This paper proposes a filter realised using only lumped-element components, implemented as a highly selective bandpass filter suitable for lowpass delta-sigma (LPΔΣ) RF transmitters. The proposed filter is characterised by low insertion loss, high selectivity and a transfer function tailored for filtering the close-up out-of-band noise of LPΔΣ RF transmitters. The circuit design is based on a modified loaded-stub ring-resonator structure, however, implemented using 4 π-shape lumped-element resonators with LC tanks. The measurements show good agreement with simulation and the proposed filter provides a fractional 3-dB bandwidth of 14.3 %, insertion loss of less than 1.6 dB, suppression of more than 18 dB on both sides of the desired band, and a sharp cut-off frequency response. This filter is combined with the delta-sigma transmitter to show the effective reduction of the out-of-band quantisation noise signals.
As two obligatory intermediates of denitrification, both NO and N2O had harmful environmental and biological impacts. An aerobic denitrifying bacterial strain PCN-1 was newly isolated and identified as Pseudomonas stutzeri, which was capable of high efficient nitrogen removal under aerobic condition with maximal NO and N2O accumulation as low as 0.003% and 0.33% of removed NO3 -N, respectively. Further experiment taking nitrite as denitrifying substrate indicated similar low NO and N2O emission of 0.006% and 0.29% of reduced NO2 -N, respectively. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis revealed that the coordinate expression of denitrification gene nirS (for cytochrome cd(1) nitrite reductase), cnorB (for NO reductase) and nosZ (for N2O reductase) was the fundamental reason of low NO and N2O accumulation. Activated sludge system bioaugmented by strain PCN-1 demonstrated a significant reduction of NO and N2O emission from wastewater during aerobic denitrification, implied great potential of PCN-1 in practical applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
BACKGROUND: Chinese menopausal women comprise a large population and the women in it experience menopausal symptoms in many different ways. Their health related quality of life (HRQOL) is not particularly well studied. Our study intends to evaluate the influence of menopause on HRQOL and explore other risk factors for HRQOL in rural China. METHODS: An interview study was conducted from June to August 2010 in Beijing based on cross-sectional design. 1,351 women aged 40-59 were included in the study. HRQOL was measured using the EuroQol Group's 5-domain (EQ5D) questionnaire. Comparison of HRQOL measures (EQ5D index and EQ5D-VAS scores) was done between different menopausal groups. Logistic regression and multiple regression analysis were performed to adjust potential confounders and explore other risk factors for health problems and HRQOL measures. RESULTS: Postmenopausal women who had menopause for 2-5 years (+1b stage) were more likely to suffer mobility problems (OR = 1.835, p = 0.008) after multiple adjustment. Menopause was also related to impaired EQ5D index and EQ5D-VAS scores after adjustment for age. Among menopausal groups categorized by menopausal duration, a consistent decrement in EQ5D index and EQ5D-VAS scores, that is, worsening HRQOL, was observed (p < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis revealed low education level and physical activity were associated with EQ5D index (beta = -0.080, p = 0.003, and beta = 0.056, p = 0.040, respectively). Cigarette smoking and chronic disease were associated with EQ5D index (beta = -0.135, p < 0.001 and beta = -0.104, p < 0.001, respectively) and EQ5D-VAS (beta = -0.057, P = 0.034 and beta = -0.214, p < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Reduction in physical function was found within the first five years after menopause. Worsening EQ5D index and EQ5D-VAS scores were related to menopause. Education level, physical activity, cigarette smoking, and chronic disease history were associated with HRQOL in middle aged Chinese rural women.
Different from the previous video coding standards that employ fixed-size coding blocks (and macroblocks), the latest high efficiency video coding (HEVC) introduces a quadtree structure to represent variable-size coding blocks in the coding loop. The main objective of this study is to investigate a novel way to reuse these variable-size blocks to represent the foreground objects in the picture. Towards this end, this paper proposes three methods, i.e., flagging the blocks lying in the object regions flagging compression blocks (FCB), adding an object tree in each Coding Tree Unit to describe the objects' shape in it additional object tree (AOT) and confining the block splitting procedure to fit the object shape confining by shape (CBS). Among them, FCB and CBS add a flag bit in the syntax description of the block to indicate whether it lies in the objects region, while AOT adds a separate quadtree to represent the objects. For all these methods, the additional bits are then fed into the HEVC entropy coding module to compress. As such, the representation of visual objects in the pictures can be implemented in the HEVC coding loop by reusing the variable-size blocks and entropy coding, without additional coding tools. The experiments on six manually-segmented HEVC testing sequences (three in 1080P and three in 720P) demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposal. To represent the objects in the 1080P testing sequences, the BD rate increases of FCB, AOT, and CBS over the HEVC anchor are 1.57%, 3.27%, and 5.93% respectively; while for the 720P conference videos, those are 4.57%, 17.23%, and 26.93% (note that the average bitrate of the anchor is only 1009 kb/s).
