ALBERT

Description: Health trend prediction is critical to ensure the safe operation of highly reliable systems. However, complex systems often present complex dynamic behaviors and uncertainty, which makes it difficult to develop a precise physical prediction model. Therefore, time series is often used for prediction in this case. In this paper, in order to obtain better prediction accuracy in shorter computation time, we propose a new scheme which utilizes multiple relevant time series to enhance the completeness of the information and adopts a prediction model based on least squares support vector regression (LS-SVR) to perform prediction. In the scheme, we apply two innovative ways to overcome the drawbacks of the reported approaches. One is to remove certain support vectors by measuring the linear correlation to increase sparseness of LS-SVR; the other one is to determine the linear combination weights of multiple kernels by calculating the root mean squared error of each basis kernel. The results of prediction experiments indicate preliminarily that the proposed method is an effective approach for its good prediction accuracy and low computation time, and it is a valuable method in applications.

Description: A measurement campaign is introduced for modeling radio channels with either line-of-sight (LoS) or non-line-of-sight (NLoS) connection between user equipment (UE) and NodeB (NB) in an operating universal mobile telecommunications system. A space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm is applied to estimate the delays and the complex attenuations of multipath components from the obtained channel impulse responses. Based on a novel LoS detection method of multipath parameter estimates, channels are classified into LoS and NLoS categories. Deterministic models which are named “channel maps” and fading statistical models have been constructed for LoS and NLoS, respectively. In addition, statistics of new parameters, such as the distance between the NB and the UE in LoS/NLoS scenarios, the life-distance of LoS channel, the LoS existence probability per location and per NB, the power variation at LoS to NLoS transition and vice versa, and the transition duration, are extracted. These models are applicable for designing and performance evaluation of transmission techniques or systems used by distinguishing the LoS and NLoS channels.

Description: Steer-by-wire system can improve the performance of vehicle handling stability. Removing the mechanical linkages between the front wheels and the steering wheel leads to a key technique of force feedback for steer-by-wire system. In view of the characteristic of variable torque transmission ratio for steer-by-wire system, this paper proposes a method for designing torque ratio based on the steering wheel torque characteristic for steer-by-wire system. It converts the torque ratio design into equivalent assist torque design by analyzing their relationship. It achieves the torque ratio design at different conditions based on the negative equivalent assist torque characteristic curve. Simulations and vehicle experiments are conducted by the proposed method, and the results show that the design goal has been achieved and the steering wheel torque characteristic obtained is very similar to that of the reference car.

Description: China’s western mining area is an arid and semiarid area with a fragile ecological environment, and the high-intensity mining activities aggravate ecological damage. Reasonable choice of the mining parameters (i.e., mining height, panel width, and advancing speed) can not only improve the mining efficiency but also weaken the mining-induced deformation and failures of the overburden and surface. The statistical analysis of the relationship between the mining parameters and periodic weighting interval (PWI) proves that mining parameters have significant influence on overburden failure. In this study, the damage constitutive equation was derived, and the overburden damage degree was defined to quantitatively characterize mining-induced stratum damage in a three-dimensional space. FLAC3D numerical models embedded with a damage constitutive equation were built to compare the panel width effect and advancing speed effect between the overburden damage degree and the water-conducted fracture zone (WCFZ). The reasonable range for mining parameters of the panel 12401 was provided based on the fitting function of the overburden damage degree versus mining parameters. The field measurements were carried out on panel 12401 of the Shangwan coal mine, including the advancing speed, PWI, and ground crack development. The results show that, under constant engineering and geological conditions, the damage degree of overburden will be weakened by increasing the advancing speed, reducing the mining height, or shortening the panel width. The overburden damage degree is more accurate than the height of the water-conducted fractured zone. The reasonable mining parameters of the panel 12401 are 8.8 m in mining height, 300 m in panel width, and 13.47 to 20.58 m/d in advancing speed, respectively. The field measurement results of the PWI and ground cracks have verified the validity using the overburden damage degree to determine high-intensity mining parameters.

Description: Condition-based maintenance is critical to reduce the costs of maintenance and improve the production efficiency. Data-driven method based on neural network (NN) is one of the most used models for mechanical components condition recognition. In this paper, we introduce a new bearing condition recognition method based on multifeatures extraction and deep neural network (DNN). First, the method calculates time domain, frequency domain, and time-frequency domain features to represent characteristic of vibration signals. Then the nonlinear dimension reduction algorithm based on deep learning is proposed to reduce the redundancy information. Finally, the top-layer classifier of deep neural network outputs the bearing condition. The proposed method is validated using experiment test-bed bearing vibration data. Meanwhile some comparative studies are performed; the results show the advantage of the proposed method in adaptive features selection and superior accuracy in bearing condition recognition.

Description: Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a maternally transmitted disease. Clinically, no efficient assay protocols have been available. In this study, we aimed to develop an oligonucleotide biochip specialized for detection of known base substitution mutations in mitochondrial DNA causing LHON and to investigate frequencies of LHON relevant variants in Anhui region of China. Thirty-two pairs of oligonucleotide probes matched with the mutations potentially linked to LHON were covalently immobilized. Cy5-lablled targets were amplified from blood DNA samples by a multiplex PCR method. Two kinds of primary mutations 11778 G 〉 A and 14484 T 〉 C from six confirmed LHON patients were interrogated to validate this biochip format. Further, fourteen Chinese LHON pedigrees and twenty-five unrelated healthy individuals were investigated by the LHON biochip, direct sequencing and pyrosequencing, respectively. The biochip was found to be able efficiently to discriminate homoplasmic and heteroplasmic mtDNA mutations in LHON. Biochip analysis revealed that twelve of eighteen LHON symptomatic cases from the 14 Chinese pedigree harbored the mutations either 11778G 〉 A, 14484T 〉 C or 3460G 〉 A, respectively, accounting for 66.7%. The mutation 11778G 〉 A in these patients was homoplasmic and prevalent (55.5%, 10 of 18 cases). The mutations 3460G 〉 A and 3394T 〉 C were found to co-exist in one LHON case. The mutation 13708G 〉 A appeared in one LHON pedigree. Smaller amount of sampling and reaction volume, easier target preparation, fast and high-throughput were the main advantages of the biochip over direct DNA sequencing and pyrosequencing. Our findings suggested that primary mutations of 11778G 〉 A, 14484T 〉 C or 3460G 〉 A are main variants of mtDNA gene leading to LHON in China. The biochip would easily be implemented in clinical diagnosis.

Description: C-reactive protein (CRP) levels vary remarkably with ethnic status. Its distribution and correlates should be investigated across diverse populations, and these were limited in a representative Chinese population. We investigated 3133 participants aged 18–80 years in Shanghai, which were sampled using a randomized, stratified, multi-stage sampling method. The distribution of CRP was highly skewed toward a lower level. The median CRP was 0.55 mg/L (0.61 mg/L in males, 0.51 mg/L in females). Participants living in urban region had higher CRP levels than those in rural region (0.67 vs. 0.46 mg/L). CRP levels showed significant correlation with traditional cardiovascular risk factors, and it was most strongly correlated with body mass index. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that elevated CRP (being in the top 15 percentile of CRP; CRP ≥ 2.09 mg/L) was significantly associated with obesity, hypertension, diabetes, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high triglycerides and cardiovascular disease history. In conclusion, the distribution of CRP in adult Chinese was comparable with that of many other Asian populations but different from that of Western populations. Metabolic impairment was associated with elevated CRP, and CRP levels should be interpreted in conjunction with the lipid profile.