31 research outputs found
On Generalized Sub-Gaussian Canonical Processes and Their Applications
We obtain the tail probability of generalized sub-Gaussian canonical
processes. It can be viewed as a variant of the Bernstein-type inequality in
the i.i.d case, and we further get a tighter bound of concentration inequality
through uniformly randomized techniques. A concentration inequality for general
functions involving independent random variables is also derived as an
extension. As for applications, we derive convergence results for principal
component analysis and the Rademacher complexities method.Comment: 25page
Timed-Elastic-Band Based Variable Splitting for Autonomous Trajectory Planning
Existing trajectory planning methods are struggling to handle the issue of
autonomous track swinging during navigation, resulting in significant errors
when reaching the destination. In this article, we address autonomous
trajectory planning problems, which aims at developing innovative solutions to
enhance the adaptability and robustness of unmanned systems in navigating
complex and dynamic environments. We first introduce the variable splitting
(VS) method as a constrained optimization method to reimagine the renowned
Timed-Elastic-Band (TEB) algorithm, resulting in a novel collision avoidance
approach named Timed-Elastic-Band based variable splitting (TEB-VS). The
proposed TEB-VS demonstrates superior navigation stability, while maintaining
nearly identical resource consumption to TEB. We then analyze the convergence
of the proposed TEB-VS method. To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of
TEB-VS, extensive experiments have been conducted using TurtleBot2 in both
simulated environments and real-world datasets
MultiāChannel Lanthanide Nanocomposites for Customized Synergistic Treatment of Orthotopic MultiāTumor Cases
Simultaneous photothermal ablation of multiple tumors is limited by unpredictable photo-induced apoptosis, caused by individual intratumoral differences. Here, a multi-channel lanthanide nanocomposite was used to achieve tailored synergistic treatment of multiple subcutaneous orthotopic tumors under non-uniform whole-body infrared irradiation prescription. The nanocomposite reduces intratumoral glutathione by simultaneously activating the fluorescence and photothermal channels. The fluorescence provides individual information on different tumors, allowing customized prescriptions to be made. This enables optimal induction of hyperthermia and dosage of chemo drugs, to ensure treatment efficacy, while avoiding overtherapy. With an accessional therapeutic laser system, customized synergistic treatment of subcutaneous orthotopic cancer cases with multiple tumors is possible with both high efficacy and minimized side effects
OptScaler: A Hybrid Proactive-Reactive Framework for Robust Autoscaling in the Cloud
Autoscaling is a vital mechanism in cloud computing that supports the
autonomous adjustment of computing resources under dynamic workloads. A primary
goal of autoscaling is to stabilize resource utilization at a desirable level,
thus reconciling the need for resource-saving with the satisfaction of Service
Level Objectives (SLOs). Existing proactive autoscaling methods anticipate the
future workload and scale the resources in advance, whereas the reliability may
suffer from prediction deviations arising from the frequent fluctuations and
noise of cloud workloads; reactive methods rely on real-time system feedback,
while the hysteretic nature of reactive methods could cause violations of the
rigorous SLOs. To this end, this paper presents OptScaler, a hybrid autoscaling
framework that integrates the power of both proactive and reactive methods for
regulating CPU utilization. Specifically, the proactive module of OptScaler
consists of a sophisticated workload prediction model and an optimization
model, where the former provides reliable inputs to the latter for making
optimal scaling decisions. The reactive module provides a self-tuning estimator
of CPU utilization to the optimization model. We embed Model Predictive Control
(MPC) mechanism and robust optimization techniques into the optimization model
to further enhance its reliability. Numerical results have demonstrated the
superiority of both the workload prediction model and the hybrid framework of
OptScaler in the scenario of online services compared to prevalent reactive,
proactive, or hybrid autoscalers. OptScaler has been successfully deployed at
Alipay, supporting the autoscaling of applets in the world-leading payment
platform
More Than Just Statics: Static and Temporal Dynamic Changes in Intrinsic Brain Activity in Unilateral Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
BACKGROUND: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most prevalent refractory focal epilepsy and is more likely accompanied by cognitive impairment. The fully understanding of the neuronal activity underlying TLE is of great significance.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to comprehensively explore the potential brain activity abnormalities affected by TLE and detect whether the changes were associated with cognition.
METHODS: Six static intrinsic brain activity (IBA) indicators [amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), fractional ALFF (fALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), degree centrality (DC), global signal correlation (GSCorr), and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC)] and their corresponding dynamic indicators, such as dynamic ALFF (dALFF), dynamic fALFF (dfALFF), dynamic ReHo (dReHo), dynamic DC (dDC), dynamic VMHC (dVMHC), and dynamic GSCorr (dGSCorr), in 57 patients with unilateral TLE and 42 healthy volunteers were compared. Correlation analyses were also performed between these indicators in areas displaying group differences and cognitive function, epilepsy duration, and severity.
RESULTS: Marked overlap was present among the abnormal brain regions detected using various static and dynamic indicators, primarily including increased ALFF/dALFF/fALFF in the bilateral medial temporal lobe and thalamus, decreased ALFF/dALFF/fALFF in the frontal lobe contralateral to the epileptogenic side, decreased fALFF, ReHo, dReHo, DC, dDC, GSCorr, dGSCorr, and VMHC in the temporal neocortex ipsilateral to the epileptogenic foci, decreased dReHo, dDC, dGSCorr, and dVMHC in the occipital lobe, and increased ALFF, fALFF, dfALFF, ReHo, and DC in the supplementary motor area ipsilateral to the epileptogenic foci. Furthermore, most IBA indicators in the abnormal brain region significantly correlated with the duration of epilepsy and several cognitive scale scores (
CONCLUSION: The combined application of static and dynamic IBA indicators could comprehensively reveal more real abnormal neuronal activity and the impairment and compensatory mechanisms of cognitive function in TLE. Moreover, it might help in the lateralization of epileptogenic foci and exploration of the transmission and inhibition pathways of epileptic activity
Smart Textile-Driven Soft Spine Exosuit for Lifting Tasks in Industrial Applications
Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are often caused by repetitive
lifting, making them a significant concern in occupational health. Although
wearable assist devices have become the norm for mitigating the risk of back
pain, most spinal assist devices still possess a partially rigid structure that
impacts the user comfort and flexibility. This paper addresses this issue by
presenting a smart textile actuated spine assistance robotic exosuit (SARE),
which can conform to the back seamlessly without impeding the user movement and
is incredibly lightweight. The SARE can assist the human erector spinae to
complete any action with virtually infinite degrees of freedom. To detect the
strain on the spine and to control the smart textile automatically, a soft
knitting sensor which utilizes fluid pressure as sensing element is used. The
new device is validated experimentally with human subjects where it reduces
peak electromyography (EMG) signals of lumbar erector spinae by around 32
percent in loaded and around 22 percent in unloaded conditions. Moreover, the
integrated EMG decreased by around 24.2 percent under loaded condition and
around 23.6 percent under unloaded condition. In summary, the artificial muscle
wearable device represents an anatomical solution to reduce the risk of muscle
strain, metabolic energy cost and back pain associated with repetitive lifting
tasks.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Boosting with an aerosolized Ad5-nCoV elicited robust immune responses in inactivated COVID-19 vaccines recipients
IntroductionThe SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant and exhibits immune escape to current COVID-19 vaccines, the further boosting strategies are required.MethodsWe have conducted a non-randomized, open-label and parallel-controlled phase 4 trial to evaluate the magnitude and longevity of immune responses to booster vaccination with intramuscular adenovirus vectored vaccine (Ad5-nCoV), aerosolized Ad5-nCoV, a recombinant protein subunit vaccine (ZF2001) or homologous inactivated vaccine (CoronaVac) in those who received two doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines. ResultsThe aerosolized Ad5-nCoV induced the most robust and long-lasting neutralizing activity against Omicron variant and IFNg T-cell response among all the boosters, with a distinct mucosal immune response. SARS-CoV-2-specific mucosal IgA response was substantially generated in subjects boosted with the aerosolized Ad5-nCoV at day 14 post-vaccination. At month 6, participants boosted with the aerosolized Ad5-nCoV had remarkably higher median titer and seroconversion of the Omicron BA.4/5-specific neutralizing antibody than those who received other boosters. DiscussionOur findings suggest that aerosolized Ad5-nCoV may provide an efficient alternative in response to the spread of the Omicron BA.4/5 variant.Clinical trial registrationhttps://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=152729, identifier ChiCTR2200057278
A Game-Theoretic Approach for CSR Emergency Medical Supply Chain during COVID-19 Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused high fluctuations in the demand for medical supplies. Therefore, emergency medical supplies enterprises have faced challenges in decision making and need to consider more corporate social responsibility (CSR) in production. At the same time, the government needs to take considerable measures to support emergency medical supplies enterprises. As such, our paper researches the decision and coordination problems for emergency medical supply chain considering CSR with the government, manufacturer, and retailer. The manufacturer produces emergency medical supplies. It has additional production technological innovation efforts to improve supply efficiency and assume CSR. The retailer faces uncertain demands and is responsible for undertaking CSR to meet the demands. The government must implement a certain degree of subsidies to ease the impact of the pandemic on emergency medical supply chain enterprises. Meanwhile, our paper further explores the obligations of the economy, society, and efficiency of enterprises under the COVID-19 pandemic and the decision making of enterprises for the implementation of CSR. Based on the principle of maximizing social welfare, we discuss decentralized decision making (without government and with government) and centralized decision making, respectively. On this basis, our paper not only designs a wholesale priceācost sharing joint contract coordination mechanism but also proves that a joint contract can achieve supply chain coordination under certain conditions. Through the analysis, we observe: (1) Government subsidies can improve the enthusiasm of supply chain members to undertake CSR; (2) With the improvement of the retailerās CSR level, the profits of supply chain members and overall performance have improved to a certain degree; (3) To improve supply efficiency and assume social responsibility, the manufacturer implements technological innovation investment. However, it will impose some burden on the manufacturer. Government subsidies allow the manufacturer to balance between social responsibility and its profit
Dynamic Adjustment Mechanism and Differential Game Model Construction of Mask Emergency Supply Chain Cooperation Based on COVID-19 Outbreak
Incorporating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mask supply chain into our framework and taking mask output as a state variable, our study introduces the differential game to study the long-term dynamic cooperation of a two-echelon supply chain composed of the supplier and the manufacturer under government subsidies. The study elaborates that government subsidies can provide more effective incentives for supply chain members to cooperate in the production of masks compared with the situation of no government subsidies. A relatively low wholesale price can effectively increase the profits of supply chain members and the supply chain system. The joint contract of two-way cost-sharing contract and transfer payment contract can promote production technology investment efforts of the supply chain members, the optimum trajectory of mask production, and total profit to reach the best state as the centralized decision scenario within a certain range. Meanwhile, it is determined that the profits of supply chain members in the joint contract can be Pareto improvement compared with decentralized decision scenario. With the increase of production technology investment cost coefficients and output self-decay rate, mask outputs have shown a downward trend in the joint contract decision model. On the contrary, mask outputs would rise with growing sensitivity of mask output to production technology investment effort and increasing sensitivity of mask demand to mask output
A Game-Theoretic Approach for CSR Emergency Medical Supply Chain during COVID-19 Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused high fluctuations in the demand for medical supplies. Therefore, emergency medical supplies enterprises have faced challenges in decision making and need to consider more corporate social responsibility (CSR) in production. At the same time, the government needs to take considerable measures to support emergency medical supplies enterprises. As such, our paper researches the decision and coordination problems for emergency medical supply chain considering CSR with the government, manufacturer, and retailer. The manufacturer produces emergency medical supplies. It has additional production technological innovation efforts to improve supply efficiency and assume CSR. The retailer faces uncertain demands and is responsible for undertaking CSR to meet the demands. The government must implement a certain degree of subsidies to ease the impact of the pandemic on emergency medical supply chain enterprises. Meanwhile, our paper further explores the obligations of the economy, society, and efficiency of enterprises under the COVID-19 pandemic and the decision making of enterprises for the implementation of CSR. Based on the principle of maximizing social welfare, we discuss decentralized decision making (without government and with government) and centralized decision making, respectively. On this basis, our paper not only designs a wholesale price–cost sharing joint contract coordination mechanism but also proves that a joint contract can achieve supply chain coordination under certain conditions. Through the analysis, we observe: (1) Government subsidies can improve the enthusiasm of supply chain members to undertake CSR; (2) With the improvement of the retailer’s CSR level, the profits of supply chain members and overall performance have improved to a certain degree; (3) To improve supply efficiency and assume social responsibility, the manufacturer implements technological innovation investment. However, it will impose some burden on the manufacturer. Government subsidies allow the manufacturer to balance between social responsibility and its profit