Designing and implementing a GPS-based vehicle navigation application for Eclipse Kuksa

Abstract. With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), connected cars are rapidly becoming an essential milestone in the design of intelligent transportation systems and a key element in smart city design. Connected cars use a three-layer client-connection-cloud architecture, and car sensors are located at the client layer. This architecture provides the driver with a large amount of data about the external environment, which reduces the number of traffic accidents and helps the car drive safely. Driving safety is the most critical design factor for next-generation vehicles. The future vision of the automotive industry is self-driving cars. However, it faces some challenges. Eclipse Kuksa provides solutions to challenges in the field of connected cars. A comprehensive ecosystem includes a complete tool stack for connected vehicles, including a vehicle platform, a cloud platform, and an application development Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Its essential function is to collect, store, and analyze vehicle data and transmit various information in the cloud. This master’s thesis aims to investigate a Global Positioning System (GPS) -based vehicle navigation application on the vehicle and cloud platforms of Eclipse Kuksa, understand how to develop a GPS-based vehicle navigation application using the Eclipse Kuksa software platform, and discuss the advantages and challenges of using Eclipse Kuksa to develop vehicle applications. The research methods are Design Science Research (DSR) and literature review. System development is carried out following the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) Process, developed and evaluated on the vehicle navigation application. The application artifact consists of the Eclipse Kuksa vehicle platform and cloud platform. The steps described in this paper can be used to build vehicle applications in Eclipse Kuksa. This paper also explains the benefits and challenges of using Eclipse Kuksa to develop vehicle applications. The main benefit is that open source solutions break the long-term closed development model of the automotive industry and establish a vehicle-to-cloud solution standard to meet the IoT challenges to the automotive industry. Simultaneously the challenge of using Eclipse Kuksa is the complexity of environment construction and the software and hardware compatibility

G2C: A Generator-to-Classifier Framework Integrating Multi-Stained Visual Cues for Pathological Glomerulus Classification

Pathological glomerulus classification plays a key role in the diagnosis of nephropathy. As the difference between different subcategories is subtle, doctors often refer to slides from different staining methods to make decisions. However, creating correspondence across various stains is labor-intensive, bringing major difficulties in collecting data and training a vision-based algorithm to assist nephropathy diagnosis. This paper provides an alternative solution for integrating multi-stained visual cues for glomerulus classification. Our approach, named generator-to-classifier (G2C), is a two-stage framework. Given an input image from a specified stain, several generators are first applied to estimate its appearances in other staining methods, and a classifier follows to combine visual cues from different stains for prediction (whether it is pathological, or which type of pathology it has). We optimize these two stages in a joint manner. To provide a reasonable initialization, we pre-train the generators in an unlabeled reference set under an unpaired image-to-image translation task, and then fine-tune them together with the classifier. We conduct experiments on a glomerulus type classification dataset collected by ourselves (there are no publicly available datasets for this purpose). Although joint optimization slightly harms the authenticity of the generated patches, it boosts classification performance, suggesting more effective visual cues are extracted in an automatic way. We also transfer our model to a public dataset for breast cancer classification, and outperform the state-of-the-arts significantly.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 201

Poverty Alleviation and Development Path Analysis: A Case Study on Rocky Desertification Area of in Yunnan Guangxi Guizhou Province in China

Yunnan Guangxi Guizhou provinces are concentrated areas of rocky desertification in China. In this paper, the poverty status of Yunnan Guangxi Guizhou provinces rocky desertification areas can be analysed in multidimension. We can improve many aspects such as the ecological environment, infrastructure, education skills training and others for poverty alleviation and development. According to the poverty theory and related theory in applying to poverty alleviation of the Yunnan Guangxi Guizhou rocky desertification area, combined with their self-conditions of Yunnan Guangxi Guizhou provinces rocky desertification area, strive to solve the bottleneck problems of the development and curb desertification expansion trend, fundamentally change the face of the Yunnan Guangxi Guizhou provinces rocky desertification area, promote the sustainable development. On the basis of these, we can build the model of poverty alleviation and development of Yunnan Guangxi Guizhou provinces rocky desertification area

Analysis of two human gene clusters involved in innate immunity

Human body surfaces are defended by epithelia, which provide the initial physical barrier against potential harmful microorganisms. Epithelia also provide chemical barriers to microbial colonization including low pH, hydrolytic enzymes, and defense molecules such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The number of reports demonstrating the presence and upregulation of AMPs in human skin is increasing and reflects the significance of these peptides in cutaneous innate immunity. This thesis has performed an exhaustive characterization of two coherent gene clusters, S100 fused-type proteins (SFTPs) and kazal type serine protease inhibitors (SPINKs), with a part of the effort to elucidate the molecular mechanism of innate immunity in the skin. Included is expression analyses of various novel genes identified in primary keratinocytes and generation of goat antisera against recombinant hornerin fragments and recombinant LEKTI-2, respectively

The Three Gorges Dam Affects Regional Precipitation

Issues regarding building large-scale dams as a solution to power generation and flood control problems have been widely discussed by both natural and social scientists from various disciplines, as well as the policy-makers and public. Since the Chinese government officially approved the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) projects, this largest hydroelectric project in the world has drawn a lot of debates ranging from its social and economic to climatic impacts. The TGD has been partially in use since June 2003. The impact of the TGD is examined through analysis of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall rate and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature and high-resolution simulation using the Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU-NCAR) fifth-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5). The independent satellite data sets and numerical simulation clearly indicate that the land use change associated with the TGD construction has increased the precipitation in the region between Daba and Qinling mountains and reduced the precipitation in the vicinity of the TGD after the TGD water level abruptly rose from 66 to 135 m in June 2003. This study suggests that the climatic effect of the TGD is on the regional scale (approx.100 km) rather than on the local scale (approx.10 km) as projected in previous studies

Analysis of two human gene clusters involved in innate immunity

Human body surfaces are defended by epithelia, which provide the initial physical barrier against potential harmful microorganisms. Epithelia also provide chemical barriers to microbial colonization including low pH, hydrolytic enzymes, and defense molecules such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The number of reports demonstrating the presence and upregulation of AMPs in human skin is increasing and reflects the significance of these peptides in cutaneous innate immunity. This thesis has performed an exhaustive characterization of two coherent gene clusters, S100 fused-type proteins (SFTPs) and kazal type serine protease inhibitors (SPINKs), with a part of the effort to elucidate the molecular mechanism of innate immunity in the skin. Included is expression analyses of various novel genes identified in primary keratinocytes and generation of goat antisera against recombinant hornerin fragments and recombinant LEKTI-2, respectively

H19 potentiates let-7 family expression through reducing PTBP1 binding to their precursors in cholestasis

Cholestasis induces the hepatic long non-coding RNA H19, which promotes the progression of cholestatic liver fibrosis. However, microRNAs that are dysregulated by H19 during cholestasis remain elusive. Using miRNA-sequencing analysis followed by qPCR validation, we identified marked upregulation of eight members of the let-7 family in cholestatic livers by bile duct ligation (BDL) and H19 overexpression. In particular, the expression of let-7a-1/7d/7f-1 was highly induced in H19-BDL livers but decreased in H19KO-BDL livers. Interestingly, H19 decreased the nuclear let-7 precursors as well as the primary transcripts of let-7a-1/7d/7f-1 levels in BDL mouse livers. Bioinformatics, RNA pull-down, and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays revealed that the crucial RNA-binding protein polypyrimidine tract-binding protein 1 (PTBP1), an H19 interaction partner, interacted with the precursors of let-7a-1 and let-7d and suppressed their maturation. Both PTBP1 and let-7 expression was differentially regulated by different bile acid species in hepatocyte and cholangiocyte cells. Further, H19 negatively regulated PTBP1's mRNA and protein levels but did not affect its subcellular distribution in BDL mouse livers. Moreover, we found that H19 restrained but PTBP1 facilitated the bioavailability of let-7 miRNAs to their targets. Taken together, this study revealed for the first time that H19 promoted let-7 expression by decreasing PTBP1's expression level and its binding to the let-7 precursors in cholestasis

Gene Transfer of Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide Inhibits Macrophages and Inflammatory Mediators in Vein Graft Disease

Vein graft disease is a chronic inflammatory disease and limits the late results of coronary revascularization. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibits macrophages infiltrated and inflammatory mediators, we hypothesized that transfected CGRP gene inhibits macrophages infiltrated and inflammatory mediators in vein graft disease. Autologous rabbit jugular vein grafts were incubated ex vivo in a solution of mosaic adeno-associated virus vectors containing CGRP gene (AAV2/1.CGRP) 、escherichia coli lac Z gene (AAV2/1.LacZ) or saline and then interposed in the carotid artery. Intima/media ratio were evaluated at postoperative 4 weeks, Macrophages were marked with CD68 antibody by immunocytochemistry. Inflammatory mediators were mensurated with real-time PCR. Neointimal thickening was significantly suppressed in AAV2/1.CGRP group. Macrophages infiltrated and inflammatory mediators monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1)、tumor necrosis factorα(TNF-α)、inducible nitricoxide synthase (iNOS)、matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) was significantly suppressed in AAV2/1.CGRP group.Gene transfected AAV2/1.CGRP suppressed neointimal hyperplasia in vein graft disease by suppressed macrophages infiltrated and inflammatory mediators