A closed-form of cooperative detection probability using EGC-based soft decision under Suzuki fading

© 2017 IEEE. In cooperative spectrum sensing based on energy detection, several researchers have concluded that Soft Decision has better detection performance than Hard Decision. In this paper, we focus on Equal Gain Combining (EGC)-based soft decision under Suzuki fading which is a composite Rayleigh-lognormal fading. We use Moment-Generating function (MGF) to approximate Probability Density Function (PDF) of power sum of received signals at Fusion Center. Then we propose a novel method to evaluate cooperative detection performance under the effect of i.i.d Suzuki fading by using Gauss-Hermite approximation and MGF matching. Finally, we compare the results of EGC-based Soft Decision with those of Hard Decision

Effect of ciprofloxacin dosages on the performance of sponge membrane bioreactor treating hospital wastewater

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd This study aimed to evaluate treatment performance and membrane fouling of a lab-scale Sponge-MBR under the added ciprofloxacin (CIP) dosages (20; 50; 100 and 200 µg L−1) treating hospital wastewater. The results showed that Sponge-MBR exhibited effective removal of COD (94–98%) during the operation period despite increment of CIP concentrations from 20 to 200 µg L−1. The applied CIP dosage of 200 µg L−1 caused an inhibition of microorganisms in sponges, i.e. significant reduction of the attached biomass and a decrease in the size of suspended flocs. Moreover, this led to deteriorating the denitrification rate to 3–12% compared to 35% at the other lower CIP dosages. Importantly, Sponge-MBR reinforced the stability of CIP removal at various added CIP dosages (permeate of below 13 µg L−1). Additionally, the fouling rate at CIP dosage of 200 µg L−1 was 30.6 times lower compared to the control condition (no added CIP dosage)

Spinal afferent neurons projecting to the rat lung and pleura express acid sensitive channels

BACKGROUND: The acid sensitive ion channels TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor-1) and ASIC3 (acid sensing ion channel-3) respond to tissue acidification in the range that occurs during painful conditions such as inflammation and ischemia. Here, we investigated to which extent they are expressed by rat dorsal root ganglion neurons projecting to lung and pleura, respectively. METHODS: The tracer DiI was either injected into the left lung or applied to the costal pleura. Retrogradely labelled dorsal root ganglion neurons were subjected to triple-labelling immunohistochemistry using antisera against TRPV1, ASIC3 and neurofilament 68 (marker for myelinated neurons), and their soma diameter was measured. RESULTS: Whereas 22% of pulmonary spinal afferents contained neither channel-immunoreactivity, at least one is expressed by 97% of pleural afferents. TRPV1(+)/ASIC3(- )neurons with probably slow conduction velocity (small soma, neurofilament 68-negative) were significantly more frequent among pleural (35%) than pulmonary afferents (20%). TRPV1(+)/ASIC3(+ )neurons amounted to 14 and 10% respectively. TRPV1(-)/ASIC3(+ )neurons made up between 44% (lung) and 48% (pleura) of neurons, and half of them presumably conducted in the A-fibre range (larger soma, neurofilament 68-positive). CONCLUSION: Rat pleural and pulmonary spinal afferents express at least two different acid-sensitive channels that make them suitable to monitor tissue acidification. Patterns of co-expression and structural markers define neuronal subgroups that can be inferred to subserve different functions and may initiate specific reflex responses. The higher prevalence of TRPV1(+)/ASIC3(- )neurons among pleural afferents probably reflects the high sensitivity of the parietal pleura to painful stimuli

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Complete genome characterization of two wild-type measles viruses from Vietnamese infants during the 2014 outbreak

A large measles virus outbreak occurred across Vietnam in 2014. We identified and obtained complete measles virus genomes in stool samples collected from two diarrheal pediatric patients in Dong Thap Province. These are the first complete genome sequences of circulating measles viruses in Vietnam during the 2014 measles outbreak

Genome sequences of a novel Vietnamese bat bunyavirus

To document the viral zoonotic risks in Vietnam, fecal samples were systematically collected from a number of mammals in southern Vietnam and subjected to agnostic deep sequencing. We describe here novel Vietnamese bunyavirus sequences detected in bat feces. The complete L and S segments from 14 viruses were determined

Comprehensive molecular characterization of the hippo signaling pathway in cancer

Hippo signaling has been recognized as a key tumor suppressor pathway. Here, we perform a comprehensive molecular characterization of 19 Hippo core genes in 9,125 tumor samples across 33 cancer types using multidimensional “omic” data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We identify somatic drivers among Hippo genes and the related microRNA (miRNA) regulators, and using functional genomic approaches, we experimentally characterize YAP and TAZ mutation effects and miR-590 and miR-200a regulation for TAZ. Hippo pathway activity is best characterized by a YAP/TAZ transcriptional target signature of 22 genes, which shows robust prognostic power across cancer types. Our elastic-net integrated modeling further reveals cancer-type-specific pathway regulators and associated cancer drivers. Our results highlight the importance of Hippo signaling in squamous cell cancers, characterized by frequent amplification of YAP/TAZ, high expression heterogeneity, and significant prognostic patterns. This study represents a systems-biology approach to characterizing key cancer signaling pathways in the post-genomic era

Indoor positioning using BLE iBeacon, smartphone sensors, and distance-based position correction algorithm

In this paper, we propose a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) iBeacon-based localization system, in which we combine two popular positioning methods: Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) and fingerprinting. As we build the system as an application running on an iPhone, we choose Kalman filter as the fusion algorithm to avoid complex computation. In fingerprinting, a multi-direction-database approach is applied. Finally, in order to reduce the cumulative error of PDR due to smartphone sensors, we propose an algorithm called “Distance-based Position Correction”. The aim of this algorithm is to occasionally correct the estimated position by using the iBeacon nearest to the user. In experiments, our system results in an average error of only 0.63 m