Fabrication of bacterial cellulose with high efficient loading of Ag and TiO2 nanoparticles for removing organic dyes

As a new advanced oxidation technology, photocatalytic technology has broad application prospects in the field of wastewater treatment. However, in the actual use process, there will be difficulties in catalyst recovery and reuse. This article successfully prepared bacterial cellulose (BC) loaded silver and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (Ag-plated TiO₂/BC composite pellicle) by in situ embedding method. BC not only works as the carrier to load TiO₂ and Ag NPs but also adsorbs dyes to promote the reaction. As a reusable photocatalytic film, it is convenient to use and recycle in terms of testing and characterization compared with powders. The results show that Ag and TiO₂ nanoparticles were closely embedded in BC. We evaluated the photocatalytic degradation performance of the catalyst on methylene blue (MB), active red X-3B, and Rhodamine B. When the reaction time was 2 h, the dye removal rates were 71%, 68%, and 82.6%. At the same time, through the inhibition zone experiment, it was found that the material has a certain inhibitory effect on both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, the supported catalyst prepared by this method has the advantages of high catalytic activity, relatively stable property, easy recovery, and tailorability, making it potentially applicable in sewage post-treatment links.     

Sofosbuvir Selects for Drug-Resistant Amino Acid Variants in the Zika Virus RNA-Dependent RNA-Polymerase Complex In Vitro

The nucleotide analog sofosbuvir, licensed for the treatment of hepatitis C, recently revealed activity against the Zika virus (ZIKV) in vitro and in animal models. However, the ZIKV genetic barrier to sofosbuvir has not yet been characterized. In this study, in vitro selection experiments were performed in infected human hepatoma cell lines. Increasing drug pressure significantly delayed viral breakthrough (p = 0.029). A double mutant in the NS5 gene (V360L/V607I) emerged in 3 independent experiments at 40–80 µM sofosbuvir resulting in a 3.9 ± 0.9-fold half- maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) shift with respect to the wild type (WT) virus. A triple mutant (C269Y/V360L/V607I), detected in one experiment at 80 µM, conferred a 6.8-fold IC₅₀ shift with respect to the WT. Molecular dynamics simulations confirmed that the double mutant V360L/V607I impacts the binding mode of sofosbuvir, supporting its role in sofosbuvir resistance. Due to the distance from the catalytic site and to the lack of reliable structural data, the contribution of C269Y was not investigated in silico. By a combination of sequence analysis, phenotypic susceptibility testing, and molecular modeling, we characterized a double ZIKV NS5 mutant with decreased sofosbuvir susceptibility. These data add important information to the profile of sofosbuvir as a possible lead for anti-ZIKV drug development.     

Effect of thermal treatment on the antioxidant activity of egg white hydrolysate and the preparation of novel antioxidant peptides

Heat treatment will affect the nutritional properties and potential bioactivity of food materials. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of different thermal treatment (4, 56, 65 and 100 ℃) and in vitro gastrointestinal digestion on the antioxidant activity of egg white hydrolysate. The results demonstrated that egg white hydrolysate treated at 65 ℃ exhibited the highest antioxidant. Remarkably, the simulated digestion significantly increased antioxidant activity of egg white hydrolysate. Furthermore, we identified twenty-four potential antioxidant peptides by performing mass spectrometry and bioinformatic analysis. Six peptides were selected based on the activity prediction score of the online tool. The results showed that P6 (ACPECPK) possessed the most outstanding antioxidant properties and had low cytotoxicity and allergenicity. Bioinformatics technology combined with biochemical assays may offer a way for discovering novel antioxidant peptides from different kinds of food under various heat treatment conditions.     

低共熔溶剂用于CO2捕集的研究进展

低共熔溶剂(DESs)具有原料廉价易得、化学稳定性好、可设计、合成工艺简单、可循环使用和绿色环保等优点,在CO₂捕集领域受到广泛关注。重点综述了近年来DESs用于CO₂捕集的研究进展,总结了DESs捕集CO₂的能力,分析了DESs捕集CO₂的影响因素和DESs的循环使用性能,归纳了DESs捕集CO₂的机理(包括物理吸收、化学吸收和物理化学协同吸收),并总结了CO₂在DESs中的溶解度计算模型。分析发现,DESs捕集CO₂的影响因素中,温度、压力和水含量(质量分数)均对CO₂的捕集有影响,且DESs的结构是重要的影响因素;大部分DESs可循环使用;CO₂在DESs中溶解度计算模型的建立有效推动了DESs捕集CO₂的进一步发展。最后,指出了DESs捕集分离CO₂所面临的主要问题并对进一步的研究工作进行了分析讨论。     

基于改进Faster R-CNN及YOLO的大角度车牌识别算法

随着大数据时代的到来,智慧城市等一系列概念的提出,人工智能开始在城市各个角落得到广泛应用。其中,车牌识别作为城市道路交通重要的一环,也取得了重大突破。基于深度学习的车牌识别一经提出,各类算法应用于车牌检测及识别上,对比于传统的车牌识别,大大提高了识别的速率和准确率。然而,在非限制条件下,如大角度车牌识别准确率仍有提升的空间。提出了一种改进的FasterR-CNN与YOLO的深度学习车牌识别算法,将对大角度下的车牌识别准确率达到了99.7%。由于是轻量型的框架,为后续的移动设备部署工作提供了便利。     

聚类混合型数据的密度峰值改进算法

聚类混合型数据，通常是依据样本属性类别的不同分别进行评价。但这种将样本属性划分到不同子空间中分别度量的方式，割裂了样本属性原有的统一性；导致对样本个体的相似性评价产生了非一致的度量偏差。针对这一问题，提出以二进制编码样本属性，再由海明差异对属性编码施行统一度量的新的聚类算法。新算法通过在统一的框架内对混合型数据实施相似性度量，避免了对样本属性的切割，在此基础上又根据不同属性的性质赋予其不同的权重，并以此评价样本个体之间的相似程度。实验结果表明，新算法能够有效地聚类混合型数据；与已有的其他聚类算法相比较，表现出更好的聚类准确率及稳定性。     

基于条件信息卷积生成对抗网络的图像识别

传统的图像识别方法需要大量有标签样本进行训练，且模型训练难以达到稳定。针对这些问题，结合条件生成网络和信息最大化生成网络的结构优势建立了条件信息卷积生成网络（C-Info-DCGAN）。模型增加图像的类别信息和潜在信息作为输入数据，然后利用Q网络去更好地发挥类别信息和潜在信息对训练的引导作用，并且利用深度卷积网络来加强对图像特征的提取能力。实验结果表明，该方法能够加快模型训练收敛速度，并有效提高图像识别的准确率。     

An improved iterative stochastic multi-objective acceptability analysis method for robust alternative selection in new product development

Alternative selection in new product development (NPD) is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. It usually starts with incomplete, imprecise or even partially missing information. Currently, most existing methods in dealing with this problem cannot work well if required information is incomplete or missing. It is acknowledged that stochastic multi-objective acceptability analysis (SMAA) can be applied to address MCDM problem with incomplete preference information and uncertain criteria measurements. In SMAA, alternatives are evaluated based on SMAA measurements (acceptability index, central weight vector and confidence factor). The discriminability of SMAA for the optimum alternative heavily depends on differences of SMAA measurements among different alternatives. Usually, a large number of alternatives and high level of uncertainty are involved in alternative selection in NPD. In this situation, the differences among SMAA measurements are not obvious, and therefore SMAA cannot deal with such problem very well. To this end, this paper proposes an improved SMAA method called Iterative-SMAA (I-SMAA) for alternative selection in NPD. In the I-SMAA, an iterative multi-step decision-making process is suggested to improve differences of SMAA measurements among different alternatives, and thus assist decision makers (DMs) to positively discern from the most preferred alternative. To enhance the decision-making efficiency, sensitive criteria are acquired in each iteration by ranking sensitivity analysis. DMs are guided to provide partial preference information and give more accurate criteria measurements for sensitive criteria rather than all criteria. Eventually, to verify the proposed method, a numerical example of the existing literature is solved with the method, and the results are compared. And then, a practical example of a preparation equipment for coal samples is further employed to verify the practicability of the proposed I-SMAA.     

Transfer learning between crop types for semantic segmentation of crops versus weeds in precision agriculture

Agricultural robots rely on semantic segmentation for distinguishing between crops and weeds to perform selective treatments and increase yield and crop health while reducing the amount of chemicals used. Deep‐learning approaches have recently achieved both excellent classification performance and real‐time execution. However, these techniques also rely on a large amount of training data, requiring a substantial labeling effort, both of which are scarce in precision agriculture. Additional design efforts are required to achieve commercially viable performance levels under varying environmental conditions and crop growth stages. In this paper, we explore the role of knowledge transfer between deep‐learning‐based classifiers for different crop types, with the goal of reducing the retraining time and labeling efforts required for a new crop. We examine the classification performance on three datasets with different crop types and containing a variety of weeds and compare the performance and retraining efforts required when using data labeled at pixel level with partially labeled data obtained through a less time‐consuming procedure of annotating the segmentation output. We show that transfer learning between different crop types is possible and reduces training times for up to 80%. Furthermore, we show that even when the data used for retraining are imperfectly annotated, the classification performance is within 2% of that of networks trained with laboriously annotated pixel‐precision data.     

视频侦查中人像智能分析应用及算法优化

人像智能分析指的是对视频或录像中的人像进行结构化和可视化分析,对目标人物进行性别、年龄、发型等特征的智能识别,这项技术在视频侦查中有极高的应用价值。人像识别早期的算法是通过人工提取特征,通过学习低级视觉特征来针对不同属性进行分类学习,这种基于传统方法的模型表现常常不尽如人意。在计算机视觉领域,通过海量图像数据学习的神经网络比传统方法有更丰富的信息量和特征可以被提取。文章尝试通过深度学习技术训练神经网络模型对行人进行检测和识别,对于衣着不同的行人进行智能识别,具有更好的鲁棒性,提升了视频人像识别的准确率,拓展了人工智能技术在身份识别领域的应用。