Experimenting adaptive services in sea-cloud innovation environment

Most of existing network testbeds can only support the experimentation of L2~L4 forwarding protocols, leaving the evaluation of L4~L7 applications still a tremendous challenge. This paper pioneers to present the design of sea-cloud innovation environment (SCIE) based on the software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) paradigms to support adaptive service-oriented experimentation, where the virtualized network functions (VNFs) can be implemented or deimplemented dynamically on network devices according to ondemand requirements. The experimentation is running to form an adaptive chain of network functions, which can be achieved by the protocol oblivious forwarding (POF) via user-defined fields and generic flow instruction set to forward the data to appropriate devices with VNFs. In SCIE, we demonstrate the experimentation of DPI service with on-demand requirement of security check

Integrated photonics modular arithmetic processor

Integrated photonics computing has emerged as a promising approach to overcome the limitations of electronic processors in the post-Moore era, capitalizing on the superiority of photonic systems. However, present integrated photonics computing systems face challenges in achieving high-precision calculations, consequently limiting their potential applications, and their heavy reliance on analog-to-digital (AD) and digital-to-analog (DA) conversion interfaces undermines their performance. Here we propose an innovative photonic computing architecture featuring scalable calculation precision and a novel photonic conversion interface. By leveraging Residue Number System (RNS) theory, the high-precision calculation is decomposed into multiple low-precision modular arithmetic operations executed through optical phase manipulation. Those operations directly interact with the digital system via our proposed optical digital-to-phase converter (ODPC) and phase-to-digital converter (OPDC). Through experimental demonstrations, we showcase a calculation precision of 9 bits and verify the feasibility of the ODPC/OPDC photonic interface. This approach paves the path towards liberating photonic computing from the constraints imposed by limited precision and AD/DA converters.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

Facile synthesis of di-mannitol adipate ester-based zinc metal alkoxide as a bi-functional additive for poly(vinyl chloride)

A new di-mannitol adipate ester-based zinc metal alkoxide (DMAE-Zn) was synthesized as a bi-functional poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) thermal stabilizer for the first time. The materials were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Characterization results confirmed the formation of Zn–O bonds in DMAE-Zn, and confirmed that DMAE-Zn had a high decomposition temperature and a low melting point. The thermal stability of DMAE-Zn on PVC also was tested by a conductivity test, a thermal aging test, and a UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS) test. PVC stabilized by DMAE-Zn had a good initial color and excellent long-term stability. UV-VIS also showed that the conjugated structure in PVC stabilized by DMAE-Zn was almost all of the triene, suggesting that the addition of DMAE-Zn would suppress the formation of conjugated structures above tetraene. The dynamic processing performance of PVC samples tested by torque rheometer indicated that, having a good compatibility with PVC chains in the amorphous regions, DMAE-Zn contributed a good plasticizing effect to PVC. DMAE-Zn thus effectively demonstrates bi-functional roles, e.g., thermal stabilizers and plasticizers to PVC. Furthermore, FT-IR, a HCl absorption capacity test, and a complex ZnCl2 test were also used to verify the thermal stability mechanism of DMAE-Zn for PVC

Distributed optimization for nonrigid nano-tomography

Resolution level and reconstruction quality in nano-computed tomography (nano-CT) are in part limited by the stability of microscopes, because the magnitude of mechanical vibrations during scanning becomes comparable to the imaging resolution, and the ability of the samples to resist beam damage during data acquisition. In such cases, there is no incentive in recovering the sample state at different time steps like in time-resolved reconstruction methods, but instead the goal is to retrieve a single reconstruction at the highest possible spatial resolution and without any imaging artifacts. Here we propose a joint solver for imaging samples at the nanoscale with projection alignment, unwarping and regularization. Projection data consistency is regulated by dense optical flow estimated by Farneback's algorithm, leading to sharp sample reconstructions with less artifacts. Synthetic data tests show robustness of the method to Poisson and low-frequency background noise. Applicability of the method is demonstrated on two large-scale nano-imaging experimental data sets.Comment: Manuscript and supplementary materia

An unexpected catalyst dominates formation and radiative forcing of regional haze

Although regional haze adversely affects human health and possibly counteracts global warming from increasing levels of greenhouse gases, the formation and radiative forcing of regional haze on climate remain uncertain. By combining field measurements, laboratory experiments, and model simulations, we show a remarkable role of black carbon (BC) particles in driving the formation and trend of regional haze. Our analysis of long-term measurements in China indicates declined frequency of heavy haze events along with significantly reduced SO₂, but negligibly alleviated haze severity. Also, no improving trend exists for moderate haze events. Our complementary laboratory experiments demonstrate that SO₂ oxidation is efficiently catalyzed on BC particles in the presence of NO₂ and NH₃, even at low SO₂ and intermediate relative humidity levels. Inclusion of the BC reaction accounts for about 90–100% and 30–50% of the sulfate production during moderate and heavy haze events, respectively. Calculations using a radiative transfer model and accounting for the sulfate formation on BC yield an invariant radiative forcing of nearly zero W m⁻² on the top of the atmosphere throughout haze development, indicating small net climatic cooling/warming but large surface cooling, atmospheric heating, and air stagnation. This BC catalytic chemistry facilitates haze development and explains the observed trends of regional haze in China. Our results imply that reduction of SO₂ alone is insufficient in mitigating haze occurrence and highlight the necessity of accurate representation of the BC chemical and radiative properties in predicting the formation and assessing the impacts of regional haze

Mechanical properties and microscopic characteristics of steel fiber coal gangue concrete

Incorporation of coal gangue in the concrete mixes can realize utilization of the solid waste and reduce extraction/use of natural aggregates. To improve the mechanical properties of coal gangue concrete, this paper studies use of steel fibre together with coal gangue coarse aggregate, coal gangue fine aggregate/sand in various concrete mixes. The effect of volume dosages of steel fibre and different levels of replacing nature coarse aggregate and river sand with coal gangue aggregates on concrete compressive strength was first investigated. Then, a design of experiment using orthogonal test was adopted to study concrete mixes with 3 factors, namely, coal gangue coarse aggregate, coal gangue sand and steel fibre, and each at 3 levels. Through multidimensional statistical data analysis of the test results, the primary and secondary factors and the optimal composition of the steel fibre reinforced coal gangue concrete were identified, and a grey prediction model for compressive strength of the concrete mixes established. The microstructural characteristics and failure mechanism of steel fiber reinforced coal gangue concrete was also studied and discussed

Revealing viral and cellular dynamics of HIV-1 at the single-cell level during early treatment periods

While combination therapy completely suppresses HIV-1 replication in blood, functional virus persists in CD4$^{+}$ T cell subsets in non-peripheral compartments that are not easily accessible. To fill this gap, we investigated tissue-homing properties of cells that transiently appear in the circulating blood. Through cell separation and in vitro stimulation, the HIV-1 "Gag and Envelope reactivation co-detection assay" (GERDA) enables sensitive detection of Gag+/Env+ protein-expressing cells down to about one cell per million using flow cytometry. By associating GERDA with proviral DNA and polyA-RNA transcripts, we corroborate the presence and functionality of HIV-1 in critical body compartments utilizing t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (tSNE) and density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) clustering with low viral activity in circulating cells early after diagnosis. We demonstrate transcriptional HIV-1 reactivation at any time, potentially giving rise to intact, infectious particles. With single-cell level resolution, GERDA attributes virus production to lymph-node-homing cells with central memory T cells (T$_{CM}$s) as main players, critical for HIV-1 reservoir eradication

Gelatin-based anticancer drug delivery nanosystems: A mini review

Drug delivery nanosystems (DDnS) is widely developed recently. Gelatin is a high-potential biomaterial originated from natural resources for anticancer DDnS, which can effectively improve the utilization of anticancer drugs and reduce side effects. The hydrophilic, amphoteric behavior and sol-gel transition of gelatin can be used to fulfill various requirements of anticancer DDnS. Additionally, the high number of multifunctional groups on the surface of gelatin provides the possibility of crosslinking and further modifications. In this review, we focus on the properties of gelatin and briefly elaborate the correlation between the properties and anticancer DDnS. Furthermore, we discuss the applications of gelatin-based DDnS in various cancer treatments. Overall, we have summarized the excellent properties of gelatin and correlated with DDnS to provide a manual for the design of gelatin-based materials for DDnS