Binary sampling ghost imaging: add random noise to fight quantization caused image quality decline

When the sampling data of ghost imaging is recorded with less bits, i.e., experiencing quantization, decline of image quality is observed. The less bits used, the worse image one gets. Dithering, which adds suitable random noise to the raw data before quantization, is proved to be capable of compensating image quality decline effectively, even for the extreme binary sampling case. A brief explanation and parameter optimization of dithering are given.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Egzosomni faktor miR-433 regulira izlučivanje upalnih faktora u epitelnim stanicama endometrija mliječnih krava s endometritisom

Endometritis is a common postpartum reproductive system disease, which causes reproductive disorders and even infertility in dairy cows. High-throughput sequencing revealed that exosomal miR-433 is differentially expressed in the peripheral blood of dairy cows with endometritis. However, the specific roles of miR-433 in the occurrence and development of endometritis in dairy cows are still unclear. Therefore, a miR-433-labeled probe was used initially and found that miR-433 is mainly located in uterine cavity epithelial cells and stromal cells. The fluorescence expression of miR-433 in the uterine cavity epithelium and stromal tissues of dairy cows with endometritis is significantly weaker than that in the healthy tissues. The qRT-PCR results showed that the expressions of miR-433 in the uterine tissues of dairy cows with endometritis, LPS stimulated endometrial epithelial cells (EECs), and their derived exosomes were significantly lower than those in the uterine tissues of healthy dairy cows, EECs and their derived exosomes. Exosomal miR-433 derived from EECs transports into neighboring LPS-stimulated EECs by exosome vesicles fusion, regulating the secretion of inflammatory factors within the endometrial epithelium of dairy cows with endometritis, further influencing the development of endometritis. In conclusion, the intensity of miR-433 expression decreased in the epithelial and stromal cells of the uterine lumen and exosomes derived from endometrial epithelium in dairy cows during the occurrence of endometritis, which to some extent promotes the development and progression of endometritis in dairy cows.Endometritis je česta poslijeporođajna bolest reproduktivnog sustava, koja uzrokuje poremećaje, pa čak i neplodnost u mliječnih krava. Sekvenciranje visoke propusnosti otkrilo je da je u perifernoj krvi mliječnih krava s endometritisom egzosomni miR-433 diferencijalno eksprimiran. Još uvijek, međutim, nisu razjašnjene specifične uloge miR-433 u nastanku i razvoju endometritisa u mliječnih krava. S obzirom na to, inicijalno je upotrijebljena sonda označena kao miR-433 te je ustanovljeno da se miR-433 uglavnom nalazi u epitelnim i stromalnim stanicama maternične šupljine. Ekspresija miR-433 dobivena metodom fluorescencije iz epitela i stromalnog tkiva maternične šupljine mliječnih krava s endometritisom znakovito je manja nego u zdravim tkivima. Rezultati dobiveni qRT-PCR-om pokazali su da su ekspresija molekule miR-433 u materničnom tkivu mliječnih krava s endometritisom, endometrijske epitelne stanice (EEC) stimulirane lipopolisaharidom (LPS) i njihovi egzomi bili znakovito niži od onih u materničnom tkivu zdravih mliječnih krava. Egzosomni miR-433 dobiven iz EEC-a prevodi se u susjedne EEC-ove stimulirane LPS-om fuzijom egzosomskih vezikula, čime se regulira izlučivanje upalnih čimbenika u epitelu endometrija mliječnih krava s endometritisom, što dodatno utječe na razvoj endometritisa. Zaključno, intenzitet ekspresije miR-433 smanjio se u epitelnim i stromalnim stanicama maternične šupljine i egzomima dobivenim iz epitela endometrija u mliječnih krava s endometritisom, što u određenoj mjeri potiče razvoj i progresiju endometritisa u mliječnih krava

The Impact of Different Herdsmen’s Size on Grassland Ecosystem of Eastern Transect in Tibetan Plateau: A Case Study from Maqu

In order to address grassland degradation, an individual contracting system, or namely, single-household rangeland management, based on Garrett Hardin theory of “tragedy of the commons”, had been conducted in Maqu since 1980s. Despite the support of local government, such a well-intentioned system saw little fruits on managing degradation, encountering extensive frustration due to its poor practical outcomes. Meanwhile, joint-household rangeland management, as an inheritance of locality-based management, has been vigorously pursued and has played an important role on Maqu’s grassland management system. In order to better illustrate the impact of size on managing the grassland ecosystem, an experiment was set up in which different herdsmen’s scales (single household, small-scale, medium-scale, large-scale, oversized-scale) existing in Maqu grassland was conducted. This study was an attempt to provide a groundbreaking management model, thus inspiring the policy-makers to achieve better solutions

Whole-body vibration training for children with neurological disabilities: A meta-analysis

Over the years, the concern over bone health deterioration in children with neurological disabilities (ND) has caught the interest of the research community. As the current traditional exercise methods are considered too challenging for children with ND, it is essential to seek effective rehabilitation programs with minimum difficulties and movement restrictions for children with disabilities, ultimately improving their muscle and bone health. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the potential application of whole-body vibration training (WBVT) as a beneficial and effective approach to improving bone mineral density (BMD), total body bone mineral content (BMC), and lean mass in children with ND. The impact of WBVT on children with ND was investigated using a systematic review and meta-analysis approach following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). A database search was conducted to screen and select previous literature sources published from January 2002 to July 2022 from EBSCO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Following the quality assessment (PEDro scale and NIH scale) and sensitivity analysis, the standardized mean difference (SMD) was conducted using the STATA 15.1 software with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42022343789). Eight studies (four randomized controlled trial [RCT] and four non-RCT studies) were selected, which involved 184 male and 130 female participants. Based on the PEDro scale, all RCT studies were classified as high methodological quality, while the NIH scale rated all non-RCT papers as “Good”. In addition, the meta-analysis results indicated that WBVT substantially enhanced femur BMD [(p<.01, z = 3.37), SMD (95% CI) = 0.47 (0.20, 0.74)], lumbar spine BMD [(p=.02, z = 2.32), SMD (95% CI) = 0.32 (0.05, 0.58)], total body BMC [(p<.01, z = 3.42), SMD (95% CI) = 0.29 (0.12, 0.46)] and lean mass [(p<.01, z = 2.80), SMD (95% CI) = 0.25 (0.07, 0.42)] of children with ND. However, the effect of WBVT was insignificant on the total body BMD of children with ND [(p=.22, z = 1.24), SMD (95% CI) = 0.14 (-0.08, 0.37)]. The meta-analysis demonstrated the significant effect of WBVT on the femur BMD, lumbar spine BMD, total body BMC, and lean mass in children with ND. Hence, WBVT can be suggested as a complementary treatment prescription for children with ND

RF-Transformer: A Unified Backscatter Radio Hardware Abstraction

This paper presents RF-Transformer, a unified backscatter radio hardware abstraction that allows a low-power IoT device to directly communicate with heterogeneous wireless receivers at the minimum power consumption. Unlike existing backscatter systems that are tailored to a specific wireless communication protocol, RF-Transformer provides a programmable interface to the micro-controller, allowing IoT devices to synthesize different types of protocol-compliant backscatter signals sharing radically different PHY-layer designs. To show the efficacy of our design, we implement a PCB prototype of RF-Transformer on 2.4 GHz ISM band and showcase its capability on generating standard ZigBee, Bluetooth, LoRa, and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac packets. Our extensive field studies show that RF-Transformer achieves 23.8 Mbps, 247.1 Kbps, 986.5 Kbps, and 27.3 Kbps throughput when generating standard Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, and LoRa signals while consuming 7.6-74.2 less power than their active counterparts. Our ASIC simulation based on the 65-nm CMOS process shows that the power gain of RF-Transformer can further grow to 92-678. We further integrate RF-Transformer with pressure sensors and present a case study on detecting foot traffic density in hallways. Our 7-day case studies demonstrate RFTransformer can reliably transmit sensor data to a commodity gateway by synthesizing LoRa packets on top of Wi-Fi signals. Our experimental results also verify the compatibility of RF-Transformer with commodity receivers. Code and hardware schematics can be found at: https://github.com/LeFsCC/RF-Transformer

Saiyan: Design and Implementation of a Low-power Demodulator for LoRa Backscatter Systems

The radio range of backscatter systems continues growing as new wireless communication primitives are continuously invented. Nevertheless, both the bit error rate and the packet loss rate of backscatter signals increase rapidly with the radio range, thereby necessitating the cooperation between the access point and the backscatter tags through a feedback loop. Unfortunately, the low-power nature of backscatter tags limits their ability to demodulate feedback signals from a remote access point and scales down to such circumstances. This paper presents Saiyan, an ultra-low-power demodulator for long-range LoRa backscatter systems. With Saiyan, a backscatter tag can demodulate feedback signals from a remote access point with moderate power consumption and then perform an immediate packet retransmission in the presence of packet loss. Moreover, Saiyan enables rate adaption and channel hopping-two PHY-layer operations that are important to channel efficiency yet unavailable on long-range backscatter systems. We prototype Saiyan on a two-layer PCB board and evaluate its performance in different environments. Results show that Saiyan achieves 5 gain on the demodulation range, compared with state-of-the-art systems. Our ASIC simulation shows that the power consumption of Saiyan is around 93.2 uW. Code and hardware schematics can be found at: https://github.com/ZangJac/Saiyan

Efficient Ambient LoRa Backscatter with On-Off Keying Modulation

Backscatter communication holds potential for ubiquitous and low-cost connectivity among low-power IoT devices. To avoid interference between the carrier signal and the backscatter signal, recent works propose a frequency-shifting technique to separate these two signals in the frequency domain. Such proposals, however, have to occupy the precious wireless spectrum that is already overcrowded, and increase the power, cost, and complexity of the backscatter tag. In this paper, we revisit the classic ON-OFF Keying (OOK) modulation and propose Aloba, a backscatter system that takes the ambient LoRa transmissions as the excitation and piggybacks the in-band OOK modulated signals over the LoRa transmissions. Our design enables the backsactter signal to work in the same frequency band of the carrier signal, meanwhile achieving flexible data rate at different transmission range. The key contributions of Aloba include: (1) the design of a low-power backscatter tag that can pick up the ambient LoRa signals from other signals. (2) a novel decoding algorithm to demodulate both the carrier signal and the backscatter signal from their superposition. We further adopt link coding mechanism and interleave operation to enhance the reliability of backscatter signal decoding. We implement Aloba and conduct head-to-head comparison with the state-of-the-art LoRa backscatter system PLoRa in various settings. The experiment results show Aloba can achieve 199.4 Kbps data rate at various distances, 52.4 times higher than PLoRa