• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.285-299
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• 2020

Long term structural health monitoring has gained wide attention among civil engineers in recent years due to the scale and severity of infrastructure deterioration. Establishing effective damage indicators and proposing enhanced monitoring methods are of great interests to the engineering practices. In the case of bridge health monitoring, long term structural vibration measurement has been acknowledged to be quite useful and utilized in the planning of maintenance works. Previous researches are majorly concentrated on linear time series models for the measurement, whereas nonlinear dependences among the measurement are not carefully considered. In this paper, a new bridge health monitoring method is proposed based on the use of long term vibration measurement. A combination of the fundamental ARMA model and copula theory is investigated for the first time in detecting bridge structural damages. The concept is applied to a real engineering practice in Japan. The efficiency and accuracy of the copula based damage indicator is analyzed and compared in different window sizes. The performance of the copula based indicator is discussed based on the damage detection rate between the intact structural condition and the damaged structural condition.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.375-386
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• 2021

In this paper, a study of stability and health of a newly-built railway tunnel is presented. The field test was implemented to monitor the secondary lining due to the significant cracking behaviors influenced the stability and health of the tunnel structure. Surface strain gauges were installed for monitoring the status of crack openings, and the monitoring outputs demonstrated that the cracks were still in the developing stage. Additionally, adjacent tunnel and poor condition of surrounding rock were identified as the causes of the lining cracking by systematically characterizing the crack spatial distribution, tunnel site and surrounding rock conditions. Reconstruction of partial lining and reconstruction of the whole secondary lining were designed as the maintenance projects for different cracking regions based on the construction feasibility. For assessing the health conditions of the reinforced lining, embedded strain gauges were set up to continuously measure the strain and the internal force of the reconstructed structures. For the partially reconstructed lining, the outputs show the maximum tensile elongation is 0.018 mm during 227 days, which means the structure has no obvious deformation after maintenance. The one-year monitoring of full-section was implemented in the other two completely reconstructed cross-sections by embedded strain gauge. The outputs show the reconstructed secondary lining has undertaken the pressure of surrounding rock with the time passing. According to the calculated compressive and tensile safety factors, the completely reconstructed lining has been in reliable and safe condition during the past year after reinforcement. It can conclude that the aforementioned maintenance projects can effectively ensure the stability and health of this tunnel.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.419-430
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• 2022

In wind-resistant designs, wind velocity is assumed to be a Gaussian process; however, local complex topography may result in strong non-Gaussian wind features. This study investigates the non-Gaussian wind features over complex terrain under atmospheric turbulent boundary layers by the large eddy simulation (LES) model, and the turbulent inlet of LES is generated by the consistent discretizing random flow generation (CDRFG) method. The performance of LES is validated by two different complex terrains in Changsha and Mianyang, China, and the results are compared with wind tunnel tests and onsite measurements, respectively. Furthermore, the non-Gaussian parameters, such as skewness, kurtosis, probability curves, and gust factors, are analyzed in-depth. The results show that the LES method is in good agreement with both mean and turbulent wind fields from wind tunnel tests and onsite measurements. Wind fields in complex terrain mostly exhibit a left-skewed Gaussian process, and it changes from a softening Gaussian process to a hardening Gaussian process as the height increases. A reduction in the gust factors of about 2.0%-15.0% can be found by taking into account the non-Gaussian features, except for a 4.4% increase near the ground in steep terrain. This study can provide a reference for the assessment of extreme wind loads on structures in complex terrain.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.4084-4104
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• 2021

Visual place recognition (VPR) is a fundamental yet challenging task of mobile robot navigation and localization. The existing VPR methods are usually based on some pairwise similarity of image descriptors, so they are sensitive to visual appearance change and also computationally expensive. This paper proposes a simple yet effective four-step method that achieves adaptive convolutional neural network (CNN) landmark matching for VPR. First, based on the features extracted from existing CNN models, the regions with higher significance scores are selected as landmarks. Then, according to the coordinate positions of potential landmarks, landmark matching is improved by removing mismatched landmark pairs. Finally, considering the significance scores obtained in the first step, robust image retrieval is performed based on adaptive landmark matching, and it gives more weight to the landmark matching pairs with higher significance scores. To verify the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method, evaluations are conducted on standard benchmark datasets. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method reduces the feature representation space of place images by more than 75% with negligible loss in recognition precision. Also, it achieves a fast matching speed in similarity calculation, satisfying the real-time requirement.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.197-203
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• 2022

Urban space expansion is an important symbol of the urbanization process and has always been an important topic in urban studies. In addition, for sustainable city management, it is important to identify factors that can influence, such as the driving force and direction of urban space expansion, from the stage of establishing an urban development plan. To understand these factors, by observing the expansion process of a specific city, it is possible to sufficiently observe how the urban spatial dimension changes. Through a series of processes, the spatial growth characteristics of the city are analyzed, and the influence and results of important factors are analyzed. For this purpose, this paper examines the changes in the city's outer boundary and land use structure through monitoring data on urban areas of 14 cities in Hunan Province, China from 2000 to 2016. Temporal and spatial regularity according to the urban space expansion of these cities were analyzed, and a preliminary assessment was made on whether the urban space expansion is coordinated with the urban population growth. The assessment result showed: (1) The urban space of most cities has been extended rapidly in 2000-2015 however, the rate and the intensity of urban space expanding has been declining. (2) The construction of the industrial park is the core driving force of the urban space expanding, and the change of the urban space structure is manifested as enclave city expansion because that the industrial park is usually far away from the city center. (3) The population agglomeration is another driving force of the urban space expanding. At this time, the urban space expanding is like boundary extension. (4) Except Changsha city, all of the cities has a high urbanization-area-growth elastic coefficient. It means that most of the cities should enhance the land use degree.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.307-317
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• 2024

To get a better understanding of the effect of drying-wetting cycles (DWC) on the mechanical behaviors of silty clay hiving different initial moisture content (IMC), the direct shear tests were performed on sliding band soil taken from a reservoirinduced landslide at the Three Gorges Reservoir area. The results indicated that, as the increasing number of DWC, the shear stress-displacement curves type changed from strain-hardening to strain-softening, and both the soil peak strengths and strength parameters reduced first and then nearly remain unchanged after a certain number of DWC. The effects of DWC on the cohesion were predominated that on the internal friction angle. The IMC of 17% is regarding as the critical moisture content, and the evolution laws of both peak shear strength and strength parameters presented a reversed 'U' type with the rising of the IMC. Based on it, a strength deterioration evolution model incorporating the influence of IMC and DWC was developed to describe the total degradation degree and degradation rate of strength parameters, and the degradation of strength parameters caused by DWC could be counterbalanced to some extent as the soil IMC close to critical moisture content. The microscopic mechanism for the soil strength caused by the IMC and DWC were discussed separately. The research results are of great significance for further understanding the water-weakening mechanicals of the silty clay subjected to the water absorption/desorption.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.553-568
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• 2020

Steel-concrete composite structures have been extensively used in building, bridges, and other civil engineering infrastructure. Shear stud connectors between steel and concrete are essential in composite members to guarantee the effectiveness of their behavior in terms of strength and deformability. This study focuses on investigating the shear stiffness of headed studs embedded in several types of concrete with wide range of compressive strength, and their effects on the elastic behavior of steel-concrete composite girders were evaluated. Firstly, totally 206 monotonic push-out tests from the literature were reviewed to investigate the shear stiffness of headed studs embedded in various types of concrete (NC, HPC, UHPC etc.). Shear stiffness of studs is defined as the secant stiffness of the load-slip curve at 0.5V_u, and a formulation for predicting defined shear stiffness in elastic state was proposed, indicating that the stud diameter and the elastic modulus of steel and concrete are the main factors. And the shear stiffness predicted by the new formula agree well with test results for studs with a diameter ranging from 10 to 30 mm in the concrete with compressive strength ranging from 22.0 to 200.0MPa. Then, the effects of shear stiffness on the elastic behaviors of composite girders with different sizes and under different loading conditions were analyzed, the equations for calculating the stress and deformation of simply supported composite girders considering the influence of connection's shear stiffness were derived under different loading conditions using classical linear partial-interaction theory. As the increasing of shear stiffness, the stress and deflection at the most unfavorable section under partial connected condition tend to be those under full connected condition, but the approaching speed decreases gradually. Finally, the connector's shear stiffness was recommended for fully connection in composite girders with different dimensions under different loading conditions. The findings from present study may provide a reference for the prediction of shear stiffness for headed studs and the elastic design of steel-concrete composite girder.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.367-381
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• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to establish a mother and child cohort in the Chinese population, and investigate human breastmilk (HBM) composition and its relationship with maternal body mass index (BMI) and infant growth during the first 3 mon of life. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A total of 101 Chinese mother and infant pairs were included in this prospective cohort. Alterations in the milk macronutrients of Chinese mothers at 1 mon (T1), 2 mon (T2), and 3 mon (T3) lactation were analyzed. HBM fatty acid (FA) profiles were measured by gas chromatography (GC), and HBM proteomic profiling was achieved by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS). RESULTS: During the first 3 mon of lactation (P < 0.05), significant decreases were determined in the levels of total energy, fat, protein, and osteopontin (OPN), as well as ratios of long-chain saturated FA (including C16:0, C22:0 and C24:0), monounsaturated FA (including C16:1), and n-6 poly unsaturated FA (PUFA) (including C20:3n-6 and C20:4n-6, and n-6/n-3). Conversely, butyrate, C6:0 and n-3 PUFA C18:3n-3 (α-linolenic acid, ALA) were significantly increased during the first 3 mon (P < 0.05). HBM proteomic analyses distinguished compositional protein differences over time (P = 0.001). Personalized motherinfant analyses demonstrated that HBM from high BMI mothers presented increased total energy, fat, protein and OPN, and increased content of n-6 PUFA (including C18:3n-6, C20:3n-6 and n-6/n-3 ratio) as compared with low BMI mothers (P < 0.05). Furthermore, BMI of the mothers positively correlated with the head circumference (HC) of infants as well as the specific n-6 PUFA C20:3n-6 over the 3 time points examined. Infant HC was negatively associated with C18:0. CONCLUSION: This study provides additional evidence to the Chinese HBM database, and further knowledge of FA function. It also helps to establish future maternal strategies that support the healthy growth and development of Chinese infants.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.3.1-3.23
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• 2024

Cigarette smoke extract (CSE)-treated mouse airway epithelial cells (MAECs)-derived exosomes accelerate the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by upregulating triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM-1); however, the specific mechanism remains unclear. We aimed to explore the potential mechanisms of CSE-treated MAECs-derived exosomes on M1 macrophage polarization and pyroptosis in COPD. In vitro, exosomes were extracted from CSE-treated MAECs, followed by co-culture with macrophages. In vivo, mice exposed to cigarette smoke (CS) to induce COPD, followed by injection or/and intranasal instillation with oe-TREM-1 lentivirus. Lung function and pathological changes were evaluated. CD68⁺ cell number and the levels of iNOS, TNF-α, IL-1β (M1 macrophage marker), and pyroptosis-related proteins (NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase-1 recruitment domain, caspase-1, cleaved-caspase-1, gasdermin D [GSDMD], and GSDMD-N) were examined. The expression of maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3), spleen focus forming virus proviral integration oncogene (SPI1), methyltransferase 3 (METTL3), and TREM-1 was detected and the binding relationships among them were verified. MEG3 increased N6-methyladenosine methylation of TREM-1 by recruiting SPI1 to activate METTL3. Overexpression of TREM-1 or METTL3 negated the alleviative effects of MEG3 inhibition on M1 polarization and pyroptosis. In mice exposed to CS, EXO^-CSE further aggravated lung injury, M1 polarization, and pyroptosis, which were reversed by MEG3 inhibition. TREM-1 overexpression negated the palliative effects of MEG3 inhibition on COPD mouse lung injury. Collectively, CSE-treated MAECs-derived exosomal long non-coding RNA MEG3 may expedite M1 macrophage polarization and pyroptosis in COPD via the SPI1/METTL3/TREM-1 axis.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.28
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• pp.115-139
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• 2012

Interval or duration of segments, syllables, words and phrases is an important acoustic feature which influences the naturalness of speech. A number of cross-sectional studies regarding acoustic characteristics of children's speech development found that intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases tend to change with the growing age. One hypothesis assumed that decreases in intervals would be greater when children were younger and smaller decreases in intervals when older (Thelen,1991), it has been supported by quite a number of researches on the basis of cross-sectional studies (Tingley & Allen,1975; Kent & Forner,1980; Chermak & Schneiderman, 1986), but the other hypothesis predicted that decreases in intervals would be smaller when children were younger and greater decreases in intervals when older (Smith, Kenney & Hussain, 1996). Researchers seem to come up with conflicting postulations and inconsistent results about the change trends concerning intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases, leaving it as an issue unresolved. Most acoustic investigations of children's speech production have been conducted via cross-sectional designs, which involves studying several groups of children. So far, there are only a few longitudinal studies. This issue needs more longitudinal investigations; moreover, the acoustic measures of the intervals of child speech are hardly available. All former studies focus on word stages excluding the babbling stages especially the canonical babbling stage, but we need to find out when concrete changes of intervals begin to occur and what causes the changes. Therefore, we conducted an acoustic study of interval characteristics of segments and words concerning Canonical Babble ( CB) and early speech in an infant aged from 0;9 to 2;4 acquiring Mandarin Chinese. The current research addresses the following two questions: 1. Whether decreases in interval would be greater when children were younger and smaller when they were older or vice versa? 2. Whether the child speech concerning the acoustic features of interval drifts in the direction of the language they are exposed to? The female infant whose L1 was Southern Mandarin living in Changsha was audio- and video-taped at her home for about one hour almost on a weekly basis during her age range from 0;9 to 2;4 under natural observation by us investigators. The recordings were digitized. Parts of the digitized material were labeled. All the repetitions were excluded. The utterances were extracted from 44 sessions ranging from 30 minutes to one hour. The utterances were divided into segments as well as syllable-sized units. Age stages are 0;9-1;0,1;1-1;5, 1;6-2;0, 2;1-2;4. The subject was a monolingual normal child from parents with a good education. The infant was audio-and video-taped in her home almost every week. The data were digitized, segments and syllables from 44 sessions spanning the transition from babble to speech were transcribed in narrow IPA and coded for analysis. Babble was coded from age 0;9-1;0, and words were coded from 1;0 to 2;4, the data has been checked by two professionally trained persons who majored in phonetics. The present investigation is a longitudinal analysis of some temporal characteristics of the child speech during the age periods of 0;9-1;0, 1;1-1;5, 1;6-2;0, 2;1-2;4. The answer to Research Question 1 is that our results are in agreement with neither of the hypotheses. One hypothesis assumed that decreases in intervals would be greater when children were younger and smaller decreases in intervals when older (Thelen,1991); but the other hypothesis predicted that decreases in intervals would be smaller when children were younger and greater decreases in intervals when older (Smith, Kenney & Hussain, 1996). On the whole, there is a tendency of decrease in segmental and syllabic duration with the growing age, but the changes are not drastic and abrupt. For example, /a/ after /k/ in Table 1 has greater decrease during 1;1-1;5, while /a/ after /p/, /t/ and /w/ has greater decrease during 2;1-2;4. /ka/ has greater decrease during 1;1-1;5, while /ta/ and /na/ has greater decrease during 2;1-2;4.Across the age periods, interval change experiences lots of fluctuation all the time. The answer to Research Question 2 is yes. Babbling stage is a period in which the children's acoustic features of intervals of segments, syllables, words and phrases is shifted in the direction of the language to be learned, babbling and children's speech emergence is greatly influenced by ambient language. The phonetic changes in terms of duration would go on until as late as 10-12 years of age before reaching adult-like levels. Definitely, with the increase of exposure to ambient language, the variation would be less and less until they attain the adult-like competence. Via the analysis of the SPSS 15.0, the decrease of segmental and syllabic intervals across the four age periods proves to be of no significant difference (p>0.05). It means that the change of segmental and syllabic intervals is continuous. It reveals that the process of child speech development is gradual and cumulative.