A Viable LoRa Framework for Smart Cities

This research is intended to provide practical insights to empower designers, developers and management to develop smart cities underpinned by Long Range (LoRa) technology. LoRa, one of most prevalent long-range wireless communication technologies, can be used to underpin the development of smart cities. This study draws upon relevant research to gain an understanding of underlying principles and issues involved in the design and management of long-range and low-power networks such as LoRa. This research uses empirical evidence that has been gathered through experiments with a LoRa network to analyse network design and identify challenges and then proposes cost-effective and timely solutions. Particularly, practical measurements of LoRa network dependencies and performance metrics are used to support our proposals. This research identifies a number of network performance metrics that need to be considered and controlled when designing and managing LoRa- specific networks from the perspectives of hardware, software, networking and security

The Constrained Maximal Expression Level Owing to Haploidy Shapes Gene Content on the Mammalian X Chromosome.

X chromosomes are unusual in many regards, not least of which is their nonrandom gene content. The causes of this bias are commonly discussed in the context of sexual antagonism and the avoidance of activity in the male germline. Here, we examine the notion that, at least in some taxa, functionally biased gene content may more profoundly be shaped by limits imposed on gene expression owing to haploid expression of the X chromosome. Notably, if the X, as in primates, is transcribed at rates comparable to the ancestral rate (per promoter) prior to the X chromosome formation, then the X is not a tolerable environment for genes with very high maximal net levels of expression, owing to transcriptional traffic jams. We test this hypothesis using The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and data from the Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome (FANTOM5) project. As predicted, the maximal expression of human X-linked genes is much lower than that of genes on autosomes: on average, maximal expression is three times lower on the X chromosome than on autosomes. Similarly, autosome-to-X retroposition events are associated with lower maximal expression of retrogenes on the X than seen for X-to-autosome retrogenes on autosomes. Also as expected, X-linked genes have a lesser degree of increase in gene expression than autosomal ones (compared to the human/Chimpanzee common ancestor) if highly expressed, but not if lowly expressed. The traffic jam model also explains the known lower breadth of expression for genes on the X (and the Z of birds), as genes with broad expression are, on average, those with high maximal expression. As then further predicted, highly expressed tissue-specific genes are also rare on the X and broadly expressed genes on the X tend to be lowly expressed, both indicating that the trend is shaped by the maximal expression level not the breadth of expression per se. Importantly, a limit to the maximal expression level explains biased tissue of expression profiles of X-linked genes. Tissues whose tissue-specific genes are very highly expressed (e.g., secretory tissues, tissues abundant in structural proteins) are also tissues in which gene expression is relatively rare on the X chromosome. These trends cannot be fully accounted for in terms of alternative models of biased expression. In conclusion, the notion that it is hard for genes on the Therian X to be highly expressed, owing to transcriptional traffic jams, provides a simple yet robustly supported rationale of many peculiar features of X's gene content, gene expression, and evolution

Twitter Out Loud: connecting people in organisations

Workplace interactions are vital to foster collaboration, however the levels of such interactions are often less than desired. Ambient awareness of the happenings within an organisation is often used as a lead to informal communication, in the hopes this leads to collaboration. We designed the Twitter Out Loud (TOL) device, a Raspberry Pi (credit card-sized single-board computers) system with a dedicated speaker to read an organisation's tweets out loud. It is hoped that the ambient audio presentation of Twitter feeds will help spark informal conversations among individuals in an organisation, while also helping individuals keep up to date with events within the organisation. We have designed TOL to be placed in a staff common room, where staff already habituate, to enhance an existing practice (having meals) to foster engagement among staff. Initial deployment of TOL showed that it helped initiate conversations among individuals while providing information about events across the organizatio

A viable LoRa framework for smart cities

This research is intended to provide practical insights to empower designers, developers and management to develop smart cities underpinned by Long Range (LoRa) technology. LoRa, one of most prevalent long-range wireless communication technologies, can be used to underpin the development of smart cities. This study draws upon relevant research to gain an understanding of underlying principles and issues involved in the design and management of long-range and low-power networks such as LoRa. This research uses empirical evidence that has been gathered through experiments with a LoRa network to analyse network design and identify challenges and then proposes cost-effective and timely solutions. Particularly, practical measurements of LoRa network dependencies and performance metrics are used to support our proposals. This research identifies a number of network performance metrics that need to be considered and controlled when designing and managing LoRa-specific networks from the perspectives of hardware, software, networking and security

"I've done this. Let me show you." Developing student-designed resources for troublesome STEM concepts

Problem In view of the growing demand for high quality STEM graduates, many institutions are explicitly committed to strengthening the STEM learner experience. At QUT, the STIMulate program strives to provide quality support-for-learning opportunities for all coursework students. A key strength of the program is the depth and breadth of STEM expertise in the volunteer Peer Learning Facilitators (PLFs) who provide drop-in assistance to large numbers of students. Social constructivist learning theory suggests that such peer support facilitates the growth of understanding and transfer of learning across contexts (Hunt & Chalmers, 2012) while removing barriers to learning for some students (reviewed in Hilsdon 2014), which, at the institutional level, translates to improved student progression and retention (Thomas, 2012). At present STIMulate primarily delivers support face-to-face during business hours, presenting a significant barrier to participation for some students. Despite targeted PLF recruitment to meet need, and systematic scheduling to improve access, demand occasionally outstrips supply and ongoing expertise is not always available in specific areas. Plan Drawing on the experience of PLFs, this project sought to identify troublesome concepts frequently encountered in the STIMulate drop-in space and to employ a ‘Students as Partners’ model (Healy et al., 2014) to design and develop a series of short video tutorials to around these themes. Harnessing the student voice and perspective would help create resources that can potentially address the learning needs of a diverse student population, while partnering with academic support staff would potentially assure the quality of the resources and allay concerns of academics around accuracy of content (Croft et al., 2013). Availability of online resources facilitates a flexible and equitable learning environment, enhancing learning outcomes for consumers (Jordan et al., 2015). A number of studies report that the key beneficiaries of student-generated content are the producers themselves, as participation is in itself an engaging and authentic learning experience (Kearney and Schuck, 2006; Biza and Vande Hey, 2014). Hence this project is expected to improve the learner experience of both producers and consumers. Action Experienced PLFs identified concepts that they often helped students with, focusing on topics that were relevant to multiple courses and potentially suited to explanation through videos. Seven PLFs were selected from expressions of interest to develop videos in: scientific notation, ordinary differential equations, conditional probability, muscle movement, balancing chemical equations, solution chemistry, and pointers and structures for programming. Each PLF was matched with a staff member to provide support as required, but PLFs retained leadership in design and production. Final videos were reviewed by library support staff and discipline academics prior to being released on the STIMulate Community Blackboard. Reflection PLFs utilised different approaches to produce videos which received positive feedback from reviewers. Producers described a deepening of their content knowledge, development of metacognitive skills and learning video production skills. All found that production took significantly longer than expected. During the process, STIMulate academics struggled to identify the level of direction they should provide to ensure quality without silencing the student voice. To allow flexibility, staff adopted a relaxed approach to timeframes, however in follow-up discussions PLFs expressed a preference for explicit deadlines

Juniper smoke, skulls and wolves' tails. The Epipalaeolithic of the Anatolian plateau in its South-west Asian context; insights from Pinarbaşi

This paper discusses the only substantive evidence for the Epipalaeolithic of central Anatolia. This evidence allows revised understandings of phenomena often proposed as characteristic of the Epipalaeolithic of South-west Asia including the appearance of sedentism, a putative Broad Spectrum Revolution, intensive plant exploitation and the emergence of distinctive ritual and symbolic practices. It also allows further evaluation of the effect of Late Glacial climate change on human behaviours

Thymic origin of ALCL

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a peripheral T-cell lymphoma presenting mostly in children and young adults. The natural progression of this disease is largely unknown as is the identity of its true cell of origin. Here we present a model of peripheral ALCL pathogenesis where the malignancy is initiated in early thymocytes, before T-cell receptor (TCR) β-rearrangement, which is bypassed in CD4/NPM-ALK transgenic mice following Notch1 expression. However, we find that a TCR is required for thymic egress and development of peripheral murine tumours, yet this TCR must be downregulated for T-cell lymphomagenesis. In keeping with this, clonal TCR rearrangements in human ALCL are predominantly in-frame, but often aberrant, with clonal TCRα but no comparable clonal TCRβ rearrangement, yielding events that would not normally be permissive for survival during thymic development. Children affected by ALCL may thus harbour thymic lymphoma-initiating cells capable of seeding relapse after chemotherapy.SDT receives funding from Bloodwise. TM was in receipt of a Gordon Piller PhD studentship from Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research at the time of the study. CF is supported with PhD funding from the bbsrc. SDT, SM, IA and TM are supported with funding from the University of Ha’il, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Support to the Macintyre laboratory includes the French Institut National de Cancer (INCa) PAIR Lymphoma T-COG (N° 2008-021) and RT-07 Immature T/My leukemia “Recherche Translationnelle” programmes and MD/PhD grant funding to A Trinquand, the Enfants et Santé and Société Française de Cancers de l’Enfant (SFCE) and the Association Laurette Fugain (ALF2012-09). Support to the Lamant laboratory includes INCa PAIR Lymphoma T-COG. This research was supported by the Cambridge NIHR BRC Cell Phenotyping Hub.This is the final version of the article. It was first available from NPG via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1008