Developing a Modern Infrastructure for Open Distance Education in China: The Implementation of the NCEC Project

The NCEC project was a joint venture between China and Europe to deliver Internet-based distance education in China. The project was proposed in 1995, sponsored by the European Union since 1998, and finally completed in 2002. This paper shows how the NCEC project was planned and developed, and the importance of its role in the history of Internet application development in China

Affordance-Driven Next-Best-View Planning for Robotic Grasping

Grasping occluded objects in cluttered environments is an essential component in complex robotic manipulation tasks. In this paper, we introduce an AffordanCE-driven Next-Best-View planning policy (ACE-NBV) that tries to find a feasible grasp for target object via continuously observing scenes from new viewpoints. This policy is motivated by the observation that the grasp affordances of an occluded object can be better-measured under the view when the view-direction are the same as the grasp view. Specifically, our method leverages the paradigm of novel view imagery to predict the grasps affordances under previously unobserved view, and select next observation view based on the highest imagined grasp quality of the target object. The experimental results in simulation and on a real robot demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed affordance-driven next-best-view planning policy. Project page: https://sszxc.net/ace-nbv/.Comment: Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) 202

Diversity and selective sweep in the OsAMT1;1 genomic region of rice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ammonium is one of the major forms in which nitrogen is available for plant growth. <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>is a high-affinity ammonium transporter in rice (<it>Oryza sativa </it>L.), responsible for ammonium uptake at low nitrogen concentration. The expression pattern of the gene has been reported. However, variations in its nucleotides and the evolutionary pathway of its descent from wild progenitors are yet to be elucidated. In this study, nucleotide diversity of the gene <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>and the diversity pattern of seven gene fragments spanning a genomic region approximately 150 kb long surrounding the gene were surveyed by sequencing a panel of 216 rice accessions including both cultivated rice and wild relatives.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nucleotide polymorphism (Pi) of <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>was as low as 0.00004 in cultivated rice (<it>Oryza sativa</it>), only 2.3% of that in the common wild rice (<it>O. rufipogon</it>). A single dominant haplotype was fixed at the locus in <it>O. sativa</it>. The test values for neutrality were significantly negative in the entire region stretching 5' upstream and 3' downstream of the gene in all accessions. The value of linkage disequilibrium remained high across a 100 kb genomic region around <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>in <it>O. sativa</it>, but fell rapidly in <it>O. rufipogon </it>on either side of the promoter of <it>OsAMT1;1</it>, demonstrating a strong natural selection within or nearby the ammonium transporter.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The severe reduction in nucleotide variation at <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>in rice was caused by a selective sweep around <it>OsAMT1;1</it>, which may reflect the nitrogen uptake system under strong selection by the paddy soil during the domestication of rice. Purifying selection also occurred before the wild rice diverged into its two subspecies, namely <it>indica </it>and <it>japonica</it>. These findings would provide useful insights into the processes of evolution and domestication of nitrogen uptake genes in rice.</p

A Boosting-based Framework for Self-similar and Non-linear

Abstract. Internet traffic prediction plays a fundamental role in network design, management, control, and optimization. The self-similar and non-linear nature of network traffic makes highly accurate prediction difficult. In this paper, a boosting-based framework is proposed for self-similar and non-linear traffic prediction by considering it as a classical regression problem. The framework is based on Ada-Boost on the whole. It adopts Principle Component Analysis as an optional step to take advantage of self-similar nature of traffic while avoiding the disadvantage of self-similarity. Feed-forward neural network is used as the basic regressor to capture the non-linear relationship within the traffic. Experimental results on real network traffic validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

How does humble leadership influence employee improvisation? A motivational perspective

Abstract In the era of variability, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, organizations must improvise to deal with emergencies. Drawing on the proactive motivation model, we explored the connection between humble leadership and employees’ improvisation, and its mechanism and boundary conditions. The participants were sourced from various enterprises located in Shanghai, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Hainan, and other regions. Through a scenario-based simulation experiment (N = 91) and a questionnaire survey (N = 217), we derived five key findings. First, humble leadership positively affects employee improvisation. Employees’ positive emotions mediated the relationship, while both positive employee emotions and leader–member exchanges play a chain-mediating role. Moreover, power distance orientation negatively moderates the promotion effect. Finally, the indirect effect of humble leadership on improvisation via positive employee emotion is stronger for employees with low power distance orientations. Our study primarily focuses on individual-level improvisation, which enriches the knowledge of the connection between leadership style and improvised behaviors while also expanding upon the proactive motivation model framework. Additionally, practical insights are provided for promoting improvisation

Association between gut microbiota and malignant cardiac tumors: A two‐sample Mendelian randomization study

Abstract Background Recent studies provide compelling evidence linking the gut microbiota to most cancers. Nevertheless, further research is required to establish a definitive causal relationship between the gut microbiota and malignant cardiac tumors. Methods The genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) data on the human gut Microbiota, included in the IEU Open GWAS project, was initially collected by the MiBioGen consortium. It encompasses 14,306 individuals and comprises a total of 5,665,279 SNPs. Similarly, the GWAS data on malignant cardiac tumors, also sourced from the IEU Open GWAS project, was initially stored in the finnGen database, including 16,380,303 SNPs observed within a cohort of 174,108 individuals within the European population. Utilizing a two‐sample Mendelian randomization (MR) methodology, we examined whether there exists a causal association between the gut microbiota and cardiac tumors. Additionally, to bolster the credibility and robustness of the identified causal relationships, we conducted an extensive array of sensitivity analyses, encompassing Cochran's Q test, MR‐PRESSO tests, MR‐Egger interpret test, directionality test and leave‐one‐out analysis. Results Our analysis unveiled seven distinct causal associations between genetic susceptibility in the gut microbiota and the incidence of malignant cardiac tumors. Among these, the Family Rikenellaceae, genus Eubacterium brachy group, and genus Ruminococcaceae UCG009 exhibited an elevated risk of cardiac tumors, while the phylum Verrucomicrobia, genus Lactobacillus, genus Ruminiclostridium5, and an unknown genus id.1868 were genetically linked to a reduced risk of cardiac tumors. The causal relationship between these two bacteria, belonging to the phylum Verrucomicrobia (OR = 0.178, 95% CI: 0.052–0.614, p = 0.006) and the genus Ruminococcaceae UCG009 (OR = 3.071, 95% CI: 1.236–7.627, p = 0.016), and cardiac tumors was further validated through sensitivity analyses, reinforcing the robustness and reliability of the observed associations. Conclusion Our MR analysis confirms that the phylum Verrucomicrobia displays significant protection against cardiac tumor, and the genus Ruminococcaceae UCG009 leads to an increasing risk of cardiac tumor

Network-Training Collaboration in Europe and China (NCEC) - Issues and Promises

This paper presents Network-Training Collaboration in Europe and China (NCEC), a joint project between two European and four Chinese institutions aiming at designing and developing network-based course production, delivery and presentation systems for China. Sponsored by the European Union, the NCEC project is designated to provide on-line collaborative teaching and learning facilities in both Chinese and English on CERNET and ChinaNET, the two major China Internet networks. The paper addresses the major managerial and technical issues in the NCEC development processes and system operations of project management, related projects, Chinese information processing, course supply and tutoring, etc. The NCEC is expected to benefit both China and Europe in many ways

Anomaly Internet Network Traffic Detection by Kernel Principle Component Classifier

As a crucial issue in computer network security, anomaly detection is receiving more and more attention from both application and theoretical point of view. In this paper, a novel anomaly detection scheme is proposed. It can detect anomaly network traffic which has extreme large value on some original feature by the major component, or does not follow the correlation structure of normal traffic by the minor component. By introducing kernel trick, the nonlinearity of network traffic can be well addressed. To save the processing time, a simplified version is also proposed, where only major component is adopted. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme