A Crowd-Assisted Real-time Public Transport Information Service: No More Endless Wait

Many passengers have expressed frustration in waiting for public bus endlessly without knowing the estimated ar- rival time. In many developing countries, requiring bus operators to invest in the installation of a GPS unit on every bus in order to track the bus location and subsequently predicting the bus arrival time can be costly. This paper proposes passenger-assisted sharing of bus location to provide an estimation of bus arrival time. Our scheme aims to exploit the availability and capability of passenger mobile phones to share location information of the travelling buses in order to collect transportation data, at the same time provide an estimation of bus arrival time to the general public. A mobile app is developed to periodically report bus location to the cloud service, and it can detect location spoofing by malicious users. The preliminary results of the field tests suggest that the proposed system is viable and the predicated ETA falls within three minutes of the bus actual arrival time

Charitable donations: Empirical evidence from Brunei

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the demographic and psychographic characteristics of Bruneians in relation to charitable donation behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via an intercept approach at five major intersections of the central business district in the city of Brunei. Data were analysed using SPSS, with factor analysis being conducted before applying a series of t-tests and ANOVAs. Findings – Overall there is no relationship between age, income and gender, and donating behaviour. Results show that perceived generosity does not play an important role in Brunei compared to previous studies. The cause of this phenomenon could be due to the influence of the Bruneian culture. That is, the government takes a large responsibility for charitable events in Brunei and for this reason charitable donations from citizens are limited. Analysis also showed the importance of religion in predicting donation behaviour. Research limitations/implications – Further research in this paper should attempt to make more cross-cultural comparisons of donor characteristics. This would provide a more holistic perspective on donor behaviour and thus assist managerial decisions in the marketing of charities. The effects of religiosity on donation behaviour should be further analysed to ascertain the variances of donation behaviour across cultures with high dominance of religion.Originality/value – The principal contribution of this paper is that it provides insights into the nuances and characteristics of Bruneians in relation to attitudes and behaviour towards charitable donations

Networks of intergenic long-range enhancers and snpRNAs drive castration-resistant phenotype of prostate cancer and contribute to pathogenesis of multiple common human disorders

Biological and mechanistic relevance of intergenic disease-associated genetic loci (IDAGL) containing highly statistically significant disease-linked SNPs remains unknown. Here we present the experimental and clinical evidence revealing important role of IDAGL in human diseases. Targeted RT-PCR screen coupled with sequencing of purified PCR products detects widespread transcription at multiple intergenic disease-associated genomic loci (IDAGL) and identifies 96 small non-coding trans-regulatory RNAs of ~ 100-300 nt in length containing SNPs associated with 21 common human disorders (snpRNAs). Functionality of snpRNAs is supported by multiple independent lines of experimental evidence demonstrating their cell-type-specific expression and evolutionary conservation of sequences, genomic coordinates, and biological effects. Analysis of chromatin state signatures, expression profiling experiments using microarray and Q-PCR technologies, and luciferase reporter assays indicate that many IDAGL are Polycomb-regulated long-range enhancers. Expression of snpRNAs in human and mouse cells markedly affects cellular behavior and induces allele-specific clinically-relevant phenotypic changes: NLRP1-locus snpRNAs exert regulatory effects on monocyte/macrophage trans-differentiation, induce prostate cancer (PC) susceptibility snpRNAs, and transform low-malignancy hormone-dependent human PC cells into highly malignant androgen-independent PC. Q-PCR analysis and luciferase reporter assays demonstrate that snpRNA sequences represent allele-specific “decoy” targets of microRNAs which function as SNP-allele-specific modifiers of microRNA expression and activity. We demonstrate that trans-acting RNA molecules facilitating androgen depletion-independent growth (ADIG) in vitro and castration-resistant (CR) phenotype in vivo of PC contain intergenic 8q24-locus SNP variants which were recently linked with increased risk of developing PC. Expression level of 8q24-locus PC susceptibility snpRNAs is regulated by NLRP1-locus snpRNAs, which are transcribed from the intergenic long-range enhancer sequence located in 17p13 region at ~ 30 kb distance from the NLRP1 gene. Q-PCR analysis of clinical PC samples reveals markedly increased snpRNA expression levels in tumor tissues compared to the adjacent normal prostate [122-fold and 45-fold in Gleason 7 tumors (p = 0.03); 370-fold and 127-fold in Gleason 8 tumors (p = 0.0001); for NLRP1-locus and 8q24-locus SnpRNAs, respectively]. Highly concordant expression profiles of the NLRP1-locus snpRNAs and 8q24 CR-locus snpRNAs (r = 0.896; p < 0.0001) in clinical PC samples and experimental evidence of trans-regulatory effects of NLRP1-locus snpRNAs on expression of 8q24-locus SnpRNAs indicate that ADIG and CR phenotype of human PC cells can be triggered by RNA molecules transcribed from the NLRP1-locus intergenic enhancer and down-stream activation of the 8q24-locus snpRNAs. Our results define the intergenic NLRP1 and 8q24 regions as regulatory loci of ADIG and CR phenotype of human PC, reveal previously unknown molecular links between the innate immunity/inflammasome system and development of hormone-independent PC, and identify novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets exploration of which should be highly beneficial for clinical management of PC

The evolution, metabolism and functions of the apicoplast

The malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, harbours a relict plastid known as the ‘apicoplast’. The discovery of the apicoplast ushered in an exciting new prospect for drug development against the parasite. The eubacterial ancestry of the organelle offers a wealth of opportunities for the development of therapeutic interventions. Morphological, biochemical and bioinformatic studies of the apicoplast have further reinforced its ‘plant-like’ characteristics and potential as a drug target. However, we are still not sure why the apicoplast is essential for the parasite's survival. This review explores the origins and metabolic functions of the apicoplast. In an attempt to decipher the role of the organelle within the parasite we also take a closer look at the transporters decorating the plastid to better understand the metabolic exchanges between the apicoplast and the rest of the parasite cell

Spherical Tin Oxide, SnO2 Particles Fabricated via Facile Hydrothermal Method for Detection of Mercury (II) Ions.

Smooth-surface spherical tin oxide particles were fabricated via hydrothermal processing route. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the particles consisted of the rutile phase of SnO2 with tetragonal structure. The spherical morphology was realized with the aid of ammonia. The aggregation of SnO2 particles could be avoided by adjusting the concentration of tin (II) chloride. Bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was modified with the hydrothermally prepared SnO2 particles to detect the presence of mercury (II) ions (Hg2+), in the presence of potassium chloride (KCl) as a supporting electrolyte. GCE modified with the spherical SnO2 particles that possessed small crystallite size and smooth surface exhibited significantly enhanced oxidative and reductive current of Hg2+ during cyclic voltammetry compared with its bare counterpart. The reductive current was observed to increase by two fold and the detection limit of 75 nM for Hg 2+ was achieved. This suggests that SnO2 particles are a promising chemical sensor for the detection of Hg2+ in natural waters

Lymphopenia in treatment-naive relapsing multiple sclerosis

Lymphopenia accompanies some autoimmune diseases. A number of studies, but not others, have suggested that lymphopenia occurs in treatment-naive multiple sclerosis (MS), so the issue remains unresolved. This is important since lymphopenia may identify an immunologically distinct subset of MS. Also, lymphopenia may emerge as a risk factor for serious viral infections of the brain during dimethyl fumarate treatment. We therefore embarked on a retrospective controlled study of pre-treatment lymphopenia in relapsing M

Reconstruction of Phonated Speech from Whispers Using Formant-Derived Plausible Pitch Modulation

Whispering is a natural, unphonated, secondary aspect of speech communications for most people. However, it is the primary mechanism of communications for some speakers who have impaired voice production mechanisms, such as partial laryngectomees, as well as for those prescribed voice rest, which often follows surgery or damage to the larynx. Unlike most people, who choose when to whisper and when not to, these speakers may have little choice but to rely on whispers for much of their daily vocal interaction. Even though most speakers will whisper at times, and some speakers can only whisper, the majority of today’s computational speech technology systems assume or require phonated speech. This article considers conversion of whispers into natural-sounding phonated speech as a noninvasive prosthetic aid for people with voice impairments who can only whisper. As a by-product, the technique is also useful for unimpaired speakers who choose to whisper. Speech reconstruction systems can be classified into those requiring training and those that do not. Among the latter, a recent parametric reconstruction framework is explored and then enhanced through a refined estimation of plausible pitch from weighted formant differences. The improved reconstruction framework, with proposed formant-derived artificial pitch modulation, is validated through subjective and objective comparison tests alongside state-of-the-art alternatives

Instrument-tissue segment interaction using finite element modeling

Los Alamitos, C