Quorum systems for intrusion-tolerance based on trusted timely computing base

Quorum systems have been used to solve the problem of data consistency in distributed fault-tolerance systems. But when intrusions occur, traditional quorum systems have some disadvantages. For example, synchronous quorum systems are subject to DOS attacks, while asynchronous quorum systems need a larger system size （at least 3f＋1 for generic data, and f fewer for self-verifying data）. In order to solve the problems above, an intrusion-tolerance quorum system （ITQS） of hybrid time model based on trust timely computing base is presented （TTCB）. The TTCB is a trust secure real-time component inside the server with a well defined interface and separated from the operation system. It is in the synchronous communication environment while the application layer in the server deals with read-write requests and executes update-copy protocols asynchronously. The architectural hybridization of synchrony and asynchrony can achieve the data consistency and availability correctly. We also build two kinds of ITQSes based on TTCB, i.e., the symmetrical and the asymmetrical TTCB quorum systems. In the performance evaluations, we show that TTCB quorum systems are of smaller size, lower load and higher availability.

Determinants of Delay in Malaria Prompt Diagnosis and Timely Treatment among Under-Five Children in Shashogo Woreda, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A Case Control Study

Background: Ensuring prompt diagnosis and timely malaria treatment will prevent most cases of uncomplicated malaria from progressing to severe and fatal illness. To avoid this progression, treatment must begin as soon as possible, generally within 24 hours after symptoms onset. The reason why mothers/caretakers delay in malaria prompt diagnosis and timely treatment for under-five is not well studied in the study area as well as in Ethiopia. Objective: To assess determinants of delay in malaria prompt diagnosis and timely treatment among under-five children in Shashogo Woreda, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2013. Methods: An unmatched case control study was conducted from March 25-April 25, 2013. A total sample size of 302 with 151 cases and 151 controls were selected by systematic random sampling techniques. Cases were under-five children who had clinical malaria and sought treatment after 24 hours of symptoms onset, and controls were under-five children who had clinical malaria and sought treatment within 24 hours of symptoms onset. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were done to identify determinant of delay in malaria prompt diagnosis and timely treatment. Results: A total of 151 mothers/caretakers of cases and 151 mothers/caretakers of controls were interviewed. Illiterate mothers (AOR = 7.14;95%CI: 1.10, 46.39), monthly income ≤500 ETB (AOR = 5.49;95%CI: 2.09, 14.45), females sex (AOR = 3.45;95%CI: 1.62, 7.34), distance from health facility >5 km (AOR = 4.31;95%CI: 1.22, 15.23), absence of history of child death (AOR = 4.21;95%CI: 1.514, 11.68), side effects of antimalarial drugs (AOR = 2.91;95%CI: 1.15, 7.33) and khat chewing (AOR = 2.38;95%CI: 1.28, 5.79) were determinants of delay in malaria prompt diagnosis and timely treatment of under-five children. Conclusion: Mother’s education, monthly income, distance from health facility, absence of history of child death, complained about side effects of drugs and khat chewing were predictors of delay of prompt diagnosis and timely malaria treatment. Effective malaria control programs revision would be required to avoid delay of prompt diagnosis and timely treatment for under-five children.

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Plasma Science and Technology (PST) journal assists in advancing plasma science and technology by reporting important,novel,helpful and thought-provoking progress in this strongly multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field,in a timely manner.

Communication Resource-Efficient Vehicle Platooning Control With Various Spacing Policies

Platooning represents one of the key features that connected automated vehicles may possess as it allows multiple automated vehicles to be maneuvered cooperatively with small headways on roads. However, a critical challenge in accomplishing automated vehicle platoons is to deal with the effects of intermittent and sporadic vehicle-to-vehicle data transmissions caused by limited wireless communication resources. This paper addresses the co-design problem of dynamic event-triggered communication scheduling and cooperative adaptive cruise control for a convoy of automated vehicles with diverse spacing policies. The central aim is to achieve automated vehicle platooning under various gap references with desired platoon stability and spacing performance requirements, while simultaneously improving communication efficiency. Toward this aim, a dynamic event-triggered scheduling mechanism is developed such that the intervehicle data transmissions are scheduled dynamically and efficiently over time. Then, a tractable co-design criterion on the existence of both the admissible event-driven cooperative adaptive cruise control law and the desired scheduling mechanism is derived. Finally, comparative simulation results are presented to substantiate the effectiveness and merits of the obtained results.

Association of daily sitting time and leisure-time physical activity with body fat among U.S.adults

Background:Prolonged sitting and reduced physical activity lead to low energy expenditures.However,little is known about the joint impact of daily sitting time and physical activity on body fat distribution.We investigated the independent and joint associations of daily sitting time and physical activity with body fat among adults.Methods:This was a cross-sectional analysis of U.S.nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey2011-2018 among adults aged 20 years or older.Daily sitting time and leisure-time physical activity(LTPA)were self-reported using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire.Body fat(total and trunk fat percentage)was determined via dual X-ray absorptiometry.Results:Among 10,808 adults,about 54.6%spent 6 h/day or more sitting;more than one-half reported no LTPA(inactive)or less than 150 min/week LTPA(insufficiently active)with only 43.3%reported 150 min/week or more LTPA(active)in the past week.After fully adjusting for sociodemographic data,lifestyle behaviors,and chronic conditions,prolonged sitting time and low levels of LTPA were associated with higher total and trunk fat percentages in both sexes.When stratifying by LTPA,the association between daily sitting time and body fat appeared to be stronger in those who were inactive/insuufficiently active.In the joint analyses,inactive/insuufficiently active adults who reported sitting more than 8 h/day had the highest total(female:3.99%(95%confidence interval(95%CI):3.09%-4.88%);male:3.79%(95%CI:2.75%-4.82%))and trunk body fat percentages(female:4.21%(95%CI:3.09%-5.32%);male:4.07%(95%CI:2.95%-5.19%))when compared with those who were active and sitting less than 4 h/day.Conclusion:Prolonged daily sitting time was associated with increased body fat among U.S.adults.The higher body fat associated with 6 h/day sitting may not be offset by achieving recommended levels of physical activity.

Prescribed Performance Tracking Control of Time-Delay Nonlinear Systems With Output Constraints

The problem of prescribed performance tracking control for unknown time-delay nonlinear systems subject to output constraints is dealt with in this paper. In contrast with related works, only the most fundamental requirements, i.e., boundedness and the local Lipschitz condition, are assumed for the allowable time delays. Moreover, we focus on the case where the reference is unknown beforehand, which renders the standard prescribed performance control designs under output constraints infeasible. To conquer these challenges, a novel robust prescribed performance control approach is put forward in this paper.Herein, a reverse tuning function is skillfully constructed and automatically generates a performance envelop for the tracking error. In addition, a unified performance analysis framework based on proof by contradiction and the barrier function is established to reveal the inherent robustness of the control system against the time delays. It turns out that the system output tracks the reference with a preassigned settling time and good accuracy,without constraint violations. A comparative simulation on a two-stage chemical reactor is carried out to illustrate the above theoretical findings.

Three-Dimensional Sound Source Location Algorithm for Subsea Leakage Using Hydrophone

Leakages from subsea oil and gas equipment cause substantial economic losses and damage to marine ecosystem,so it is essential to locate the source of the leak.However,due to the complexity and variability of the marine environment,the signals collected by hydrophone contain a variety of noises,which makes it challenging to extract useful signals for localization.To solve this problem,a hydrophone denoising algorithm is proposed based on variational modal decomposition(VMD)with grey wolf optimization.First,the average envelope entropy is used as the fitness function of the grey wolf optimizer to find the optimal solution for the parameters K andα.Afterward,the VMD algorithm decomposes the original signal parameters to obtain the intrinsic mode functions(IMFs).Subsequently,the number of interrelationships between each IMF and the original signal was calculated,the threshold value was set,and the noise signal was removed to calculate the time difference using the valid signal obtained by reconstruction.Finally,the arrival time difference is used to locate the origin of the leak.The localization accuracy of the method in finding leaks is investigated experimentally by constructing a simulated leak test rig,and the effectiveness and feasibility of the method are verified.

Real-time Rescue Target Detection Based on UAV Imagery for Flood Emergency Response

Timely acquisition of rescue target information is critical for emergency response after a flood disaster.Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)equipped with remote sensing capabilities offer distinct advantages,including high-resolution imagery and exceptional mobility,making them well suited for monitoring flood extent and identifying rescue targets during floods.However,there are some challenges in interpreting rescue information in real time from flood images captured by UAVs,such as the complexity of the scenarios of UAV images,the lack of flood rescue target detection datasets and the limited real-time processing capabilities of the airborne on-board platform.Thus,we propose a real-time rescue target detection method for UAVs that is capable of efficiently delineating flood extent and identifying rescue targets(i.e.,pedestrians and vehicles trapped by floods).The proposed method achieves real-time rescue information extraction for UAV platforms by lightweight processing and fusion of flood extent extraction model and target detection model.The flood inundation range is extracted by the proposed method in real time and detects targets such as people and vehicles to be rescued based on this layer.Our experimental results demonstrate that the Intersection over Union(IoU)for flood water extraction reaches an impressive 80%,and the IoU for real-time flood water extraction stands at a commendable 76.4%.The information on flood stricken targets extracted by this method in real time can be used for flood emergency rescue.

A 28/56 Gb/s NRZ/PAM-4 dual-mode transceiver with 1/4 rate reconfigurable 4-tap FFE and half-rate slicer in a 28-nm CMOS

A 28/56 Gb/s NRZ/PAM-4 dual-mode transceiver(TRx)designed in a 28-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconduc-tor(CMOS)process is presented in this article.A voltage-mode(VM)driver featuring a 4-tap reconfigurable feed-forward equal-izer(FFE)is employed in the quarter-rate transmitter(TX).The half-rate receiver(RX)incorporates a continuous-time linear equal-izer(CTLE),a 3-stage high-speed slicer with multi-clock-phase sampling,and a clock and data recovery(CDR).The experimen-tal results show that the TRx operates at a maximum speed of 56 Gb/s with chip-on board(COB)assembly.The 28 Gb/s NRZ eye diagram shows a far-end vertical eye opening of 210 mV with an output amplitude of 351 mV single-ended and the 56 Gb/s PAM-4 eye diagram exhibits far-end eye opening of 33 mV(upper-eye),31 mV(mid-eye),and 28 mV(lower-eye)with an output amplitude of 353 mV single-ended.The recovered 14 GHz clock from the RX exhibits random jitter(RJ)of 469 fs and deterministic jitter(DJ)of 8.76 ps.The 875 Mb/s de-multiplexed data features 593 ps horizontal eye opening with 32.02 ps RJ,at bit-error rate(BER)of 10-5(0.53 UI).The power dissipation of TX and RX are 125 and 181.4 mW,respectively,from a 0.9-V sup-ply.

Effect of ankle versus thigh tourniquets on post-operative pain in foot and ankle surgery

BACKGROUND Tourniquets are commonly used in elective extremity orthopaedic surgery to reduce blood loss,improve visualization in the surgical field,and to potentially reduce surgical time.There is a lack of consensus in existing guidelines regarding the optimal tourniquet pressure,placement site,and duration of use.There is a paucity of data on the relationship between the site of a tourniquet and postoperative pain in foot and ankle surgery.AIM To explore the relationship between tourniquet site and intensity of post-operative pain scores in patients undergoing elective foot and ankle surgery.METHODS Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data on 201 patients who underwent foot and ankle surgery in a single institution was undertaken.Intraoperative tourniquet duration,tourniquet pressure and site,and postoperative pain scores using Visual Analogue Score were collected in immediate recovery,at six hours and at 24 h post-op.Scatter plots were used to analyse the data and to assess for the statistical correlation between tourniquet pressure,duration,site,and pain scores using Pearson correlation coefficient.RESULTS All patients who underwent foot and ankle surgery had tourniquet pressure of 250 mmHg for ankle tourniquet and 300 mmHg for thigh.There was no correlation between the site of the tourniquet and pain scores in recovery,at six hours and after 24 h.There was a weak correlation between tourniquet time and Visual Analogue Score immediately post-op(r=0.14,P=0.04)but not at six or 24 h post-operatively.CONCLUSION This study shows that there was no statistically significant correlation between tourniquet pressure,site and postop pain in patients undergoing foot and ankle surgery.The choice of using a tourniquet is based on the surgeon's preference,with the goal of minimizing the duration of its application at the operative site.

Brain Time Stack图像融合技术在CT中的应用

目的:分析Brain Time Stack图像融合技术在CT中的应用。方法:选取2021年3月—2022年9月衡水市第四人民医院收治的50例CT检查患者作为研究对象。所有患者进行CT检查并进行Brain Time Stack后处理。比较四组不同部位CT值、标准差(SD)、信噪比(SNR)。比较四组图像主观质量评分。分析不同部位CT值、SD、SNR与图像主观质量评分的相关性。结果:B组的延髓、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉CT值明显低于A组;C组的延髓、脑室、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉CT值高于A组;D组延髓、额叶灰质、颞肌肌肉CT值明显低于A组,脑室、额叶白质、小脑外侧CT值明显高于A组;C组延髓、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉CT值明显高于B组;D组延髓、脑室、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉CT值明显高于B组;D组延髓、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉CT值明显低于C组;D组脑室CT值明显高于C组,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。B组、C组、D组延髓、脑室、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉SD值明显低于A组;C组延髓、脑室、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉SD值均明显高于B组;C组额叶灰质SD明显低于B组;D组延髓、脑室、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、肌肉SD均明显低于B组、C组,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。B组、C组、D组延髓、脑室、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉SNR均明显高于A组;C组、D组延髓、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉SNR值明显高于B组;C组、D组脑室SNR明显低于B组;D组延髓、脑室、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧、颞肌肌肉SNR明显高于C组,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。D组图像主观质量评分最高,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。延髓、脑室、额叶灰质、额叶白质、小脑内侧、小脑外侧及颞肌肌肉SD与主观质量评分呈明显负相关,SNR与主观质量评分间呈明显正相关,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论:利用Brain Time Stack图像融合技术对头部CT扫描检查图像处理,动脉期结合前一期及后一期的图像数据在处理后具有更好的质量和更少的噪音。

Integration of maximum crop response with machine learning regression model to timely estimate crop yield

Timely and reliable estimation of regional crop yield is a vital component of food security assessment, especially in developing regions. The traditional crop forecasting methods need ample time and labor to collect and process field data to release official yield reports. Satellite remote sensing data is considered a cost-effective and accurate way of predicting crop yield at pixel-level. In this study, maximum Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) during the crop-growing season was integrated with Machine Learning Regression (MLR) models to estimate wheat and rice yields in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Five MLR models were compared using a fivefold cross-validation method for their predictive accuracy. The study results revealed that the regression model based on the Gaussian process outperformed over other models. The best performing model attained coefficient of determination (R^(2)), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE, t/ ha), and Mean Absolute Error (MAE, t/ha) of 0.75, 0.281, and 0.236 for wheat;0.68, 0.112, and 0.091 for rice, respectively. The proposed method made it feasible to predict wheat and rice 6- 8 weeks before the harvest. The early prediction of crop yield and its spatial distribution in the region can help formulate efficient agricultural policies for sustainable social, environmental, and economic progress.

基于交流注入法的大容量铅碳电池内阻测量

电池内阻是判断电池健康程度和放电能力的重要参数,而目前针对大容量铅碳电池内阻检测方面的相关研究较少,因此提出一种大容量铅碳电池的交流注入检测法。首先对铅碳电池等效电路模型进行推导分析;其次应用Simulink软件建立检测系统仿真模型,验证其电阻检测过程,仿真结果与被测铅碳电池内阻一致,说明该检测系统方案可行;最后采用新威高性能电池检测系统作为标准检测仪器进行对比测试验证,达到实际应用要求。该测试方法对大容量铅碳电池内阻的检测具有一定的借鉴作用。

Attosecond ionization time delays in strong-field physics

Electronic processes within atoms and molecules reside on the timescale of attoseconds. Recent advances in the laserbased pump-probe interrogation techniques have made possible the temporal resolution of ultrafast electronic processes on the attosecond timescale, including photoionization and tunneling ionization. These interrogation techniques include the attosecond streak camera, the reconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photon transitions, and the attoclock. While the former two are usually employed to study photoionization processes, the latter is typically used to investigate tunneling ionization. In this review, we briefly overview these timing techniques towards an attosecond temporal resolution of ionization processes in atoms and molecules under intense laser fields. In particular, we review the backpropagation method, which is a novel hybrid quantum-classical approach towards the full characterization of tunneling ionization dynamics. Continued advances in the interrogation techniques promise to pave the pathway towards the exploration of ever faster dynamical processes on an ever shorter timescale.

Geochemical and Isotopic Techniques Constraints on the Origin,Evolution,and Residence Time of Low-enthalpy Geothermal Water in Western Wugongshan,SE China

Geothermal resources are increasingly gaining attention as a competitive,clean energy source to address the energy crisis and mitigate climate change.The Wugongshan area,situated in the southeast coast geothermal belt of China,is a typical geothermal anomaly and contains abundant medium-and low-temperature geothermal resources.This study employed hydrogeochemical and isotopic techniques to explore the cyclic evolution of geothermal water in the western Wugongshan region,encompassing the recharge origin,water-rock interaction mechanisms,and residence time.The results show that the geothermal water in the western region of Wugongshan is weakly alkaline,with low enthalpy and mineralization levels.The hydrochemistry of geothermal waters is dominated by Na-HCO_(3)and Na-SO_(4),while the hydrochemistry types of cold springs are all Na-HCO_(3).The hydrochemistry types of surface waters and rain waters are NaHCO_(3)or Ca-HCO_(3).The δD and δ^(18)O values reveal that the geothermal waters are recharged by atmospheric precipitation at an altitude between 550.0 and 1218.6 m.Molar ratios of maj or solutes and isotopic compositions of^(87)Sr/^(86)Sr underscore the significant role of silicate weathering,dissolution,and cation exchange in controlling geothermal water chemistry.Additionally,geothermal waters experienced varying degrees of mixing with cold water during their ascent.Theδ^(13)C values suggest that the primary sources of carbon in the geothermal waters were biogenic and organic.Theδ^(34)S value suggests that the sulfates in geothermal water originate from sulfide minerals in the surrounding rock.Age dating using 3H and^(14)C isotopes suggests that geothermal waters have a residence time exceeding 1 kaBP and undergo a long-distance cycling process.

Unsupervised Time Series Segmentation: A Survey on Recent Advances

Time series segmentation has attracted more interests in recent years,which aims to segment time series into different segments,each reflects a state of the monitored objects.Although there have been many surveys on time series segmentation,most of them focus more on change point detection(CPD)methods and overlook the advances in boundary detection(BD)and state detection(SD)methods.In this paper,we categorize time series segmentation methods into CPD,BD,and SD methods,with a specific focus on recent advances in BD and SD methods.Within the scope of BD and SD,we subdivide the methods based on their underlying models/techniques and focus on the milestones that have shaped the development trajectory of each category.As a conclusion,we found that:(1)Existing methods failed to provide sufficient support for online working,with only a few methods supporting online deployment;(2)Most existing methods require the specification of parameters,which hinders their ability to work adaptively;(3)Existing SD methods do not attach importance to accurate detection of boundary points in evaluation,which may lead to limitations in boundary point detection.We highlight the ability to working online and adaptively as important attributes of segmentation methods,the boundary detection accuracy as a neglected metrics for SD methods.

Origin of tradeoff between movement velocity and attachment duration of kinesin motor on a microtubule

Kinesin-1 motor protein is a homodimer containing two identical motor domains connected by a common long coiledcoil stalk via two flexible neck linkers. The motor can step on a microtubule with a velocity of about 1 μm·s-1and an attachment duration of about 1 s under physiological conditions. The available experimental data indicate a tradeoff between velocity and attachment duration under various experimental conditions, such as variation of the solution temperature,variation of the strain between the two motor domains, and so on. However, the underlying mechanism of the tradeoff is unknown. Here, the mechanism is explained by a theoretical study of the dynamics of the motor under various experimental conditions, reproducing quantitatively the available experimental data and providing additional predictions. How the various experimental conditions lead to different decreasing rates of attachment duration versus velocity is also explained.

A Time Series Intrusion Detection Method Based on SSAE,TCN and Bi-LSTM

In the fast-evolving landscape of digital networks,the incidence of network intrusions has escalated alarmingly.Simultaneously,the crucial role of time series data in intrusion detection remains largely underappreciated,with most systems failing to capture the time-bound nuances of network traffic.This leads to compromised detection accuracy and overlooked temporal patterns.Addressing this gap,we introduce a novel SSAE-TCN-BiLSTM(STL)model that integrates time series analysis,significantly enhancing detection capabilities.Our approach reduces feature dimensionalitywith a Stacked Sparse Autoencoder(SSAE)and extracts temporally relevant features through a Temporal Convolutional Network(TCN)and Bidirectional Long Short-term Memory Network(Bi-LSTM).By meticulously adjusting time steps,we underscore the significance of temporal data in bolstering detection accuracy.On the UNSW-NB15 dataset,ourmodel achieved an F1-score of 99.49%,Accuracy of 99.43%,Precision of 99.38%,Recall of 99.60%,and an inference time of 4.24 s.For the CICDS2017 dataset,we recorded an F1-score of 99.53%,Accuracy of 99.62%,Precision of 99.27%,Recall of 99.79%,and an inference time of 5.72 s.These findings not only confirm the STL model’s superior performance but also its operational efficiency,underpinning its significance in real-world cybersecurity scenarios where rapid response is paramount.Our contribution represents a significant advance in cybersecurity,proposing a model that excels in accuracy and adaptability to the dynamic nature of network traffic,setting a new benchmark for intrusion detection systems.

Effect of aspect ratio of elliptical stirred vessel on mixing time and flow field characteristics in the absence of baffles

Elliptical tanks were used as an alternative to circular tanks in order to improve mixing efficiency and reduce mixing time in unbaffled stirred tanks(USTs). Five different aspect ratios of elliptical vessels were designed to compare their mixing time and flow field. Computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulations were performed using the k–ε model to calculate the mixing time and simulate turbulent flow field features, such as streamline shape, velocity distribution, vortex core region distribution, and turbulent kinetic energy(TKE) transfer. Visualization was also carried out to track the tinctorial evolution of the liquid phase. Results reveal that elliptical stirred tanks can significantly improve mixing performance in USTs. Specifically, the mixing time at an aspect ratio of 2.00 is only 45.3% of the one of a circular stirred tank. Furthermore, the secondary flow is strengthened and the vortex core region increases with the increase of aspect ratio. The axial velocity is more sensitive to the aspect ratio than the circumferential and radial velocity. Additionally, the TKE transfer in elliptical vessels is altered. These findings suggest that elliptical vessels offer a promising alternative to circular vessels for enhancing mixing performance in USTs.

J-family genes redundantly regulate flowering time and increase yield in soybean

Soybean(Glycine max)is a short-day crop whose flowering time is regulated by photoperiod.The longjuvenile trait extends its vegetative phase and increases yield under short-day conditions.Natural variation in J,the major locus controlling this trait,modulates flowering time.We report that the three J-family genes influence soybean flowering time,with the triple mutant Guangzhou Mammoth-2 flowering late under short days by inhibiting transcription of E1-family genes.J-family genes offer promising allelic combinations for breeding.