Consensus and Platooning in Multiagent Networks

First, a distributed algorithm to accelerate the convergence of a class of linear time-invariant consensus-based distributed algorithms is proposed. Then, it is proven that, given a convergent distributed algorithm, the acceleration algorithm can ensure convergence and consensus. Also, the parameter that can ensure the largest possible convergence speed was determined. Furthermore, it is shown that some constraints on the equilibrium state of the original algorithms also apply to the equilibrium state of the acceleration algorithm. Finally, some examples are presented to validate the effectiveness of the acceleration algorithm. A method that allows obtaining convergence value within a finite amount of time is also discussed. Then, this paper studies the longitudinal string stability of two cooperative adaptive cruise-control(CACC) equipped 2-vehicle platoons implementing different inter-platoon communication topologies. CACC utilizes wireless communication between vehicles to improve the performance of the tested and commercialized adaptive cruise control(ACC). Due to 2-vehicle CACC platoon being well studied and tested, inter-platoon communication is used to connect multiple 2-vehicle platoons and therefore accommodate more vehicles to form a larger platoon for better energy saving. Frequency domain approach is used to carry out string stability analysis. A general form of feedforward filter was derived and different inter-platoon communication topologies are analytically proven to be string stable under delay-free environment. The minimum headway time of each communication topology is then presented to show the effect of communication structure and delay on string stability

Contraceptive practices and induced abortions status among internal migrant women in Guangzhou, China: a cross-sectional study

Background: China is facing the unprecedented challenges of internal migration. Migrants tend to have poorer utilization of health and family planning services as compared to the local residents. Migrant women are at greater risk of induced abortions due to their poor contraceptive knowledge and attitude. This study aims to understand the contraceptive practices and history of induced abortions, explore the potential factors influencing induced abortions, and evaluate the utilization of family planning services among migrant women in Guangzhou, China. Methods: An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted with 1003 migrant women aged 18-49 in Guangzhou, China in 2013. A multi-stage sampling method was employed. Binary logistic regression model was used for analyzing risk factors of induced abortions. Results: Among the 1003 participants, 810 (80.8 %) reported having sex in the past 6 months, including 715 (88.3 %) married and 95 (11.7 %) unmarried. The most reported contraceptive method was male condom (44.9 %), while 8.1 % never used any contraceptive methods. Only 10.4 % reported having attained free condoms from family planning service stations (FPSSs) and 39.3 % reported having acquired contraceptive knowledge from family planning workers. Of all the participants, 417 (41.6 %) had a history of induced abortion. Of married and unmarried women, 389 (49.1 %) and 28 (14.0 %) had induced abortion respectively. Of these, 152 (36.5 %) had repeated abortions. The most reported reason for having induced abortion was failure of contraception (31.9 %), followed by nonuse of any contraceptives (21.1 %). Migrants who had induced abortion tended to be older, have household registration outside Guangdong province, receive no annual health checkup, have lower education, have urban household registration, have lived longer in Guangzhou and have children (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The prevalence rate of induced abortion, especially repeated abortions among migrant women was high in Guangzhou, China. There is an urgent need to improve the awareness of regular and appropriate use of contraceptives. The utilization of FPSSs among migrant women was reportedly low. Family planning system should be improved to provide better access for migrants and better integrated with the general health services. 2015 Zeng et al.This paper outlines some of the findings from a QAA (Scotland) funded project exploring first year curriculum design (Bovill et al. 2008). Whilst many examples exist of curricula being designed in ways to engage first year students, there are fewer published examples of active student participation in curriculum design processes. In the current higher education context where student engagement in learning is emphasised (Carini et al,2006), this paper asks more generally whether students should be actively participating in curriculum design.In order to answer this question, several elements of the project findings are explored: student views gathered in focus groups; staff views collected in workshops; and the case studies where students were actively involved in curriculum design. The data are examined for lessons that inform the debate about whether students should be participating in curriculum design, in first year and at other levels. Alongside these findings, relevant literature is critiqued in order to ascertain the desirability and feasibility of adopting curriculum design approaches that offer opportunities for active student participation.sch_iih15pub3989pub55

A novel prediction method for protein DNA-binding residues based on neighboring residue correlations

AbstractAccurately identifying the protein DNA-binding residues is important for understanding the protein–DNA recognition mechanism and protein function annotation. Many computational methods have been proposed to predict protein–DNA binding residues using protein sequence information; however, for severe imbalanced data like the protein–DNA binding dataset, the under-sampling technique which is applied by most previous methods cannot achieve satisfactory performance. In this study, an adjustment algorithm is proposed to offset the biased prediction results from the classifier. The proposed adjustment algorithm uses the binding probability between the target residue and its neighboring residues to identify more true binding residues which are wrongly predicted as non-binding. The proposed prediction method with adjustment algorithm achieves an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.926 and 0.866 on two benchmark datasets and 0.882 on the independent testing set, which demonstrates that the proposed method can efficiently predict specific residues for protein–DNA interactions

An Imbalanced Data Classification Algorithm of De-noising Auto-Encoder Neural Network Based on SMOTE

Imbalanced data classification problem has always been one of the hot issues in the field of machine learning. Synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE) is a classical approach to balance datasets, but it may give rise to such problem as noise. Stacked De-noising Auto-Encoder neural network (SDAE), can effectively reduce data redundancy and noise through unsupervised layer-wise greedy learning. Aiming at the shortcomings of SMOTE algorithm when synthesizing new minority class samples, the paper proposed a Stacked De-noising Auto-Encoder neural network algorithm based on SMOTE, SMOTE-SDAE, which is aimed to deal with imbalanced data classification. The proposed algorithm is not only able to synthesize new minority class samples, but it also can de-noise and classify the sampled data. Experimental results show that compared with traditional algorithms, SMOTE-SDAE significantly improves the minority class classification accuracy of the imbalanced datasets

Evaluation of Fengyun-4A Detection Accuracy: A Case Study of the Land Surface Temperature Product for Hunan Province, Central China

Land surface temperature (LST) is an important parameter in determining surface energy balance and a fundamental variable detected by the advanced geostationary radiation imager (AGRI), the main payload of FY-4A. FY-4A is the first of a new generation of Chinese geostationary satellites, and the detection product of the satellite has not been extensively validated. Therefore, it is important to conduct a comprehensive assessment of this product. In this study, the performance of the FY-4A LST product in the Hunan Province was authenticity tested with in situ measurements, triple collocation analyzed with reanalysis products, and impact analyzed with environmental factors. The results confirm that FY-4A captures LST well (R = 0.893, Rho = 0.915), but there is a general underestimation (Bias = −0.6295 °C) and relatively high random error (RMSE = 8.588 °C, ubRMSE = 5.842 °C). In terms of accuracy, FY-4A LST is more accurate for central-eastern, northern, and south-central Hunan Province and less accurate for western and southern mountainous areas and Dongting Lake. FY-4A LST is not as accurate as Himawari-8 LST; its accuracy also varies seasonally and between day and night. The accuracy of FY-4A LST decreases as elevation, in situ measured LST, surface heterogeneity, topographic relief, slope, or NDVI increase and as soil moisture decreases. FY-4A LST is also more accurate when the land cover is cultivated land or artificial surfaces or when the landform is a platform for other land covers and landforms. The conclusions drawn from the comprehensive analysis of the large quantity of data are generalizable and provide a quantitative baseline for assessing the detection capability of the FY-4A satellite, a reference for determining improvement in the retrieval algorithm, and a foundation for the development and application of future domestic satellite products

Time-Course Transcriptome and Phytohormonal Analysis of Blue-Light-Induced Adventitious Root Development of Tea Cuttings (<i>Camellia sinensis</i> (L.) Kuntze)

C. sinensis is an economically important crop for tea production that experiences increasing demand and good export potential. Therefore, crops need to be expanded, and high-quality planting material is required. Vegetative propagation by cuttings is the prevalent method; therefore, this paper explored its optimization potential modeled on cultivar ‘Jiukengzao’. This study wanted to deeply explore blue-light-induced adventitious root formation and development of tea cuttings, so we conducted short-term (0 h, 8 h, and 16 h) and long-term (30 d, 60 d, and 90 d) time-course analyses on tea cutting seedlings. Short-term, full-length transcriptome analysis showed that the expression of genes related to plant hormone signal transduction and auxin transport was highest at 16 h. Sixteen hours of light was considered as suitable for adventitious root growth and development of tea cuttings. Long-term phytohormone analysis showed that the trend of indole-3-carboxylic acid (ICA) change was: 60 d > 90 d > 30 d. Long-term, full-length transcriptome analysis showed that the gene expression trends in K2, K5, K6, and K8 clusters were: 90 d > 60 d > 30 d, and the opposite was observed in K1, K4, and K11 clusters. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that most of the genes in these seven clusters are involved in “plant hormone signal transduction (ko04075)”. This includes auxin early responsive protein AUX/IAA, auxin response factor ARF, auxin-responsive protein SAUR, etc. In addition, genes related to auxin transport and synthesis were identified as PIN1, 3, 4, PILS2, 6, 7, flavin-containing monooxygenase YUC9, and YUC10, and the expression trend of these genes was mostly consistent with the change trend of ICA content. This study further explained the molecular mechanism of blue-light-induced adventitious root formation and development of tea cuttings. It is recommended that blue light can be used to promote the adventitious root growth and development of tea cuttings in practical production

Effects of Shading Nets on Reactive Oxygen Species Accumulation, Photosynthetic Changes, and Associated Physiochemical Attributes in Promoting Cold-Induced Damage in <i>Camellia sinensis</i> (L.) Kuntze

Climate change and extreme weather affect tea growing. A competitive tea market needs quick, short-term solutions. This study evaluates the effects of various shade nets under mild and extreme cold stress on tea leaf physiology, photosynthetic alterations, antioxidant activities, and physiochemical characteristics. Tea plants were treated with SD0 (0% non-shading), SD1 (30% shading), SD2 (60% shading), and SD3 (75% shading). The 30%, 60%, and 75% shade nets shielded tea leaves from cold damage and reduced leaf injury during mild and extreme cold conditions compared with SD0% non-shading. Shading regulates photochemical capacity and efficiency and optimizes chlorophyll a and b, chlorophyll, and carotenoid contents. Moreover, carbon and nitrogen increased during mild cold and decreased in extreme cold conditions. Shading promoted antioxidant activity and physiochemical attributes. In fact, under 60% of shade, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and ω-3 alpha-linolenic acid were improved compared with SD0% non-shading during both mild and extreme cold conditions. From these findings, we hypothesized that the effect of different shades played an important role in the protection of tea leaves and alleviated the defense mechanism for “Zhong Cha 102” during exposure to a cold environment

Effects of Shading Nets on Reactive Oxygen Species Accumulation, Photosynthetic Changes, and Associated Physiochemical Attributes in Promoting Cold-Induced Damage in Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze

Climate change and extreme weather affect tea growing. A competitive tea market needs quick, short-term solutions. This study evaluates the effects of various shade nets under mild and extreme cold stress on tea leaf physiology, photosynthetic alterations, antioxidant activities, and physiochemical characteristics. Tea plants were treated with SD0 (0% non-shading), SD1 (30% shading), SD2 (60% shading), and SD3 (75% shading). The 30%, 60%, and 75% shade nets shielded tea leaves from cold damage and reduced leaf injury during mild and extreme cold conditions compared with SD0% non-shading. Shading regulates photochemical capacity and efficiency and optimizes chlorophyll a and b, chlorophyll, and carotenoid contents. Moreover, carbon and nitrogen increased during mild cold and decreased in extreme cold conditions. Shading promoted antioxidant activity and physiochemical attributes. In fact, under 60% of shade, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and &omega;-3 alpha-linolenic acid were improved compared with SD0% non-shading during both mild and extreme cold conditions. From these findings, we hypothesized that the effect of different shades played an important role in the protection of tea leaves and alleviated the defense mechanism for &ldquo;Zhong Cha 102&rdquo; during exposure to a cold environment

MicroRNA-140 Inhibits the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer

MicroRNA-140, a cartilage-specific microRNA, has recently been implicated in the cancer progression. However, the comprehensive role of miR-140 in the invasion and metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC) is still not fully understood. In this study, we confirmed that miR-140 downregulates SMAD family member 3 (Smad3), which is a key downstream effector of the TGF-β signaling pathway, at the translational level in the CRC cell lines. Ectopic expression of miR-140 inhibits the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), at least partially through targeting Smad3, and induces the suppression of migratory and invasive capacities of CRC cells in vitro. miR-140 also attenuates CRC cell proliferation possibly via downregulating Samd3. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-140 inhibits the tumor formation and metastasis of CRC in vivo, and silenced Smad3 has the similar effect. Additionally, miR-140 expression is decreased in the clinical primary CRC specimens and appears as a progressive reduction in the metastatic specimens, whereas Smad3 is overexpressed in the CRC samples. Taken together, our findings suggest that miR-140 might be a key suppressor of CRC progression and metastasis through inhibiting EMT process by targeting Smad3. miR-140 may represent a novel candidate for CRC treatment