ALBERT

Description: An interprovincial boundary region is a new subject of economic disparity study in China. This study explored the multi-scale spatio-temporal dynamics of economic development from 1995 to 2010 in the interprovincial boundary region of Sichuan-Yunnan-Guizhou, a mountain area and also the junction area of Tibetan Plateau, Hengduan Mountain, Yungui Plateau and Sichuan Basin in southwestern China. A quantitative study on county GDP per capita for different scales of administrative regions was conducted using the Theil index, Markov chains, a geographic information system and exploratory spatial data analysis. Results indicated that the economic disparity was closely related with geographical unit scale in the study area: the smaller the unit, the bigger the disparity, and the regional inequality gradually weakened over time. Moreover, significant positive spatial autocorrelation and clustering of economic development were also found. The spatial pattern of economic development presented approximate circle structure with two cores in the southwest and northeast. The Panxi region in the southwest core and a part of Hilly Sichuan Basin in the northeast core were considered to be hot spots of economic development. Most areas in the east and central region were persistently trapped in the low level of a balanced development state, with a poverty trap being formed in the central and south part. Geographical conditions and location, administrative barriers and the lack of effective growth poles may be the main reasons for the entire low level of balanced development. Our findings suggest that in order to achieve a high level of balanced development, attention should be paid beyond developing transportation and other infrastructure. Breaking down the rigid shackles of administrative districts that hinder trans-provincial cooperation and promoting new regional poles in the Yunnan-Guizhou region may have great significance for the study area.

Description: In this paper, we proposed a novel information-based approach to precision analysis of indoor wireless local area network (WLAN) localization using location fingerprint. First of all, by using the Fisher information matrix (FIM), we derive the fundamental limit of WLAN fingerprint-based localization precision considering different signal distributions in characterizing the variation of received signal strengths (RSSs) in the target environment. After that, we explore the relationship between the localization precision and access point (AP) placement, which can provide valuable suggestions for the design of the highly-precise localization system. Second, we adopt the heuristic simulated annealing (SA) algorithm to optimize the AP locations for the sake of approaching the fundamental limit of localization precision. Finally, the extensive simulations and experiments are conducted in both regular line-of-sight (LOS) and irregular non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments to demonstrate that the proposed approach can not only effectively improve the WLAN fingerprint-based localization precision, but also reduce the time overhead.

Description: It is expected that in the near future wireless sensor network (WSNs) will be more widely used in the mobile environment, in applications such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for marine monitoring and mobile robots for environmental investigation. The sensor nodes’ mobility can easily cause changes to the structure of a network topology, and lead to the decline in the amount of transmitted data, excessive energy consumption, and lack of security. To solve these problems, a kind of efficient Topology Control algorithm for node Mobility (TCM) is proposed. In the topology construction stage, an efficient clustering algorithm is adopted, which supports sensor node movement. It can ensure the balance of clustering, and reduce the energy consumption. In the topology maintenance stage, the digital signature authentication based on Error Correction Code (ECC) and the communication mechanism of soft handover are adopted. After verifying the legal identity of the mobile nodes, secure communications can be established, and this can increase the amount of data transmitted. Compared to some existing schemes, the proposed scheme has significant advantages regarding network topology stability, amounts of data transferred, lifetime and safety performance of the network.

Description: In this paper we present recent work on the design, fabrication by silicon micromachining, and packaging of a new gyroscope for stabilizing the autopilot of rotating aircraft. It operates based on oscillation of the silicon pendulum between two torsion girders for detecting the Coriolis force. The oscillation of the pendulum is initiated by the rolling and deflecting motion of the rotating carrier. Therefore, the frequency and amplitude of the oscillation are proportional to the rolling frequency and deflecting angular rate of the rotating carrier, and are measured by the sensing electrodes. A modulated pulse with constant amplitude and unequal width is obtained by a linearizing process of the gyroscope output signal and used to control the deflection of the rotating aircraft. Experimental results show that the gyroscope has a resolution of 0.008 °/s and a bias of 56.18 °/h.

Description: The precision of star point location is significant to identify the star map and to acquire the aircraft attitude for star sensors. Under dynamic conditions, star images are not only corrupted by various noises, but also blurred due to the angular rate of the star sensor. According to different angular rates under dynamic conditions, a novel method is proposed in this article, which includes a denoising method based on adaptive wavelet threshold and a restoration method based on the large angular rate. The adaptive threshold is adopted for denoising the star image when the angular rate is in the dynamic range. Then, the mathematical model of motion blur is deduced so as to restore the blurred star map due to large angular rate. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which is suitable for blurred star image processing and practical for attitude determination of satellites under dynamic conditions.

Description: The main object of the present study was to explore the effect of perinatal bisphenol A (BPA) exposure on glucose metabolism in early and later life of male rat offspring, and to establish the potential mechanism of BPA-induced dysglycemia. Pregnant rats were treated with either vehicle or BPA by drinking water at concentrations of 1 and 10 µg/mL BPA from gestation day 6 through the end of lactation. We measured the levels of fasting serum glucose, insulin, adiponectin and parameters of oxidative stress on postnatal day (PND) 50 and PND100 in male offspring, and adiponectin mRNA and protein expression in adipose tissue were also examined. Our results showed that perinatal exposure to 1 or 10 µg/mL BPA induced hyperglycemia with insulin resistance on PND100, but only 10 µg/mL BPA exposure had similar effects as early as PND50. In addition, increased oxidative stress and decreased adiponectin production were also observed in BPA exposed male offspring. Our findings indicated that perinatal exposure to BPA resulted in abnormal glucose metabolism in later life of male offspring, with an earlier and more exacerbated effect at higher doses. Down-regulated expression of adiponectin gene and increased oxidative stress induced by BPA may be associated with insulin resistance.

Description: To address worsening urban traffic and environmental issues, planners and policy makers in China have begun to recognize the importance of shaping vehicle use through the built environment. However, very few studies can be found that examine the relationship between the built environment and vehicle use in the Chinese context. With data collected in Zhongshan Metropolitan Area, this study examined how two built environment representations—simple measures and neighborhood types—were related to household car trips and motorcycle trips in China. The results of the negative binomial regression models showed that the household socio-demographic measures displayed significant association, and the built environment representations enhanced the explanatory powers. All else being equal, households in Zhongshan would generate less car and motorcycle trips if located in neighborhoods with denser land use development, better transit service and less connective street networks. In order to shape vehicle use, the findings provided informative insights for planners and policy makers to form a relatively high density of land use developments, slow down the construction of street networks, provide more jobs adjacent to residential areas and facilitate easy access to public transportation services.

Description: Crop straw gasification technologies are the most promising biomass gasification technologies and have great potential to be further developed in China. However, the commercialization development of gasification technology in China is slow. In this paper, the technical reliability and practicability of crop straw gasification technologies, the economic feasibility of gas supply stations, the economic feasibility of crop straw gasification equipment manufacture enterprises and the social acceptability of crop straw gasification technologies are analyzed. The results show that presently both the atmospheric oxidation gasification technology and the carbonization pyrolysis gasification technology in China are mature and practical, and can provide fuel gas for households. However, there are still a series of problems associated with these technologies that need to be solved for the commercialization development, such as the high tar and CO content of the fuel gas. The economic feasibility of the gas supply stations is different in China. Parts of gas supply stations are unprofitable due to high initial investment, the low fuel gas price and the small numbers of consumers. In addition, the commercialization development of crop straw gasification equipment manufacture enterprises is hindered for the low market demand for gasification equipment which is related to the fund support from the government. The acceptance of the crop straw gasification technologies from both the government and the farmers in China may be a driving force of further commercialization development of the gasification technologies. Then, the crop straw gasification technologies in China have reached at the stage of pre-commercialization. At this stage, the gasification technologies are basically mature and have met many requirements of commercialization, however, some incentives are needed to encourage their further development.

Description: This paper presents a low-cost low-power CMOS humidity sensor for passive RFID sensing applications. The humidity sensing element is implemented in standard CMOS technology without any further post-processing, which results in low fabrication costs. The interface of this humidity sensor employs a PLL-based architecture transferring sensor signal processing from the voltage domain to the frequency domain. Therefore this architecture allows the use of a fully digital circuit, which can operate on ultra-low supply voltage and thus achieves low-power consumption. The proposed humidity sensor has been fabricated in the TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS process. The measurements show this humidity sensor exhibits excellent linearity and stability within the relative humidity range. The sensor interface circuit consumes only 1.05 µW at 0.5 V supply voltage and reduces it at least by an order of magnitude compared to previous designs.

Description: IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 1648: Transcriptomic Profiles in Zebrafish Liver Permit the Discrimination of Surface Water with Pollution Gradient and Different Discharges International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph15081648 Authors: Zhou Zhang Wei Liu Yuanyuan Qu Xie Quan Ping Zeng Mengchang He Yanmei Zhou Ruixia Liu The present study aims to evaluate the potential of transcriptomic profiles in evaluating the impacts of complex mixtures of pollutants at environmentally relevant concentrations on aquatic vertebrates. The changes in gene expression were determined using microarray in the liver of male zebrafish (Danio rerio) exposed to surface water collected from selected locations on the Hun River, China. The numbers of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in each treatment ranged from 728 to 3292, which were positively correlated with chemical oxygen demand (COD). Predominant transcriptomic responses included peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) signaling and steroid biosynthesis. Key pathways in immune system were also affected. Notably, two human diseases related pathways, insulin resistance and Salmonella infection were enriched. Clustering analysis and principle component analysis with DEGs differentiated the upstream and downstream site of Shenyang City, and the mainstream and the tributary sites near the junction. Comparison the gene expression profiles of zebrafish exposed to river surface water with those to individual chemicals found higher similarity of the river water with estradiol than several other organic pollutants and metals. Results suggested that the transcriptomic profiles of zebrafish is promising in differentiating surface water with pollution gradient and different discharges and in providing valuable information to support discharge management.