Wireless Power Transfer for High-precision Position Detection of Railroad Vehicles

Detection of vehicle position is critical for successful operation of intelligent transportation system. In case of railroad transportation systems, position information of railroad vehicles can be detected by GPS, track circuits, and so on. In this paper, position detection based on tags onto sleepers of the track is investigated. Position information stored in the tags is read by a reader placed at the bottom of running railroad vehicle. Due to limited capacity of battery or its alternative in the tags, power required for transmission of position information to the reader is harvested by the tags from the power wirelessly transferred from the reader. Basic mechanism in wireless power transfer is magnetic induction and power transfer efficiency according to the relative location of the reader to a tag is discussed with simulation results. Since power transfer efficiency is significantly affected by the ferromagnetic material (steel) at the bottom of the railroad vehicle and the track, magnetic beam shaping by ferrite material is carried out. With the ferrite material for magnetic beam shaping, degradation of power transfer efficiency due to the steel is substantially reduced. Based on the experimental results, successful wireless power transfer to the tag coil is possible when transmitted power from the reader coil is close to a few watts.Comment: 2015 IEEE Power, Communication and Information Technology Conference (PCITC) accepted, preprinte

Data Transmission with Reduced Delay for Distributed Acoustic Sensors

This paper proposes a channel access control scheme fit to dense acoustic sensor nodes in a sensor network. In the considered scenario, multiple acoustic sensor nodes within communication range of a cluster head are grouped into clusters. Acoustic sensor nodes in a cluster detect acoustic signals and convert them into electric signals (packets). Detection by acoustic sensors can be executed periodically or randomly and random detection by acoustic sensors is event driven. As a result, each acoustic sensor generates their packets (50bytes each) periodically or randomly over short time intervals (400ms~4seconds) and transmits directly to a cluster head (coordinator node). Our approach proposes to use a slotted carrier sense multiple access. All acoustic sensor nodes in a cluster are allocated to time slots and the number of allocated sensor nodes to each time slot is uniform. All sensor nodes allocated to a time slot listen for packet transmission from the beginning of the time slot for a duration proportional to their priority. The first node that detect the channel to be free for its whole window is allowed to transmit. The order of packet transmissions with the acoustic sensor nodes in the time slot is autonomously adjusted according to the history of packet transmissions in the time slot. In simulations, performances of the proposed scheme are demonstrated by the comparisons with other low rate wireless channel access schemes.Comment: Accepted to IJDSN, final preprinted versio

Change of basis for m-primary ideals in one and two variables

Following recent work by van der Hoeven and Lecerf (ISSAC 2017), we discuss the complexity of linear mappings, called untangling and tangling by those authors, that arise in the context of computations with univariate polynomials. We give a slightly faster tangling algorithm and discuss new applications of these techniques. We show how to extend these ideas to bivariate settings, and use them to give bounds on the arithmetic complexity of certain algebras.Comment: In Proceedings ISSAC'19, ACM, New York, USA. See proceedings version for final formattin

Evaluation of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of three different Rubus coreanus Miq. by-products

Purpose: To investigate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of three different Rubus coreanus Miq. by-products in stimulated BV-2 microglial cells and explore its underlying physiological efficacy.Methods: Cell viability assessment was performed by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to activate BV-2microglia. Total polyphenol and total flavonoid contents were determined by the method of Folin-Denis. As three different Rubus coreanus Miq. by-products remaining after extraction of Rubus coreanus, High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)) finger printing, ABST (2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical scavenging assay, and NO (nitric oxide) inhibitory assay were performed.Results: Three different Rubus coreanus by-product extract did not exhibit any signs of cytotoxicity to BV-2 cells up to 100 μg/ml concentration (p < 0.5). The LPS-activated excessive release of NO in BV-2 cells was significantly inhibited by Rubus coreanus by-product extract (p < 0.5) at 500 μg/mL). Total polyphenol and total flavonoid contents were highest in 50 % ethanol wine processing by-product (p < 0.5 at 30, 50, 70 and 100 %, respectively). The by-product of wine processing had the lowest RC50 radical scavenging effect (16.53 μL/ml). The quercetin content of the wine processing by-product was the highest in the 70% ethanol extract at 6.26 mg/g (p < 0.5 at 30, 50, 70 and 100%, respectively).Conclusion: These results reveal that of the three other by-products, wine processing by-product has the highest antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The use of these by-products has high added value for industrial production; furthermore, they are a potential treatment for various inflammatory diseases

Anti-neuroinflammatory Effects of Ethanol Extract of Inula helenium L (Compositae)

Purpose: To evaluate the in vitro antioxidant and anti- neuroinflammatory activities of Inula helenium extract (IHE) against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced production of nitric oxide (NO) by primary microglial cells.Methods: Cell viability was estimated by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2- yl)-2, 5- diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay. LPS-stimulated BV-2 microglia were used to study the expression and production of inflammatory mediators, including NO, inducible NO synthase (iNOS)and Interukin-6 (IL-6).Results: Pretreatment with IHE prior to LPS treatment significantly inhibited excessive production of NO (p < 0.001 at 20, 40, 80 and 100 μg/mL) in a dose-dependent manner, and was associated with downregulation of expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). IHE also suppressed the LPSinduced increase in IL-6 level (p < 0.01 at 40 and 80 μg/mL) in BV-2 cells. The antioxidant activity exhibited by IHE might play a critical role in ameliorating neuroinflammatory processes in LPSstimulated BV-2 microglial cells.Conclusion: IHE may be beneficial in preventing and treating neurodegenerative and oxidative stressrelated diseases.Keywords: Inula helenium, DPPH, Neurodegenerative diseases, Anti inflammatory, Anti-oxidant, Microglial cel

Saussurea lappa Clarke extract exhibits potent antioxidant effect and attenuates neuroinflammatory responses in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated microglial cells

Purpose: To investigate the antioxidant and anti-neuroinflammatory potential of Saussurea lappa Clarke (SLC-EA) extract in LPS-stimulated BV-2 microglial cells.Methods: Cell viability was measured by using the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay while antioxidant activity was evaluated by using the DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to stimulate BV-2 microglia. Griess assay was employed to assess nitric oxide (NO) production. iNOS (inducible NO synthase) expression and TNF-α (tumor necrosis factor-alpha) cytokine production were measured by ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and immuno blot analysis, respectively.Results: Pretreatment of 100 mg/ml of SLC-EA (p < 0.001) was inhibited Nitric Oxide (NO) by 1 ug/ml of LPS-treated murine BV-2 cells. The expression of iNOS and TNF-α were reduced by SLC-EA concentration dependent manner (p < 0.001 at 100 mg/ml). SLC-EA were scavenged 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals in a dose-dependent manner with an IC50 value of approximately 51.4 μg/ml.Conclusion: The results indicate that SLC-EA extract exhibits strong antioxidant properties and inhibits excessive pro-inflammatory cytokine due probably to the antioxidant phenolic compounds present in SLC-EA extract. Further work in exploring the in-depth mechanisms of SLC-EA extract in regulating inflammatory signaling pathways in treating neuroinflammatory diseases is necessary. Keywords: Saussurea lappa, Antioxidant, Neuroinflammation, Microglia, TNF-α, iNO

Ameliorative effect of Houttuynia cordata Thunb (Saururaceae) leaf extract in loperamide-induced constipation in rats

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of Houttuynia cordata Thunb (Saururaceae) extract against loperamide-induced constipation in Wistar rats. Methods: Constipation was induced by loperamide (3 mg/kg). The rats were orally treated daily with either 40, 80, 160 mg/kg/day of H. cordata extract or 0.25 mg/kg bisacodyl (positive control) for 7 days, while normal control group received water only. Feed and water intake, body weight, number and water content of fecal pellets were monitored throughout the study period. The biochemical marker activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), γ-glutamyltransferase (γ-GT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were determined in the blood of the animals. Results: The water content of fecal pellets and body weight gain of the constipation rats changed significantly (p < 0.05) when compared to the normal control. Serum levels of AST were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the 80 and 160 mg/kg dose groups when compared to normal controls. However, there were no alterations in the levels of γ-GT and LDH across all groups. Conclusion: Treatment of rats with ethanol extract of H. cordata leaf has useful effects against constipation. Therefore, H. cordata leaf may be benefitial as a traditional herbal medicine for the management of constipation