Sum-Rate Optimization for RIS-Aided Multiuser Communications with Movable Antenna

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is known as a promising technology to improve the performance of wireless communication networks, which has been extensively studied. Movable antenna (MA) is a novel technology that fully exploits the antenna position for enhancing the channel capacity. In this paper, we propose a new RIS-aided multiuser communication system with MAs. The sum-rate is maximized by jointly optimizing the beamforming, the reflection coefficient (RC) values of RIS and the positions of MAs. A fractional programming-based iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the formulated non-convex problem, considering three assumptions for the RIS. Numerical results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and the superiority of the proposed MA-based system in terms of sum-rate.Comment: 5 page

Abstract test case prioritization using repeated small-strength level-combination coverage

Abstract—Abstract Test Cases (ATCs) have been widely used in practice, including in combinatorial testing and in software product line testing. When constructing a set of ATCs, due to limited testing resources in practice (for example in regression testing), Test Case Prioritization (TCP) has been proposed to improve the testing quality, aiming at ordering test cases to increase the speed with which faults are detected. One intuitive and extensively studied TCP technique for ATCs is λ-wise Level-combination Coverage based Prioritization (λLCP), a static, black-box prioritization technique that only uses the ATC information to guide the prioritization process. A challenge facing λLCP, however, is the necessity for the selection of the fixed prioritization strength λ before testing — testers need to choose an appropriate λ value before testing begins. Choosing higher λ values may improve the testing effectiveness of λLCP (for example, by finding faults faster), but may reduce the testing efficiency (by incurring additional prioritization costs). Conversely, choosing lower λ values may improve the efficiency, but may also reduce the effectiveness. In this paper, we propose a new family of λLCP techniques, Repeated Small-strength Level-combination Coverage-based Prioritization (RSLCP), that repeatedly achieves the full combination coverage at lower strengths. RSLCP maintains λLCP’s advantages of being static and black box, but avoids the challenge of prioritization strength selection. We performed an empirical study involving five different versions of each of five C programs. Compared with λLCP, and Incremental strength LCP (ILCP), our results show that RSLCP could provide a good trade-off between testing effectiveness and efficiency. Our results also show that RSLCP is more effective and efficient than two popular techniques of Similarity-based Prioritization (SP). In addition, the results of empirical studies also show that RSLCP can remain robust over multiple system releases

Turning to Peers: Integrating Understanding of the Self, the Condition, and Others’ Experiences in Making Sense of Complex Chronic Conditions

People are increasingly involved in the self-management of their own health, including chronic conditions. With technology advances, the choice of self-management practices, tools, and technologies has never been greater. The studies reported here investigated the information seeking practices of two different chronic health populations in their quest to manage their health conditions. Migraine and diabetes patients and clinicians in the UK and the US were interviewed about their information needs and practices, and representative online communities were explored to inform a qualitative study. We found that people with either chronic condition require personally relevant information and use a broad and varied set of practices and tools to make sense of their specific symptoms, triggers, and treatments. Participants sought out different types of information from varied sources about themselves, their medical condition, and their peers' experiences of the same chronic condition. People with diabetes and migraine expended great effort to validate their personal experiences of their condition and determine whether these experiences were 'normal'. Based on these findings, we discuss the need for future personal health technologies that support people in engaging in meaningful and personalised data collection, information seeking, and information sharing with peers in flexible ways that enable them to better understand their own condition

On the selection of strength for fixed-strength interaction coverage based prioritization

Abstract test cases are derived by modeling the system under test, and have been widely applied in practice, such as for software product line testing and combinatorial testing. Abstract test case prioritization (ATCP) is used to prioritize abstract test cases and aims at achieving higher rates of fault detection. Many ATCP algorithms have been proposed, using different prioritization criteria and information. One ATCP approach makes use of fixed-strength level-combinations information covered by abstract test cases, and is called fixed-strength interaction coverage based prioritization (FICBP). Before using FICBP, the prioritization strength λ needs to be decided. Previous studies have generally focused on λ values ranging between 1 and 6. However, no study has investigated the appropriateness of such a range, nor how to assign the prioritization strength for FICBP. To answer these questions, this paper reports on an empirical study involving four real-life programs (each of which with six versions). The experimental results indicate that λ should be set approximately equal to a value corresponding to half of the number of parameters, when testing resources are sufficient. Our results also show that when testing resources are limited or insufficient, either small or large λ values are suggested for FICBP

Replacing Traditional Plastics with Biodegradable Plastics:Impact on Carbon Emissions

In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on the environmental impact of plastics, including the carbon emissions related to plastics, which has promoted the application of biodegradable plastics. Countries worldwide have shown high interest in replacing traditional plastics with biodegradable plastics. However, no systematic comparison has been conducted on the carbon emissions of biodegradable versus traditional plastic products. This study evaluates the carbon emissions of traditional and biodegradable plastic products (BPPs) over four stages and briefly discusses environmental and economic perspectives. Four scenarios—namely, the traditional method, chemical recycling, industrial composting, and anaerobic digestion—are considered for the disposal of waste biodegradable plastic product (WBBPs). The analysis takes China as a case study. The results show that the carbon emissions of 1000 traditional plastic products (plastic bags, lunch boxes, cups, etc.) were 52.09–150.36 carbon emissions equivalent of per kilogram (kg CO2eq), with the stage of plastic production contributing 50.71%–50.77%. In comparison, 1000 similar BPPs topped out at 21.06–56.86 kg CO2eq, approximately 13.53%–62.19% lower than traditional plastic products. The difference was mainly at the stages of plastic production and waste disposal, and the BPPs showed significant carbon reduction potential at the raw material acquisition stage. Waste disposal plays an important role in environmental impact, and composting and anaerobic digestion are considered to be preferable disposal methods for WBBPs. However, the high cost of biodegradable plastics is a challenge for their widespread use. This study has important reference significance for the sustainable development of the biodegradable plastics industry.</p

Ancient Genomes Reveal the Evolutionary History and Origin of Cashmere-Producing Goats in China

Goats are one of the most widespread farmed animals across the world; however, their migration route to East Asia and local evolutionary history remain poorly understood. Here, we sequenced 27 ancient Chinese goat genomes dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Iron Age. We found close genetic affinities between ancient and modern Chinese goats, demonstrating their genetic continuity. We found that Chinese goats originated from the eastern regions around the Fertile Crescent, and we estimated that the ancestors of Chinese goats diverged from this population in the Chalcolithic period. Modern Chinese goats were divided into a northern and a southern group, coinciding with the most prominent climatic division in China, and two genes related to hair follicle development, FGF5 and EDA2R, were highly divergent between these populations. We identified a likely causal de novo deletion near FGF5 in northern Chinese goats that increased to high frequency over time, whereas EDA2R harbored standing variation dating to the Neolithic. Our findings add to our understanding of the genetic composition and local evolutionary process of Chinese goats

Research on Architecture of the Prosthesis Shaping Equipment Control System

In order to realize a high speed and high accuracy prosthesis shaping equipment (PSE) control system, this paper proposes a new software-hardware architecture of a five-axis high performance NC system. The software part of the proposed architecture follows the rules of the hierarchy and modularity. The inheritance, scalability, and stability are ensured on the whole system and local parts. According to the idea of modular design, the framework uses the client-server mode in the communication and scheduling level. With this way, the reliability of the module management is ensured. The hardware part of the proposed architecture consists of two main parts: the controller and I/O module. The controller is based on FPGA and uses PCI bus and IPC interface. The I/O module is based on ARM + CPLD and uses CAN bus to communicate with the controller. This paper also studies some key problems such as the driving signal producing mechanism. The results of prosthesis shaping equipment prototype show that the system which uses the proposed architecture can reach the positioning accuracy up to 0.02 mm and 3D typical surface cutting accuracy up to 0.02 mm, and this accuracy level already leads similar products in market