An Incremental Broad-Learning-System-Based Approach for Tremor Attenuation for Robot Tele-Operation.

The existence of the physiological tremor of the human hand significantly affects the application of tele-operation systems in performing high-precision tasks, such as tele-surgery, and currently, the process of effectively eliminating the physiological tremor has been an important yet challenging research topic in the tele-operation robot field. Some scholars propose using deep learning algorithms to solve this problem, but a large number of hyperparameters lead to a slow training speed. Later, the support-vector-machine-based methods have been applied to solve the problem, thereby effectively canceling tremors. However, these methods may lose the prediction accuracy, because learning energy cannot be accurately assigned. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a broad-learning-system-based tremor filter, which integrates a series of incremental learning algorithms to achieve fast remodeling and reach the desired performance. Note that the broad-learning-system-based filter has a fast learning rate while ensuring the accuracy due to its simple and novel network structure. Unlike other algorithms, it uses incremental learning algorithms to constantly update network parameters during training, and it stops learning when the error converges to zero. By focusing on the control performance of the slave robot, a sliding mode control approach has been used to improve the performance of closed-loop systems. In simulation experiments, the results demonstrated the feasibility of our proposed method.

Anaerobic acidification membrane bioreactor operating at acidic condition for treating concentrated municipal wastewater: Performance and implication.

To address the low-carbon treatment requirements for municipal wastewater, a novel anaerobic acidification membrane bioreactor (AAMBR) was developed for recovering organic matter in terms of volatile fatty acids (VFAs). While the AAMBR successfully generated VFAs from municipal wastewater through forward osmosis (FO) membrane concentration, its operation was limited to a single pH value of 10.0. Here, performance of the AAMBR operating at acidic condition was evaluated and compared with that at alkaline condition. The findings revealed that the AAMBR with pH 5.0 efficiently transformed organic matter into acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid, resulting in a VFAs yield of 0.48 g/g-CODfeed. In comparison with the AAMBR at pH 10.0, this study achieved a similar VFAs yield, a lower fouling tendency, a lower loss of nutrients and a lower controlling cost. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that a pH of 5.0 is optimal for the AAMBR treating municipal wastewater.

Factors Influencing Copulation Duration in Dastarcus helophoroides (Fairmaire) (Coleoptera: Bothrideridae).

The gregarious ectoparasitic beetle Dastarcus helophoroides (Fairmaire) is considered a primary biocontrol agent for controlling several cerambycid pests in East Asian countries. A thorough study of reproductive behavior is a prerequisite for the mass production of natural insect predators. Nonetheless, little attention has been given to this ectoparasitic beetle. We performed a series of trials to assess whether the adult copulation duration, a key behavioral trait, is differentially influenced by physiological and ecological factors, including body size, mating history, kinship, sex ratio, mating sequence, feeding status, ambient temperature, photoperiod, and time of day. Additionally, the effect of the copulation duration on the reproductive output of this beetle was also investigated. The results indicated that the copulation duration varied considerably, ranging from 1.12 min to 16.40 min and lasting for an average of 9.11 ± 0.12 min. Females with longer copulations laid more eggs and had a greater proportion of eggs hatched. Medium-sized individuals copulated significantly longer than small- and large-sized individuals. The copulation durations were significantly longer when both sexes experienced an asymmetric mating history than when both sexes experienced a symmetric mating history. Inbred couples copulated significantly longer than outbred couples. In terms of the adult sex ratio, increasing the density of females (polygamous group) or males (polyandrous group) led to significantly longer copulation durations than those in the monogamous group. The copulation durations gradually decreased with increasing the mating sequence and temperature. Food-absence couples copulated significantly longer than food-presence couples. The mean copulation duration of the scotophase was significantly longer than that of the photophase. These results demonstrate that all of the analyzed factors emerge as important factors influencing the copulation duration, ultimately affecting the reproductive outputs in this ectoparasitic beetle.

A diverse bacterial community in an anoxic quinoline-degrading bioreactor determined by using pyrosequencing and clone library analysis.

There is a concern of whether the structure and diversity of a microbial community can be effectively revealed by short-length pyrosequencing reads. In this study, we performed a microbial community analysis on a sample from a high-efficiency denitrifying quinoline-degrading bioreactor and compared the results generated by pyrosequencing with those generated by clone library technology. By both technologies, 16S rRNA gene analysis indicated that the bacteria in the sample were closely related to, for example, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. The sequences belonging to Rhodococcus were the most predominant, and Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, Acidovorax, and Zoogloea were also abundant. Both methods revealed a similar overall bacterial community structure. However, the 622 pyrosequencing reads of the hypervariable V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene revealed much higher bacterial diversity than the 130 sequences from the full-length 16S rRNA gene clone library. The 92 operational taxonomic unit (OTUs) detected using pyrosequencing belonged to 45 families, whereas the 37 OTUs found in the clone library belonged to 25 families. Most sequences obtained from the clone library had equivalents in the pyrosequencing reads. However, 64 OTUs detected by pyrosequencing were not represented in the clone library. Our results demonstrate that pyrosequencing of the V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene is not only a powerful tool for discovering low-abundance bacterial populations but is also reliable for dissecting the bacterial community structure in a wastewater environment.

A novel forward osmosis reactor assisted with microfiltration for deep thickening waste activated sludge: performance and implication.

Waste activated sludge (WAS) treatment has gained growing interests for its increasingly capacity and high process cost. Sludge thickening is generally the first process of the WAS treatment. However, traditional sludge thickening approach was restrained by large footprint, low thickening efficiency, and tendency of releasing phosphorus. Here, we reported a novel microfiltration (MF) membrane assisting forward osmosis (FO) process (MF-FO) for sludge thickening. The MF-FO reactor achieved a sludge thickening of the mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentration from approximately 7 to 50 g/L after 10-day operation. More importantly, the effluent quality after FO filtration was superior with total organic carbon (TOC), ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3--N) and total phosphorus (TP) of 1.94 ± 0.46, 0.02 ± 0.07, 4.55 ± 1.59 and 0.24 ± 0.26 mg/L, respectively. Additionally, the integration of MF membrane successfully controlled the salinity of the MF-FO reactor in a low range of 1.6-3.1 mS/cm, which mitigated the flux decline of FO membrane and thus prolonged the operating time. In this case, the flux decline of FO membrane in the MF-FO reactor was mainly due to the membrane fouling. Furthermore, the fouling layer on the FO membrane surface was a gel layer mainly composed of biofoulants and organic foulants when the MLSS concentration was less than 30 g/L, while it turned to a cake layer when the MLSS concentration exceeded 30 g/L. Results reported here demonstrated that the MF-FO reactor is a promising WAS thickening technology for its excellent thickening performance and high effluent quality of FO membrane.

Chinese Medicine Combined With EGFR-TKIs Prolongs Progression-Free Survival and Overall Survival of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Patients Harboring EGFR Mutations, Compared With the Use of TKIs Alone.

Objective: To explore the efficacy comparison between epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) combined with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and single EGFR-TKIs for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A total of 91 NSCLC patients with EGFR mutation were divided into an experimental group and a control group (in a ratio of 2:1) to receive TCM and EGFR-TKIs (61 cases) or single EGFR-TKIs (30 cases). Patients in the control group took EGFR-TKIs and those in the experimental group took EGFR-TKIs plus TCM. We analyzed the progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), disease control rate (DCR), and treatment-related adverse events of two groups. Results: The mPFS of the experimental group and the control group was 12.3 and 8.9 months (P = 0.02), respectively, and the mOS of the experimental group and the control group was 28.2 and 24.2 months (P = 0.02), respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that for the patients with exon 19 deletion mutation (19DEL), mPFS between experimental group and control group was 12.7 and 10.1 months, respectively (P = 0.12). For exon 21 deletion mutation (L858R), the PFS of two groups was 10.8 vs. 8.2 months, respectively (P = 0.03). The subgroup analysis also showed that, for the patients with exon 19 deletion mutation, mOS between the experimental group and the control group was 30.3 and 28.7 months, respectively (P = 0.19). For exon 21 deletion mutation, the mOS of two groups was 25.5 vs. 21.3 months, respectively (P = 0.01). The DCR of the experimental group and the control group was 93.3% and 80.1%, respectively (P = 0.77). Grade 3-4 treatment-related adverse events were less common with the experimental group (11.48%) than the control group (26.67%). Conclusion: For NSCLC patients with EGFR mutation, EGFR-TKIs combined with TCM had a certain effect to prolong mPFS and mOS, compared with the use of EGFR-TKIs alone, especially for the patients with L858R. This conclusion has a significant effect on improving the survival of NSCLC patients after EGFR-TKIs resistance. It deserves further study.

Versatile aromatic compound-degrading capacity and microdiversity of Thauera strains isolated from a coking wastewater treatment bioreactor.

Bacteria of the Thauera genus have been described as important aromatic compound degraders and have attracted increased attention. In this study, three Thauera strains (Q4, Q20-C, and 3-35) were isolated from a coking wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with a high abundance of Thauera. The 16S rRNA, nitrite reductase, and phenol hydroxylase (LmPH) genes and pollutant-degrading capacity of these strains were characterized and compared. Their 16S rRNA gene sequences were identical, but the genomic structures differed, as demonstrated by distinct enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR profiles with a similarity of less than 0.65. The analysis of degradation of coking wastewater by these strains showed that most of the main organic pollutants--phenol, methylphenol, and indole, but not quinoline--were degraded under aerobic conditions. These strains contained different LmPHs genes and showed different phenol degradation rates (Q4 > 3-35 > Q20-C). The presence of a microdiversity of Thauera spp. implies the existence of various finely differentiated niches in the industrial WWTP. The capacity of the Thauera strains to degrade a wide spectrum of aromatic compounds suggests their potential in bioremediation applications targeting aromatic pollutant-containing wastewater.

Efficient mineralization of antibiotic ciprofloxacin in acid aqueous medium by a novel photoelectro-Fenton process using a microwave discharge electrodeless lamp irradiation.

In this study, a novel photoelectro-Fenton (PEF) process using microwave discharge electrodeless lamp (MDEL) as a UV irradiation source was developed for the removal of antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP) in water. Comparative degradation of 200mgL-1 CIP was studied by direct MDEL photolysis, anodic oxidation (AO), AO in presence of electrogenerated H2O2 (AO-H2O2), AO-H2O2 under MDEL irradiation (MDEL-AO-H2O2), electro-Fenton (EF) and MDEL-PEF processes. Higher oxidation power was found in the sequence: MDEL photolysis < AO < AO-H2O2< MDEL-AO-H2O2< EF < MDEL-PEF. Effects of current density, pH, initial Fe2+ concentration and initial CIP concentration on TOC removal in MDEL-PEF process were examined, and the optimal conditions were ascertained. The releases of three inorganic ions (F-, NH4+ and NO3-) and two carboxylic acids (oxalic and formic acids) were qualified. Seven aromatic intermediates mainly generated from hydroxylation, dealkylation and defluorination of CIP were detected by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS technology. Therefore, plausible degradation sequences for CIP degradation in MDEL-PEF process including all detected products were proposed.