Intelligent optical performance monitor using multi-task learning based artificial neural network

An intelligent optical performance monitor using multi-task learning based artificial neural network (MTL-ANN) is designed for simultaneous OSNR monitoring and modulation format identification (MFI). Signals' amplitude histograms (AHs) after constant module algorithm are selected as the input features for MTL-ANN. The experimental results of 20-Gbaud NRZ-OOK, PAM4 and PAM8 signals demonstrate that MTL-ANN could achieve OSNR monitoring and MFI simultaneously with higher accuracy and stability compared with single-task learning based ANNs (STL-ANNs). The results show an MFI accuracy of 100% and OSNR monitoring root-mean-square error of 0.63 dB for the three modulation formats under consideration. Furthermore, the number of neuron needed for the single MTL-ANN is almost the half of STL-ANN, which enables reduced-complexity optical performance monitoring devices for real-time performance monitoring

Modulation of Androgen Receptor by FOXA1 and FOXO1 Factors in Prostate Cancer

© Ivyspring International Publisher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Licens

Elevated CO2 causes different growth stimulation, water- and nitrogen-use efficiencies, and leaf ultrastructure responses in two conifer species under intra- and interspecific competition

The continuously increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]) has substantial effects on plant growth, and on the composition and structure of forests. However, how plants respond to elevated [CO2] (e[CO2]) under intra- and interspecific competition has been largely overlooked. In this study, we employed Abies faxoniana Rehder & Wilson and Picea purpurea Mast. seedlings to explore the effects of e[CO2] (700 p.p.m.) and plant-plant competition on plant growth, physiological and morphological traits, and leaf ultrastructure. We found that e[CO2] stimulated plant growth, photosynthesis and nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC), affected morphological traits and leaf ultrastructure, and enhanced water- and nitrogen (N)- use efficiencies in A. faxoniana and P. purpurea. Under interspecific competition and e[CO2], P. purpurea showed a higher biomass accumulation, photosynthetic capacity and rate of ectomycorrhizal infection, and higher water- and N-use efficiencies compared with A. faxoniana. However, under intraspecific competition and e[CO2], the two conifers showed no differences in biomass accumulation, photosynthetic capacity, and water- and N-use efficiencies. In addition, under interspecific competition and e[CO2], A. faxoniana exhibited higher NSC levels in leaves as well as more frequent and greater starch granules, which may indicate carbohydrate limitation. Consequently, we concluded that under interspecific competition, P. purpurea possesses a positive growth and adjustment strategy (e.g. a higher photosynthetic capacity and rate of ectomycorrhizal infection, and higher water- and N-use efficiencies), while A. faxoniana likely suffers from carbohydrate limitation to cope with rising [CO2]. Our study highlights that plant-plant competition should be taken into consideration when assessing the impact of rising [CO2] on the plant growth and physiological performance.Peer reviewe

Weak Lensing Reconstruction by Counting DECaLS Galaxies

Alternative to weak lensing measurements through cosmic shear, we present a weak lensing convergence $\hat{\kappa}$ map reconstructed through cosmic magnification effect in DECaLS galaxies of the DESI imaging surveys DR9. This is achieved by linearly weighing $12$ maps of galaxy number overdensity in different magnitude bins of $grz$ photometry bands. The weight is designed to eliminate the mean galaxy deterministic bias, minimize galaxy shot noise while maintaining the lensing convergence signal. We also perform corrections of imaging systematics in the galaxy number overdensity. The $\hat{\kappa}$ map has $8365$ deg$^2$ sky coverage. Given the low number density of DECaLS galaxies, the $\hat{\kappa}$ map is overwhelmed by shot noise and the map quality is difficult to evaluate using the lensing auto-correlation. Alternatively, we measure its cross-correlation with the cosmic shear catalogs of DECaLS galaxies of DESI imaging surveys DR8, which has $8365$ deg$^2$ overlap in sky coverage with the $\hat{\kappa}$ map. We detect a convergence-shear cross-correlation signal with $S/N\simeq 10$. The analysis also shows that the galaxy intrinsic clustering is suppressed by a factor $\mathcal{O}(10^2)$ and the residual galaxy clustering contamination in the $\hat{\kappa}$ map is consistent with zero. Various tests with different galaxy and shear samples, and the Akaike information criterion analysis all support the lensing detection. So is the imaging systematics corrections, which enhance the lensing signal detection by $\sim 30\%$. We discuss various issues for further improvement of the measurements

Operating characteristics study of a dual-opposed free-piston Stirling generator

Dual-opposed Free-piston Stirling generators (dual-opposed FPSGs) offer advantages of reduced vibration and increased power density, making them promising candidates for space and distributed energy applications. So far, operational characteristics of the dual-opposed FPSG have yet to be completely understood. This study focuses on a 3 kW dual-opposed FPSG prototype designed to integrate heat pipes. Through computational fluid dynamics and thermoacoustic analysis, a novel hot end heat exchanger with evenly-distributed heat pipe bore was discovered to deliver 12 kW heating power with a gas–solid temperature difference of 21 K. Subsequently effort combined thermoacoustically-based calculations with experiments to investigate the impact of two electrical connection methods of linear alternators on FPSG performance. Experimental results validated the numerical model, showing heat-to-electricity efficiency deviations within 5 % under different electrical connection modes. The FPSG consistently achieved its rated power in both series and parallel connection modes, exhibiting a thermal-to-electric efficiency of 25.2 %. Notably, the series connection mode demonstrates superior sensitivity and consistency compared to parallel connection. Further experiments revealed that charge pressure, load resistance and external capacitance all exerts limited impact on the consistency, while external capacitance significantly influenced acoustic impedance. This resulted in an enhancement in both hot-end wall temperature and heat-to-electricity efficiency, while minimizing power piston displacement and damping temperature when resonating with the inductance

Species-specific responses to drought, salinity and their interactions in Populus euphratica and P. pruinosa seedlings

Aims Drought and salinity are severe abiotic stress factors, which limit plant growth and productivity, particularly in desert regions. In this study, we employed two desert poplars, Populus euphratica Oliver and Populus pruinosa Schrenk seedlings, to compare their tolerance to drought, salinity and combined stress. Methods We investigated species-specific responses of P. euphratica and P. pruinosa in growth, photosynthetic capacity and pigment contents, nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations, Cl- allocation, osmotic regulation and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under drought, salinity and the combined stress. Important Findings Populus pruinosa exhibited greater growth inhibitory effects, photosynthesis decline, stomata! closure and ROS accumulation, and lower antioxidant enzyme activities and osmotic regulation compared with P. euphratica under drought, salinity and especially under their combined stress. On the other hand, salt-stressed P. euphratica plants restricted salt transportation from roots to leaves, and allocated more Cl- to coarse roots and less to leaves, whereas salt-stressed P. pruinosa allocated more Cl- to leaves. It was shown that there is species-specific variation in these two desert poplars, and P. pruinosa suffers greater negative effects compared with P. euphratica under drought, salinity and especially under the combined stress. Therefore, in ecological restoration and afforestation efforts, species-specific responses and tolerances of these two poplar species to drought and salinity should be considered under climate change with increasing drought and soil salinity developing.Peer reviewe

JNK pathway promotes hepatocyte apoptosis by inhibiting Bcl-2 and upregulating expressions of Bim, caspase-3 and caspase-9 after cardiopulmonary bypass

Purpose: To study the effect of Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway on hepatocyte apoptosis in vivo and in vitro, and to elucidate the mechanism of action. Methods: TdT-mediated dUTP Nick-End Labeling (TUNEL) method was used to determine apoptosis in control and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) groups at 0, 3 and 6 hours after rat surgery. The expressions of JNK and p-c-Jun in liver tissues at 0, 3 and 6 h after surgery, and the levels of p-c-Jun, Bcl-2 and Bim following overexpression of JNK, were determined using Western blot assay. Human liver cell line HL-7702 was cultured and transfected with over-expressed JNK plasmid and empty plasmid. Proliferation of HL-7702 cells after JNK over-expression was assessed by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), while quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was employed to evaluate mRNA expression levels of caspase-3 and caspase-9 mRNA after JNK over-expression. Apoptosis of the cells was determined by flow cytometry (FC) after JNK over-expression. Results: FC results showed that the number of apoptotic hepatocytes increased after JNK overexpression in hepatocytes while TUNEL assay results demonstrated that hepatocyte apoptosis increased in CPB group, when compared to control group; furthermore, the number of apoptotic cells gradually increased within 6 h after surgery. The expressions of JNK and p-c-Jun were higher in CPB group than in control group, and increased gradually in both groups within 6 h after surgery. Overexpression of JNK decreased the proliferation of hepatocytes, and also lowered protein expression levels of p-c-Jun and Bim; on the other hand, the protein expression levels of Bcl-2 fell, while mRNA expression levels of caspase-3 and caspase-9 mRNA increased. Conclusion: JNK pathway promotes hepatocyte apoptosis after cardiopulmonary bypass by inhibiting Bcl-2 pathway and promoting the expressions of Bim caspase-3 and caspase-9. Keywords: Cardiopulmonary bypass, Apoptosis, JNK pathway, Bim, caspase-3 and caspase-

ScalAna: Automating Scaling Loss Detection with Graph Analysis

Scaling a parallel program to modern supercomputers is challenging due to inter-process communication, Amdahl's law, and resource contention. Performance analysis tools for finding such scaling bottlenecks either base on profiling or tracing. Profiling incurs low overheads but does not capture detailed dependencies needed for root-cause analysis. Tracing collects all information at prohibitive overheads. In this work, we design ScalAna that uses static analysis techniques to achieve the best of both worlds - it enables the analyzability of traces at a cost similar to profiling. ScalAna first leverages static compiler techniques to build a Program Structure Graph, which records the main computation and communication patterns as well as the program's control structures. At runtime, we adopt lightweight techniques to collect performance data according to the graph structure and generate a Program Performance Graph. With this graph, we propose a novel approach, called backtracking root cause detection, which can automatically and efficiently detect the root cause of scaling loss. We evaluate ScalAna with real applications. Results show that our approach can effectively locate the root cause of scaling loss for real applications and incurs 1.73% overhead on average for up to 2,048 processes. We achieve up to 11.11% performance improvement by fixing the root causes detected by ScalAna on 2,048 processes.Comment: conferenc