External compensation approaches, using source drivers to sense and compensate the different degradation of array pixels, have been proposed for driving active matrix light emitting diode (AMLED) ...displays. With external compensation, much simpler pixel circuits are able to be adopted for higher manufacturing yield, and more room to improve resolution and integrate added functions. This brief proposed a displaying-synchronous open-loop (DSOL) external compensation method with a simple pixel circuit design. The sensing and compensation is performed synchronously during several continuous display frames with normal displaying. A display performance simulation flow is developed to verify the driving method. The simulation results on single pixels and overall displays with various input images and videos prove the capability of the proposed DSOL method for compensating the image quality degradation without affecting normal displaying.
To evaluate the difference of absorbed doses calculated to medium and to water by a Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm based treatment planning system (TPS), and to assess the potential clinical impact to ...dose prescription.
Thirty patients, 10 nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC), 10 lung cancer and 10 bone metastases cases, were selected for this study. For each case, the treatment plan was generated using a commercial MC based TPS and dose was calculated to medium (D
). The plan was recalculated for dose to water (D
) using the same Monitor Units (MU) and control points. The differences between D
and D
were qualitatively evaluated by dose-volume parameters and by the plan subtraction method. All plans were measured using the MapCheck2, and gamma passing rates were calculated.
For NPC and Lung cases, the mean differences between D
and D
for the targets were less than 2% and the maximum difference was 3.9%. The maximum difference of D
for the organs at risk (OARs) was 6.7%. The maximum differences between D
and D
were as high as 10% in certain high density regions. For bone metastases cases, the mean differences between D
and D
for the targets were more than 2.2% and the maximum difference was 7.1%. The differences between D
and D
for the OARs were basically negligible. At 3%&3 mm criterion, the gamma passing rate of D
plan and D
plan were close (> 94%).
The differences between D
and D
has little clinical impact for most clinical cases. In bony structures the differences may become clinically significant if the target/OAR is receiving doses close to its tolerance limit which can potentially influence the selection or rejection of a particular plan.
With development of high efficiency organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and high mobility polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs), low power and high resolution active ...matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays are becoming popular for mobile applications. However, they suffer from poor control of lower gray levels, with the driving TFT being operated in the subthreshold regime. In this paper, with help of non-ideal drain-bias dependent electrical characteristics of poly-Si TFTs, operation of the driving TFT can be moved out from the subthreshold regime to allow better control of the gray levels. As a result, a dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) method is developed, and shown to be able to improve the luminous uniformity for better image quality, while effectively reducing the static power consumption.
Astrocytes are diverse brain cells that form large networks communicating via gap junctions and chemical transmitters. Despite recent advances, the functions of astrocytic networks in information ...processing in the brain are not fully understood. In culture, brain slices, and in vivo, astrocytes, and neurons grow in tight association, making it challenging to establish whether signals that spread within astrocytic networks communicate with neuronal groups at distant sites, or whether astrocytes solely respond to their local environments. A multi‐electrode array (MEA)‐based device called AstroMEA is designed to separate neuronal and astrocytic networks, thus allowing to study the transfer of chemical and/or electrical signals transmitted via astrocytic networks capable of changing neuronal electrical behavior. AstroMEA demonstrates that cortical astrocytic networks can induce a significant upregulation in the firing frequency of neurons in response to a theta‐burst charge‐balanced biphasic current stimulation (5 pulses of 100 Hz × 10 with 200 ms intervals, 2 s total duration) of a separate neuronal‐astrocytic group in the absence of direct neuronal contact. This result corroborates the view of astrocytic networks as a parallel mechanism of signal transmission in the brain that is separate from the neuronal connectome. Translationally, it highlights the importance of astrocytic network protection as a treatment target.
Astrocytes are brain cells that form large‐scale networks; the role of astrocytic coupling in information processing is not well understood. The designed AstroMEA device shows that astrocytic networks can transmit signals between independent groups of neurons+astrcoytes. This result has conceptual implications for modeling brain function and gives a new translational perspective on astrocytic networks as valuable therapeutic targets.
Abstract Background The requirement for precise and effective delivery of the actual dose to the patient grows along with the complexity of breast cancer radiotherapy. Dosimetry during treatment has ...become a crucial component of guaranteeing the efficacy and security. Purpose To propose a dosimetry method during breast cancer radiotherapy based on body surface changes. Methods A total of 29 left breast cancer radiotherapy cases were retroactively retrieved from an earlier database for analysis. Non‐rigid image registration and dose recalculation of the planning computed tomography (CT) referring to the Cone‐beam computed tomography were performed to obtain dose changes. The study used 3D point cloud feature extraction to characterize body surface changes. Based on the correlation proof, a mapping model is developed between body surface changes and dose changes using neural network framework. The MSE metrics, the Euclidean distances of feature points and the 3D gamma pass rate metric were used to assess the prediction accuracy. Results A strong correlation exist between body surface changes and dose changes (first canonical correlation coefficient = 0.950). For the dose deformation field and dose amplitude difference in the test set, the MSE of the predicted and actual values were 0.136 pixels and 0.229 cGy, respectively. After deforming the planning dose into a deformed one, the feature points’ Euclidean distance between it and the recalculated dose changes from 9.267 ± 1.879 mm to 0.456 ± 0.374 mm. The 3D gamma pass rate of 90% or higher for the 2 mm/2% criteria were achieved by 80.8% of all cases, with a minimum pass rate of 75.9% and a maximum pass rate of 99.6%. Pass rate for the 3 mm/2% criteria ranged from 87.8% to 99.8%, with 92.3% of the cases having a pass rate of 90% or higher. Conclusions This study provides a dosimetry method that is non‐invasive, real‐time, and requires no additional dose for breast cancer radiotherapy.
After impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), the water area of Xiangxi River becomes a typical area of reservoir tributaries where eutrophication develops and water bloom occurs. In order ...to assess the eutrophication status in Xiangxi River faster and more accurate, an integrated model (RSPN) for eutrophication assessment based on eleven monitoring sections samples in Xiangxi River from 2015 to 2016, which integrates rough set theory (RST) and petri nets (PN), is presented. Firstly, RST was employed to remove redundant eutrophication features and simple eutrophication information, so that the minimal eutrophication assessment rules can be obtained and the eutrophication rank was roughly assessed. Secondly, the PN structure was built and the eutrophication rank was completely realized through matrix operation of PN. Finally, comparison using RSPN and other classical classification algorithms was performed. The results reveal that the RSPN model can accurately and efficiently analyze the relation between condition indicators and variations of eutrophication degree. Therefore, the RSPN model is a promising alternative method to develop a water eutrophication information system and offers decision rules base for the utility management as well as operations staff.
Litter decomposition of perennial dominant species primarily regulates carbon and nutrient cycling in grassland, which is driven by litter quality, soil micro-environment, and the decomposer ...organisms. However, how does soil fauna contribute to litter decomposition remains poorly understood, especially for below-ground root at different decomposition stages in grassland ecosystem. Here in upland grassland, we simultaneously examined leaf and root litter decomposition rates of relatively higher-quality (Trifolium repens L.) and lower-quality (Lolium perenne L.) perennial dominant species over time in control and fauna-excluded treatments, using litterbags with different mesh sizes to limit the accessibility of soil mesofauna. We found that the presence of soil mesofauna significantly increased annual litter mass loss by 20.01%, and could amplify the effects of litter quality on decomposition. The larger contribution of mesofauna to root litter decomposition and higher inputs of root in grassland, suggests that a stronger role of soil mesofauna in accelerating grassland ecosystem processes than previously thought, and the leaves and roots need to be considered simultaneously when evaluating the role of soil fauna in litter decomposition. Furthermore, for lower-quality species, the disparities in the contribution of soil fauna to leaf and root litter only existed in the first 7 months, but disappeared in the subsequent 5 months. However, for higher-quality species, the stronger contribution of soil mesofauna on the root litter decomposition persisted at all decomposition stages. This suggests that the decomposition stage could affect the roles of mesofauna in leaf and root litter decomposition, and the interactive effects are largely dependent on litter species quality in grassland. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of incorporating the influence of these factors in global decomposition models, which may improve the accuracy of predicting biogeochemical process.
•Soil mesofauna accelerated litter decay of perennial dominant species in grassland•The contribution of soil mesofauna was larger in high-quality than low-quality litter.•The contribution of soil mesofauna to decay was larger in fine root than leaf litter.•Litter quality interacted with organ and decay time to affect mesofaunal contribution.•Soil fauna, litter quality and organ are important factors for biogeochemical process.
Vanadium-based oxides are considered one of the most promising cathode materials for aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs). Yet, the poor cyclability and inferior conductivity severely limit their ...practical application in ZIBs. Herein, V2O5·nH2O nanobelts are synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method with the assistance of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). During the synthesis process, the SDS induces the formation of nanobelt morphology, generates abundant oxygen vacancies in V2O5·nH2O, and provides Na+ sources for preintercalation. Benefiting from these virtues, the prepared V2O5·nH2O nanobelts exhibit excellent high-rate capability (118 mA h g−1 at 20 A g−1) and superior long-term cycling stability (193 mA h g−1 after 5000 cycles at 5 A g−1). This work provides a facile strategy for promoting the zinc storage performance of vanadium-based oxides with the aid of multifunctional additives during the synthesis process.
Display omitted
•V2O5·nH2O nanobelts are prepared with the assistance of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS).•SDS plays the roles of sodium sources, reducing agents, and structure-directing agents.•The V2O5·nH2O nanobelts exhibit superior zinc storage performance.•The work provides a facile method for enhancing the electrochemical performance of V2O5·nH2O.
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