Multi-GNSS Induced Performance Enhancements in Constrained Environments

Nowadays, three global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), namely GPS, GLONASS and China’s BeiDou System (BDS), are fully-operational in the Asia-Pacific region. Furthermore, the European Galileo system and the Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), which is a regional navigation satellite system (RNSS), jointly provide 4 to 8 additional visible satellites in the region. Thus, it is expected that a combination of the above five systems will improve positioning performance as a result of enhanced satellite availability provided by multi-GNSS. In this research, we develop a method to combine GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo, and QZSS pseudorange and carrier phase observations, and investigate positioning performance improvements brought by multi-GNSS. Experimental data were collected in Southern Taiwan to perform pseudorange-based, meter-level absolute (point) positioning as well as carrier phase-based, centimeter-level relative positioning. Test results indicate that (1) using multi-GNSS can effectively improve the accuracy of absolute (single point) and relative positioning, particularly in highly-masked, constrained environments, such as urban areas; (2) combining the five constellations can significantly shorten the Time-To-First-Fix (TTFF) for rapid ambiguity resolution required by Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) applications in constrained environments

A Systematic Survey of Mini-Proteins in Bacteria and Archaea

BACKGROUND: Mini-proteins, defined as polypeptides containing no more than 100 amino acids, are ubiquitous in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. They play significant roles in various biological processes, and their regulatory functions gradually attract the attentions of scientists. However, the functions of the majority of mini-proteins are still largely unknown due to the constraints of experimental methods and bioinformatic analysis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this article, we extracted a total of 180,879 mini-proteins from the annotations of 532 sequenced genomes, including 491 strains of Bacteria and 41 strains of Archaea. The average proportion of mini-proteins among all genomic proteins is approximately 10.99%, but different strains exhibit remarkable fluctuations. These mini-proteins display two notable characteristics. First, the majority are species-specific proteins with an average proportion of 58.79% among six representative phyla. Second, an even larger proportion (70.03% among all strains) is hypothetical proteins. However, a fraction of highly conserved hypothetical proteins potentially play crucial roles in organisms. Among mini-proteins with known functions, it seems that regulatory and metabolic proteins are more abundant than essential structural proteins. Furthermore, domains in mini-proteins seem to have greater distributions in Bacteria than Eukarya. Analysis of the evolutionary progression of these domains reveals that they have diverged to new patterns from a single ancestor. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Mini-proteins are ubiquitous in bacterial and archaeal species and play significant roles in various functions. The number of mini-proteins in each genome displays remarkable fluctuation, likely resulting from the differential selective pressures that reflect the respective life-styles of the organisms. The answers to many questions surrounding mini-proteins remain elusive and need to be resolved experimentally

Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Development of Recurrent Major Depression in Chinese Women

Background Our prior study in Han Chinese women has shown that women with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are at increased risk for developing major depression (MD). Would this relationship be found in our whole data set? Method Three levels of CSA (non-genital, genital, and intercourse) were assessed by self-report in two groups of Han Chinese women: 6017 clinically ascertained with recurrent MD and 5983 matched controls. Diagnostic and other risk factor information was assessed at personal interview. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated by logistic regression. Results We confirmed earlier results by replicating prior analyses in 3,950 new recurrent MD cases. There were no significant differences between the two data sets. Any form of CSA was significantly associated with recurrent MD (OR 4.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) [3.19–5.24]). This association strengthened with increasing CSA severity: non-genital (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.58–3.15), genital (OR 5.24, 95% CI 3.52–8.15) and intercourse (OR 10.65, 95% CI 5.56–23.71). Among the depressed women, those with CSA had an earlier age of onset, longer depressive episodes. Recurrent MD patients those with CSA had an increased risk for dysthymia (OR 1.60, 95%CI 1.11–2.27) and phobia (OR 1.41, 95%CI 1.09–1.80). Any form of CSA was significantly associated with suicidal ideation or attempt (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.20–1.89) and feelings of worthlessness or guilt (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.02–2.02). Intercourse (OR 3.47, 95%CI 1.66–8.22), use of force and threats (OR 1.95, 95%CI 1.05–3.82) and how strongly the victims were affected at the time (OR 1.39, 95%CI 1.20–1.64) were significantly associated with recurrent MD

Upregulation of Barrel GABAergic Neurons Is Associated with Cross-Modal Plasticity in Olfactory Deficit

Background: Loss of a sensory function is often followed by the hypersensitivity of other modalities in mammals, which secures them well-awareness to environmental changes. Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying cross-modal sensory plasticity remain to be documented. Methodology/Principal Findings: Multidisciplinary approaches, such as electrophysiology, behavioral task and immunohistochemistry, were used to examine the involvement of specific types of neurons in cross-modal plasticity. We have established a mouse model that olfactory deficit leads to a whisking upregulation, and studied how GABAergic neurons are involved in this cross-modal plasticity. In the meantime of inducing whisker tactile hypersensitivity, the olfactory injury recruits more GABAergic neurons and their fine processes in the barrel cortex, as well as upregulates their capacity of encoding action potentials. The hyperpolarization driven by inhibitory inputs strengthens the encoding ability of their target cells. Conclusion/Significance: The upregulation of GABAergic neurons and the functional enhancement of neuronal networks may play an important role in cross-modal sensory plasticity. This finding provides the clues for developing therapeuti

Associations of Educational Attainment, Occupation, Social Class and Major Depressive Disorder among Han Chinese Women

Background The prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) is higher in those with low levels of educational attainment, the unemployed and those with low social status. However the extent to which these factors cause MDD is unclear. Most of the available data comes from studies in developed countries, and these findings may not extrapolate to developing countries. Examining the relationship between MDD and socio economic status in China is likely to add to the debate because of the radical economic and social changes occurring in China over the last 30 years. Principal findings We report results from 3,639 Chinese women with recurrent MDD and 3,800 controls. Highly significant odds ratios (ORs) were observed between MDD and full time employment (OR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.25–0.46, logP = 78), social status (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.77–0.87, logP = 13.3) and education attainment (OR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.86–0.90, logP = 6.8). We found a monotonic relationship between increasing age and increasing levels of educational attainment. Those with only primary school education have significantly more episodes of MDD (mean 6.5, P-value = 0.009) and have a clinically more severe disorder, while those with higher educational attainment are likely to manifest more comorbid anxiety disorders. Conclusions In China lower socioeconomic position is associated with increased rates of MDD, as it is elsewhere in the world. Significantly more episodes of MDD occur among those with lower educational attainment (rather than longer episodes of disease), consistent with the hypothesis that the lower socioeconomic position increases the likelihood of developing MDD. The phenomenology of MDD varies according to the degree of educational attainment: higher educational attainment not only appears to protect against MDD but alters its presentation, to a more anxious phenotype

Multi-GNSS Induced Performance Enhancements in Constrained Environments

Nowadays, three global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), namely GPS, GLONASS and China’s BeiDou System (BDS), are fully-operational in the Asia-Pacific region. Furthermore, the European Galileo system and the Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), which is a regional navigation satellite system (RNSS), jointly provide 4 to 8 additional visible satellites in the region. Thus, it is expected that a combination of the above five systems will improve positioning performance as a result of enhanced satellite availability provided by multi-GNSS. In this research, we develop a method to combine GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo, and QZSS pseudorange and carrier phase observations, and investigate positioning performance improvements brought by multi-GNSS. Experimental data were collected in Southern Taiwan to perform pseudorange-based, meter-level absolute (point) positioning as well as carrier phase-based, centimeter-level relative positioning. Test results indicate that (1) using multi-GNSS can effectively improve the accuracy of absolute (single point) and relative positioning, particularly in highly-masked, constrained environments, such as urban areas; (2) combining the five constellations can significantly shorten the Time-To-First-Fix (TTFF) for rapid ambiguity resolution required by Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) applications in constrained environments

Two-stage hybrid genetic algorithm for robot cloud service selection

Abstract Robot cloud service platform is a combination of cloud computing and robotics, providing intelligent cloud services for many robots. However, to select a cloud service that satisfys the robot’s requirements from the massive services with different QoS indicator in the cloud platform is an NP hard problem. In this paper, based on the cost model between the cloud platform, cloud services and cloud service robotics, we propose a two-stage service selection strategy, namely, candidate services selection stage according to the specific QoS requirements of service robots and final cost optimization stage. Additionally, with respect to optimizing the final cost for the model, we propose a Dynamic Vector Hybrid Genetic Algorithm (DVHGA) that is integrated with local and global search process as well as a three-phase parameter updating policy. Specifically, inspired by momentum optimization in deep learning, dynamic vector is integrated with DVHGA to modify the weights of QoS and ensure the reasonable allocation of resources. Moreover, we suggest a linear evaluation method for the service robots and the cloud platform concerning time and final cost at the same time, which could be expected to be used in the real application environment. Finally, the empirical results demonstrate that the proposed DVHGA outperforms other benchmark algorithms, i.e., DABC, ESWOA, GA, PGA and GA-PSO, in convergence rate, total final cost and evaluation score

Tracking Equilibrium Point under Real-Time Price-Based Residential Demand Response

This letter proposes a model for tracking the equilibrium point of the real-time locational marginal price (LMP) based residential demand response program, where elastic demand is modeled as a monotonously decreasing linear function of the LMP. The resulting bi-level model contains both primary and dual variables, making it difficult to solve. Using duality, the dual model is formulated as a convex quadratic problem which is tractable to solve and find the global optimum. Furthermore, the condition for the existence of the equilibrium point is given. Numerical results on the IEEE 30-bus system verifies the effectiveness of the demand response model

The PARK2 Mutation Associated with Parkinson’s Disease Enhances the Vulnerability of Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes to Paraquat

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in middle-aged and elderly people. However, the etiology and pathogenesis of PD are still unclear and there is a lack of reliable biomarkers for early molecular diagnosis. Parkin (encoded by PARK2) is a ubiquitin E3 ligase that participates in mitochondrial homeostasis, the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, oxidative stress response, and cell death pathways, which are involved in the pathogenesis of PD. However, Parkin is also expressed in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs). In this study, permanent lymphocyte lines were established from the peripheral blood of sporadic PD (sPD) patients, PARK2 mutation carriers, and healthy controls. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), function of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I, and apoptosis were analyzed in the PBLs. There was no significant difference in ROS, mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I, and apoptosis between the experimental groups and the control group without paraquat treatment. Compared with the control group of healthy subjects, we found an increase of ROS (control 100±0, sPD 275.53±79.11, and C441R 340±99.67) and apoptosis, as well as a decline in the function of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I in PBLs of PARK2 mutation carriers and sPD after the treatment of paraquat (control 0.65±0.08, sPD 0.44±0.08, and C441R 0.32±0.08). Moreover, overexpression of the wild-type (WT) PARK2 in HeLa cells and immortalized PBLs could rescue mitochondrial function and partially inhibit apoptosis following paraquat treatment, while the C441R mutation could not. Thus, ROS levels, activity of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I, and apoptosis of PBLs are potential diagnostic biomarkers of PD