Partial entropy in finite-temperature phase transitions

It is shown that the von Neumann entropy, a measure of quantum entanglement, does have its classical counterpart in thermodynamic systems, which we call partial entropy. Close to the critical temperature the partial entropy shows perfect finite-size scaling behavior even for quite small system sizes. This provides a powerful tool to quantify finite-temperature phase transitions as demonstrated on the classical Ising model on a square lattice and the ferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a cubic lattice.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Revised versio

Naringenin Modifies the Development of Lineage-Specific Effector CD4+ T Cells

Disrupted balance in the lineages of CD4+ T cell subsets, including pro-inflammatory T helper (Th) cells and anti-inflammatory regulatory T cells (Treg), is a primary pathogenic factor for developing autoimmunity. We have found that this immunomodulatory effect of naringenin on effector T cells and T-cell mediated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). We therefore explored the effects of naringenin on the development of different effector CD4+ T cells. Naïve CD4+ T cells were differentiated under respective Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg polarizing conditions with naringenin. Percent populations of each differentiated CD4+ T cell subsets were determined and the corresponding regulating pathways were investigated as underlying mechanisms. Naringenin mainly inhibited CD4+ T cell proliferation and differentiation to Th1 and Th17, but did not affect Th2 cells. Impeded Th1 polarization was associated with inhibition of its specific regulator proteins T-bet, p-STAT1, and p-STAT4 by naringenin. Likewise, Th17 regulator proteins RORγt, p-STAT3, and Ac-STAT3 were also inhibited by naringenin. In addition, naringenin promoted Treg polarization and also prevented IL-6-induced suppression of Treg development via down-regulation of p-Smad2/3 as well as inhibition of IL-6 signaling, and the latter was further supported by the in vivo results showing lower soluble IL-6R but higher soluble gp130 levels in plasma of naringenin-fed compared to the control EAE mice. Naringenin impacts CD4+ T cell differentiation in a manner that would explain its beneficial effect in preventing/mitigating T cell-mediated autoimmunity

Effects of Resveratrol on Superficial Scald of 'Dangshansuli' Pears

The effects of resveratrol (Res) on the quality and superficial scald of ‘Dangshansuli’ pears (Pyrus bretchnederi Rehd.) during cold storage (0±0.5°C) and shelf life (20°C) were investigated. The results showed that treatments with 0.1, 1.0, 10 and 100 mg L-1 Res significantly delayed the decrease of firmness, soluble solids contents (SSC), juice rate, reduced the relative conductivity, MDA, α-farnesene and conjugated trienes in the cold storage. At the end of 210 d storage, α-farnesene of control, 0.1, 1.0, 10 and 100 mg L-1 Res treatments were 14.81, 11.0, 10.49, 9.31 and 11.4 nmol cm-2, respectively. Whereas conjugated trienes were 6.38, 4.17, 4.04, 3.67 and 4.39 nmol cm-2 respectively. After 210 d, the scald incidence of control, 0.1, 1.0, 10 and 100 mg L-1 Res treatment were 45.5%, 4.3%, 0%, 0% and 7.1%, respectively, and their scald index were 18.2%, 2.9%, 0%, 0% and 3.1%, respectively. After additional 7 d at 20°C, scald incidence successively were 100%, 21.4%, 22.4%, 14.1% and 20.9%, while the scald index were 71.2%, 23.3%, 22.9%, 15.4% and 22.8%, respectively. Res treatments maintained the quality and inhibited superficial scald, and 10 mg L-1 Res was the optimum treatment. Thus, it is likely that Res can serve as a potential antioxidant for the preservation and storage of postharvest ‘Dangshansuli’ pears

UAV-Enabled 3D Indoor Positioning and Navigation Based on VLC

International audienceThe 3D indoor positioning and indoor navigation (IPIN) system is of great significance for promoting and ex- panding indoor intelligent services and applications. The rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has provided new opportunities in this field. However, in contrast to their outdoor applications, IPIN for UAVs is more challenging since the Global Positioning System (GPS) is in general inaccessible in indoor environments. In this work, we propose a UAV-enabled 3D IPIN system based on visible light communication (VLC). Firstly, a novel VLC-based indoor positioning scheme is developed using a fusion algorithm based on the dynamic time warping (DTW) method with visible light intensity sequence (VLIS) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) data. To reduce the workload of fingerprint measurements, we propose to modularize a floor site using a standard symmetric structure for VLC positioning. In this manner, the navigation can be achieved by recognizing the edge of each module. Furthermore, since the sampling frequency of IMU is much higher than that of VLIS, discrete Kalman filter (KF) is introduced to correct the location measured by IMU when VLIS is unavailable. A proof-of-concept IPIN prototype is constructed. Field experiments confirm the effectiveness of our proposed IPIN system

Local status history based interpolation algorithm for networked racing game

This thesis addresses the problems of un-smooth vehicle movement and inconsistent views of the virtual world in network based racing games caused by network latency and bandwidth limitation. These problems significantly affect game experience of the players. We propose two methods to provide smooth vehicle movement without losing much consistency under most network conditions. The first method is called Local Status History Based Interpolation Algorithm (LSHBIA). To predict and interpolate the future movement of another player’s vehicle over the network, the LSHBIA uses the local status history of that vehicle in addition to the received update information from the network. The method can provide smooth vehicle movement in network based racing game, under good network conditions where the latency is less than 600ms for most of the time. However, under bad network conditions where the latency often exceeds 600ms, LSHBIA cannot maintain the smoothness of vehicle movement well. Another method, AI enhanced LSHBIA, is then proposed. The method uses AI techniques to control the movement of other players’ vehicles when the latency is greater than 600ms. Otherwise it will use the same approach in LSHBIA to handle the movement of vehicles. The method can still provide players with smooth vehicle movement in their network based racing games even when the network condition is bad.MASTER OF ENGINEERING (SCE

Hybrid system analysis and design for scale-out storage environments

Data center storage architectures face rapidly increasing data volume and Quality of Service (QoS) expectation today. Hybrid storage systems have turned out to be one of the most democratic choices in fulfilling these requirements. A mixture of various types of storage devices and structures enables architects to address performance and capacity concerns of users within one storage infrastructure. There are lots of architectures, such as tiered storage and caching storage, etc. and policies, such as caching policy and replacement policy, etc. in a hybrid storage system. It is difficult to employ a general mathematical model to capture all the features of the storage architectures. Therefore, simulation is necessary to analyze the system performance and guide the system design. In a hybrid storage system, in addition to the performance requirement, the storage capacity provided is equally important. Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) is one of the techniques to enlarge the storage capacity with minimally increased cost. The batch process is applied to improve the SMR drive performance. The selection of different system parameters and policies affects the system performance and capacity efficiency. Thus, an analytical model is developed based on queuing model to study the SMR drive performance. Simulation is further conducted to validate the model and check the performance impacts of various drive parameters. In an SMR drive, due to its append-only write property, the data update is routinely handled through a log-structured manner, which makes the original data become invalid and dirty. Various types of Garbage Collection (GC) methods are therefore introduced to clean the dirty data and thus release the disk space. However, the necessity of GC process performed remains an issue, as the process may increase the energy consumption and downgrade the performance. Thus, an analytical model and a simulator are built to study the decision of the GC process under various kinds of workload environments and system settings for overall power consumption reduction and disk space saving. Based on the performance analysis of individual devices, the system level perfor- mance of the hybrid storage system can be studied. A flexible hybrid storage system simulator is designed and developed to simulate various kinds of hybrid storage ar- chitectures, including Solid State Drive (SSD) tiering method, SSD caching method and SSD hybrid method, various caching policies, such as read-only and write-back, and various hot data identification and data migration policies. The performances of these architectures and algorithms are evaluated and compared under different types of workload environments. The comparison results can be utilized as the benchmark for analyzing other types of hybrid storage systems, which are the extension of these basic storage architectures. Note that the conventional hybrid storage systems do not fully utilize the sequential access properties and the non-limited write cycles of Hard Disk Drive (HDD). An innovative approach is proposed to configure HDDs and SSDs in a hybrid structure such that the advantages of both sides can be fully utilized, i.e., the fast IO access of SSD (in particular for random access) and the non-limitation of write cycles of HDD. By carefully designing the disk data stripes, the (sequential) performance requirement for HDDs and SDDs can be matched to a certain degree. Therefore, they can be placed in the same array/pool without considering the high/low tiers or fast/slow cache. In a hybrid storage system, the caching policies, such as hot/cold identification and data migration, play a critical role in system performance. In particular, the migration size is one of the key factors. Fixed size of data migration typically cannot provide good performance when the workload properties change significantly and frequently. We design a hybrid caching algorithm based on the fuzzy control and decision tree which can adaptively adjust the data migration policies according to the workload properties. The fuzzy rules can be automatically generated through the training results of the decision tree classification and regression algorithms.Doctor of Philosoph

Hybrid storage systems : a survey of architectures and algorithms

Data center storage architectures face rapidly increasing demands for data volume and quality of service requirements today. Hybrid storage systems have turned out to be the one of the most popular choices in fulfilling these demands. A mixture of various types of storage devices and structures enables architects to address performance and capacity concerns of users within one storage infrastructure. In this paper, we present an extensive literature review on the state-of-the-art research for hybrid storage systems. First, different types of hybrid storage architectures are explored and categorized thoroughly. Second, the corresponding algorithms and policies, such as caching, scheduling, resource allocation and so on, are discussed profoundly. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of these hybrid storage architectures are compared and analyzed intensively, in terms of system performance, solid state drive lifespan, energy consumption, and so on, in order to motivate some future research directions.Published versio

Green tea EGCG inhibits naïve CD4+ T cell division and progression in mice: An integration of network pharmacology, molecular docking and experimental validation

Dietary green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) could attenuate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis via the modification of the balance of CD4+ T helper (Th) cells. Moreover, EGCG administration in vitro has a direct impact on the regulatory cytokines and differentiation of CD4+ T cells. Here, we aim to determine whether EGCG directly affects the cell division and progression in naive CD4+ T cells. We first investigate the effect of EGCG on naïve CD4+ T cell division and progression in vitro. An integrated analysis of network pharmacology and molecular docking was utilized to further identify the targets of EGCG for T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases and multiple sclerosis (MS). EGCG treatment prevented naïve CD4+ T cells from progressing through the cell cycle when stimulated with anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies. This was achieved by increasing the proportion of cells arrested in the G0/G1 phase by 8.6% and reducing DNA synthesis activity by 51% in the S phase. Furthermore, EGCG treatment inhibited the expression of cyclins (cyclin D1, cyclin D3, cyclin A, and cyclin B1) and CDKs (CDK2 and CDK6) during naïve CD4+ T cell activation in response to anti-CD3/CD28 stimulation. However, EGCG inhibited the decrease of P27Kip1 (CDKN1B) during naïve CD4+ T cell activation, whereas it inhibited the increase of P21Cip1 (CDKN1A) expression 48 h after mitogenic stimulation. The molecular docking analysis confirmed that these proteins (CD4, CCND1, and CDKN1A) are the primary targets for EGCG, T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, and MS. Finally, target enrichment analysis indicated that EGCG may affect the cell cycle, T cell receptor signaling pathway, Th cell differentiation, and NF-κB signaling pathway. These findings reveal a crucial role of EGCG in the division and progression of CD4+ T cells, and underscore other potential targets of EGCG in T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases such as MS