular Pressure

Purpose: To compare surgical outcomes between Ex-PRESS® surgery (EXP) and trabeculectomy (Trab) for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) with low preoperative intraocular pressure (IOP).Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective non-randomized study. We included POAG patients with preoperative IOP ≤16 mmHg who were taking tolerance glaucoma medications. We compared the surgical outcomes, postoperative IOP, number of glaucoma medications, reduction rate of corneal endothelial cell density (ECD), visual acuity, and postoperative complications between POAG patients who underwent EXP (34 eyes) or Trab (38 eyes) and could be followed for >2 years.Results: Both surgeries significantly decreased the IOP (p<0.001): at 2 years, EXP provided decreases from 13.4 ± 2.3 to 10.2 ± 3.1 mmHg, Trab provided decreases from 13.5 ± 2.0 to 8.9 ± 3.2 mmHg. No significant differences were observed in the postoperative IOP (p=0.076), number of postoperative medications (p=0.263), success rate (p=0.900), reduction rate of ECD (p=0.410), or difference in visual acuity (p=0.174). The reduction rate of IOP was significantly high in the Trab group (p=0.047).Conclusions: Both surgeries significantly decreased IOP and were useful surgical methods for low-IOP glaucoma. Our results suggest that trabeculectomy can decrease IOP more than Ex-PRESS surgery but might have more complications.

Attribute Reduction Algorithm of Neighborhood Rough Set Based on Supervised Granulation and Its Application

In neighborhood rough set theory, attribute reduction based on measure of information has important application significance. The influence of different decision classes was not considered for calculation of traditional conditional neighborhood entropy, and the improvement of algorithm based on conditional neighborhood entropy mainly includes of introducing multi granularity and different levels, while the mutual influence between samples with different labels is less considered. To solve this problem, this paper uses the supervised strategy to improve the conditional neighborhood entropy of three-layer granulation. By using two different neighborhood radii to adjust the mutual influence degree of different label samples, and by considering the mutual influence between conditional attributes through the feature complementary relationship, a neighborhood rough set attribute reduction algorithm based on supervised granulation is proposed. Experiment results on UCI data sets show that the proposed algorithm is superior to the traditional conditional neighborhood entropy algorithm in both aspects of reduction rate and reduction accuracy. Finally, the proposed algorithm is applied to the evaluation of fatigue life influencing factors of titanium alloy welded joints. The results of coupling relationship analysis show that the effect of joint type should be most seriously considered in the calculation of stress concentration factor. The results of influencing factors analysis show that the stress range has the highest weight among all the fatigue life influencing factors of titanium alloy welded joint.

Analysis of 3D Plastic Deformation in Vertical Rolling Based on Global Weighted Velocity Field

Energy method is an essential theoretical approach to analyze plastic forming, which is widely used in rolling. An analysis model for vertical rolling process is established according to energy theory. By using global weighted method firstly, the 3D continuous velocity field, strain rate field and the corresponding power functional are proposed. The unknown variables are solved numerically based on the principle of minimum energy. Then, deformation parameters and rolling force are determined. The analysis on specific examples with the width reduction rate of 0.03~0.05 shows that the theoretical prediction value of weighted model is in good agreement with experimental results. Moreover, the effects of several shape and rolling parameters on rolling force, rolling power and edge deformation are studied. Both the width reduction rate and initial slab thickness have significant influences on dog-bone size and rolling force. A wider slab slightly increases the nonuniformity of dog-bone deformation. An increase of vertical roller radius can weaken the edge deformation.

Modeling the Price of Emergency Power Transmission Lines in the Reserve Market Due to the Influence of Renewable Energies

The law of free access to the transmission network obliges the transmission network to be in orbit, and on the other hand, the high loads in the transmission network, and economic uncertainties cause that the owners of transmission companies, don’t have sufficient motivation and resources to rebuild and develop the network. The main objective of this paper is the modeling the price of emergency power transmission lines in the reserve markets. This paper presents a method for calculating the reference price that a transmission line owner uses to bid on a price in excess of the nominal capacity of the transmission line under his ownership. For this purpose, first, the effects of operating a transmission line at a power greater than the rated power are described. After that, the reduction rate of the transmission line due to operation in these conditions is calculated, and finally the price determination is calculated based on the reduction rate of the generated life. In the next stage, this excess capacity is entered the two-stage model of energy market and reservation considering renewable energy sources as a price offer function. Numerical results of 6-Shin network show that the entry of renewable energy sources reduces energy costs, but the costs of the reserve market increases due to uncertainty. However, despite the emergency capacity, these costs are reduced due to the use of cheap resources in the network.

Regression Analysis of Rectal Cancer and Possible Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Utilization in Radiotherapy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been widely employed in the medical field in recent years in such areas as image segmentation, medical image registration, and computer-aided detection. This study explores one application of using AI in adaptive radiation therapy treatment planning by predicting the tumor volume reduction rate (TVRR). Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans of twenty rectal cancer patients were collected to observe the change in tumor volume over the course of a standard five-week radiotherapy treatment. In addition to treatment volume, patient data including patient age, gender, weight, number of treatment fractions, and dose per fraction were also collected. Application of a stepwise regression model showed that age, dose per fraction and weight were the best predictors for tumor volume reduction rate.

Studying the Failure Behavior of Cement-fiber-treated Sand under Triaxial Direct Tension Tests

The main goal of this research is to study the failure behavior of cement-fiber-treated sand under triaxial direct tension condition tests. Thus, a new loading system and triaxial cell was designed and built for tensile loading. Samples were prepared with content cement of 3 and 5% (dry wt.) of the sand, while two types of polypropylene fibers 0.024 m in length and 23 μm and 300 μm thick were added at 0.0% and 0.5% (dry wt.) of the sand and cement mixture. After a seven-day curing period, the samples were loaded under triaxial direct tension tests under confining pressures of 100, 200, and 300 kpa in drained conditions. Stress-strain behavior, changes in volume and energy absorbed by cement-fiber reinforced sand were measured and compared with the results of other studies. Adding fibers resulted in reduced peak deviatoric stress and increased residual deviatoric stresses of the cement-fiber reinforced sand, with changes from brittle to ductile behavior. The initial stiffness and stiffness at 50% maximum tensile stress of the samples is decreased with the addition of fibers and with an increase in fiber diameter, the reduction rate of this stiffness is more evident. The absorbed energy for fibers with a thickness of 23 μm is less than fibers with a thickness of 300 μm. The effect of adding fibers to strength parameters showed that the cohesion intercept decreases, while the internal friction angle increases.

Influence of Different Carbon Content on Reduction of Zinc Oxide via Metal Bath

Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) is an important secondary resource for the zinc industry. The most common process for its recycling is the pyro-metallurgical treatment in the Waelz process. However, this process focuses on the recycling of the zinc, whereas the recovery of other metals from the EAFD—such as iron and other alloying elements—is neglected. An up-to-date version of reprocessing can involve multi-metal recycling by means of a metal bath containing carbon. The use of a liquid iron alloy requires a higher processing temperature, which enables the reduction and melting of iron oxides as well as other compounds occurring in the dust. Furthermore, the Zn yield is higher and the reduction kinetics are faster than in the Waelz process. This paper is only focused on the zinc reduction in such a metal bath. In order to determine the influence of the carbon content in the molten metal on the reduction rate, experiments were carried out on the reduction behavior of zinc oxide using a synthetic slag. This slag, with a basicity B2 = 1, was applied to an iron bath with varying carbon contents. (0.85%, 2.16%, 2.89%, and 4.15%) The decrease in the zinc oxide concentration was monitored, along with the reaction rates calculated from these data. It was found that the reaction rate increases with rising carbon content in the melt.

Prevention of Nursing Interruption Disputes in Obstetrics and Gynecology Based on Nursing Process Reengineering

During the nursing administration process, including preparation, management, and documentation, there is a high proportion of work interruption that results in nursing administration errors that consequently affect the safety of patients, increase the occurrence of nursing risks, and cause adverse reactions. To investigate the impact of nursing on drug withdrawal disputes in obstetrics and gynecology and reduce medical disputes are of great importance. In this study, documents related to medical disputes are collected and linked to relevant professional information systems for data collection and consultation. The patients are divided into groups and treated with different nursing methods, and then the correlation between nursing methods and disputes in different groups is computed. The results show that, based on the proposed nursing process, medical disputes caused by the cessation of nursing can be effectively reduced. Compared with traditional nursing methods, when the proposed nursing procedures are followed, the dispute rate is reduced by more than 10% and the possibility of serious disputes is also reduced with a reduction rate of about 15%. This shows that, based on the proposed nursing process, reengineering can play an effective preventive role in stopping obstetrics and gynecology nursing disputes.