FACILITATING SMART VOLUME LEVELS FOR AUDIO DEVICES DURING AN ONLINE TELECONFERENCE

During an online teleconference, participants may interact with each other through a variety of audio sources or devices. In some instances, a teleconference participant may switch between audio devices during a teleconference. Automatic gain control (AGC) functionality provided for clients of a teleconference system is typically designed to balance audio volume during a teleconference regardless of the audio device being used. However, AGC adjustments can be delayed for converging to a reasonable volume range. Proposed herein are techniques to address such issues by providing a volume matching table that can be used to provide optimal volume parameters for different audio devices that may be used at a local client of a user that is participating in an online teleconference. In accordance with techniques of this proposal, when a participant joins a teleconference with a given audio device or switches their audio device during the teleconference, the user\u27s client can consult the volume matching table to determine optimal volume parameters for an audio device used by the user

Multi-agent Modeling and Optimal Pumping Control of Magnetic Artificial Cilia

Tiny cilia drive the flow of surrounding fluids through asymmetric jumping, which is one of the main ways for biological organisms to control fluid transport at the micro-scale. Due to its huge application prospects in medical and environmental treatment fields, artificial cilia have attracted widespread research interest in recent years. However, how to model and optimize artificial cilia is currently a common challenge faced by scholars. We model a single artificial cilium driven by a magnetic field as a multi-agent system, where each agent is a magnetic bead, and the interactions between beads are influenced by the magnetic field. Our system is driven by controlling the magnetic field input to achieve fluid transport at low Reynolds number. In order to quantify the flow conveying capacity, we introduce the pumping performance and propose an optimal control problem for pumping performance, and then give its numerical solution. The calculation results indicate that our model and optimal control algorithm can significantly improve the pumping performance of a single cilia

Lung cancer diagnosis with quantitative DIC microscopy and support vector machine

We report the study of lung squamous cell carcinoma diagnosis using the TI-DIC microscopy and the scattering-phase theorem. The spatially resolved optical properties of tissue are computed from the 2D phase map via the scattering-phase theorem. The scattering coefficient, the reduced scattering coefficient, and the anisotropy factor are all found to increase with the grade of lung cancer. The retrieved optical parameters are shown to distinguish cancer cases from the normal cases with high accuracy. This label-free microscopic approach applicable to fresh tissues may be promising for in situ rapid cancer diagnosis. © (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only

Microbial Succession and Nitrogen Cycling in Cultured Biofilms as Affected by the Inorganic Nitrogen Availability

Biofilms play important roles in nutrients and energy cycling in aquatic ecosystems. We hypothesized that as eutrophication could change phytoplankton community and decrease phytoplankton diversity, ambient inorganic nitrogen level will affect the microbial community and diversity of biofilms and the roles of biofilms in nutrient cycling. Biofilms were cultured using a flow incubator either with replete inorganic nitrogen (N-rep) or without exogenous inorganic nitrogen supply (N-def). The results showed that the biomass and nitrogen and phosphorous accumulation of biofilms were limited by N deficiency; however, as expected, the N-def biofilms had significantly higher microbial diversity than that of N-rep biofilms. The microbial community of biofilms shifted in composition and abundance in response to ambient inorganic nitrogen level. For example, as compared between the N-def and the N-rep biofilms, the former consisted of more diazotrophs, while the latter consisted of more denitrifying bacteria. As a result of the shift of the functional microbial community, the N concentration of N-rep medium kept decreasing, while that of N-def medium showed an increasing trend in the late stage. This indicates that biofilms can serve as the source or the sink of nitrogen in aquatic ecosystems, and it depends on the inorganic nitrogen availability.</p

From Software-Defined Vehicles to Self-Driving Vehicles: A Report on CPSS-Based Parallel Driving

On June 11th, 2017, the 28th IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV'2017) was held in Redondo Beach, California, USA. As one of the 8 workshops at IV'2017, the cyber-physical-social systems (CPSS)-based parallel driving (WS'08), organized by the State Key Laboratory for Management and Control of Complex Systems (SKL-MCCS), Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, Tsinghua University, China, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA, and Cranfield University, U.K, has attracted both researchers and practitioners in intelligent vehicles. About 60-70 participants from various countries had extensive and deep discussions on definition, challenges and alternative solutions for CPSS-based parallel driving, and widely agreed that it is a novel paradigm of cloud-based automated driving technologies. Six speakers shared their ideas, studies, field applications, and vision for future along these emerging directions from software-defined vehicles to self-driving vehicles

Experimental simulation on the electrochemical mechanism of iron pollution from “dual-source” in closed coal mine water

The closed coal mine water is mostly characterized by high iron. After mine closure and flooding, residual iron-prone devices and iron-bearing minerals form a “dual-source” iron pollution system in mine water, contributing to the release of iron in different periods after mine closure and creating environmental risks in groundwater. In order to clarify the process and reaction mechanism of “dual-source” iron release in closed coal mine water, to characterize the “dual-source” release mode of iron pollution, and compare the release rate, based on the principle of electrochemical simulation, the working electrodes were prepared by using pyrite and mining bolt as the simulated “dual-source”, and the redox reaction process and iron release mechanism in the acid mine water under the coexistence of “dual-source” at the early stage of coal mine closure were simulated using electrochemical methods such as cyclic voltammetry and polarization as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) material surface characterization techniques. The results showed that the dissolved oxygen content was an important inhibitory factor affecting the redox reaction of pyrite and bolt in acid mine drainage. The oxidation mechanism of pyrite and bolt is different, the passivation effect occurs on the surface of pyrite during oxidation, and the final oxidation products of both materials are Fe3+ and \begin{document}${ {\rm{SO}}_{4}^{2-}}$\end{document}. Pyrite releases iron mainly through the oxidation reaction of Fe2+ on the mineral surface. Bolt released iron mainly through the reaction of iron and its oxidation products on the surface of the material with the acid substances in the solution, and the oxide reacted preferentially over the monomer. In the simulated aerobic (DO=7.0 mg/L) acid mine drainage, the annual corrosion rates of pyrite and bolt reached 8.3636 mm/a and 7.8314 mm/a, respectively, and the annual iron release rates reached 1.2240 g/a and 3.9395 g/a, respectively. In the simulated underground anoxic (DO=3.5 mg/L) acid mine drainage, the annual corrosion rates of pyrite and bolt reached 0.7324 mm/a and 0.3642 mm/a, respectively, and the estimated annual iron release rates reached 0.1072 g/a and 0.1832 g/a, respectively. The integrated electrochemical parameters and static iron release experiments showed that the total iron release rate ratios were both dual-source > bolt > pyrite under the conditions of sufficient or lack of dissolved oxygen

Read-Through for Nonsense Mutations in Type XVII Collagen-Deficient Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa

The project is funded by E-Rare-3 Joint Translational Call 2017 (to CH, MR, and FLL) and Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung 01GM1805 (to CH). IC received a fellowship from the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. We thank Blanca Duarte for skin-equivalent grafting procedures. The funding sources for this study : ERA-NET E-RARE JTC 2017 (MutaEB) (CH, MR, and FLL), (Grant AC17/00054 [FLL]) cofunded with European Regional Development Funds, BMBF 01GM1805, EADV (IC

Association of IL-4 and IL-18 genetic polymorphisms with atopic dermatitis in Chinese children

BackgroundAtopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease, adversely affecting nearly 20% of the pediatric population worldwide. Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) are considered to be involved in the pathogenesis and development of AD. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of IL-4 and IL-18 gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility and severity of AD in Chinese children.MethodsSix candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IL-4 and IL-18 genes were genotyped through multi-PCR combined with next-generation sequencing in 132 AD children and 100 healthy controls, and all the analyses were performed on blood genome DNA.ResultsThe frequencies of G allele, CG genotype and CG + GG genotype of IL-4 rs2243283, as well as the haplotype IL-4/GTT (rs2243283-rs2243250-rs2243248) were all significantly decreased in AD patients compared with the controls [G vs. C: P = 0.033, OR = 0.59; CG vs. CC: P = 0.024, OR = 0.47; CG + GG vs. CC: P = 0.012, OR = 0.49; GTT vs. CCT: P = 0.011, OR = 0.65]. Moreover, the frequencies of A allele, AA genotype and AG + AA genotype of IL-18 rs7106524, along with the haplotype IL-18/CAA (rs187238-rs360718-rs7106524) were statistically increased in the severe AD patients (A vs. G: P &lt; 0.001, OR = 2.79; AA vs. GG: P = 0.003, OR = 5.51; AG + AA vs. GG: P = 0.036, OR = 2.93; CAA vs. CAG: P = 0.001, OR = 2.86).ConclusionsOur findings suggested that genetic variation in IL-4 rs2243283 such as G allele, CG genotype and CG + GG genotype might confer the reduced susceptibility to AD in Chinese children. Furthermore, A allele, AA genotype and AG + AA genotype of IL-18 rs7106524 explored the strong association with severity in Chinese AD children