835 research outputs found
Using Delay Tolerant Networks as a Backbone for Low-cost Smart Cities
Rapid urbanization burdens city infrastructure and creates the need for local
governments to maximize the usage of resources to serve its citizens. Smart
city projects aim to alleviate the urbanization problem by deploying a vast
amount of Internet-of-things (IoT) devices to monitor and manage environmental
conditions and infrastructure. However, smart city projects can be extremely
expensive to deploy and manage. A significant portion of the expense is a
result of providing Internet connectivity via 5G or WiFi to IoT devices. This
paper proposes the use of delay tolerant networks (DTNs) as a backbone for
smart city communication; enabling developing communities to become smart
cities at a fraction of the cost. A model is introduced to aid policy makers in
designing and evaluating the expected performance of such networks. Preliminary
results are presented based on a public transit network data-set from Chapel
Hill, North Carolina. Finally, innovative ways of improving network performance
in a low-cost smart city is discussed.Comment: 3 pages, accepted to IEEE SmartComp 201
In Vivo Evaluation of the Secure Opportunistic Schemes Middleware using a Delay Tolerant Social Network
Over the past decade, online social networks (OSNs) such as Twitter and
Facebook have thrived and experienced rapid growth to over 1 billion users. A
major evolution would be to leverage the characteristics of OSNs to evaluate
the effectiveness of the many routing schemes developed by the research
community in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we showcase the Secure
Opportunistic Schemes (SOS) middleware which allows different routing schemes
to be easily implemented relieving the burden of security and connection
establishment. The feasibility of creating a delay tolerant social network is
demonstrated by using SOS to power AlleyOop Social, a secure delay tolerant
networking research platform that serves as a real-life mobile social
networking application for iOS devices. SOS and AlleyOop Social allow users to
interact, publish messages, and discover others that share common interests in
an intermittent network using Bluetooth, peer-to-peer WiFi, and infrastructure
WiFi.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted in ICDCS 2017. arXiv admin note: text
overlap with arXiv:1702.0565
Business Communication Practices From Employersâ Perspectives
This study investigates the meaning of communication skills from employersâ perspectives. Students enrolled in a business communication course were asked to contact potential employers in their fields of interest, requesting information about important communication skills in those fields. Using content analysis, two coders familiar with business communication analyzed 52 of the resulting open-ended responses. The analysis of 165 skills suggests employers recall oral communication more frequently than written, visual, or electronic communication skills. Of oral communication subskills, interpersonal communication was mentioned more than other workplace communication skills
Levo-Tetrahydropalmatine Attenuates Cocaine Self-Administration under a Progressive-Ratio Schedule and Cocaine Discrimination in Rats
Levo-tetrahydropalmatine (l-THP) is an alkaloid found in many traditional Chinese herbal preparations and has a unique pharmacological proïŹle that includes dopamine receptor antagonism. Previously we demonstrated that l-THP attenuates ïŹxed-ratio (FR) cocaine self-administration (SA) and cocaine-induced reinstatement in rats at doses that do not alter food-reinforced responding. This study examined the effects of l-THP on cocaine and food SA under progressive-ratio (PR) schedules of reinforcement and the discriminative stimulus effects of cocaine. In adult male SpragueâDawley rats self-administering cocaine (0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg/inf), l-THP signiïŹcantly reduced breaking points at the 1.875, 3.75 and 7.5 mg/kg doses. l-THP also reduced the breaking point and response rate for PR SA of sucrose-sweetened food pellets, although the decrease was significant only at the 7.5 mg/kg l-THP dose. In rats trained to discriminate cocaine (10 mg/kg, ip) from saline, l-THP (1.875, 3.75 and 7.5 mg/kg) produced a rightward shift in the doseâresponse curve for cocaine generalization. During generalization testing, l-THP reduced response rate, but only at the 7.5 mg/kg dose. l-THP also prevented substitution of the dopamine D2/D3 receptor agonist, (±) 7-OH-DPAT, for cocaine suggesting a potential role for antagonism of D2 and/or D3 receptors in the effects of l-THP. These data further demonstrate that l-THP attenuates the reinforcing and subjective effects of cocaine at doses that do not produce marked motor effects and provide additional evidence that l-THP may have utility for the management of cocaine addiction
Evolution of Alu Subfamily Structure in the Saimiri Lineage of New World Monkeys
Squirrelmonkeys,Saimiri,arecommonlyfoundinzoologicalparksandusedinbiomedicalresearch.S.boliviensisisthemostcommon species for research; however, there is little information about genome evolution within this primate lineage. Here, we reconstruct the Alu element sequence amplification and evolution in the genus Saimiri at the time of divergence within the family Cebidae lineage. Alu elements are the most successful SINE (Short Interspersed Element) in primates. Here, we report 46 Saimiri lineage specificAlusubfamilies.RetrotranspositionactivityinvolvedsubfamiliesrelatedtoAluS,AluTa10,andAluTa15.Manysubfamiliesare simultaneously active within the Saimiri lineage, a finding which supports the stealth model of Alu amplification. We also report a high resolution analysis of Alu subfamilies within the S. boliviensis genome [saiBol1]
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