A Fragmentation Region-based Skyline Computation Framework for a Group of Users

Skyline processing, an established preference evaluation technique, aims at discovering the best, most preferred objects, i.e. those that are not dominated by other objects, in satisfying the user’s preferences. In today’s society, due to the advancement of technology, ad-hoc meetings or impromptu gathering are becoming more and more common. Deciding on a suitable meeting point (object)for a group of people (users) to meet is not a straightforward task especially when these users are located at different places with distinct preferences. A place which is close by to the users might not provide the facilities/services that meet all the users’ preferences; while a place having the facilities/services that meet most of the users’ preferences might be too distant from these users. Although the skyline operator can be utilised to filter the dominated objects among the objects that fall in the region of interest of these users, computing the skylines for various groups of users in similar region would mean rescanning the objects of the region and repeating the process of pair wise comparisons among the objects which are undoubtedly unwise. On this account, this study presents a region-based skyline computation framework which attempts to resolve the above issues by fragmenting the search region of a group of users and utilising the past computed skyline results of the fragments. The skylines, which are the objects recommended to be visited by a group of users, are derived by analysing both the locations of the users, i.e. spatial attributes, as well as the spatial and non-spatial attributes of the objects. Several experiments have been conducted and the results show that our proposed framework outperforms the previous works with respect to CPU time.

The population genomics of increased virulence and antibiotic resistance in human commensal Escherichia coli over 30 years in France

Escherichia coli is a commensal species of the lower intestine, but also a major pathogen causing intestinal and extra-intestinal infections. Most studies on genomic evolution of E. coli used isolates from infections, and/or focused on antibiotic resistance, but neglected the evolution of virulence. Here instead, we whole-genome sequenced a collection of 436 E. coli isolated from fecal samples of healthy adult volunteers in France between 1980 and 2010. These isolates were distributed among 159 sequence types (STs), the five most frequent being ST10 (15.6%), ST73 (5.5%) and ST95 (4.8%), ST69 (3.7%) and ST59 (3.7%), and 230 O:H serotypes. ST and serotype diversity increased over time. Comparison with 912 E. coli bacteremia isolates from similar region and time showed a greater diversity in commensal isolates. The O1, O2, O6 and O25-groups used in bioconjugate O-antigen vaccine were found in only 63% of the four main STs associated with a high risk of bacteremia (ST69, ST73, ST95 and ST131). In commensals, STs associated with a high risk of bacteremia increased in frequency. Both extra-intestinal virulence-associated genes and resistance to antibiotics increased in frequency. Evolution of virulence genes was driven by both clonal expansion of STs with more virulence genes, and increases in frequency within STs, whereas the evolution of resistance was dominated by increases in frequency within STs. This study provides a unique picture of the phylogenomic evolution of E. coli in its human commensal habitat over a 30-year period and suggests that the efficacy of O-antigen vaccines would be threatened by serotype replacement.

Evaluation of Re-analyses Over China based on the Temporal Asymmetry of Daily Temperature Variability

As an intrinsic feature of daily surface air temperature (SAT) variability found in station measurements, temporal asymmetry (TA) can be taken as an evaluation metric to access the quality of SAT re-analysis product. In this study, TA calculated from four SAT variables, i.e. daily mean SAT (Tmean), daily maximum SAT (Tmax), daily minimum SAT (Tmin) and diurnal temperature range (TDTR=Tmax-Tmin), is applied to evaluate synoptic-scale performance of four reanalysis products (NCEP-2, JRA-55, ERA-I and ERA-5) over China. The results show that four re-analyses overall overestimate the TA of daily Tmax and Tmin variability over China, but with a comparatively consistent estimated TA for Tmean. Moreover, the TA of Tmean variability for these four re-analyses shares high spatial consistency with those from the observation. However, four re-analyses own the similar region-dependent spatial patterns of overestimated TA for Tmax and Tmin variability, especially for Tmax. Since high TA is an indicator for strong nonlinear feature, only Tmean reanalysis is the most suitable to explore synoptic-scale extreme events, such as heat waves and cold waves, which are highly related to the strong nonlinear processes.

Comparisons Between E-region Coherent Scatter and Swarm-E Fast Auroral Imager Measurements

<p>The Ionospheric Continuous-wave E-region Bistatic Experimental Auroral Radar (ICEBEAR) is a VHF coherent scatter radar that makes measurements of the E-region ionosphere with a field of view centered on ≈ 58°N, 106°W.  This overlaps with the Saskatoon SuperDARN radar field of view, providing the opportunity for multi-frequency coherent scatter radar measurements in a similar region.  In conjunction with these coherent scatter radar measurements, the Swarm-E, or e-POP, satellite Fast Auroral Imager (FAI) has been used to make measurements of auroral emissions in the 650-1100 nm wavelength band over the same field of view.  The primary emission species in this wavelength range are N<sub>2</sub>, O<sub>2</sub>, and N<sub>2</sub><sup>+</sup>, which correspond to energetic charged particle precipitation penetrating into the lower altitudes of the ionosphere.  This makes the FAI a great instrument for comparison studies with E-region coherent scatter.  In addition to this, the FAI is able to be slewed to a location allowing for extended conjunction windows between the imager and the coherent scatter radars.  With recent advances in radar hardware and processing the temporal and spatial resolutions of these different instruments are becoming comparable (~ 1 s, 1.5 km), providing an excellent opportunity to study plasma density irregularities in the E-region ionosphere in great detail.  Comparisons between the coherent scatter radar and FAI measurements are presented, providing insights into how E-region plasma density irregularities correspond to the location of auroral emissions at 650-1100 nm wavelengths.</p>

Deep spatial-temporal fusion network for fine-grained air pollutant concentration prediction

Air pollution is a serious environmental problem that has attracted much attention. Predicting air pollutant concentration can provide useful information for urban environmental governance decision-making and residents’ daily health control. However, existing methods fail to model the temporal dependencies or have suffer from a weak ability to capture the spatial correlations of air pollutants. In this paper, we propose a general approach to predict air pollutant concentration, named DSTFN, which consists of a data completion component, a similar region selection component, and a deep spatial-temporal fusion network. The data completion component uses tensor decomposition method to complete the missing data of historical air quality. The similar region selection component uses region metadata to calculate the spatial similarity between regions. The deep spatial-temporal fusion network fuses urban heterogeneous data to capture factors affecting air quality and predict air pollutant concentration. Extensive experiments on a real-world dataset demonstrate that our model achieves the highest performance compared with state-of-the-art models for air quality prediction.

Brain connectivity at rest predicts individual differences in normative activity during movie watching

When multiple individuals are exposed to the same sensory event, some are bound to have less typical experiences than others. These atypical experiences are underpinned by atypical stimulus-evoked brain activity, the extent of which is often indexed by intersubject correlation (ISC). Previous research has attributed individual differences in ISC to variation in trait-like behavioral phenotypes. Here, we extend this line of work by showing that an individual's degree and spatial distribution of ISC are closely related to their brain's intrinsic functional architecture. Using resting state and movie watching fMRI data from 176 Human Connectome Project participants, we reveal that resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) profiles can be used to predict cortex-wide ISC with considerable accuracy. Similar region-level analyses demonstrate that the amount of ISC a brain region exhibits during movie watching is associated with its connectivity to others at rest, and that the nature of these connectivity-activity relationships varies as a function of the region's role in sensory information processing. Finally, we show that an individual's unique spatial distribution of ISC, independent of its magnitude, is also related to their RSFC profile. These findings suggest that the brain's ability to process complex sensory information is tightly linked to its baseline functional organization and motivate a more comprehensive understanding of individual responses to naturalistic stimuli.

Anti-MDR Effects of Quercetin and its Nanoemulsion in Multidrug Resistant Human Leukemia Cells

Background: The quercetin has potential against the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype, but with low bioavailability. The increase in the bioavailability can be obtained with nanostructures. Objective: To analyze the effects of quercetin and its nanoemulsion on MDR and non-MDR cells. Method: We used: high pressure homogenization for nanoemulsion production; Trypan Blue for cytostatic/cytotoxicity assays; Epifluorescence microscope (with specific probes) for apoptosis and DNA damage; Real Time PCR for gene expression; AutoDock Vina for docking and Flow Cytometry for efflux analysis. The quercetin exerted antiproliferative impact, induced apoptosis, necrosis and DNA damage on cells. Results: Quercetin combined with vincristine showed an effect similar to verapamil (an ABCB1 inhibitor), and the docking showed that bind to ABCB1 in a similar region. The quercetin also was capable of to alter ABCB1 gene expression. The quercetin in nanoemulsion maintained the cytotoxic and cytostatic effects of quercetin which may increase bioavailability. Besides, the unloaded nanoemulsion was able to inhibit per se the efflux activity of ABCB1, demonstrating the pharmacological action of this structure. Conclusion: The quercetin may be considered as a prospective drug to overcome resistance in cancer cells and its nanoemulsion can be an alternative for in vivo application.

The Location and Incidence of Patent Accessory Pulpal Canals in Permanent Molars with Periodontal Lesion by Using Micro-Computed Tomography

Objective: In this study, the event of patent accessory pulpal canals situated in periodontal pockets has been resolved to utilize the micro-CT method. Methods: Fifty-seven extracted permanent human teeth were utilized to examine the commonness, location, and diameter of the patent accessory canals that are opening outside toward the periodontal pocket by utilizing micro-CT and high-resolution desktop. Results: Through 57 molars 6 (10.25%) were accessible with patent accessory, canals inside furcation area, of root, 49 (85%) were accessible with patent accessory canals inside the mesial and distal buccal root, and 28 (49.1%) were accessible with patent accessory, canals inside the palatal/lingual root. A measurably critical variety was found alongside the nearness of patent accessory trench in various roots and pocket depth at a similar region of the nearness waterway just as the nearness of these canals and connection misfortune in this region. Conclusions: Progression of periodontal pocket might be responsible for opening accessory canal and cause pulp pathosis, making successful periodontal therapy difficult.

Problems of restoration of lands disturbed during the development of mineral deposits

Relevance of the study. One of the criteria for sustainable development, focused on the preservation of renewable natural resources, requires equal volumes of use of renewable resources and their renewal, or even an excess of renewable resources over use. In the context of mining enterprises, this criterion is directly related to land resources that are disturbed during the operation of mineral deposits and are restored at the end of the development of deposits. The effectiveness of reclamation works requires an analysis of their implementation and identification of reasons for non-compliance with the required ratio in the use and restoration of disturbed lands. The purpose of the study is to assess the state of reclamation work at the level of countries and regions and to identify “bottlenecks”, the elimination of which allows fulfilling the criterion condition for sustainable development. Methods of research. In the course of the study, the methods of generalization, grouping, statistical analysis, comparison and analogies were used. Results. In the process of research, the relevance of restoration of land resources in the development of subsoil resources was confirmed. The identified trends related to the production of reclamation in the 1980s and now are manifested in a constant lag in the rate of reclamation from the rate of violation of land resources. In general, about 50% of disturbed land is reclaimed annually in the Russian Federation. The share of reclamation does not remain constant; for 2018, for example, it increases to 64.11%. Comparison by federal districts made it possible to identify leaders in terms of disturbance and reclamation of land resources. The largest volume of land disturbance is typical for the Ural, Siberian, and Far Eastern districts; these regions also account for large areas of reclamation (more than 65% of the total amount of reclaimed areas). At the same time, in percentage terms, the situation is not so favorable. From the comparison of the current volumes of disturbance and reclamation performed for the period 2015–2018, it follows that in the Ural and Siberian districts these indicators are the lowest, in particular in the Ural district (20.97–55.86%). A similar region-wise analysis performed for the Ural Federal District showed that the lowest rates are typical for the Tyumen region, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. The Kurgan region is in the best position; the average indicators are in the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions. In general, a negative trend is observed in the Ural Federal District: in 2015 – 55.86%, in 2018 – 34.61%, and in 2016-2017 – 20.97-24.66%. Conclusions. Reclamation works are primarily associated with the development of mineral deposits, which requires improving the organizational and economic mechanism of this process in the conditions of subsoil use: solving the problem of financing these works, tightening control over their implementation, increasing the responsibility of performers, improving the regulatory framework.

Region-Based Segmentation and Wiener Pilot-Based Novel Amoeba Denoising Scheme for CT Imaging

Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most common and beneficial medical imaging schemes, but the associated high radiation dose injurious to the patient is always a concern. Therefore, postprocessing-based enhancement of a CT reconstructed image acquired using a reduced dose is an active research area. Amoeba- (or spatially variant kernel-) based filtering is a strong candidate scheme for postprocessing of the CT image, which adapts its shape according to the image contents. In the reported research work, the amoeba filtering is customized for postprocessing of CT images acquired at a reduced X-ray dose. The proposed scheme modifies both the pilot image formation and amoeba shaping mechanism of the conventional amoeba implementation. The proposed scheme uses a Wiener filter-based pilot image, while region-based segmentation is used for amoeba shaping instead of the conventional amoeba distance-based approach. The merits of the proposed scheme include being more suitable for CT images because of the similar region-based and symmetric nature of the human body anatomy, image smoothing without compromising on the edge details, and being adaptive in nature and more robust to noise. The performance of the proposed amoeba scheme is compared to the traditional amoeba kernel in the image denoising application for CT images using filtered back projection (FBP) on sparse-view projections. The scheme is supported by computer simulations using fan-beam projections of clinically reconstructed and simulated head CT phantoms. The scheme is tested using multiple image quality matrices, in the presence of additive projection noise. The scheme implementation significantly improves the image quality visually and statistically, providing better contrast and image smoothing without compromising on edge details. Promising results indicate the efficacy of the proposed scheme.