Collusion-resistant Spatial Phenomena Crowdsourcing via Mixture of Gaussian Processes Regression

Abstract With the rapid development of mobile devices, spatial location-based crowdsourcing applications have attracted much attention. These applications also introduce new security risks due to untrustworthy data sources. In the context of crowdsourcing applications for spatial interpolation (i.e. spatial regression) using crowdsourced data, the results can be seriously affected if malicious data sources initiate a colluding (collaborate) attacks which purposely alter some of the measurements. To combat this serious detrimental effect, and to mitigate such attacks, we develop a robust version via a Gaussian Process mixture model and develop a computationally efficient algorithm which utilises a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)-based methodology to produce an accurate predictive inference in the presence of collusion attacks. The algorithm is fully Bayesian and produces posterior predictive distribution for any point-of-interest in the input space. It also assesses the trustworthiness of each worker, i.e. the probability of each worker being honest (trustworthy). Simulation results demonstrate the accuracy of this algorithm

DDT-RELATED PROTEIN4-IMITATION SWITCH alters nucleosome distribution to relieve transcriptional silencing in Arabidopsis

DNA methylation is a conserved epigenetic modification that is typically associated with silencing of transposable elements and promoter methylated genes. However, some DNA-methylated loci are protected from silencing, allowing transcriptional flexibility in response to environmental and developmental cues. Through a genetic screen in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), we uncovered an antagonistic relationship between the MICRORCHIDIA (MORC) protein and the IMITATION SWITCH (ISWI) complex in regulating the DNA-methylated SUPPRESSOR OF DRM1 DRM2 CMT3 (SDC) reporter. We demonstrate that components of the plant-specific ISWI complex, including CHROMATIN REMODELING PROTEIN11 (CHR11), CHR17, DDT-RELATED PROTEIN4 (DDR4), and DDR5, function to partially de-repress silenced genes and transposable elements (TEs), through their function in regulating nucleosome distribution. This action also requires the known transcriptional activator DNAJ proteins, providing a mechanistic link between nucleosome remodeling and transcriptional activation. Genome-wide studies revealed that DDR4 causes changes in nucleosome distribution at numerous loci, a subset of which is associated with changes in DNA methylation and/or transcription. Our work reveals a mechanism for balancing transcriptional flexibility and faithful silencing of DNA-methylated loci. As both ISWI and MORC family genes are widely distributed across plant and animal species, our findings may represent a conserved eukaryotic mechanism for fine-tuning gene expression under epigenetic regulation

From Transistors to Phototransistors by Tailoring the Polymer Stacking

It is universally acknowledged that highly photosensitive transistors are strongly dependent on the high carrier mobility of polymer-based semiconductors. However, the polymer π–π stacking and aggregation, required to increase the charge mobility, conversely inhibit the dissociation of photogenerated charge carriers, in turn accelerating the geminate recombination of electron-hole pairs. To explore the effects of charge mobility and polymer stacking on the photoresponsivity of the phototransistors, here, two alternating copolymers are synthesized, namely P-PPAB-IDT and P-PPAB-BDT, by palladium-catalyzed Stille coupling of PPAB with indaceodithiophene (IDT) or benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl) (BDT) monomers. The polymer P-PPAB-IDT demonstrates a nearly 20 times enhancement in the hole mobility compared to P-PPAB-BDT. Yet, P-PPAB-IDT surprisingly shows no response to white light illumination, whereas P-PPAB-BDT exhibits a significant photoresponse to the same light source with a high light-current/dark-current (Ilight/Idark) ratio of 21.6 in the p-type area and a low current ratio of just 5.2 in the n-type area. It is believed that this work will provide an effective strategy to develop highly photosensitive polymer semiconductors by reducing polymer stacking and aggregation rather than improving the charge carrier mobility.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Topology hierarchy of transition metal dichalcogenides built from quantum spin Hall layers

The evolution of the physical properties of two-dimensional material from monolayer limit to the bulk reveals unique consequences from dimension confinement and provides a distinct tuning knob for applications. Monolayer 1T'-phase transition metal dichalcogenides (1T'-TMDs) with ubiquitous quantum spin Hall (QSH) states are ideal two-dimensional building blocks of various three-dimensional topological phases. However, the stacking geometry was previously limited to the bulk 1T'-WTe2 type. Here, we introduce the novel 2M-TMDs consisting of translationally stacked 1T'-monolayers as promising material platforms with tunable inverted bandgaps and interlayer coupling. By performing advanced polarization-dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy as well as first-principles calculations on the electronic structure of 2M-TMDs, we revealed a topology hierarchy: 2M-WSe2, MoS2, and MoSe2 are weak topological insulators (WTIs), whereas 2M-WS2 is a strong topological insulator (STI). Further demonstration of topological phase transitions by tunning interlayer distance indicates that band inversion amplitude and interlayer coupling jointly determine different topological states in 2M-TMDs. We propose that 2M-TMDs are parent compounds of various exotic phases including topological superconductors and promise great application potentials in quantum electronics due to their flexibility in patterning with two-dimensional materials