Comparative study on convolutional neural network and regression analysis to evaluate uniaxial compressive strength of Sandy Dolomite.

Sandy Dolomite is a kind of widely distributed rock. The uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of Sandy Dolomite is an important metric in the application in civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, and underground engineering. Direct measurement of UCS is costly, time-consuming, and even infeasible in some cases. To address this problem, we establish an indirect measuring method based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) and regression analysis (RA). The new method is straightforward and effective for UCS prediction, and has significant practical implications. To evaluate the performance of the new method, 158 dolomite samples of different sandification grades are collected for testing their UCS along and near the Yuxi section of the Central Yunnan Water Diversion (CYWD) Project in Yunnan Province, Southwest of China. Two regression equations with high correlation coefficients are established according to the RA results, to predict the UCS of Sandy Dolomites. Moreover, the minimum thickness of Sandy Dolomite was determined by the Schmidt hammer rebound test. Results show that CNN outperforms RA in terms of prediction the precision of Sandy Dolomite UCS. In addition, CNN can effectively deal with uncertainty in test results, making it one of the most effective tools for predicting the UCS of Sandy Dolomite.

Study on the process of mass transfer and deterioration of limestone under dynamic dissolution of CO2 solution.

The long-term erosion of rock by solution can induce a series of karst problems. Therefore, this study focused on limestone and conducted dynamic dissolution experiments under deionized water and CO2 solution conditions to study the deterioration mechanism of limestone under nonequilibrium conditions. The results showed that the degree of degradation of the mechanical properties of the samples in a CO2 solution was obviously greater. In a deionized water environment, the degradation of the mechanical properties of the sample is mainly controlled by the physical softening action of the solution. In the CO2 solution environment, the degradation process can be divided into two stages. In the early stage of the experiment (10 days to 20 days), the degradation of mechanical properties of the sample is also controlled by the physical softening action of the solution. With increasing soaking time, the main rock-forming minerals of limestone gradually react with the CO2 solution, the degradation of the sample is controlled mainly by the chemical corrosion of the CO2 solution, and its degradation rate is much greater than that of physical softening. The results can be used as a reference for assessing the long-term stability of underground engineering in limestone karst development areas.

Study on the Corrosion Behavior of Cemented Organic Soil in Dianchi Lake, China.

To study the corrosion behavior of cement soil in peat soil, the experiment involves the preparation of peat soil by incorporating humic acid into cohesive soil with a lower organic matter content. Cement soil samples are then prepared by adding cement to the mixture. These samples are subjected to immersion in fulvic acid solution and deionized water to simulate different working environments of cement soil. The experiment considers immersion time as the variable factor. It conducts observations of apparent phenomena, ion leaching tests, and unconfined compression strength tests on the cement soil. The experiment results are as follows: (1) With increasing immersion time, the surface of the cement soil in the peat soil environment experiences the disappearance of Ca(OH)2 and calcium aluminate hydrate. Additionally, large amounts of bird dropping crystals precipitate on the surface and within the specimen. The cement soil undergoes localized disintegration due to extensive erosion caused by swelling forces. (2) In the peat soil environment, fulvic acid reacts with the hydration products of cement, resulting in partial leaching of ions such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Al3+, and Fe3+ into the immersion solution. The lower the pH of the fulvic acid immersion (indicating higher concentration), the more significant the ion leaching. Increasing the ratio of humic acid to cement can slow down the leaching of ions. The cement soil undergoes dissolutive erosion in the peat soil environment. (3) The peat soil environment exerts both strengthening and corrosive effects on the cement soil. Cement soil without humic acid exhibits noticeable corrosion in the peat soil environment, gradually decreasing strength as immersion time increases. The strength decreases by 83% from 28 to 365 days. In contrast, cement soil with humic acid experiences an initial period of strengthening, leading to a significant increase in strength in the short term (34% increase from 28 to 90 days). However, the corrosive effects gradually dominate, resulting in a decrease in strength over time. The strength decreases by 80% from 90 to 365 days. This study also explores the strengthening effects of peat soil on cement soil. It identifies phenomena such as extensive erosion and new substance precipitation in cement soil.

Seepage field characteristic and stability analysis of tailings dam under action of chemical solution.

As one of the important influencing factors of tailings dam stability, seepage field distribution within the dam is often affected by the tailings mineral characteristics. While the alkalinity or acidity of reservoir water and long term immersion will partially change the physical and mechanical properties of tailings. This study carried out permeability tests of tailings under the action of chemical solution. On this basis, a three dimensional (3D) model was constructed to analyze the velocity field and effective saturation within the tailings dam. Moreover, the dam section along the valley bottom was selected as the basic section in calculation, so as to analyze the changes in infiltration point and buried depth of the phreatic line under different permeability coefficient ratios. The results suggest that, under the action of acid-alkaline solution, the permeability coefficients of tailings reduced, and the stronger solution acidity-alkalinity resulted in the longer action time and more obvious change; under the action of chemical solution, the fluid flow velocity in the dam gradually decreased, and the drat beach length in the reservoir gradually shortened. Besides, when the upper layer permeability coefficients of tailings was lower than that of the lower layer, the dam phreatic line had a shallow buried depth and a high infiltration point.

Diagnostic value of detection of serum ß-HCG and CT-IgG combined with transvaginal ultrasonography in early tubal pregnancy.

The diagnostic value of detection of serum ß-human chorionic gonadotropin (ß-HCG) and Chlamydia trachomatis immunoglobulin G (CT-IgG) combined with transvaginal ultrasonography in early tubal pregnancy was investigated. A total of 55 patients with early tubal pregnancy were selected as the tubal pregnancy group, while 55 subjects of normal intrauterine pregnancy were enrolled as the intrauterine pregnancy group. Transvaginal ultrasonography and quantitative detection of serum ß-HCG and CT-IgG were performed for all patients, and the clinical examination results were analyzed and compared. The endometrial thickness and serum ß-HCG level of patients with early tubal pregnancy were significantly lower than those of women with intrauterine pregnancy (6.7±1.5 vs. 11.6±1.2 mm; 776±109 vs. 5,598±187 U/l), and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.01); the serum CT-IgG antibody positive rate of patients in tubal pregnancy group (49.1%) was significantly higher than that in intrauterine pregnancy group (12.7%) (p<0.01); the serum CT-IgG antibody positive rates of patients with degree I, II and III of pelvic adhesion intubal pregnancy group were 28.6, 75.0 and 81.8%, respectively; the more severe the pelvic adhesion was, the higher the CT-IgG positive rate would be. The diagnostic coincidence rate of combined detection was significantly higher than that of single detection of serum ß-HCG, progesterone and endometrial thickness. The detection of serum ß-HCG and CT-IgG combined with transvaginal ultrasonography can diagnose the early tubal pregnancy soonest possible, and help choose the appropriate therapeutic methods depending on the situation to reduce the tubal damage of patients, so as to provide a reliable basis for the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, and it has important clinical application value.

Advanced oxidation protein products from the follicular microenvironment and their role in infertile women with endometriosis.

Endometriosis (EM) is associated with oxidative stress. Advanced oxidation protein products (AOPPs) are novel markers of oxidative stress, which serve an important role as an inflammatory mediator in various chronic diseases. In order to examine the role of AOPPs in infertile women with EM, the present study analyzed the levels of AOPPs, estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4) in the follicular fluid (FF) of 89 women with or without EM undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). The AOPP concentration in the FF of the EM group was significantly higher when compared with that of the control group (51.5±22.4 vs. 41.8±18.3 µmol/l; P<0.05). However, the FF P4 levels and blastocyst rate were significantly lower in the EM group compared with the control group (P4:1,249.6±465.4 vs. 1,752.7±565.4 ng/ml, P<0.05; blastocyst rate: 0.511±0.322 vs. 0.662±0.278; P<0.05). The AOPP concentration and P4 level in the FF presented a significant negative correlation in the EM and control groups, as well as in the total cohort of patients (EM group: r=-0.406, P=0.006; control group: r=-0.315, P=0.035; total: r=-0.421, P<0.001). In addition, there was a significant negative correlation between the FF AOPP concentrations and blastocyst rate in the EM group and in the total cohort (EM group: r=-0.376, P=0.012; total: r=-0.367, P<0.001). In conclusion, these results suggested that AOPPs may be a potentially effective marker for predicting the oocyte quality and outcomes of IVF in infertile women with EM.

Clinical significance and biological role of Wnt10a in ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is one of the five most malignant types of cancer in females, and the only currently effective therapy is surgical resection combined with chemotherapy. Wnt family member 10A (Wnt10a) has previously been identified to serve an oncogenic function in several tumor types, and was revealed to have clinical significance in renal cell carcinoma; however, there is still only limited information regarding the function of Wnt10a in the carcinogenesis of ovarian cancer. The present study identified increased expression levels of Wnt10a in two cell lines, SKOV3 and A2780, using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Functional analysis indicated that the viability rate and migratory ability of SKOV3 cells was significantly inhibited following Wnt10a knockdown using short interfering RNA (siRNA) technology. The viability rate of SKOV3 cells decreased by ~60% compared with the control and the migratory ability was only ~30% of that in the control. Furthermore, the expression levels of ß-catenin, transcription factor 4, lymphoid enhancer binding factor 1 and cyclin D1 were significantly downregulated in SKOV3 cells treated with Wnt10a-siRNA3 or LGK-974, a specific inhibitor of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. However, there were no synergistic effects observed between Wnt10a siRNA3 and LGK-974, which indicated that Wnt10a activated the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway in SKOV3 cells. In addition, using quantitative PCR, Wnt10a was overexpressed in the tumor tissue samples obtained from 86 patients with ovarian cancer when compared with matching paratumoral tissues. Clinicopathological association analysis revealed that Wnt10a was significantly associated with high-grade (grade III, P=0.031) and late-stage (T4, P=0.008) ovarian cancer. Furthermore, the estimated 5-year survival rate was 18.4% for patients with low Wnt10a expression levels (n=38), whereas for patients with high Wnt10a expression (n=48) the rate was 6.3%. The results of the present study suggested that Wnt10a serves an oncogenic role during the carcinogenesis and progression of ovarian cancer via the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

Silencing of UCA1, a poor prognostic factor, inhibited the migration of endometrial cancer cell.

BACKGROUND: Endometrial cancer (EC) is a common female malignancy. Most patients were diagnosed at an early stage with a favorable prognosis. But more than 30% patients were high risk at III/IV stage with invading deep into the myometrium and progressively lead to local or extra pelvic metastasis. Urothelial cancer-associated 1 (UCA1) had been reported as the oncogenic long non-coding RNA in many tumors, but the role of UCA1 in EC is still unclear. METHOD: QRT-PCR was used to analysis the level of UCA1 in the proliferative endometrium, primary EC tissue and lymph node metastasis tissue of EC. According to the QRT-PCR results of primary EC tissue, survival curves were made using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the log rank test was used to analyze the differences of clinicopathological characteristics and survival between the low expression and high expression group of UCA1 in EC patients. Moreover we knocked down the expression of UCA1 in EC cell lines HTB-111 and Ishikawa, and detected the migration and invasion ability of them with wound healing assay and transwell assay. RESULTS: The expression level of UCA1 using QRT-PCR method in lymph node metastasis tissue was the highest than that in the proliferative endometrium and primary EC tissues (1.15 ± 0.23, 3.23 ± 1.06 vs. 6.42 ± 1.46, P < 0.0001). For the primary EC tissue, the median fold change of UCA1 was used as a cutoff value. High UCA1 expression was observed to be closely correlated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.008), distant metastasis (P = 0.003), grade (P = 0.009), advanced TNM stage (P = 0.031) and vessel invasive (P = 0.032). The 5-year overall survival rate in the high expression group was 41.7%, compared with 72.7% in the low expression group (P = 0.023). After silencing the UCA1, the migration and invasion ability of EC cell lines reduced significantly. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide the convincing evidence that the UCA1 plays an important role in the metastasis of EC and may serve as a novel molecular marker to predict the aggressive tumor progression and unfavorable prognosis of EC patients.

Hepatoma-derived growth factor predicts unfavorable prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer.

AIM: To evaluate the expression and clinical significance of hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). BACKGROUND: Recent studies have demonstrated that HDGF overexpression correlates to the progression and poor prognosis in several kinds of cancers. However, the clinical significance and prognostic value of HDGF in EOC have not been investigated. METHODS: Expression of HDGF was visualized by immunohistology and then the cohort was divided into higher- and lower-expression groups. The correlation between HDGF and clinicopathologic factors was analyzed by χ (2) test. The prognostic value of HDGF was assessed by univariate analysis with Kaplan-Meier method, and by multivariate analysis with Cox-regression model. With experiments in vitro, HDGF expression in ovarian cancer cell lines was detected by immunoblotting. RESULTS: Higher HDGF expression rate was 52.76% in EOC. HDGF expression was significantly associated with lymphatic metastasis (P=0.006). Higher HDGF expression was closely correlated to poorer 5-year overall survival rate with univariate analysis (P=0.003), and was identified as an independent prognostic factor with multivariate analysis (P=0.007). With experiments in vitro, HDGF was proved to exist in all ovarian cancer cell lines with different expression levels. CONCLUSION: HDGF expression correlates to unfavorable prognosis and can be considered as an independent prognostic factor, indicating that HDGF may be a promising potential molecular drug target.