Optimal preventive strike strategy vs. optimal attack strategy in a defense-attack game

This paper analyzes an attack-defense game between one defender and one attacker. Among, the defender moves first and allocates its resources to three different methods: employing a preventive strike, founding false targets, and protecting its genuine object. The preventive strike may expose the genuine object, and different from previous literature, a false target may also be detected to be false. The attacker, observing the actions taken by the defender and allocating its resources to three methods: protecting its own base from the preventive strike, founding false bases, and attacking the defender's genuine object. Similarly, a false base may be correctly identified. Different from previous methods in evaluating the potential outcome, for each of the defender's given strategies, the attacker tries to maximize its cumulative prospect value considering different possible outcomes. Similarly, the defender maximizes its cumulative prospect value, assuming that the attacker chooses the strategy to maximize the attacker's cumulative prospect value. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the optimal number of bases to attack by preventive strike, and the optimal number of targets to attack by attacker

Ionospheric Anomalies Observed by GPS TEC Prior to the Qinghai-Tibet Region Earthquakes

The precursory processes detected from unambiguous and repeatable instrumental observations that precede an earthquake remain elusive despite the multiple types of pre-earthquake signals gained from observations of geo-electricity, geomagnetism, and electromagnetism. Recently, much attention has been paid to associate abnormal behaviors of TEC (total electron content) in ionosphere, with seismic forcing. In this paper, we examined ionospheric TEC variations 1 - 2 weeks preceding 20 moderate to great earthquakes (M = 5 - 8) in the Tibetan Plateau and its neighboring regions between 1999 to 2008, with the help of a nationwide continuously-tracking GPS network. The temporal and spatial TEC variations over the specific seismogenic zones were calculated, and the causal linkage between the identified TEC anomalies and these earthquakes was examined. We find that most of the earthquakes showed significant abnormalities with similar characteristics. The anomalies, either upper anomalies (85%, 17/20) or lower anomalies (65%, 13/20) occurred in the ionosphere with dimensions of 30¢X in latitude and 30¢X in longitude above the epicenters. It is noted that the ionospheric anomalies were more dependent on focal depths of earthquakes than their magnitudes. Our results suggest that these anomalies of TEC may be possible seismo-ionospheric signatures for the earthquakes in Tibet and its margins

Group Decision Algorithm for Aged Healthcare Product Purchase Under q-Rung Picture Normal Fuzzy Environment Using Heronian Mean Operator

With the intensification of the aging, the health issue of the elderly is arousing public concern increasingly. Various healthcare products for the elderly are emerging from the market, thus how to select suitable aged healthcare product is critical to the well-being of the elderly. In the literature, nonetheless, a comprehensive and standardized evaluation framework to support healthcare product purchase decision for the aged is currently lacking. This paper proposes a novel group decision-making method to aid the decision-making of aged healthcare product purchase based on q-rung picture normal fuzzy Heronian mean (q-RPtNoFHM) operators. In it, firstly, a new fuzzy variable called the q-rung picture normal fuzzy set (q-RPtNoFS) is defined to reasonably describe different responses to healthcare product evaluation, for which, some definitions including operational laws, a score function, and an accuracy function of q-RPtNoFSs are introduced. Then, two q-RPtNoFHM operators are presented to aggregate group decision information. In addition, some properties of q-RPtNoFHM operators, such as monotonicity, commutativity, and idempotency, are discussed. Finally, an example on antihypertensive drugs purchase is gave to illustrate the practicality of the proposed method, and conduct sensitivity analysis to analyze the effectiveness and flexibility of proposed methods

On the variational principle and applications for a class of damped vibration systems with a small forcing term

This paper is dedicated to studying the existence of periodic solutions to a new class of forced damped vibration systems by the variational method. The advantage of this kind of system is that the coefficient of its second order term is a symmetric $N \times N$ matrix valued function rather than the identity matrix previously studied. The variational principle of this problem is obtained by using two methods: the direct method of the calculus of variations and the semi-inverse method. New existence conditions of periodic solutions are created through several auxiliary functions so that two existence theorems of periodic solutions of the forced damped vibration systems are obtained by using the least action principle and the saddle point theorem in the critical point theory. Our results improve and extend many previously known results

One-pot synthesis of Bi-Ni nanowire and nanocable arrays by coelectrodeposition approach

A novel and convenient one-pot electrodeposition approach has been developed for precisely controlled fabrication of large-scale Bi-Ni nanowire and nanocable arrays. Using porous anodic aluminum oxide as a shape-directing template, by simply changing the electrochemical deposition mode, desired Bi-Ni hybrid nanowires and Bi-Ni core-shell nanocables have been obtained in the CV and CC modes, respectively. The structure, morphology, and composition of the as-prepared samples were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, elemental mapping, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry

Genomic amplification patterns of human telomerase RNA gene and C-MYC in liquid-based cytological specimens used for the detection of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The amplification of oncogenes initiated by high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is an early event in cervical carcinogenesis and can be used for cervical lesion diagnosis. We measured the genomic amplification rates and the patterns of human telomerase RNA gene (TERC) and C-MYC in the liquid-based cytological specimens to evaluate the diagnostic characteristics for the detection of high-grade cervical lesions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two hundred and forty-three residual cytological specimens were obtained from outpatients aged 25 to 64 years at Qilu Hospital, Shandong University. The specimens were evaluated by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using chromosome probes to TERC (3q26) and C-MYC (8q24). All of the patients underwent colposcopic examination and histological evaluation. A Chi-square test was used for categorical data analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the normal, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 (CIN1), grade 2 (CIN2), grade 3 (CIN3) and squamous cervical cancer (SCC) cases, the TERC positive rates were 9.2%, 17.2%, 76.2%, 100.0% and 100.0%, respectively; the C-MYC positive rates were 20.7%, 31.0%, 71.4%, 81.8% and 100.0%, respectively. The TERC and C-MYC positive rates were higher in the CIN2+ (CIN2, CIN3 and SCC) cases than in the normal and CIN1 cases (<it>p </it>< 0.01). Compared with cytological analysis, the TERC test showed higher sensitivity (90.0% vs. 84.0%) and higher specificity (89.6% vs. 64.3%). The C-MYC test showed lower sensitivity (80.0% vs. 84.0%) and higher specificity (77.7% vs. 64.3%). Using a cut-off value of 5% or more aberrant cells, the TERC test showed the highest combination of sensitivity and specificity. The CIN2+ group showed more high-level TERC gene copy number (GCN) cells than did the normal/CIN1 group (<it>p </it>< 0.05). For C-MYC, no significant difference between the two histological categories was detected (<it>p </it>> 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The TERC test is highly sensitive and is therefore suitable for cervical cancer screening. The C-MYC test is not suitable for cancer screening because of its lower sensitivity. The amplification patterns of TERC become more diverse and complex as the severity of cervical diseases increases, whereas for C-MYC, the amplification patterns are similar between the normal/CIN1 and CIN2+ groups.</p> <p>Virtual slides</p> <p>The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: <url>http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1308004512669913</url>.</p

Scalar Quantization as Sparse Least Square Optimization

Quantization can be used to form new vectors/matrices with shared values close to the original. In recent years, the popularity of scalar quantization for value-sharing applications has been soaring as it has been found huge utilities in reducing the complexity of neural networks. Existing clustering-based quantization techniques, while being well-developed, have multiple drawbacks including the dependency of the random seed, empty or out-of-the-range clusters, and high time complexity for a large number of clusters. To overcome these problems, in this paper, the problem of scalar quantization is examined from a new perspective, namely sparse least square optimization. Specifically, inspired by the property of sparse least square regression, several quantization algorithms based on $l_1$ least square are proposed. In addition, similar schemes with $l_1 + l_2$ and $l_0$ regularization are proposed. Furthermore, to compute quantization results with a given amount of values/clusters, this paper designed an iterative method and a clustering-based method, and both of them are built on sparse least square. The paper shows that the latter method is mathematically equivalent to an improved version of k-means clustering-based quantization algorithm, although the two algorithms originated from different intuitions. The algorithms proposed were tested with three types of data and their computational performances, including information loss, time consumption, and the distribution of the values of the sparse vectors, were compared and analyzed. The paper offers a new perspective to probe the area of quantization, and the algorithms proposed can outperform existing methods especially under some bit-width reduction scenarios, when the required post-quantization resolution (number of values) is not significantly lower than the original number

Green Synthesis of Carbon Nanospheres for Enhanced Electrochemical Sensing of Dopamine

The detection of dopamine (DA) has received enormous attention since it is widely recognized as an important neurotransmitter associated with nerve signaling and some diseases. In this work, glucose-derived carbon nanospheres (CNs) are synthesized by the green hydrothermal approach and are served to modify electrodes for the detection of DA. The CNs were successfully synthesized and were investigated in detail by various characterization technologies. The CNs modified glassy carbon electrode (CNs/GCE) exhibits better electrochemical sensing performance with a wide linear range of 0.05–1600 μM and a low limit of 8.3 nM for determination of DA, as compared with the modified electrodes reported previously. The CNs/GCE was successfully applied to detect DA in human serum samples, which makes it promising for a variety of biomedical applications. More importantly, this work shows a novel green and simple strategy for the development of cost-effective and high-performance sensing materials, which provides more opportunities for design of electrochemical sensors with future capabilities of mass production in practical applications

Anti-Inflammatory Protein of Schistosoma japonicum Directs the Differentiation of the WEHI-3B JCS Cells and Mouse Bone Marrow Cells to Macrophages

Sj16 is an anti-inflammatory protein identified from Schistosoma japonicum. Our previous studies showed that recombinant Sj16 (rSj16) could suppress host's inflammatory responses and inhibit macrophage maturation. In the present study, the effects of rSj16 on the differentiation of the murine myeloid leukemia WEHI-3B JCS cell line and on mouse hematopoiesis were investigated. Our data demonstrated that rSj16 expressed and purified from Escherichia coli could suppress the proliferation of the WEHI-3B JCS cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner, while not affect the viability of the cells. Further studies indicated that rSj16 induced macrophage differentiation of the WEHI-3B JCS cells, and arrested the cell cycle in the G1/G0 and G2/M phases. The macrophage differentiation of the rSj16-treated WEHI-3B JCS cells was confirmed by their expression of macrophage specific antigen F4/80 and phagocytic activity. Furthermore, our results revealed that rSj16 biased the colony formation of mouse bone marrow cells towards macrophage linage