Game-Theoretic Pricing and Selection with Fading Channels

We consider pricing and selection with fading channels in a Stackelberg game framework. A channel server decides the channel prices and a client chooses which channel to use based on the remote estimation quality. We prove the existence of an optimal deterministic and Markovian policy for the client, and show that the optimal policies of both the server and the client have threshold structures when the time horizon is finite. Value iteration algorithm is applied to obtain the optimal solutions for both the server and client, and numerical simulations and examples are given to demonstrate the developed result.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by the 2017 Asian Control Conferenc

Inline Text Entry On Portable Electronic Devices

This publication describes systems and techniques to provide inline text entry on portable electronic devices. Portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, generally include an on-screen keyboard to allow users to input alphanumeric characters. These keyboards generally provide several suggestions of the word that the user is currently typing or the next word to be input. Because the keyboard has a limited area on the graphical user interface (GUI) to display candidate words, the keyboard can only present a few suggestions (e.g., two or three candidates), which are generally single-word candidates. This publication describes a keyboard for portable electronic devices that displays inline candidate words, which can include multiple words, entire phrases, and complete sentences. The inline suggestions can be shown directly in the editor box of an application or a pop-up window. The inline suggestions allow users to type faster and reduce spelling and grammatical errors in applications on portable electronic devices

VIRTUAL KEYBOARD WITH INTEGRATED SUGGESTION FEATURES

A computing device may present a virtual keyboard with integrated suggestion features that improve the speed and efficiency of correcting typographical errors (e.g., spelling and/or grammar errors) or text otherwise warranting correction. The virtual keyboard may be configured to present one or more suggestions for correcting typographical errors (also referred to herein as “typos”) identified by the computing device. The computing device may display a virtual keyboard graphical user interface (GUI) that includes one or more suggestions for correcting each typo in a suggestion strip GUI. The suggestion strip GUI may be a contiguous region in line with and/or directly above the virtual keyboard rather than within a graphical element that overlays a portion of the virtual keyboard GUI and visually obscures the virtual keyboard GUI. In some instances, the suggested correction or an explanation of the error may be included within the virtual keyboard GUI in place of the keyboard itself or a combination thereof (e.g., a suggested correction within the suggestion strip GUI and an explanation of the error in place of the virtual keyboard GUI)

Seasonal variation and nutrient jointly drive the community structure of macrophytes in lakes with different trophic states

IntroductionMacrophytes are essential for maintaining the health of shallow lake ecosystems, however, the driving and responsive relationship between ecological factors (such as seasonal changes and nutrition, etc.) and plant communities is not yet clear.MethodsIn this study, we conducted seasonal surveys of macrophyte community composition in lakes with different nutrient states, aiming to understand the incidence relation between macrophyte community diversity, seasonal changes and environmental factors.ResultsAccording to the classification criteria of comprehensive nutritional index, there were significant differences in the trophic status of the three lakes. Among them, the Xihu Lake has reached mild eutrophication with a TLI value of 56.33, both Cibi Lake and Haixihai Lake are mesotrophic with TLI value of 36.03 and 33.48, respectively. The results of diversity analysis showed a significant negative correlation between α-diversity (include Species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson index and Pielou index) and lake nutrient status. Among them, Xihu Lake showed the lowest α-diversity in all seasons, Haixihai Lake exhibited the middle α-diversity, Cibi Lake indicated the highest α-diversity. Non-metric multidimensional ordination showed that there were obvious spatial structures differences among the macrophyte communities in the three lakes. Macrophyte community composition in the three lakes was more similar in summer and autumn, but there was a wider gap in spring and winter. The redundancy analysis indicated distinct differences between diversity index and ecological factors, the eigenvalues of Axis 1 and Axis 2 being, respectively, 36.13% and 8.15%. Environmental factors could explain 44.8% of the total variation in macrophyte communities structure. Among these, nitrogen, phosphorus, water transparency and water temperature contributed 50.2%, 3.5%, 3.8% and 27.5%, respectively.ConclusionsIn summary, the community structure of macrophytes in plateau shallow lakes is co-regulated by seasons and nutrients

3D-printed integrative probeheads for magnetic resonance

射频探头前端作为核磁共振设备的核心部件之一，极大程度的决定着系统实验性能的优劣。探头前端通常由射频线圈、射频电路及样品检测管道等部分组成。现有的射频线圈制作技术主要是通过手工或机械手段按照所需的线圈形状进行绕制。但是，当线圈结构较为复杂、不规则，或体积尺寸较小时，常规绕制方法便难以满足结构设计和制造的精度需求，因此造成线圈性能的劣化，增大检测区域的射频场不均匀性，对核磁共振检测产生负面影响。本研究中，利用3D打印熔融沉积制造或光敏树脂选择性固化技术精确加工出一体化磁共振探头前端，使用常温液态金属填充线圈模型管路形成射频线圈，搭建出稳定的一体化磁共振射频探头。利用高精度3D打印和液态金属灌注技术制备出包含有射频线圈和定制化样品管道结构在内的一体化磁共振射频探头前端，克服了传统磁共振三维微型线圈成型困难、与样品腔匹配程度差等问题，提高了探头的信噪比，为定制化的磁共振检测提供了新思路。 该工作由厦门大学电子科学与技术学院陈忠教授、游学秋副研究员和孙惠军高级工程师共同指导完成，博士研究生谢君尧为论文第一作者。厦门大学电子科学与技术学院黄玉清高级工程师、王忻昌副教授、倪祖荣助理教授、硕士研究生张德超，化学化工学院杨朝勇教授、博士研究生李星锐，萨本栋微米纳米科学技术研究院陈宏教授为合作作者。【Abstract】Magnetic resonance (MR) technology has been widely employed in scientific research, clinical diagnosis and geological survey. However, the fabrication of MR radio frequency probeheads still face difficulties in integration, customization and miniaturization. Here, we utilized 3D printing and liquid metal filling techniques to fabricate integrative radio frequency probeheads for MR experiments. The 3D-printed probehead with micrometer precision generally consists of liquid metal coils, customized sample chambers and radio frequency circuit interfaces. We screened different 3D printing materials and optimized the liquid metals by incorporating metal microparticles. The 3D-printed probeheads are capable of performing both routine and nonconventional MR experiments, including in situ electrochemical analysis, in situ reaction monitoring with continues-flow paramagnetic particles and ions separation, and small-sample MR imaging. Due to the flexibility and accuracy of 3D printing techniques, we can accurately obtain complicated coil geometries at the micrometer scale, shortening the fabrication timescale and extending the application scenarios.The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants U1632274, 11761141010, U1805261, 11475142, 22073078, and 61801411), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M622075).研究工作得到国家自然科学基金、中国博士后科学基金等项目支持

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead