Lightweight privacy-preserving truth discovery for vehicular air quality monitoring

Air pollution has become a global concern for many years.Vehicular crowdsensing systems make it possible to monitor air quality at a fine granularity.To better utilize the sensory data with varying credibility,truth discovery frameworks are introduced.However,in urban cities,there is a significant difference in traffic volumes of streets or blocks,which leads to a data sparsity problem for truth discovery.Protecting the privacy of participant vehicles is also a crucial task.We first present a data masking-based privacy-preserving truth discovery framework,which incorporates spatial and temporal correlations to solve the sparsity problem.To further improve the truth discovery performance of the presented framework,an enhanced version is proposed with anonymous communication and data perturbation.Both frameworks are more lightweight than the existing cryptography-based methods.We also evaluate the work with simulations and fully discuss the performance and possible extensions.

Regulatory effects of anandamide on intracellular Ca^(2+) concentration increase in trigeminal ganglion neurons

Activation of cannabinoid receptor type 1 on presynaptic neurons is postulated to suppress neurotransmission by decreasing Ca2+ influx through high voltage-gated Ca2+ channels. However, recent studies suggest that cannabinoids which activate cannabinoid receptor type 1 can increase neurotransmitter release by enhancing Ca2+ influx in vitro. The aim of the present study was to investigate the modulation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration by the cannabinoid receptor type 1 agonist anandamide, and its underlying mechanisms. Using whole cell voltage-clamp and calcium imaging in cultured trigeminal ganglion neurons, we found that anandamide directly caused Ca2+ influx in a dose-dependent manner, which then triggered an increase of intracellular Ca2+ concentration. The cyclic adenosine and guanosine monophosphate-dependent protein kinase systems, but not the protein kinase C system, were involved in the increased intracellular Ca2+concentration by anandamide. This result showed that anandamide increased intracellular Ca2+ concentration and inhibited high voltage-gated Ca2+ channels through different signal transduction pathways.

Soil phosphorus fractions and their availability over natural succession from clear-cut of a mixed broadleaved and Korean pine forest in northeast China

To assess phosphorus(P)status of forest soil under naturally restored vegetation,P fractions in the 10-cm soil layer were quantified at different successional stages on the clear-cut site of mixed broadleaved and Korean pine forest.Four communities of shrub,softwood broad-leaved forest,softwood and hardwood broad-leaved forest,and hardwood broad-leaved forest represented different successional stages.A soil sample from a primary broad-leaved and Korean pine stand was the control.A sequential P fractionation scheme extracted empirically defined pools of P and path analysis used to partition the direct and indirect contribution of soil P fractions to available P.The results show that available P increased significantly with long-term succession,while both sodium bicarbonate-extractable P(NaHCO_(3)-P)and sodium hydroxide-extractable P(NaOHP)fractions were reduced in early successional stages and increased in late stages.Compared to the primary forest,concentrations of P fractions in the four stages significantly decreased except for HCl-P,indicating that soil P supplements over the long-term did not return to primary forest levels.The results of related analysis also showed that NaHCO_(3)-P_(i)levels were significantly related to available phosphorus.According to the path analysis coefficient,NaHCO_(3)-P_(i)exhibited the highest effect on available P among eight P fractions;the indirect effects of other P fractions via NaHCO_(3)-P_(i)were larger than those with other P fractions.Overall,this study suggests that soil P bioavailability gradually improved during natural vegetation restoration on clear-cut sites mainly through the increase of NaHCO_(3)-P,where phosphorous is immediately available,and subsequently available phosphorus Na OH-P.

Preliminary Pointing Bias Calibration of ZY3-03 Laser Altimeter

ZiYuan3-03(ZY3-03)satellite was launched on July 25,2020,equipped with China’s second-generation laser altimeter for earth observation.In order to preliminarily evaluate the in-orbit performance of the ZY3-03 laser altimeter,the pointing bias calibration based on terrain matching method was adopted.Three tracks of laser data were employed for the ZY3-03 laser altimeter calibration test.Three groups of pointing parameters were obtained respectively,and the mean value of pointing is considered as the optimal calibration result.After calibration,ZY3-03 laser pointing accuracy is greatly improved by the method,and its pointing accuracy is approximately 12.7 arcsec.The first-track laser data on the Black Sea surface is used to evaluate the relative elevation accuracy of ZY3-03 laser altimeter after pointing bias calibration,which is improved from 0.33 m to 0.19 m after calibration.Meanwhile,the absolute elevation accuracy of ZY3-03 laser altimeter after pointing bias calibration is evaluated by the Ground Control Points(GCPs)measured by RTK(Real-Time Kinematic),which is better than 0.5 m in the flat terrain.

TAOK1 negatively regulates IL-17-mediated signaling and inflammation

Interleukin 17(IL-17)is an important cytokine that can induce tissue inflammation and is involved in the pathogenesis of numerous autoimmune diseases.However,the regulation of its signaling transduction has not been well described.In this study,we report that thousand and one kinase 1(TAOK1)functions as a negative regulator of IL-17-mediated signal transduction and inflammation.TAOK1 knockdown promotes IL-17-induced cytokine and chemokine expression and the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases and nuclear factor-κB.We further demonstrate that TAOK1 interacts with IL-17 receptor A(IL-17RA)independent of its kinase activity,and TAOK1 dose-dependently prevents the formation of the IL-17R-Act1(nuclear factor activator 1,also known as tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 3 interacting protein 2)complex.Consistent with this,TAOK1 deficiency exacerbates colitis in the 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid-induced experimental model of inflammatory bowel disease,likely by its promotion of the IL-17-mediated signaling pathway.TAOK1 expression is decreased in the colons of ulcerative colitis patients.In conclusion,these findings suggest that TAOK1 is involved in the development of IL-17-related autoimmune disorders.

Correction to: TAOK1 negatively regulates IL-17-mediated signaling and inflammation

Correction to:Cellular&Molecular Immunology(2018).https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2017.158;published online 5 February 2018 In this article,published online 5 February 2018,the second primer of mouse actin,il-6,il-1β,TNFα,cxcl1,cxcl2 and ccl20 in Table 2 should be marked as“reverse primer”instead of“forward primer”.Corrected Table 2 is shown below.The authors regret the errors.