A High-confidence Cyber-Physical Alarm System: Design and Implementation

Most traditional alarm systems cannot address security threats in a satisfactory manner. To alleviate this problem, we developed a high-confidence cyber-physical alarm system (CPAS), a new kind of alarm systems. This system establishes the connection of the Internet (i.e. TCP/IP) through GPRS/CDMA/3G. It achieves mutual communication control among terminal equipments, human machine interfaces and users by using the existing mobile communication network. The CPAS will enable the transformation in alarm mode from traditional one-way alarm to two-way alarm. The system has been successfully applied in practice. The results show that the CPAS could avoid false alarms and satisfy residents' security needs.Comment: IEEE/ACM Internet of Things Symposium (IOTS), in conjunction with GreenCom 2010, IEEE, Hangzhou, China, December 18-20, 201

Design and Implementation of a Wireless Sensor Network for Smart Homes

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become indispensable to the realization of smart homes. The objective of this paper is to develop such a WSN that can be used to construct smart home systems. The focus is on the design and implementation of the wireless sensor node and the coordinator based on ZigBee technology. A monitoring system is built by taking advantage of the GPRS network. To support multi-hop communications, an improved routing algorithm based on the Dijkstra algorithm is presented. Preliminary simulations have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the algorithm.Comment: International Workshop on Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems (MobiCPS 2010), in conjunction with UIC2010, IEEE, Xi'an, China, 26 - 29 October, 201

Aerosolized amphotericin B as prophylaxis for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis: a meta-analysis

SummaryObjectivesInvasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is associated with high mortality in high-risk (immunosuppressed) patients. Many studies have investigated whether prophylactic inhalation of amphotericin B (AMB) reduces the incidence of IPA, but no definitive conclusions have been reached. The present meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy of prophylactic inhalation of AMB for the prevention of IPA.MethodsMEDLINE and other databases were searched for relevant articles published until December 2013. Randomized controlled trials that compared aerosolized AMB with placebo were included. Two reviewers independently assessed and extracted the data of all trials.ResultsSix animal studies and two clinical trials involving 768 high-risk patients were eligible. The animal studies showed lower overall mortality rate among animals that underwent aerosolized AMB prophylaxis (odds ratio (OR) 0.13, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.08–0.21). Similarly, the clinical trials showed a lower incidence of IPA among patients who underwent aerosolized AMB prophylaxis (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.22–0.79).ConclusionsThis analysis provides evidence supporting the notion that the prophylactic use of aerosolized AMB effectively reduces the incidence of IPA among high-risk patients

(3-Carb­oxy-5-sulfonatobenzoato-κ2 O 1,O 1′)bis­[2-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-benzimidazole-κ2 N 2,N 3]zinc(II) monohydrate

In the title compound, [Zn(C8H4O7S)(C12H9N3)2]·H2O, the ZnII atom has a distorted octa­hedral coordination geometry, defined by four N atoms from two 2-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-benzimidazole ligands and two O atoms from a deprotonated carboxyl­ate group of the 3-carb­oxy-5-sulfonatobenzoate ligand. In the crystal structure, the complex mol­ecules are linked into a three-dimensional network by inter­molecular O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, and π–π stacking inter­actions with centroid–centroid separations of 3.758 (2) and 3.597 (1) Å

A simple and efficient method for isolating polymorphic microsatellites from cDNA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Microsatellites in cDNA are useful as molecular markers because they represent transcribed genes and can be used as anchor markers for linkage and comparative mapping, as well as for studying genome evolution. Microsatellites in cDNA can be detected in existing ESTs by data mining. However, in most fish species, no ESTs are available or the number of ESTs is limited, although fishes represent half of the vertebrates on the earth. We developed a simple and efficient method for isolation of microsatellites from cDNA in fish.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The method included normalization of 150 ng cDNA using 0.5 U duplex-specific nuclease (DSN) at 65°C for 30 min, enrichment of microsatellites using biotinylated oligonucleotides and magnetic field, and directional cloning of cDNA into a vector. We tested this method to enrich CA- and GA-microsatellites from cDNA of Asian seabass, and demonstrated that enrichment of microsatellites from normalized cDNA could increased the efficiency of microsatellite isolation over 30 times as compared to direct sequencing of clones from cDNA libraries. One hundred and thirty-nine (36.2%) out of 384 clones from normalized cDNA contained microsatellites. Unique microsatellite sequences accounted for 23.6% (91/384) of sequenced clones. Sixty microsatellites isolated from cDNA were characterized, and 41 were polymorphic. The average allele number of the 41 microsatellites was 4.85 ± 0.54, while the expected heterozygosity was 0.56 ± 0.03. All the isolated microsatellites inherited in a Mendelian pattern.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Normalization of cDNA substantially increased the efficiency of enrichment of microsatellites from cDNA. The described method for isolation of microsatellites from cDNA has the potential to be applied to a wide range of fish species. The microsatellites isolated from cDNA could be useful for linkage and comparative mapping, as well as for studying genome evolution.</p