Development of vital signs detection system with ground noise cancellation

This study provides an experimental procedure and a noise immunity method for detecting the vital signs of a person in a vehicle. Velocity sensors that are convenient and accurate at acquiring data are adopted to detect the involuntary body vibrations. Two kinds of algorithms were proposed for detecting the vital signs in different environments with various ground noise level. To reduce the ground noise effect generated from extreme environments, a ground sensor also is used to measure the vibration amplitude of ground surface for calculating the car body response to provide excellent noise cancelling method. Measuring and processing the vibrations are effective methods for detecting people concealed in a vehicle. The complete detecting system was verified through experiment conducted with a passenger car

The application of vital signs detection system for detecting in a truck with noise cancellation method

This research proposes an experimental procedure and ground noise cancellation method for detecting the presence of a person in a 3.5 ton truck, in an environment with high levels of ground noise. This study addresses the need for non-intrusive detection system that involves using velocity sensors placed on the chassis-frame to detect the weak vibrations generated by any human inside the vehicle. An additional velocity ground sensor is placed near the front tire to collect the ground noise signals that are used to estimate the ground noise response of the truck by manipulating a 2-DOF (degree of freedom) equivalent truck model. To increase the discriminative rate in the context of two scenarios, a person present and a person absent from the vehicle, a valid algorithm is proposed that decreases the ground noise effect emanating from the environment. Furthermore, two types of sensor location are discussed to promote the practicability of the proposed system

Genome-wide analysis of the cis-regulatory modules of divergent gene pairs in yeast

AbstractIn budding yeast, approximately a quarter of adjacent genes are divergently transcribed (divergent gene pairs). Whether genes in a divergent pair share the same regulatory system is still unknown. By examining transcription factor (TF) knockout experiments, we found that most TF knockout only altered the expression of one gene in a divergent pair. This prompted us to conduct a comprehensive analysis in silico to estimate how many divergent pairs are regulated by common sets of TFs (cis-regulatory modules, CRMs) using TF binding sites and expression data. Analyses of ten expression datasets show that only a limited number of divergent gene pairs share CRMs in any single dataset. However, around half of divergent pairs do share a regulatory system in at least one dataset. Our analysis suggests that genes in a divergent pair tend to be co-regulated in at least one condition; however, in most conditions, they may not be co-regulated

Does income influence rational decisions?

This study explores the impact of income on customer loyalty so as to verify whether consumer decision-making is bounded by rationality or not. The empirical findings show that income positively affects customer loyalty in choosing leisure parks. Specifically, high-income customers prefer to reduce the time cost of information collection. Therefore, they are more inclined to choose a specific resort or a leisure activity park of a particular brand rather than spend their time searching and planning for the most appropriate location of a leisure activity park. This result supports the notion that customers’ consumption decisions are bounded by rationality, not for the purpose of making the optimal decision, but in order to pursue satisfying their own needs instead

The Influence of the Gender of the Chairman and CEO on the Company's Financial Leverage

The number of female CEOs reached a historic high in 2014. It shows that women have a greater impact on a company, and more and more studies have explored the impact of female executives in a company. This study investigates how the gender of chairmen and CEOs affects corporate leverage in Taiwan through regression analysis with fixed effects. We especially focus on whether the firms operated by female chairpersons and female CEOs have more conservative financial policies or corporate leverage than the firms operated by male chairpersons or male CEOs’. Leverage and volatility are common measures of corporate risk-taking. The firms with higher leverage and volatility are regarded as the firms which are risky and more willing to take the risk. The firms with lower leverage and lower volatility are taken as the more stable firms. The empirical results show that the firms operated by female chairpersons have higher leverage and volatility. It indicates that female chairpersons are more aggressive than their male counterparts. However, the empirical results of CEOs are different from chairmen. The results show that the firms led by female CEOs have lower leverage. The figures show that female CEOs in Taiwan are more conservative than male CEOs. The empirical results also show that female chairpersons have more impact on corporate leverage and volatility

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Sulforaphane Improves Ischemia-Induced Detrusor Overactivity by Downregulating the Enhancement of Associated Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, Autophagy, and Apoptosis in Rat Bladder

Abstract Atherosclerosis-associated pelvic ischemia has been reported to be a risk factor for bladder dysfunction and subsequent lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in the elderly population. However, the molecular mechanisms of this association remain unclear. We hypothesized that stress-induced cellular responses might play a role in the pathogenesis of ischemia-induced bladder dysfunction. In the present study, the animal model of bladder ischemia was induced by bilateral partial arterial occlusion (BPAO) in rats. We found that BPAO significantly induced the presence of detrusor overactivity (DO) and upregulated the expression of several molecular reactions, including biomarkers in endoplasmic reticulum stress (78 kDa glucose-regulated protein, GRP78 and C/EBP-homologous protein, CHOP), autophagy (Beclin-1, p62 and LC3 II) and apoptosis (caspase 3). BPAO also disturbed the Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1–nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Keap1–Nrf2) pathways. These responses might collectively alter muscarinic and purinergic signaling and contribute to the presence of DO in the ischemic bladder. Therapeutically, treatment with neither a muscarinic nor purinergic receptor antagonist restored bladder function. Interestingly, sulforaphane effectively attenuated ischemia-enhanced endoplasmic reticulum stress, autophagy and apoptosis in the bladder, subsequently ameliorated ischemia-induced bladder dysfunction and might emerge as a novel strategy to protect the bladder against ischemia-induced oxidative damage