NLOS Dies Twice: Challenges and Solutions of V2X for Cooperative Perception

Multi-agent multi-lidar sensor fusion between connected vehicles for cooperative perception has recently been recognized as the best technique for minimizing the blind zone of individual vehicular perception systems and further enhancing the overall safety of autonomous driving systems. This technique relies heavily on the reliability and availability of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. In practical sensor fusion application scenarios, the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) issue causes blind zones for not only the perception system but also V2X direct communication. To counteract underlying communication issues, we introduce an abstract perception matrix matching method for quick sensor fusion matching procedures and mobility-height hybrid relay determination procedures, proactively improving the efficiency and performance of V2X communication to serve the upper layer application fusion requirements. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution, we design a new simulation framework to consider autonomous driving, sensor fusion and V2X communication in general, paving the way for end-to-end performance evaluation and further solution derivation.Comment: Submission to IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazin

Effect of anti-CIRP antibody on inflammatory response, tumor formation and abdominal aortic aneurysm in rats

Purpose: To investigate the effect of anti-cold induced RNA binding protein (CIRP) antibody on inflammation, tumor formation and abdominal aortic aneurysm in rats.Methods: Thirty healthy male Wistar rats were assigned to pseudo-operation, abdominal aortic aneurysm model, and anti-CIRP groups, with 10 in each group. The levels of CIRP, TNF- α, monocyte giant cytokine chemokine-1 (MCP-1), Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)) and nuclear factor kappaB (NF- κB)were determined compared among the groups.Results: At both 2 and 4 weeks, the expression of CIRP protein in the model group was significantly higher than that in the sham operation group (p < 0.05). At these two time-points, tumor formation and maximum diameter were higher in anti-CIRP and model control rats than in pseudo-operation rats. After 4 weeks of treatment, the protein expressions of TNF- α, MCP-1, TLR4 and NF-κB were higher in anti-CIRP and model control rats than in pseudo-operation rats, but were lower than model control values (p < 0.05).Conclusion: CIRP expression is significantly increased in abdominal aortic aneurysm tissue and serum, and is involved in the onset and progress of abdominal aortic aneurysm. Anti-CIRP antibody therapy effectively suppresses tumorigenesis, and inhibits tumor wall inflammatory reaction viaTLR4/NF-κB pathway. This finding provides a clue and new strategy for the clinical management of abdominal aortic aneurysm. Keywords: CIRP, Abdominal aortic tumor wall, Inflammatory reaction, Protein expression, Tumor bod

Exploiting Data and Human Knowledge for Predicting Wildlife Poaching

Poaching continues to be a significant threat to the conservation of wildlife and the associated ecosystem. Estimating and predicting where the poachers have committed or would commit crimes is essential to more effective allocation of patrolling resources. The real-world data in this domain is often sparse, noisy and incomplete, consisting of a small number of positive data (poaching signs), a large number of negative data with label uncertainty, and an even larger number of unlabeled data. Fortunately, domain experts such as rangers can provide complementary information about poaching activity patterns. However, this kind of human knowledge has rarely been used in previous approaches. In this paper, we contribute new solutions to the predictive analysis of poaching patterns by exploiting both very limited data and human knowledge. We propose an approach to elicit quantitative information from domain experts through a questionnaire built upon a clustering-based division of the conservation area. In addition, we propose algorithms that exploit qualitative and quantitative information provided by the domain experts to augment the dataset and improve learning. In collaboration with World Wild Fund for Nature, we show that incorporating human knowledge leads to better predictions in a conservation area in Northeastern China where the charismatic species is Siberian Tiger. The results show the importance of exploiting human knowledge when learning from limited data.Comment: COMPASS 201

C-V2X Vision in the Chinese Roadmap: Standardization, Field Tests, and Industrialization

Cellular-based V2X (C-V2X) technology promoted by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is gaining increasing attention globally, after many year-long competition with dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) supported by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for vehicular to everything communication. As a rising star, China continuously and actively focuses on and contributes to the C-V2X technology development in this technology marathon. Starting from the standardization progress, a quite few Chinese-specific use cases and communication messages are defined for the complicated urban traffics. Based on these dedicatedly designed higher layer protocols, the annual field tests are progressively conducted to testify the interoperability among chipsets, modules, security certificates, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Putting enough efforts on industry standards and tests, China is fast commercializing the C-V2X-based road services, for example, robotaxi and robot-bus in representative cities. Thus, in this chapter, we propose to provide sufficient technology views and a summary to show such advanced Chinese C-V2X philosophy

Analysis on the technical detection capacity of radioactive substances in food in China

To analyze the detection capacity of radioactive substances in food in China， and improve the radioactive contamination monitoring system. By studying the distribution of certified institutions and testing items and the results of proficiency assessment， the current situation and deficiencies of the detection capacities were analyzed， and corresponding countermeasures were put forward. The capacity of radioactive material detection in China can better support the operation of the monitoring system， however， the effectiveness and sustainability of testing capacity， the layout of capacity network and the construction of food radioactive pollution monitoring system need to be further improved and strengthened， so as to meet the needs of normal circumstances and rapid response in case of nuclear or radiological emergencies in China

Attacking Recommender Systems with Augmented User Profiles

Recommendation Systems (RS) have become an essential part of many online services. Due to its pivotal role in guiding customers towards purchasing, there is a natural motivation for unscrupulous parties to spoof RS for profits. In this paper, we study the shilling attack: a subsistent and profitable attack where an adversarial party injects a number of user profiles to promote or demote a target item. Conventional shilling attack models are based on simple heuristics that can be easily detected, or directly adopt adversarial attack methods without a special design for RS. Moreover, the study on the attack impact on deep learning based RS is missing in the literature, making the effects of shilling attack against real RS doubtful. We present a novel Augmented Shilling Attack framework (AUSH) and implement it with the idea of Generative Adversarial Network. AUSH is capable of tailoring attacks against RS according to budget and complex attack goals, such as targeting a specific user group. We experimentally show that the attack impact of AUSH is noticeable on a wide range of RS including both classic and modern deep learning based RS, while it is virtually undetectable by the state-of-the-art attack detection model.Comment: CIKM 2020. 10 pages, 2 figure

Some discussions on Arctic vortex

The Arctic vortex is a persistent large-scale cyclonic circulation in the middle and upper troposphere and the stratosphere. Its activity and variation control the semi-permanent active centers of Pan-Arctic and the short-time cyclone activity in the subarctic areas. Its strength variation, which directly relates to the atmosphere, ocean, sea ice and ecosystem of the Arctic, can affect the lower atmospheric circulation, the weather of subarctic area and even the weather of middle latitude areas. The 2003 Chinese Second Arctic Research Station experienced the transition of the stratospheric circulation from a warm anticyclone to a cold cyclone during the ending period of Arctic summertime, a typical establishing process of the polar vortex circulation. The impact of the polar vortex variation on the low-level circulation has been investigated by some scientists through studying the coupling mechanisms of the stratosphere and troposphere. The impact of the Stratospheric Sudden Warming (SFW) events on the polar vortex variation was drawing people's great attention in the fifties of the last century. The Arctic Oscillation (AO), relating to the variation of the Arctic vortex, has been used to study the impact of the Arctic vortex on climate change. The recent Arctic vortex studies are simply reviewed and some discussions on the Arctic vertex are given in the paper. Some different views and questions are also discussed

Information Relaying Methods in VANET: Algorithms, Standards and Tests

This paper considers information transmission issue observed in a large scale test of cellular-based vehicular to everything (C-V2X) technology in China, which is the information blockage for the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless communication. With such findings, we propose utilizing relaying-based information routing solutions by the support of K-means-type algorithm and an on-request relay selection method in a vehicular adhoc network (VANET). From the algorithm perspective, we refine the K-means-based VANET seeding principle with considerations on the global vehicle layout. On the other hand, base station and/or core network aided relay selection associated with vehicle maneuver is introduced for waking up relays when necessary in order to address the typical non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signal attenuation by taking the power consumption into consideration. To evaluate the system performance, we conduct Matlab and network simulator (NS)-3 simualtions to justify the algorithms, and adopt Veins-based simulations to show the data packets loss gain over non-relaying scenarios of realistic V2V scenario with NLOS signal dissemination

Transcriptome sequencing revealed that knocking down FOXL2 affected cell proliferation, the cell cycle, and DNA replication in chicken pre-ovulatory follicle cells.

Forkhead box L2 (FOXL2) is a single-exon gene encoding a forkhead transcription factor, which is mainly expressed in the ovary, eyelids and the pituitary gland. FOXL2 plays an essential role in ovarian development. To reveal the effects of FOXL2 on the biological process and gene expression of ovarian granulosa cells (GCs), we established stable FOXL2-knockdown GCs and then analysed them using transcriptome sequencing. It was observed that knocking down FOXL2 affected the biological processes of cell proliferation, DNA replication, and apoptosis and affected cell cycle progression. FOXL2 knockdown promoted cell proliferation and DNA replication, decreased cell apoptosis, and promoted mitosis. In addition, by comparing the transcriptome after FOXL2 knockdown, we found a series of DEGs (differentially expressed genes) and related pathways. These results indicated that, through mediating these genes and pathways, the FOXL2 might induce the cell proliferation, cycle, and DNA replication, and play a key role during ovarian development and maintenance