Camellia Oleifera shells derived nano cellulose crystals conjugated with gallic acid as a sustainable Pickering emulsion stabilizer.

Lately, emulsions with low-fat and natural stabilizers are predominant. This study extracted the nano cellulose crystals (NCs) from Camellia Oleifera shells, and their gallic acid (GA) conjugates were synthesized by free-radical grafting. Pickering emulsions were prepared using NCs 1 %, 1.5 %, 2.5 %, and gallic acid conjugates NC-GA1, NC-GA2, and NC-GA3 as stabilizers. The obtained nano cellulose crystals exhibited 18-25 nm, -40.01 ±â€¯2.45 size, and zeta potential, respectively. The contact angle of 83.4° was exhibited by NC-GA3 conjugates. The rheological, interfacial, and microstructural properties and stability of the Pickering emulsion were explored. NC-GA3 displayed the highest absorption content of 79.12 %. Interfacial tension was drastically reduced with increasing GA concentration in NC-GA conjugates. Rheological properties suggested that the low-fat NC-GA emulsions showed a viscoelastic behavior, increased viscosity, gel-like structure, and increased antioxidant properties. Moreover, NC-GA3 displayed reduced droplet size and improved emulsion temperature and storage stability (28 days) against phase separation. POV and TBARS values were reduced with the NC-GA3 (P < 0.05). This work confirmed that grafting phenolic compounds on NCs could enhance bioactive properties, which can be used in developing low-fat functional foods. NC-GA conjugates can potentially fulfill the increasing demand for sustainable, healthy, and low-fat foods.

Natural Biomolecule Ovomucin-Chitosan Oligosaccharide Self-Assembly Nanogel for Lutein Application Enhancement: Characterization, Environmental Stability and Bioavailability.

As an essential nutrient, lutein (LUT) has the ability to aid in the prevention of eye diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. However, the application of LUT is largely restricted by its poor solubility and susceptibility to oxidative degradation. Thus, in this study, LUT-loaded nanogel (OVM-COS-LUT) was prepared by a self-assembly of ovomucin (OVM) and chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) to enhance the effective protection and bioavailability of LUT. The nanogel had excellent dispersion (PDI = 0.25) and an 89.96% LUT encapsulation rate. XRD crystal structure analysis confirmed that the encapsulated LUT maintained an amorphous morphology. In addition, the nanogel showed satisfactory stability with pH levels ranging from 2 to 9 and high ionic strengths (>100 mM). Even under long-term storage, the nanogel maintained an optimistic stabilization and protection capacity; its effective retention rates could reach 96.54%. In vitro, digestion simulation showed that the bioaccessibility and sustained release of OVM-COS-LUT nanogel was superior to that of free LUT. The nanogel provided significant antioxidant activity, and no significant harmful effects were detected in cytotoxicity analyses at higher concentrations. In summary, OVM-COS-LUT can be utilized as a potential safe oral and functional carrier for encapsulating LUT.

Vector Approximate Message Passing Based OFDM-IM Detection for Underwater Acoustic Communications.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM) has great potential for the implementation of high spectral-efficiency underwater acoustic (UWA) communications. However, general receivers consisting of the optimal maximum likelihood detection suffer from high computational load, which prohibits real-time data transmissions in underwater scenarios. In this paper, we propose a detection based on a vector approximate message passing (VAMP) algorithm for UWA OFDM-IM communications. Firstly, a VAMP framework with a non-loopy factor graph for index detection is formulated. Secondly, by utilizing the sparsity inherently existing in OFDM-IM symbols, a novel shrinkage function is derived based on the minimum mean square error criterion, which guarantees better posterior estimation. To reduce the errors from estimated non-existing indices, one trick is utilized to search the elements from the look-up table with the minimal Euclidean distance for the replacement of erroneously estimated indices. Experiments verify the advantages of the proposed detector in terms of low complexity, robustness and effectiveness compared with the state-of-art benchmarks.

Prognostic biomarker SYK and its correlation with immune infiltrates in glioma.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) provides excellent conditions for the development of glioma. The present study sought to identify the prognostic factors of glioma that could be used to improve the prognosis of patients with this disease. In the present study, Cell-type Identification by Estimating Relative Subsets of RNA Transcripts (CIBERSORT) and Estimation of Stromal and Immune cells in Malignant Tumor tissues using Expression data calculations were employed to estimate the ratio of tumor-infiltrating immune cells and the quantity of immune and stromal components in 698 glioma cases from the Cancer Genome Atlas database. In addition, certain differentially expressed genes were studied by Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses and single genes associated with prognosis were identified by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and Cox combined analysis. The immune and stromal scores of the TME were significantly associated with glioma patient survival. By using the PPI network and Cox regression analyses, spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) was eventually identified as the best prognostic factor for patients with glioma. In addition, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis and CIBERSORT analyses were employed. The former indicated that the high-expression SYK group genes were mainly enriched in immune-related activities. The latter revealed that SYK expression was positively associated with T cell cluster of differentiation 4 memory resting and monocytes. The aforementioned experimental analyses provided the theoretical basis for the biological prediction of SYK. The data indicated that SYK contributed to immune predictors in patients with glioma by facilitating the shift of the TME from immune dominance to metabolic activity. Finally, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting were used to verify the single gene expression in glioma cells. This may provide prognostic value for the treatment of glioma.

Prevalence and characteristics of comorbid stroke and traumatic brain injury in a real-world population: findings from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey in China.

BACKGROUND: In China, data on the prevalence and characteristics of comorbid stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) in real-world populations are still lacking but of paramount importance for the evidence-based prevention and control of the comorbidity of the two diseases. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of comorbid stroke and TBI in a real-world population. METHODS: In 2013, a nationally representative, door-to-door survey on stroke and TBI using a complex, multistage, probability sampling design was conducted among approximately 600,000 participants from 155 urban and rural areas in China (Ethic ID: KY2013-006-01). The weighted prevalence of comorbid stroke and TBI was estimated using individuals' final weight. A Poisson regression analysis was used to compare the rate ratio of the comorbidity prevalence among different subgroups of the population, including age, sex, place of residence, and geographic location subgroups. For analyses of associations between the comorbidities and predictors of interest, all other variables were adjusted for in a multinomial logistic regression model. RESULTS: Among the 596,536 people, 219 patients with comorbid stroke and TBI were identified. The point prevalence of comorbid stroke and TBI weighted to the China 2010 census population was 29.30 (95% CI: 22.69-37.84) per 100,000 population in China. The adjusted prevalence of post-TBI stroke in patients with previous TBI was significantly higher than that of post-stroke TBI in patients with previous stroke (6021.3 vs. 811.1 per 100,000 people; rate ratio: 11.001; 95% CI: 8.069-14.998). Patients with nonconcussion had significantly higher rates of both pre-stroke TBI (odds ratio: 4.694; 95% CI: 3.296-6.687) and post-stroke TBI (odds ratio: 6.735; 95% CI: 3.719-12.194) than patients with concussion. Compared to patients with ischaemic stroke, patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (odds ratio: 2.044; 95% CI: 1.097-3.809) and intracerebral haemorrhage (odds ratio: 1.903; 95% CI: 1.296-2.795) had significantly higher rates of post-TBI stroke. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of stroke among TBI patients is becoming a new public health issue. TBI patients, especially those with nonconcussion TBI, are more likely to develop comorbid stroke and TBI than stroke patients, especially ischaemic stroke patients.

Recent Advances in Underwater Signal Processing.

The ocean, covering 71% of the Earth's surface, is integral to human life [...].

Effect of milling intensity on the properties of chitin, chitosan and chitosan films obtained from grasshopper.

To obtain high-quality insect products, milling was used as a modification tool and its effect on grasshopper chitin, chitosan and chitosan films was investigated. Three grasshopper powders were obtained and classified into coarse-milled powder (CMP, D90 = 956 µm), medium-milled powder (MMP, D90 = 492 µm), and ultrafine-milled powder (UMP, D90 = 79.1 µm). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy illustrated that no drastic change due to milling was observed, but the crystallinity (X-ray diffraction) and thermal stability (Thermogravimetric analysis) of the chitin, chitosan and chitosan films reduced with increasing milling intensity. Besides, the purity of the chitin and the yield of chitosan obtained from UMP were improved. Chitosan prepared from UMP was also characterized by high degree of deacetylation (65.6 %) and solubility and rather low molecular weight (11.5 kDa), viscosity and water/fat binding capacity. The finer the powder used as the extraction material, the thinner the chitosan films and the more compact the structure. On the whole, the chitosan films prepared from the MMP had higher mechanical properties and better moisture-keeping ability on strawberries compared with CMP and UMP films. This study establishes the role milling intensity played in the modification of grasshopper products and provides a reference for practical applications.

Relief effects of Laoshan cherry extracts as a dietary supplement against the symptoms of acute gouty arthritis in rats induced by urate crystals.

We evaluated the effects of Laoshan cherry as a food or dietary supplement on relieving the symptoms of acute gouty arthritis in rats induced by urate crystals. Rats in groups of 10 were given Laoshan cherry functional extracts at doses of 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg by oral gavage for 21 days and then injected with a sodium nitrate suspension in the rear ankle area as an induced acute gouty arthritis model. The ankle swelling and inflammations in the model (no treatment) group increased significantly compared with blank group; the ankle inflammations reduced in experimental groups receiving three different doses of the cherry extract and the joint swelling reduced in the high-dose group by 43% compared with the model group. Serum uric acid and xanthine oxidase activities were also elevated in the model group and these parameters were reduced by a maximum of 8% and 33%, respectively, in the rats receiving the cherry extracts. The serum levels of the inflammatory cytokine IL-1ß in the high-dose group decreased by 12% compared with the model group. These results demonstrated that the cherries possess a functional substance that has a significant alleviating effect on the symptoms of gouty arthritis in rats induced by sodium urate injection.

Prevalence and distribution of lacunar stroke in China: a cross-sectional study using self-reported survey data.

OBJECTIVES: To report the prevalence and distribution of lacunar stroke in different regions of China, as well as the demographical characteristics of symptomatic and asymptomatic lacunar stroke. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Data were derived from NESS-China Study that was conducted in 157 sites covering all 31 provinces, including 64 urban and 93 rural areas in mainland China between 1 September 2013 and 31 December 2013. Lacunar stroke was defined as being previously diagnosed according to the participants' medical history. Patients were further divided into symptomatic or asymptomatic groups, depending on whether they were initially diagnosed with neurological symptoms. PARTICIPANTS: 458 833 participants aged ≥20 years were enrolled in this study. RESULTS: A total of 7520 participants (1.63%) were diagnosed with lacunar stroke. The peak rate of diagnosis was between the ages of 70 and 79 years in both men and women. Geographically, the age-standardised and sex-standardised prevalence was highest in Northeast China (2495.3/100 000 persons) and lowest in Southeast China (599.7/100 000 persons), showing a geographical disparity. Over 90% of patients with lacunar stroke were diagnosed in secondary or tertiary hospitals. Patients with symptomatic lacunar stroke had significantly different demographic characteristics in age, sex and geographical regions compared with those who were asymptomatic. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the prevalence and distribution of lacunar stroke were reported at population level across China. Special attention and prevention should be given to the age, sex and geographical groups that are vulnerable to lacunar stroke.

Energy Harvesting for TDS-OFDM in NOMA-Based Underwater Communication Systems.

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is considered a promising multiple access technique for fifth generation (5G) mobile networks and tactical internet due to its high spectral efficiency. Thanks to the high spectral efficiency of NOMA, it can be a strong candidate suitable for the limited channel bandwidth of underwater acoustic communication. The NOMA transmitter is employing superposition coding (SC). The NOMA receiver is based on the successive interference cancellation (SIC) technique. The multicarrier NOMA adopts orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) as a multicarrier modulation (MCM) technique; however, conventional cyclic prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM) and zero padding (ZP-OFDM) have inefficient spectral efficiency. Thanks to efficient synchronization and high energy-spectral efficiency of the time-division synchronization OFDM (TDS-OFDM), it is a significant attractive candidate for underwater multicarrier communication. However, wasting the power transmission of long guard intervals in the battery-based underwater communication is represented as one of the TDS-OFDM main drawbacks. Harvesting energy and improving the energy efficiency of acoustic-based TDS-OFDM-NOMA represent high achievement goal battery recharging challenges due to the ocean environment. This paper proposes time switching simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (TS-SWIPT) to harvest the energy of transmitted power over the guard interval in the TDS-OFDM-NOMA scheme. The proposed energy harvested scheme harvests the energy from the wasted power in the long guard interval and improves the energy efficiency of the TDS-OFDM multicarrier scheme. This study demonstrates the superiority of the proposed TDS-OFDM-NOMA over the underwater acoustic channel by revealing high energy efficiency, high spectral efficiency, better bit error rate performance, and high system data throughput.

Integration of Fourier ptychography with machine learning: an alternative scheme.

As the core task of the reconstruction in conventional ptychography (CP) and Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM), the meticulous design of ptychographical iterative engine (PIE) largely affects the performance of reconstruction algorithms. Compared to traditional PIE algorithms, the paradigm of combining with machine learning to cross a local optimum has recently achieved significant progress. Nevertheless, existing designed engines still suffer drawbacks such as excessive hyper-parameters, heavy tuning work and lack of compatibility, which greatly limit their practical applications. In this work, we present a complete set of alternative schemes comprised of a kind of new perspective, a uniform design template, and a fusion framework, to naturally integrate Fourier ptychography (FP) with machine learning concepts. The new perspective, Dynamic Physics, is taken as the preferred tool to analyze a path (algorithm) at the physical level; the uniform design template, T-FP, clarifies the physical significance and optimization part in a path; the fusion framework follows two workable guidelines that are specially designed to keep convergence and make later localized modification for a new path, and further establishes a link between FP iterations and the gradient update in machine learning. Our scheme is compatible with both traditional FP paths and machine learning concepts. By combining ideas in both fields, we offer two design examples, MaFP and AdamFP. Results for both simulations and experiments show that designed algorithms following our scheme obtain better, faster (converge at the early stage after a few iterations) and more stable recovery with only minimal tuning hyper-parameters, demonstrating the effectiveness and superiority of our scheme.

Exploring the Fungal Community and Its Correlation with the Physicochemical Properties of Chinese Traditional Fermented Fish (Suanyu).

Suanyu is a traditional natural fermented fish product from Southwest China that contains very complex microflora. The main purpose of this study was to explore the fungal community and its relationship with the physicochemical properties of Suanyu. The fungal community structure of Suanyu from the main provinces (Guizhou and Hunan) was studied via high-throughput sequencing. The correlation between dominant fungi and physicochemical characteristics was analyzed via Spearman's correlation coefficient. The results showed that the pH value, total volatile base nitrogen content, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance content ranges of Suanyu samples were 4.30-5.50, 17.11-94.70 mg/100 g, and 0.61 to 3.62 mg/kg, respectively. The average contents of total volatile base nitrogen, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance, and total BAs in Suanyu from Guizhou were lower than those from Hunan. The main BAs were phenethylamine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, and tyramine. Ascomycota was the dominant fungal phylum, and Kodamaea, Debaryomyces, Wallemia, Zygosaccharomyces, and unclassified Dipodascaceae were the dominant fungal genera in different samples. Moreover, high abundance levels of Kodamaea and Zygosaccharomyces were found in Suanyu from Guizhou. According to the correlation analysis, Kodamaea and Zygosaccharomyces were negatively correlated with TBARS (R2 = -0.43, -0.51) and TVBN (R2 = -0.37, -0.29), and unclassified Dipodascaceae was significant negatively correlated with tyramine (R2 = -0.56). This study expands the understanding of the fungal community and the fermentation characteristics of the dominant fungi in Suanyu.

Metal-Free Boron/Phosphorus Co-Doped Nanoporous Carbon for Highly Efficient Benzyl Alcohol Oxidation.

An in-depth understanding of the electronic structures of catalytically active centers and their surrounding vicinity is key to clarifying the structure-activity relationship, and thus enabling the design and development of novel metal-free carbon-based materials with desired catalytic performance. In this study, boron atoms are introduced into phosphorus-doped nanoporous carbon via an efficient strategy, so that the resulting material delivers better catalytic performance. The doped B atoms alter the electronic structures of active sites and cause the adjacent C atoms to act as additional active sites that catalyze the reaction. The B/P co-doped nanoporous carbon shows remarkable catalytic performance for benzyl alcohol oxidation, achieving high yield (over 91% within 2 h) and selectivity (95%), as well as low activation energy (32.2 kJ mol-1 ). Moreover, both the conversion and selectivity remain above 90% after five reaction cycles. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the introduction of B to P-doped nanoporous carbon significantly increases the electron density at the Fermi level and that the oxidation of benzyl alcohol occurs via a different reaction pathway with a very low energy barrier. These findings provide important insights into the relationship between catalytic performance and electronic structure for the design of dual-doped metal-free carbon catalysts.

Deep Multi-Feature Transfer Network for Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy Imaging Reconstruction.

Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) is a potential imaging technique, which is used to achieve wide field-of-view (FOV), high-resolution and quantitative phase information. The LED array is used to irradiate the samples from different angles to obtain the corresponding low-resolution intensity images. However, the performance of reconstruction still suffers from noise and image data redundancy, which needs to be considered. In this paper, we present a novel Fourier ptychographic microscopy imaging reconstruction method based on a deep multi-feature transfer network, which can achieve good anti-noise performance and realize high-resolution reconstruction with reduced image data. First, in this paper, the image features are deeply extracted through transfer learning ResNet50, Xception and DenseNet121 networks, and utilize the complementarity of deep multiple features and adopt cascaded feature fusion strategy for channel merging to improve the quality of image reconstruction; then the pre-upsampling is used to reconstruct the network to improve the texture details of the high-resolution reconstructed image. We validate the performance of the reported method via both simulation and experiment. The model has good robustness to noise and blurred images. Better reconstruction results are obtained under the conditions of short time and low resolution. We hope that the end-to-end mapping method of neural network can provide a neural-network perspective to solve the FPM reconstruction.

Tranexamic acid for acute intracerebral haemorrhage growth based on imaging assessment (TRAIGE): a multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Studies show tranexamic acid can reduce the risk of death and early neurological deterioration after intracranial haemorrhage. We aimed to assess whether tranexamic acid reduces haematoma expansion and improves outcome in intracerebral haemorrhage patients susceptible to haemorrhage expansion. METHODS: We did a prospective, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial at 10 stroke centres in China. Acute supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage patients were eligible if they had indication of haemorrhage expansion on admission imaging (eg, spot sign, black hole sign or blend sign), and were treatable within 8 hours of symptom onset. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either tranexamic acid or a matching placebo. The primary outcome was intracerebral haematoma growth (>33% relative or >6 mL absolute) at 24 hours. Clinical outcomes were assessed at 90 days. RESULTS: Of the 171 included patients, 124 (72.5%) were male, and the mean age was 55.9±11.6 years. 89 patients received tranexamic acid and 82 received placebo. The primary outcome did not differ significantly between the groups: 36 (40.4%) patients in the tranexamic acid group and 34 (41.5%) patients in the placebo group had intracranial haemorrhage growth (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.77, p=0.89). The proportion of death was lower in the tranexamic acid treatment group than placebo group (8.1% vs 10.0%), but there were no significant differences in secondary outcomes including absolute intracranial haemorrhage growth, death and dependency. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients susceptible to haemorrhage expansion treated within 8 hours of stroke onset, tranexamic acid did not significantly prevent intracerebral haemorrhage growth. Larger studies are needed to assess safety and efficacy of tranexamic acid in intracerebral haemorrhage patients.

Haemostatic therapy in spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage patients with high-risk of haematoma expansion by CT marker: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Current randomised controlled trials (RCTs) showed an uncertain benefit of haemostatic therapy on preventing haematoma expansion and improving the outcome in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH). This meta-analysis aims to systematically evaluate the effect of haemostatic agents on the prevention of haemorrhage growth in patients with high-risk spontaneous ICH predicted by CT signs in RCTs. METHODS: A comprehensive search of PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane library from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2021 was conducted. RCTs that compared haemostatic agents with placebo for the treatment of spontaneous patients with ICH with high-risk haemorrhage growth were included. The primary endpoint was haematoma expansion at 24 hours. Other major endpoints of interest included 90-day functional outcome and mortality. RESULTS: The meta-analysis included four RCTs that randomised 2666 patients with ICH with high-risk haemorrhage growth. Haemostatic therapy reduced the rate of haematoma expansion at a marginally statistically significant level when compared with placebo (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.70 to 1.00; p=0.051). Subgroup analysis for patients with black hole sign on CT revealed a significant reduction of haematoma expansion with haemostatic therapy (OR 0.61; 95% CI 0.39 to 0.94; p=0.03). However, both the primary analysis and subgroup analyses showed that haemostatic therapy could not reduce the rate of poor functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale >3) or death. CONCLUSIONS: Haemostatic therapy showed a marginally significant benefit in reducing early haematoma expansion in patients with high-risk spontaneous ICH predicted by markers on CT scan. However, no significant improvement in functional outcome or reduction of mortality was observed.

Mortality due to primary brain tumours in China and detection rate in people with suspected symptoms: a nationally representative cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Epidemiological data on primary brain tumours (PBTs) are lacking due to the difficulty in case ascertainment among the population. Thus, we aimed to estimate mortality due to PBTs in China nationwide and the detection rate in people with suspected symptoms. METHODS: A multistage, complex sampling survey regarding mortality due to PBTs in Chinese individuals was carried out by reviewing all causes of death within a year. The detection rates in people with suspected symptoms were estimated based on PBT symptom screening and neurologist reviews and compared between groups by logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Weighted mortality due to PBT was 1.6 (0.8-3.3) per 100,000 population in Chinese individuals, 1.8 (0.7-4.6) per 100,000 population in men, and 1.5 (0.5-4.5) per 100,000 population in women. Among 14,990 people with suspected symptoms, the PBT detection rate was 306.9 (95% CI 224.7-409.3) per 100,000 population in the total population, 233.0 (95% CI 135.7-373.1) per 100,000 population in men, and 376.9 (95% CI 252.4-546.3) per 100,000 population in women. People with an unsteady gait (OR 2.46; 95% CI 1.09-5.51; P=0.029), visual anomalies (3.84; 1.88-7.85; P<0.001), and headache (2.06; 1.10-3.86; P=0.023) were more likely to have a brain tumour than those without corresponding symptoms, while people with dizziness/vertigo were less likely to have a brain tumour than those without corresponding symptoms (0.45; 0.23-0.87; P=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Mortality due to PBT in China was low, with a nationwide estimate of 21,215 (10,427-43,165) deaths attributable to PBTs annually. However, the detection rate of PBTs can be greatly improved based on symptom screening in the population.

Multi-Stage Feature Extraction and Classification for Ship-Radiated Noise.

Due to the complexity and unique features of the hydroacoustic channel, ship-radiated noise (SRN) detected using a passive sonar tends mostly to distort. SRN feature extraction has been proposed to improve the detected passive sonar signal. Unfortunately, the current methods used in SRN feature extraction have many shortcomings. Considering this, in this paper we propose a new multi-stage feature extraction approach to enhance the current SRN feature extractions based on enhanced variational mode decomposition (EVMD), weighted permutation entropy (WPE), local tangent space alignment (LTSA), and particle swarm optimization-based support vector machine (PSO-SVM). In the proposed method, first, we enhance the decomposition operation of the conventional VMD by decomposing the SRN signal into a finite group of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and then calculate the WPE of each IMF. Then, the high-dimensional features obtained are reduced to two-dimensional ones by using the LTSA method. Finally, the feature vectors are fed into the PSO-SVM multi-class classifier to realize the classification of different types of SRN sample. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the recognition rate of the proposed method overcomes the conventional SRN feature extraction methods, and it has a recognition rate of up to 96.6667%.

Prevalence, Incidence, and External Causes of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury in China: A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Survey.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The epidemiological characteristics of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in China are unclear. Thus, we aimed to study prevalence, incidence, and external causes of TSCI in China nationwide. METHODS: In 2013, we conducted a nationally representative, door-to-door epidemiological survey on TSCI in China using a complex, multistage, probability sampling design. RESULTS: In China, the point prevalence of TSCI standardized to the China census population 2010 was 569.7 (95% CI: 514.2-630.4) per 1,000,000 in the population, 753.6 (95% CI: 663.3-854.3) per 1,000,000 among men, and 387.7 (95% CI: 324.8-461.1) per 1,000,000 among women. The incidence of TSCI standardized to the China census population 2010 was 49.8 (95% CI: 34.4-70.7) per 1,000,000 per year in the population, 63.2 (95% CI: 38.9-98.5) per 1,000,000 among men, and 36.9 (95% CI: 19.5-65.9) per 1,000,000 among women. Among the 415 TSCI events in 394 prevalent cases, the top three injury causes were falls (55.2%), motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) (26.5%), and strike injuries (10.1%), while other injury causes including gunshot and explosion accounted for 8.2%. Among the 394 prevalent cases, the mean age of patients at the time of injury was 43.7 ± 17.1 years; the male-to-female ratio was 1.86:1. CONCLUSION: It is estimated that there are 759,302 prevalent patients with TSCI in total and 66,374 new TSCI cases annually in China. Falls and MVCs are still 2 major external causes for TSCI in China.

Feature Extraction of Ship-Radiated Noise Based on Enhanced Variational Mode Decomposition, Normalized Correlation Coefficient and Permutation Entropy.

Due to the complexity and variability of underwater acoustic channels, ship-radiated noise (SRN) detected using the passive sonar is prone to be distorted. The entropy-based feature extraction method can improve this situation, to some extent. However, it is impractical to directly extract the entropy feature for the detected SRN signals. In addition, the existing conventional methods have a lack of suitable de-noising processing under the presence of marine environmental noise. To this end, this paper proposes a novel feature extraction method based on enhanced variational mode decomposition (EVMD), normalized correlation coefficient (norCC), permutation entropy (PE), and the particle swarm optimization-based support vector machine (PSO-SVM). Firstly, EVMD is utilized to obtain a group of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) from the SRN signals. The noise-dominant IMFs are then eliminated by a de-noising processing prior to PE calculation. Next, the correlation coefficient between each signal-dominant IMF and the raw signal and PE of each signal-dominant IMF are calculated, respectively. After this, the norCC is used to weigh the corresponding PE and the sum of these weighted PE is considered as the final feature parameter. Finally, the feature vectors are fed into the PSO-SVM multi-class classifier to classify the SRN samples. The experimental results demonstrate that the recognition rate of the proposed methodology is up to 100%, which is much higher than the currently existing methods. Hence, the method proposed in this paper is more suitable for the feature extraction of SRN signals.