ALBERT

Description: In this paper, a power control method is proposed for a buffer-aided relay node (RN) to enhance the energy efficiency of the RN system. By virtue of a buffer, the RN can reserve the data at the buffer when the the channel gain between an RN and a destination node (DN) is weaker than that between SN and RN. The RN then opportunistically forward the reserved data in the buffer according to channel condition between the RN and the DN. By exploiting the buffer, RN reduces transmit power when it reduces the transmit data rate and reserve the data in the buffer. Therefore, without any total throughput reduction, the power consumption of RN can be reduced, resulting in the energy efficiency (EE) improvement of the RN system. Furthermore, for the power control, we devise a simple power control method based on a two-dimensional surface fitting model of an optimal transmit power of RN. The proposed RN power control method is readily and locally implementable at the RN, and it can significantly improve EE of the RN compared to the fixed power control method and the spectral efficiency based method as verified by the rigorous numerical results.

Description: The primary aim of this paper is to develop one kind of easy and effective method to solve fuzzy cooperative games with coalition values expressed by triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs). This method ensures that each player should receive a TFN-typed fuzzy pay-off from the grand coalition because each coalition value is expressed by a TFN. Using the concept of Alpha-cut sets, an arbitrary TFN’s Alpha-cut set can be shown as an interval. If the 1-cut sets and 0-cut sets of the TFN-typed coalition values are known, we can easily gain some important values, such as the means, the lower limits, and the upper limits of the TFN-typed payoffs via the proposed quadratic programming models and method. Furthermore, it is also easy for us to compute the lower and upper limits of Alpha-cut sets at any confidence levels of the TFN-typed payoffs for any TFN-typed cooperative game through solving the constructed quadratic programming models. Hereby the players’ TFN-typed payoffs for the TFN-typed cooperative game can be explicitly solved via the representation theorem for fuzzy sets. It is easy to prove that the proposed solutions of the fuzzy cooperative games with coalition values expressed by TFNs satisfy some useful and important properties, such as symmetry, additivity, and anonymity. Finally, the validity, applicability and advantages of the proposed method is proved and discussed through a numerical example.

Description: In the paper, we give some new improvements of the Kantorovich type inequalities by using Popoviciu’s, Hölder’s, Bellman’s and Minkowski’s inequalities. These results in special case yield Hao’s, reverse Cauchy’s and Minkowski’s inequalities.

Description: In the article we establish some new Opial’s type inequalities involving higher order partial derivatives. These new inequalities, in special cases, yield Agarwal-Pang’s, Pachpatte’s and Das’s type inequalities.

Description: To evaluate the efficacy of the gene-deletor system in aspen, we evaluated the system for foreign gene removal in a hybrid aspen clone, INRA 353-53 (Populus tremula × P. tremuloides). The recombinase flipping DNA (FLP) gene was under the control of the heat-inducible promoter of Gmhsp17.6-L, and the β-glucuronidase (gusA) gene which was under the control of the 35S promoter and were constructed using the gene-deletor system in the pCaLFGmFNLFG vector. Six transgenic plants and their sublines were heated at 42 °C for 8 h and gene deletion was verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Three lines exhibited partial transgene deletion while the remaining three lines did not delete. Transgenic lines were evaluated by Southern-blot analyses, verifying that the six transgenic plant lines all had a single copy of transfer DNA (t-DNA). Two partial-deletion lines and two non-deletion lines were analysed for methylation and expression of promoter and recombinase. Hardly any methylation was detected in the Gmhsp17.6-L promoter or recombinase FLP gene sequences, however, the expression of the promoter and recombinase was increased significantly in the partial-deletion compared with the non-deletion line after heat-shock treatment. These results suggest that the excision efficiency had no direct relationship with methylation status of the Gmhsp17.6-L promoter and FLP recombinase, yet was affected by the expression of the Gmhsp17.6-L and FLP after heat-shock treatment.

Description: This paper is mainly committed to constructing a new model for solving interval-valued fuzzy cooperative games based on the least square excess. We propose the interval-valued least square excess solution according to the solution concept of the least square prenucleolus and the least square nucleolus for solving crisp cooperative games. In order to obtain the corresponding optimal analytical solution, one mathematic programming model is constructed. The least square excess solution can be used to determine plays’ payoffs directly. Considering the fuzziness and uncertainty existing in the process of the road freight coalition, we establish the interval-valued fuzzy utility function of the road freight coalition that can properly reflect the real situation in view of the green logistics. The illustratively calculated results show that the least square excess solution proposed in this paper is effectual and ascendant, and satisfied many important and useful properties of cooperative games, such as symmetry and uniqueness. As for the problems of interval-valued cooperative games, the model proposed in this paper can be applied appropriately to obtain the players’ interval-valued payoffs.

Description: Sea level change is a key indicator of climate change, and the prediction of sea level rise is one of most important scientific issues. In this paper, the gridded sea level anomaly (SLA) data from satellite altimetry are used to analyze the sea level variations around Shandong Peninsula from 1993 to 2016. Based on the Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (CEEMD) method and Radial Basis Function (RBF) network, the paper proposes an improved sea level multi-scale prediction approach, namely, CEEMD-RBF combined model. Firstly, the multi-scale frequency oscillatory modes (intrinsic mode functions (IMFs)) representing different oceanic processes are extracted by CEEMD from the highest frequency to the lowest frequency oscillating mode. Secondly, RBF network is used to establish prediction models for various IMF components to predict their future trends, and each IMF is used as an input factor of the RBF network separately. Finally, the prediction results of each IMF component with RBF network are reconstructed to obtain the final predictions of sea level anomalies. The results shows that CEEMD is particularly suitable for analyzing nonlinear and non-stationary time series and RBF network is applicable for regional sea level prediction at different scales.

Description: To systematically evaluate the ecological changes of an active offshore petroleum production system, the variation of microbial communities at several sites (virgin field, wellhead, storage tank) of an oil production facility in east China was investigated by sequencing the V3 to V4 regions of 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) of microorganisms. In general, a decrease of microbial community richness and diversity in petroleum mining was observed, as measured by operational taxonomic unit (OTU) numbers, α (Chao1 and Shannon indices), and β (principal coordinate analysis) diversity. Microbial community structure was strongly affected by environmental factors at the phylum and genus levels. At the phylum level, virgin field and wellhead were dominated by Proteobacteria, while the storage tank had higher presence of Firmicutes (29.3–66.9%). Specifically, the wellhead displayed a lower presentence of Proteobacteria (48.6–53.4.0%) and a higher presence of Firmicutes (24.4–29.6%) than the virgin field. At the genus level, the predominant genera were Ochrobactrum and Acinetobacter in the virgin field, Lactococcus and Pseudomonas in the wellhead, and Prauseria and Bacillus in the storage tank. Our study revealed that the microbial community structure was strongly affected by the surrounding environmental factors, such as temperature, oxygen content, salinity, and pH, which could be altered because of the oil production. It was observed that the various microbiomes produced surfactants, transforming the biohazard and degrading hydro-carbon. Altering the microbiome growth condition by appropriate human intervention and taking advantage of natural microbial resources can further enhance oil recovery technology.

Description: An intelligent tire uses sensors to dynamically acquire or monitor its state. It plays a critical role in safety and maneuverability. Tire pressure is one of the most important status parameters of a tire; it influences vehicle performance in several important ways. In this paper, we propose a tire-pressure identification scheme using an intelligent tire with 3-axis accelerometers. As the primary sensing system, the accelerometers can continuously and accurately detect tire pressure with less electronic equipment mounted in the tire. To identify tire pressure in real time during routine driving, we first developed a prototype for the intelligent tire with three 3-axis accelerometers, and carried out data-acquisition tests under different tire pressures. Then we filtered the data and concentrated on the vibration acceleration of the rim in the circumferential direction. After analysis, we established the relationship between tire pressure and characteristic frequency of the rim. Finally, we verified our identification scheme with actual vehicle data at different tire pressures. The results confirm that the identified tire pressure is very close to the actual value.

Description: (1) Background: In recent decades, the prevalence of obesity has grown rapidly worldwide, thus causing many diseases, including male hypogonadism. Sulforaphane (SFN), an isothiocyanate compound, has been reported to protect the reproductive system. This research investigated the protective effect of SFN against obesity-induced impairment in the male reproductive system and explored the potential mechanism involved in mice. (2) Methods: One hundred thirty mice were divided into 5 groups (Control, DIO (diet-induced obesity), DIO + SFN 5 mg/kg, DIO + SFN 10 mg/kg, and DIO + SFN 20 mg/kg). The effects of SFN on the male reproductive system were determined based on the sperm count and motility, relative testes and epididymis weights, hormone levels, and pathological analyses. Oxidative stress was determined by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), H2O2, catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) levels. Protein expression of nuclear factor erythroid-2 related factor 2 (Nrf2), Kelch-like ECH-associated protein-1 (Keap1), Microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3), Beclin1, and P62 were determined by western blotting. (3) Results: High-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity significantly decreased relative testes and epididymis weights, sperm count and motility, and testosterone levels but increased leptin and estradiol levels. SFN supplementation ameliorated these effects. Additionally, SFN administration inhibited the obesity-induced MDA accumulation and increased the SOD level. Western blot indicated that SFN had an important role in the downregulation of Keap1. Moreover, SFN treatment attenuated obesity-induced autophagy, as detected by LC3 and Beclin1. (4) Conclusions: SFN ameliorated the reproductive toxicity associated with obesity by inhibiting oxidative stress mediated by the nuclear factor erythroid-2 related factor 2/ antioxidant response element (Nrf2/ARE) signaling pathway and recovery of normal autophagy.