Semantic segmentation is a fundamental research in remote sensing image processing. Because of the complex maritime environment, the sea-land segmentation is a challenging task. Although the neural network has achieved excellent performance in semantic segmentation in the last years, there are a few of works using CNN for sea-land segmentation and the results could be further improved. This paper proposes a novel deep convolution neural network named DeepUNet. Like the U-Net, its structure has a contracting path and an expansive path to get high resolution output. But differently, the DeepUNet uses DownBlocks instead of convolution layers in the contracting path and uses UpBlock in the expansive path. The two novel blocks bring two new connections that are U-connection and Plus connection. They are promoted to get more precise segmentation results. To verify our network architecture, we made a new challenging sea-land dataset and compare the DeepUNet on it with the SegNet and the U-Net. Experimental results show that DeepUNet achieved good performance compared with other architectures, especially in high-resolution remote sensing imagery.

BackgroundMechanical endometrial injury prior to IVF has been suggested as a means to increase implantation rates by improving endometrial receptivity. However, the effects of endometrial injury in proliferative vs. luteal phase have not been studied before. This study aimed to explore whether endometrial injury in the proliferative phase of the preceding cycle before in vitro fertilization/embryo transfer (IVF-ET) improves the clinical outcomes in unselected subfertile women compared with injury in luteal phase.MethodsA group of 142 patients who were good responders to hormonal stimulation were randomized into four groups: injury group (group A: endometrial injury in proliferative phase, n = 38; group B: endometrium injury in luteal phase, n = 32), and non-injury group as control (group C: non-injury in proliferative phase, n = 36; group D: non-injury in luteal phase, n = 36). Patients in injury groups underwent endometrial injury in either proliferative phase or luteal phase in the preceding cycle before IVF treatment. Clinical outcomes including implantation, pregnancy, and live birth rates were analyzed among the four groups.ResultsThe baseline characteristics of the four groups including age, body mass index, duration, type and causes of infertility were similar. There were no significant differences in implantation, clinical pregnancy or live birth rates between injury group and non-injury group. Moreover, there were also no significant differences in implantation, clinical pregnancy, or live birth rates in injury in proliferative phase compared with luteal phase.ConclusionsEndometrial injury in the cycle preceding IVF of unselected subfertile women does not increase implantation, clinical pregnancy, or live birth rates. Furthermore, there is no significant difference in clinical outcomes between endometrial injury in the proliferative phase and injury in the luteal phase.Trial registrationThis study was retrospectively registered on May 26th, 2017 (ChiCTR-IOR-17011506).

.[1] Whether rubber plantations have the role of water pumps in tropical Southeast Asia is under active debate. Fifteen years (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) of paired catchments water observation data and one year paired eddy covariance water flux data in primary tropical rain forest and tropical rubber plantation was used to clarify how rubber plantation affects local water resources of Xishuangbanna, China. Both catchment water observations and direct eddy covariance estimates indicates that more water was evapotranspired from rubber plantation (1137 mm based on catchment water balance, 1125 mm based on eddy covariance) than from the rain forest (969 mm based on catchment water balance, 927 mm based on eddy covariance). Soil water storage during the rainy season is not sufficient to maintain such high evapotranspiration rates, resulting in zero flow and water shortages during the dry season in the rubber plantation. Therefore, this study supports the idea that rubber plantations act as water pumps as suggested by local inhabitants.

This study tested the hypothesis that soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) spatial distributions show clear relationships with soil properties and vegetation composition as well as climatic conditions. Further, this study aimed to find the corresponding controlling parameters of SOC and TN storage in high-altitude ecosystems. The study was based on soil, vegetation and climate data from 42 soil pits taken from 14 plots. The plots were investigated during the summers of 2009 and 2010 at the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Relationships of SOC density with soil moisture, soil texture, biomass and climatic variables were analyzed. Further, storage and vertical patterns of SOC and TN of seven representative vegetation types were estimated. The results show that significant relationships of SOC density with belowground biomass (BGB) and soil moisture (SM) can be observed. BGB and SM may be the dominant factors influencing SOC density in the topsoil of the study area. The average densities of SOC and TN at a depth of 1 m were about 7.72 kg C m −2 and 0.93 kg N m −2 . Both SOC and TN densities were concentrated in the topsoil (0-20 cm) and fell exponentially as soil depth increased. Additionally, the four typical vegetation types located in the northwest of the study area were selected to examine the relationship between SOC and environmental factors (temperature and precipitation). The results indicate that SOC density has a negative relationship with temperature and a positive relationship with precipitation diminishing with soil depth. It was concluded that SOC was concentrated in the topsoil, and that SOC density correlates well with BGB. SOC was predominantly influenced by SM, and to a much lower extent by temperature and precipitation. This study provided a new insight in understanding the control of SOC and TN density in the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Fog computing is emerging as a powerful and popular computing paradigm to perform IoT (Internet of Things) applications, which is an extension to the cloud computing paradigm to make it possible to execute the IoT applications in the network of edge. The IoT applications could choose fog or cloud computing nodes for responding to the resource requirements, and load balancing is one of the key factors to achieve resource efficiency and avoid bottlenecks, overload, and low load. However, it is still a challenge to realize the load balance for the computing nodes in the fog environment during the execution of IoT applications. In view of this challenge, a dynamic resource allocation method, named DRAM, for load balancing in fog environment is proposed in this paper. Technically, a system framework for fog computing and the load-balance analysis for various types of computing nodes are presented first. Then, a corresponding resource allocation method in the fog environment is designed through static resource allocation and dynamic service migration to achieve the load balance for the fog computing systems. Experimental evaluation and comparison analysis are conducted to validate the efficiency and effectiveness of DRAM.

Rhomboid proteins perform a wide range of important functions in a variety of organisms. Recent studies have revealed that rhomboid proteins are involved in human cancer progression; however, the underlying molecular mechanism remains largely unclear. Here we show that RHBDD1, a rhomboid intramembrane serine protease, is highly expressed and closely associated with survival in patients with colorectal cancer. We observe that inactivation of RHBDD1 decreases tumor cell growth. Further studies show that RHBDD1 interacts with proTGFα and induces the ADAM-independent cleavage and secretion of proTGFα. The secreted TGFα further triggers the activation of the EGFR/Raf/MEK/ERK signalling pathway. Finally, the positive correlation of RHBDD1 expression with the EGFR/Raf/MEK/ERK signalling pathway is further corroborated in a murine model of colitis-associated colorectal cancer. These findings provide evidence of a growth-promoting role for RHBDD1 in colorectal cancer and may aid the development of tumor biomarkers or antitumor therapeutics.

The instability of metal halide perovskites upon exposure to moisture or heat strongly hampers their applications in optoelectronic devices. Here, we report the large-yield synthesis of highly water-resistant total-inorganic green luminescent CsPbBr 3 /CsPb 2 Br 5 core/shell heteronanocrystals (HNCs) by developing an in situ phase transition approach. It is implemented via water-driven phase transition of the original monoclinic CsPbBr 3 nanocrystal and the resultant tetragonal CsPb 2 Br 5 nanoshell has small lattice mismatch with the CsPbBr 3 core, which ensures formation of an epitaxial interface for the yielded CsPbBr 3 /CsPb 2 Br 5 HNCs.These HNCs maintain nearly 100% of the original luminescence intensity after immersion in water for eleven months and the luminescence intensity drops only to 81.3% at 100 °C. The transient luminescence spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation reveal that there 1 are double radiative recombination channels in the core CsPbBr 3 nanocrystal, and the electron potential barrier provided by the CsPb 2 Br 5 nanoshell significantly improves the exciton recombination rate. A prototype quasi-white light-emitting device based on these robust CsPbBr 3 /CsPb 2 Br 5 HNCs is realized, showing their strong competence in solid-state lighting and wide color-gamut displays.

2D 1T phase MoS2 (1T‐MoS2) nanosheet with metallic conductivity and expanded interlayer spacing is considered as a highly potential lithium storage electrode material but remains thermodynamic instability in aqueous media, seriously hindering the electrochemical performance. Herein, a versatile strategy is proposed for the preparation of thermodynamically stable 1T‐MoS2/MXene heterostructures with the aid of delaminated Ti3C2Tx MXene (d‐Ti3C2Tx) dispersion containing tetrabutylammonium hydroxide. The 2D d‐Ti3C2Tx provides more uniform nucleation sites for MoS2, and the TBA+ ions can intercalate into MoS2 to induce the phase conversion from semiconducting 2H to 1T. Moreover, the electrochemical advantages of 1T‐MoS2 and d‐Ti3C2Tx can be united by the construction of a well‐organized heterostructure. Outstanding rate performance is realized because of extra‐large interlayer space of 1T MoS2 with TBA+ intercalation and decreased energy barrier for fast Li+ diffusion. Subsequently, a lithium‐ion capacitor (LIC) is assembled based on 1T‐MoS2/d‐Ti3C2Tx as anode and hierarchically porous graphene nanocomposite with micro/mesoporous structure as a cathode. The LIC exhibits a large energy density up to 188 Wh kg−1, an ultra‐high power density of 13 kW kg−1, together with remarkable capacity retention of 83% after 5000 cycles. This study demonstrates the great promise of 1T‐MoS2/d‐Ti3C2Tx heterostructures as anode for high‐performance LICs.