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ABSTRACT: he ability to track and locate physical entities is a
fundamental requirement for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs),
especially in an ad-hoc wireless environment. In Heterogeneous
Wireless Networks (HWNs), hybrid localization schemes are
needed due to the coexistence of both accurate and coarse
measurement mechanisms. However, current localization
schemes cannot fully satisfy HWNs’ accuracy requirements.
Therefore, we propose a universal measurement metric called
Direct Proportion Distance
(
DPD
) that can leverage most existing
measurement mechanisms such as TOA/TDOA, RSS, AOA,
Link
Diagnosis
(
LD
) and
Signal Coverage Detection
(
SCD
). We also
prove that DPD is directly proportional to the physical distance
between two wireless nodes. Based on this metric, we present
three new localization algorithms and compare them with
classical methods. The experiments verify that our method
performs better than previous localization algorithms when both
accurate and coarse measurements are fully utilized.
Globecom 2012 - Ad Hoc and Sensor Networking Symposis; 12/2012
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ABSTRACT: Distributed in-network inference plays a significant role in large-scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in applications for distributed detection and estimation. Belief propagation (BP) holds great potential for forming an essential and powerful underlying mechanism for such distributed inferences in WSNs. However, it has been recognized that many challenges exist in the context of WSN distributed inference. One such challenge is how to systematically develop a graphical model of WSN, upon which BP-based distributed inference can be effectively and efficiently performed, rather than ad hoc. This paper investigates this challenge and proposes a general and rigorous data-driven approach to building a solid and practical graphical model of WSN, given prior observations, based on graphical model optimization. The proposed approach is empirically evaluated using real-world sensor network data. We show that our approach can significantly reduce the energy consumption in BP-based distributed inference in WSNs and also improve the inference accuracy, when compared to the current practice of distributed inference in WSNs.
37th Annual IEEE LCN; 10/2012
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ABSTRACT: To evaluate the immunoprotective activity of the Egrecombinant ferritin and Egrecombinant mMDH proteins in mice.
Thirty ICR mice were divided into 3 groups and immunized by injection of adjuvant-emulsified rEgferritin, rEgmMDH and PBS, respectively, in multiple spots at back, for 3 times with an interval of 2 wk. Two weeks after the last immunization, the mice of the 3 groups were infected intraperitoneally with 0.1 ml suspension containing about 1 500 Echinococcus granulosus (Eg) protoscoleces. The mice were sacrificed 22 wk after infection and the Eg cysts were collected and measured. Spleens were taken for detecting CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells and ratio calculated.
Eg cysts were found in 30% (3/10) of the mice in the rEgferritin group with 5 cysts altogether; cysts were received in all the mice in the rEgmMDH group with 118 cysts totally; and cysts were found in 7 of 9 mice in the PBS control with 35 cysts totally. The mice in the rEgferritin group showed an 84.7% protection but revealed no protection in the rEgmMDH group. The CD4+ T cells were significantly higher in the rEgferritin group than the control, but no statistical difference was found in CD8+ T cells and CD4+/CD8+ ratio between the 2 groups. There was no considerable change in the T cells and ratio in the rEgmMDH group compared to the control.
The Egrecombinant ferritin can inhibit the growth of Eg while the Egrecombinant mMDH seems promoting its growth in mice.
Zhongguo ji sheng chong xue yu ji sheng chong bing za zhi = Chinese journal of parasitology & parasitic diseases 06/2012; 30(3):206-9.
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ABSTRACT: Tandem repeats of single short peptide sequences are useful for many purposes. Here we describe a method called ligation-PCR to construct DNA sequences encoding numerous tandem peptide repeats that can stably produce such repeats in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The method employs double-strand target monomers consisting of a short peptide coding sequences. These sequences contain 3-bp cohesive overhangs to ensure correct repeat orientation and reading frame during ligation. The ligation products are PCR amplified and directly cloned into a new TA-cloning vector, pZeroT. Constructs containing tandem 10-amino-acid myc-tag peptide coding sequence repeats that ranged from approximately 0.45-1.2 kb, representing 15-40 copies of the corresponding peptide, were successfully obtained by this method. When one of the constructs was subcloned into prokaryotic vector pET-28 c (+) and eukaryotic vector rGHpcDNA3.0, and introduced into E. Coli and COS-7 cells, respectively, proteins containing tandem myc-tag peptide repeats were expressed with expected molecular weights. Purified proteins from E. Coli could successfully stimulate a peptide specific immune response. This method provides a means to manipulate peptides at the nucleic acid level, and can serve as the basis for biological peptide synthesis, epitope-specific antibody production, and epitope-based DNA vaccine construction.
MIRCEN Journal of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 05/2012; 28(5):2175-80. · 1.08 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: It is still debatable whether intracoronary (IC) administration of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors (GPIs) is superior to intravenous (IV) administration for patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. A literature search was conducted for relevant trials. Primary end-points were short-term (1-3 months) and mid-/long-term (6/12 months) major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) (mortality, reinfarction, target vessel revascularization [TVR]). Secondary end-points were thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) grade flow, TIMI myocardial perfusion grade (TMPG) flow, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) within 2 weeks, and bleeding complication.
Twelve studies were included in the meta-analysis. IC administration of GPIs did not decrease short-term mortality (OR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.41-1.23, P = 0.22) and reinfarction rate (OR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.45-1.29, P = 0.31) compared with IV administration. There was a trend toward reduction of short-term TVR rate in IC group compared with IV group but not reaching statistical significance (OR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.31-1.04, P = 0.07). IC administration of GPIs significantly increased TIMI grade 3 flow (OR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.06-2.06, P = 0.02) and TMPG grade 2-3 flow (OR: 2.63, 95% CI: 1.53-4.51, P = 0.0004) compared with IV administration. No significant difference was observed in long-term MACEs rate, LVEF, and bleeding complication between the 2 groups.
IC administration of GPIs in patients with ACS undergoing PCI can significantly increase target coronary flow and myocardial reperfusion without increasing the risk of bleeding complication, but cannot improve clinical outcome compared with IV administration.
Journal of Interventional Cardiology 03/2012; 25(3):223-34. · 1.18 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Analysis of the transcriptome of the kleptoplastic sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, has revealed the presence of at least 101 chloroplast-encoded gene sequences and 111 transcripts matching 52 nuclear-encoded genes from the chloroplast donor, Vaucheria litorea. These data clearly show that the symbiotic chloroplasts are translationally active and, of even more interest, that a variety of functional algal genes have been transferred into the slug genome, as has been suggested by earlier indirect experiments. Both the chloroplast- and nuclear-encoded sequences were rare within the E. chlorotica transcriptome, suggesting that their copy numbers and synthesis rates are low, and required both a large amount of sequence data and native algal sequences to find. These results show that the symbiotic chloroplasts residing inside the host molluscan cell are maintained by an interaction of both organellar and host biochemistry directed by the presence of transferred genes.
Molecular Biology and Evolution 02/2012; 29(6):1545-56. · 5.55 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Accumulating evidence shows that microRNAs, functioning as either oncogenes or tumour suppressors by negatively regulating downstream target genes that are actively involved in tumour initiation and progression, may be promising biomarkers and therapy targets. Data mining through a microRNA chip database indicated that let-7c may be associated with tumour metastasis. Here, we confirmed that down-regulation of let-7c in primary cancer tissues was significantly associated with metastases, advanced TNM stages and poor survival of colorectal cancer patients. Moreover, ectopic expression of let-7c in a highly metastatic Lovo cell line remarkably suppressed cell migration and invasion in vitro by the down-regulation of K-RAS, MMP11 and PBX3, as well as tumour growth and metastases in vivo, whereas inhibition of let-7c in low-metastatic HT29 cells increased cell motility and invasion by the enhanced gene expression of K-RAS, MMP11 and PBX3. Interestingly, the luciferase reporters' activities with the 3'-UTRs of K-RAS, MMP11 and PBX3 were inhibited significantly by let-7c. Importantly, rescue experiments involving the over-expression of these genes without their 3'-UTRs completely reversed the effects of let-7c on tumour metastasis, both in vitro and in vivo. Finally, the levels of let-7c were inversely correlated with those of MMP11 and PBX3, but not with those of K-RAS. Taken together, these results demonstrate that let-7c, apart from its tumour growth suppression role, also functions as a tumour metastasis suppressor in colorectal cancer by directly destabilizing the mRNAs of MMP11 and PBX3 at least.
The Journal of Pathology 02/2012; 226(3):544-55. · 6.32 Impact Factor
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Hong-Juan Peng,
Hui-Bing Lai,
Qiao-Li Zhang,
Ba-Yi Xu,
Hao Zhang,
Wen-Hua Liu, Wei Zhao,
Yuan-Ping Zhou,
Xin-Guang Zhong,
Shu Jiang,
Jin-Hua Duan,
Gui-Yun Yan,
Jian-Feng He,
Xiao-Guang Chen
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ABSTRACT: Dengue, a mosquito-borne febrile viral disease, is found in tropical and sub-tropical regions around the world. Since the first occurrence of dengue was confirmed in Guangdong, China in 1978, dengue outbreaks have been reported sequentially in different provinces in South China transmitted by peridomestic Ae. albopictus mosquitoes, diplaying Ae. aegypti, a fully domestic vector that transmits dengue worldwide. Rapid and uncontrolled urbanization is a characteristic change in developing countries, which impacts greatly on vector habitat, human lifestyle and transmission dynamics on dengue epidemics. In September 2010, an outbreak of dengue was detected in Dongguan, a city in Guangdong province characterized by its fast urbanization. An investigation was initiated to identify the cause, to describe the epidemical characteristics of the outbreak, and to implement control measures to stop the outbreak. This is the first report of dengue outbreak in Dongguan, even though dengue cases were documented before in this city.
Epidemiological data were obtained from local Center of Disease Control and prevention (CDC). Laboratory tests such as real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), the virus cDNA sequencing, and Enzyme-Linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were employed to identify the virus infection and molecular phylogenetic analysis was performed with MEGA5. The febrile cases were reported every day by the fever surveillance system. Vector control measures including insecticidal fogging and elimination of habitats of Ae. albopictus were used to control the dengue outbreak.
The epidemiological studies results showed that this dengue outbreak was initiated by an imported case from Southeast Asia. The outbreak was characterized by 31 cases reported with an attack rate of 50.63 out of a population of 100,000. Ae. albopictus was the only vector species responsible for the outbreak. The virus cDNA sequencing analysis showed that the virus responsible for the outbreak was Dengue Virus serotype-1 (DENV-1).
Several characterized points of urbanization contributed to this outbreak of dengue in Dongguan: the residents are highly concentrated; the residents' life habits helped to form the habitats of Ae. albopictus and contributed to the high Breteau Index; the self-constructed houses lacks of mosquito prevention facilities. This report has reaffirmed the importance of a surveillance system for infectious diseases control and aroused the awareness of an imported case causing the epidemic of an infectious disease in urbanized region.
BMC Public Health 01/2012; 12:83. · 2.00 Impact Factor
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IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput. 01/2012; 11:377-389.
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IEEE T. Instrumentation and Measurement. 01/2012; 61:84-92.
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IEEE Trans. VLSI Syst. 01/2012; 20:186-191.
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ABSTRACT: Osteopontin (OPN) is a secreted phosphoglycoprotein (SSP) that is overexpressed in a variety of tumors and was regarded as a molecular marker of tumors. In this study, we intended to demonstrate the role of OPN in human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231.
Recombinant plasmid expressing small interfering RNA (siRNA) specific to OPN mRNA was transfected into MDA-MB-231 cells to generate the stable transfected cell line MDA-MB-343, and the empty plasmid tansfected cells (MDA-MB-neg) or wildtype MDA-MB-231 cells were used as control cells respectively. Expression of OPN, hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) proteins was analyzed by Western blotting analysis. The radiosensitivity of cells was determined by detecting cell apoptosis, cell proliferation and cell senescence.
HIF-1 and VEGF proteins in MDA-MB-343 cells were significantly downregulated upon the efficient knockdown of OPN expression under either hypoxia or normoxia environment. Moreover, expression of OPN protein was upregualted upon hypoxic culture. Stable OPN-silencing also decreased cell invasion, increased cell apoptosis and cell senescence, as well as reduced clonogenic survival, resulting in increase radiation tolerance.
Suppression of OPN gene expression can enhance radiosensitivity and affect cell apoptosis in breast cancer cells. OPN seems to be an attractive target for the improvement of radiotherapy.
Chinese medical journal 01/2012; 125(2):293-9. · 0.86 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Vulnerability is an effective index to evaluate increased risk for unidirectional conduction block and reentry in hearts. Recent reports in animal experiments have indicated an opposite characteristics of the vulnerability in normal and ischemic transmural tissues. In order to clarify the differences and to investigate the mechanisms, a computer simulation method was used in this study to investigate the vulnerability relative to the premature pacing sites in normal and ischemic transmural tissues. Endo-, mid- and epi-cardial myocytes incorporating different severities of ischemia were developed across a tissue strand. The sodium channel inactivation gating variable h was calculated to provide the degree of sodium current recovery preceding the premature pacing. In the normal tissue, the measured vulnerable window was demonstrated to be wider by delivering an endocardial premature beat than that by applying an epicardial premature pacing. On the contrary, during ischemia the epicardium showed a wider vulnerable window than the endocardium. The results illustrated that during ischemia h decreased with accumulation of [K⁺]o, and action potential duration dispersion was obviously altered due to anoxia. In contrast, the elevated [K⁺]o was suggested to play an important role in the difference of the location-dependent vulnerability in normal and ischemic tissues.
The Chinese journal of physiology 12/2011; 54(6):427-34. · 0.56 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Nanostructured AIN/GaN films with different thickness are synthesized on Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). GaN and AIN single-layer films are also deposited for comparison. It is found that the turn-on field of the nanostructured AIN/GaN films is considerably decreased 2 orders of magnitude than that of single-layer films. The improvement of field emission (FE) characteristics is attributed to the quantum structure effects, which supplies a favorable location of electron emission and enhances tunneling ability. We show that by tuning the thickness of AIN/GaN, various FE characteristics can be obtained. It indicates that the optimal thickness of the nanostructured AIN/GaN films exists for their best field emission performance.
Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 12/2011; 11(12):10817-20. · 1.56 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A linear connected-(r, s)-out-of-(m, n) : F system consists of m×n components arranged in m rows by n columns, and it fails iff there exists a r × s subsystem in which all components are failed. The linear connected-(r, s)-out-of-(m, n) : F system can be used for modeling engineering systems such as temperature feeler systems, supervision systems, etc. In this paper, a general method is proposed based on the finite Markov chain imbedding approach to study the exact reliability of a linear connected-(r, s)-out-of-(m, n) : F system. Then a new more efficient method, which reduces the size of the state space by combining some states into one state, is presented to reduce the computing time. Furthermore, three numerical examples are given. The first two numerical examples show that the proposed algorithm is efficient not only when the component states are i.i.d., but also when the component states are statistically independent and non-identically distributed. And the last numerical example shows that our method can be used to compute not only the reliability, but also the component importance.
IEEE Transactions on Reliability 10/2011; · 1.28 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In the performance-driven complex engineering design process, at an early design stage, some required design parameters or equations cannot be determined precisely, which can have significant impact on the chain of design decisions and have to be validated with the outcome of design results from the later stages requiring redesign effort to resolve inconsistencies. So it is imminent to evaluate the extent of, and systematically manage, the couplings of design models and develop an appropriate resolving strategy in order to obtain more accurate design results in the shortest time period. This paper presents the research work carried out via the analyses of performance evolution and potential performance coupling at the early stage of complex engineering design. Four strategies based on performance model transformation for resolving evolutionary performance coupling are studied (i.e. decoupling, coupling, first-decoupling-then-coupling and first-coupling-then-decoupling). A selection method for resolving performance coupling based on the synthetic analysis of sensitivity of uncertainty propagation, solvability of coupled models, coupling strength and performance interface and availability of design information is proposed. To demonstrate the related concepts and method, the solving process of a complex design problem related to a suspension system design for tracked vehicle is given.
Journal of Engineering Design 09/2011; 22(9):603-626. · 0.93 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This paper addresses the problem of target counting based on the Monte Carlo simulation. We rely on an Accept-Reject process to guide the placement of virtual targets in a virtual sensor field, which has exactly the same sensor layout as the real one. The objective of this construction is to generate a virtual target energy landscape whose shape is close enough to an energy landscape estimated from the real sensor readings. Based on the number of virtual targets placed on the virtual field and the total virtual and real target energy volumes, the number of real targets can be estimated. We consider both single-epoch and multi-epoch sensor readings and our theoretical analysis indicates that by exploiting the information from multiple epochs, our approach yields a target count that approximately converges to the true target count when the number of epochs is large enough. Extensive comparison based simulation study has been performed and the results verify the effectiveness of our target counting algorithms.
Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), 2011 31st International Conference on; 07/2011
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ABSTRACT: Although connexin has been recognized as a tumor suppressor in many types of cancer, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We have previously shown that transfection of connexin43 (Cx43) cDNA retarded the growth of a highly metastatic human pulmonary giant cell carcinoma cell line, PG, both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we further demonstrate that the metastasis and invasion, but not the migration, of PG cells are also inhibited following Cx43 transfection. The diminishment of metastasis and invasion is associated with down-regulation of genes including MMP-2, S100A, LAMA4, and HDAC10, as well as up-regulation of genes such as MTSS1 and FSTL1 as revealed by gene chip analysis. Interestingly, the suppression effects of Cx43 are related to secreted factor(s), which are blocked by FSTL1 antibody treatment in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the FSTL1 promoter was shown to be associated with acetylated histones H3 and H4 upon Cx43 transfection. These data suggest that Cx43 inhibits the invasion and metastasis of PG cells by modulating the secretion of FSTL1, which is regulated by histone acetylation. Cx43 may act as a "histone deacetylase inhibitor" to modulate gene expression and subsequent cellular functions in PG cells.
The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology 06/2011; 43(10):1459-68. · 4.89 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In this paper, we study in-vehicle digital network systems. We propose a switch-based architecture for in-vehicle networks and focus on the critical related issue: routing schemes. We note that in-vehicle networks are fundamentally different from many other switch-based networks (e.g., the Internet). This is because within an in-vehicle network, messages are not unicast or multicast as in the Internet, but many-to-many cast. We analyze several routing schemes. We investigate if routing schemes that have already been proposed for Internet-like networks, may be feasible for our in-vehicle networks. We also propose a new algorithm that is specifically designed for many-to-many cast messages as an initialization for further research on routing schemes for switch-based in-vehicle networks.
Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), 2011 IEEE Conference on; 05/2011
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Math. Comput. 01/2011; 80:1525-1556.
