WaterBox: A Testbed for Monitoring and Controlling Smart Water Networks

Copyright 2015 ACM.Smart water distribution networks are a good example of a large scale Cyber-Physical System that requires monitoring for precise data analysis and network control. Due to the critical nature of water distribution, an extensive simulation of decision making and control algorithms are required before their deployment. Although some aspects of water network behaviour can be simulated in software such as hydraulic responses in valve changes, software simulators are unable to include dynamic events such as leakages or bursts in physical models. Furthermore, due to safety concerns, contemporary large-scale testbeds are limited to the monitoring processes or control methods with well established safety guarantees. Sophisticated algorithms for dynamic and optimal water network reconfiguration are not yet widespread. This paper presents a small-scale testbed, WaterBox, which allows the simulation of emerging/advanced monitoring and control algorithms in a fail-safe environment. The flexible hydraulic, hardware, and software infrastructure enables a substantial number of experiments. On-going experiments are related to in-node data processing and decision making, energy optimization, event-driven communication, and automatic control

Biochemical changes in low-salt fermentation of solidstate soy sauce

Low-salt solid-state fermentation soy sauce was prepared with defatted soy bean and wheat bran. Biochemical changes during the aging of the soy sauce mash were investigated. Results show that after a 15-day aging period, the contents of total nitrogen, formol titration nitrogen, free amino acids, reducing sugar, total sugar and the brown color were increased. However pH was decreased during the fermentation period. Furthermore contents of free amino acids in low-salt solid-state fermentation soy sauce fluctuated during the fermentation period with most of the free amino acids increased. The analysis of free amino acid composition shows that the contents of glutamic acid, aspartic acid, alanine and leucine were higher than other amino acids. Therefore it means that these amino acids may contribute to the taste and flavor of low-salt solid-state fermentation soy sauce. Analyzing the biochemical change in the fermented process of soy sauce is helpful to find out the shortcoming of lowsalt solid-state fermented soy sauce. It is of benefit in improving the quality of low-salt solid-state fermented soy sauce

A CASE STUDY IN PHARMACOLOGIC IMAGING USING PRINCIPAL CURVES IN SINGLE PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY

In this manuscript we are concerned with functional imaging of the colon to assess the kinetics of a microbicide lubricant. The overarching goal is to understand the distribution of the lubricant in the colon. Such information is crucial for understanding the potential impact of the microbicide on HIV viral transmission. The experiment was conducted by imaging a radiolabeled lubricant distributed in the subject’s colon. The tracer imaging was conducted via single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), a non-invasive, in-vivo functional imaging technique. We develop a novel principal curve algorithm to construct a three dimensional curve through the colon images. The developed algorithm is tested and debugged on several difficult two dimensional images of familiar curves where the original principal curve algorithm does not apply. The final curve fit to the colon data is compared with experimental sigmoidoscope collection

Effectiveness of atosiban in women with previous single implantation failure undergoing frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer : study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning is Associated With Increased Ventral Striatal Activity at Rest and During Task

People vary considerably in moral reasoning. According to Kohlberg’s theory, individuals who reach the highest level of post-conventional moral reasoning judge moral issues based on deeper principles and shared ideals rather than self-interest or adherence to laws and rules. Recent research has suggested the involvement of the brain’s frontostriatal reward system in moral judgments and prosocial behaviors. However, it remains unknown whether moral reasoning level is associated with differences in reward system function. Here, we combined arterial spin labeling perfusion and blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and measured frontostriatal reward system activity both at rest and during a sequential risky decision making task in a sample of 64 participants at different levels of moral reasoning. Compared to individuals at the pre-conventional and conventional level of moral reasoning, post-conventional individuals showed increased resting cerebral blood flow in the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Cerebral blood flow in these brain regions correlated with the degree of post-conventional thinking across groups. Post-conventional individuals also showed greater task-induced activation in the ventral striatum during risky decision making. These findings suggest that high-level post-conventional moral reasoning is associated with increased activity in the brain’s frontostriatal system, regardless of task-dependent or task-independent states

Orientation-specific RAG activity in chromosomal loop domains contributes to Tcrd V(D)J recombination during T cell development

T cell antigen receptor δ (Tcrd) variable region exons are assembled by RAG-initiated V(D)J recombination events in developing γδ thymocytes. Here, we use linear amplification–mediated high-throughput genome-wide translocation sequencing (LAM-HTGTS) to map hundreds of thousands of RAG-initiated Tcrd D segment (Trdd1 and Trdd2) rearrangements in CD4−CD8− double-negative thymocyte progenitors differentiated in vitro from bone marrow–derived hematopoietic stem cells. We find that Trdd2 joins directly to Trdv, Trdd1, and Trdj segments, whereas Trdd1 joining is ordered with joining to Trdd2, a prerequisite for further rearrangement. We also find frequent, previously unappreciated, Trdd1 and Trdd2 rearrangements that inactivate Tcrd, including sequential rearrangements from V(D)J recombination signal sequence fusions. Moreover, we find dozens of RAG off-target sequences that are generated via RAG tracking both upstream and downstream from the Trdd2 recombination center across the Tcrd loop domain that is bounded by the upstream INT1-2 and downstream TEA elements. Disruption of the upstream INT1-2 boundary of this loop domain allows spreading of RAG on- and off-target activity to the proximal Trdv domain and, correspondingly, shifts the Tcrd V(D)J recombination landscape by leading to predominant V(D)J joining to a proximal Trdv3 pseudogene that lies just upstream of the normal boundary

Climatic warming in China during 1901-2015 based on an extended dataset of instrumental temperature records

Monthly mean instrumental surface air temperature (SAT) observations back to the nineteenth century in China are synthesized from different sources via specific quality-control, interpolation, and homogenization. Compared with the first homogenized long-term SAT dataset for China by Cao et al. (2013), which contained 18 stations mainly located in the middle and eastern part of China, the present dataset includes homogenized monthly SAT series at 32 stations, with an extended coverage especially towards western China. Missing values are interpolated by using observations at nearby stations including those from neighboring countries. Cross validation shows that the mean bias error (MBE) is generally small and falls between 0.45°C and -0.35°C. Multiple homogenization methods and available metadata are applied to assess the consistency of the time series and to adjust inhomogeneity biases. The homogenized annual mean SAT series show a range of trends between 1.1 and 4.0°C/century in northeastern China, between 0.4 and 1.9°C/century in southeastern China, and between 1.4 and 3.7°C/century in western China to the west of 105E (from the beginning years of the stations to 2015). The unadjusted data include unusually warm records during the 1940s and hence tend to underestimate the warming trends at a number of stations. The mean SAT series for China based on the Climate Anomaly Method shows a warming trend of 1.56°C/century during 1901-2015, larger than those based on other currently available datasets

ChickVD: a sequence variation database for the chicken genome

Working in parallel with the efforts to sequence the chicken (Gallus gallus) genome, the Beijing Genomics Institute led an international team of scientists from China, USA, UK, Sweden, The Netherlands and Germany to map extensive DNA sequence variation throughout the chicken genome by sampling DNA from domestic breeds. Using the Red Jungle Fowl genome sequence as a reference, we identified 3.1 million non-redundant DNA sequence variants. To facilitate the application of our data to avian genetics and to provide a foundation for functional and evolutionary studies, we created the ‘Chicken Variation Database’ (ChickVD). A graphical MapView shows variants mapped onto the chicken genome in the context of gene annotations and other features, including genetic markers, trait loci, cDNAs, chicken orthologs of human disease genes and raw sequence traces. ChickVD also stores information on quantitative trait loci using data from collaborating institutions and public resources. Our data can be queried by search engine and homology-based BLAST searches. ChickVD is publicly accessible at http://chicken.genomics.org.cn

A Potentiometric Flow Biosensor Based on Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria for the Detection of Toxicity in Water

A flow biosensor for the detection of toxicity in water using the ammonia-oxidizing bacterium (AOB) Nitrosomonas europaea as a bioreceptor and a polymeric membrane ammonium-selective electrode as a transducer is described. The system is based on the inhibition effects of toxicants on the activity of AOB, which can be evaluated by measuring the ammonium consumption rates with the ammonium-selective membrane electrode. The AOB cells are immobilized on polyethersulfone membranes packed in a holder, while the membrane electrode is placed downstream in the flow cell. Two specific inhibitors of the ammonia oxidation. allylthiourea and thioacetamide. have been tested. The IC50 values defined as the concentration of an inhibitor causing a 50% reduction in the ammonia oxidation activity have been measured as 0.17 mu M and 0.46 mu M for allylthiourea and thioacetamide, respectively. The proposed sensor offers advantages of simplicity, speed and high sensitivity for measuring toxicity in water.A flow biosensor for the detection of toxicity in water using the ammonia-oxidizing bacterium (AOB) Nitrosomonas europaea as a bioreceptor and a polymeric membrane ammonium-selective electrode as a transducer is described. The system is based on the inhibition effects of toxicants on the activity of AOB, which can be evaluated by measuring the ammonium consumption rates with the ammonium-selective membrane electrode. The AOB cells are immobilized on polyethersulfone membranes packed in a holder, while the membrane electrode is placed downstream in the flow cell. Two specific inhibitors of the ammonia oxidation. allylthiourea and thioacetamide. have been tested. The IC50 values defined as the concentration of an inhibitor causing a 50% reduction in the ammonia oxidation activity have been measured as 0.17 mu M and 0.46 mu M for allylthiourea and thioacetamide, respectively. The proposed sensor offers advantages of simplicity, speed and high sensitivity for measuring toxicity in water