Asymmetric Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation Events Over the Western North Pacific and Their Impacts on East Asian Precipitation

The boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) is the most prominent tropical subseasonal signature especially over the western North Pacific (WNP). Due to restrictions of methodology in extracting BSISO with band-pass filtering or EOF decomposition, most of the previous studies ignored the asymmetry of BSISO. This study reexamines the BSISO events over WNP and their impacts on the East Asian precipitation. With a hierarchical cluster analysis, the BSISO events over WNP during the summers of 1985-2010 are classified into two categories, the long-period (30-60 day) and short-period (10-20 day) events. The long-period BSISO events manifest as a northward propagating mode with a significant phase asymmetry characterized by a fast development, but a slow decay of the intraseasonal convection. The fast development tends to cause a rapid reversal of the atmospheric anomalies over WNP from an anomalous anticyclone induced by the preceding slow convection suppression to an anomalous cyclone, leading to a fast northeastward retreat of the preceding enhanced western North Pacific subtropical high. Accordingly, the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River valley experience a rapid reversal from the increased precipitation to the decreased, while the precipitation in coastal South China keeps decreased. The short-period BSISO events which are symmetric in phase act as a northwestward propagating mode, mainly affecting East Asian precipitation in an oblique belt extending from southwest China to southern Japan and southern Korean Peninsula. Therefore, the two types of the BSISO events especially the asymmetric long-period BSISO events over WNP and their impacts on the East Asian precipitation revealed in this study would provide a new potential for subseasonal-to-seasonal forecast of the East Asian summer monsoon precipitation.

Single Image Re ection Removal via Deep Feature Contrast

Removing undesired re ection from a single image is in demand for computational photography. Re ection removal methods are gradually effective because of the fast development of deep neural networks. However, current results of re ection removal methods usually leave salient re ection residues due to the challenge of recognizing diverse re ection patterns. In this paper, we present a one-stage re ection removal framework with an end-to-end manner that considers both low-level information correlation and efficient feature separation. Our approach employs the criss-cross attention mechanism to extract low-level features and to efficiently enhance contextual correlation. To thoroughly remove re ection residues in the background image, we punish the similar texture feature by contrasting the parallel feature separa- tion networks, and thus unrelated textures in the background image could be progressively separated during model training. Experiments on both real-world and synthetic datasets manifest our approach can reach the state-of-the-art effect quantitatively and qualitatively.

Intercalation pseudocapacitance of hollow carbon boxes with multilayered shells for boosting K-ion storage

The upsurge of potassium-ion energy storage devices promotes the fast development of K-ion storage electrode materials, but the poor kinetics and low capacity resulted from the large size of K-ions...

What do Medical Students Post Online? Perception on Medical Professionalism in Social Media among Medical Students in Universiti Putra Malaysia

The fast development and accessibility of social media has created an important potential for improvements in the medical field. However, it may also increase the risk of unprofessional conduct among its users including medical students. This study aimed to determine the pattern of social media usage and the self-perceived online professionalism among medical students in one public university in Malaysia. A cross sectional study using a questionnaire was conducted. The questionnaire consisted of participant's demographic details and perception of professionalism on social media usage, using a 5-point Likert scale. The descriptive data analysis was done using SPSS V21.0. Results showed majority (80-93%) denied making postings related to defamation, racism, gender discrimination, potential breach of confidentiality and bad behaviour. 30% shared their social media accounts and postings to public audience and 22% will accept their patients as friends or followers. Most students denied any improper posting related to potential unprofessional statements and behaviour hence perceived as still guarding their online professional conduct. However, some are still not sure about issues related to privacy settings and doctor-patient boundaries on social media. Hence, it is important to educate medical students regarding online medical professionalism and the potential challenges associated with online interaction via social media. Keywords: Social media, medical students, medical professionalism, online conduct, Malaysia.

Sustainable Urban Transport—Why a Fast Investment in a Complete Cycling Network Is Most Profitable for a City

The development of safe cycling as a mode of transport is an important objective of the transformation towards sustainable mobility in European cities. A significant number of European cities are faced with the need to implement the assumptions of the European Green Deal, of which the promotion of sustainable urban transport is a part. The article presented a simulation of the Perfect Cycling City Model in real conditions that inspired the design of two scenarios for the fast development of bicycle routes in a key transport network area in Warsaw. Scenario 1 assumes building subsidiary bicycle routes and links between the main routes. In Scenario 2, the development of all optimal cycling links at the local level is assumed. An increase in cycling participation is expected in both scenarios. The comparison of projected costs of each scenario indicated that building a complete network of connections is more profitable in terms of increased cycling participation and could counter the dominance of private car use. For this to happen, measures encouraging individuals combined with improved safety and convenience of cycling around the city must be undertaken.

Design and Implementation of an Intelligent Online English Learning System Based on Mobile Internet Technology

A predicament facing education is that the traditional teaching mode could no longer meet the requirements of modern society. The fast development of mobile Internet technology has brought online education platforms into existence, and these newborn things are very helpful to solve the mentioned contradiction. To deepen the research of the application of mobile Internet technology in modern education, this paper designed the functional modules of an intelligent online English teaching (IOET) system and implemented the proposed system. In our study, satisfying students’ learning requirements had been taken as the core principle when building the proposed system, and the database design had followed the principles of standardization, consistency, security, integrity, scalability, and ease of maintenance. The IOET system adopts a three-layer architecture, from top down, the system has a representation layer, a business logic layer, and a data service layer. The main management modules of the system include course notification module, visitor management module, and homework management module, etc. Through this paper, we hope to provide a piece of evidence for the basic research on the upgrade and improvement of intelligent online English teaching platforms.

The study of the efficiency of micropulse transscleral cyclophotocoagulation in the combined treatment of patients with secondary neovascular glaucoma

Background: Neovascular glaucoma (NVG) is a highly refractory form, it is characterized by fast development and a high level of the intraocular pressure (IOP). Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of micropulse transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (mCPC) in the combined treatment of patients with secondary neovascular glaucoma. Methods: The study included 32 patients (32 eyes) with secondary NVG as an outcome of diabetes mellitus and (or) thrombosis of the central retinal vein or its branches. The preoperative IOP averaged 38.88.8 mm Hg with the most intense hypotensive therapy. All the patients underwent mCPC. In the postoperative period, the patients were examined on the first day after the operation, then in 1 week, 1, 3, 6 months, 1 year after the operation. Results: All the operations were performed without complications. Pain syndrome in all cases was stopped on the first day after surgery. Six patients had reactive hypertension on the first day, therefore, the hypotensive therapy was intensified. The IOP 1 week after mCPC was 20.97.9 mm Hg, after 1 month of observation 23.76.0 mm Hg with the hypotensive therapy. 34 weeks post-surgery, six patients with the preserved visual function experienced a repeated IOP increase, and the Ahmed valve was implanted. 6 months after mCPC, the IOP level averaged 22.87.7 mm Hg with the hypotensive therapy. Against the background of the IOP compensation, anti-VEGF drugs were injected in 4 cases, followed by laser coagulation of the retina. Conclusion: Application of mCPC in NVG glaucoma patients showed only a small number of postoperative complications. This method of laser treatment can be used in combination with panretinal laser coagulation before or after the surgery, including administration of anti-VEGF drugs before or after the surgery. In case of the IOP increase, mCPC may be repeated.

Synthetic Study of Boulder Detection Using Multi-Configuration Combination of Cross-Hole ERT and Its Field Application in Xiamen Metro, China

With the fast development of urban rail transportation, shield construction has been widely used in tunnel construction in China. It is very important to detect the random distribution of boulders, which may cause geological problems. Cross-hole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has the advantage of precise detection, but it has not been systematically studied in solitary rock detection. Therefore, we set up several numerical models and proposed weighted inversion, to improve the capacity for detecting boulders. Subsequently, the method was applied to the Xiamen Metro Line 1, where it was highly likely to encounter boulders. All the test boreholes revealed the presence of boulders, and their location and size were consistent with the geophysics results. This study demonstrated the suitability of weighted inversion based on a multi-configuration combination of cross-hole ERT for the detection of boulders. This case study provides new engineering perspectives on how to detect boulders.

Financial and legal aspects of artificial intelligence – an opportunity or a threat to budgets?

As it results from the assumed, rather unorthodox title,due to the desire to link the issues of artificial intelligence with financial and legal aspects, the groundwork of the considerations will be a demonstration of the impact and effect of the former on the budget system in Poland. Such an approach to artificial intelligence, increasingly common, but also raising doubts and even fears, should be considered extremely important, although not sufficiently described so far. Noticeable and tangible is the influence of widely understood artificial intelligence both in the professional and private life of every man. These issues are increasingly discussed in various aspects of human life primarily in terms of showing the actual place of a human person and their inalienable rights in the future, the rules for their protection and the liability for acts committed by artificial intelligence products. In the conducted considerations, however, there isa clear lack of studies related to financial and legal aspects, more specifically budgetary aspects, of the functioning of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, its very fast development is conditioned by financial resources. This issue is quite obvious in the case of private funds where the entity instituting creation or functioning of artificial intelligence determines the amounts of financial resources, and depending on the needs, it grants appropriate sums for its development. However, it takes on a completely different dimension in relation to public funds contained in the budget, which, as a rule relates its spending to the implementation of public tasks. In this case, artificial intelligence can be financed as long as it can be shown to be related to the implementation of such tasks. Due to the very complex issues, this study should be seen as a basis for conducting further, much deepenedscientific studies.

Experimental setup for studying two-phase flows in micro-and minichannels at ultra-high heat fluxes: methodology and first experimental results

The study of phase-change phenomena under high and ultra-high heat fluxes is urgent because of fast development of electronics and microelectronics. We have developed a test section with power of 3.5 kW with a heater of 1x1 cm2 and adjustable geometry of the channel for achieving ultra-high heat fluxes in flow boiling and shear-driven liquid film experiments. The methodology of calculating heat losses in the test section is proposed and verified by flow boiling experiment versus another well studied test section. Observed trend of decrease of relative heat losses with increase in the heat flux makes it possible to assume that the heat flux as high as 2.5 kW/cm2 can be reached by this test section.