Multivariable Optimisation for Waiting-Time Minimisation at Roundabout Intersections in a Cyber-Physical Framework

The evolution of communication networks offers new possibilities for development in the automotive industry. Smart vehicles will benefit from the possibility of connecting with the infrastructure and from an extensive exchange of data between them. Furthermore, new control strategies can be developed that benefit the advantages of these communication networks. In this endeavour, the main purposes considered by the automotive industry and researchers from academia are defined by: (i) ensuring people’s safety; (ii) reducing the overall costs, and (iii) improving the traffic by maximising the fluidity. In this paper, a cyber-physical framework (CPF) to control the access of vehicles in roundabout intersections composed of two levels is proposed. Both levels correspond to the cyber part of the CPF, while the physical part is composed of the vehicles crossing the roundabout. The first level, i.e., the edge-computing layer, is based on an analytical solution that uses multivariable optimisation to minimise the waiting times of the vehicles entering a roundabout intersection and to ensure a safe crossing. The second level, i.e., the cloud-computing layer, stores information about the waiting times and trajectories of all the vehicles that cross the roundabout and uses them for long-term analysis and prediction. The simulated results show the efficacy of the proposed method, which can be easily implemented on an embedded device for real-time operation.

Beside or by turn? The Buh-Dnister foragers and the Linear Band Pottery farmers on the Southern Buh River (Ukraine)

For a long time, finds of the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBK) on the Southern Buh numbered only two bowls from the Buh-Dnister culture site of Bazkiv Ostriv. After the recent discovery of a few more vessels and four stationary LBK settlements, some scholars have assumed the Neolithic incomers regularly inhabited the most of the region. However new direct AMS dates on the Buh-Dnister pottery have shown the existence of the indigenous hunter-gatherers here from 5300 to 5000 BC. Therefore, today, the cluster of four sites is the only verified area that was settled by the early farmers near the town of Zavallia. The occurrence of the settlements at very this place is explained by the fertile local soil and the desire of the inhabitants to control the huge deposit of graphite, which was a centre of an extensive exchange network for the North-Pontic indigenous groups. This could have given the local LBK community significant social prestige through the active production and exchange of valuable goods.

Physiological and Pathological Functions of SLC26A6

Solute Carrier Family 26 (SLC26) is a conserved anion transporter family with 10 members in human (SLC26A1-A11, A10 being a pseudogene). All SLC26 genes except for SLC26A5 (prestin) are versatile anion exchangers with notable ability to transport a variety of anions. SLC26A6 has the most extensive exchange functions in the SLC26 family and is widely expressed in various organs and tissues of mammals. SLC26A6 has some special properties that make it play a particularly important role in ion homeostasis and acid-base balance. In the past few years, the function of SLC26A6 in the diseases has received increasing attention. SLC26A6 not only participates in the development of intestinal and pancreatic diseases but also serves a significant role in mediating nephrolithiasis, fetal skeletal dysplasia and arrhythmia. This review aims to explore the role of SLC26A6 in physiology and pathophysiology of relative mammalian organs to guide in-depth studies about related diseases of human.

A test of the European Pleistocene refugial paradigm, using a Western Palaearctic endemic bird species

Hewitt's paradigm for effects of Pleistocene glaciations on European populations assumes their isolation in peninsular refugia during glacial maxima, followed by re-colonization of broader Europe during interstadials. This paradigm is well supported by studies of poorly dispersing taxa, but highly dispersive birds have not been included. To test this paradigm, we use the dunnock ( Prunella modularis ), a Western Palaearctic endemic whose range includes all major European refugia. MtDNA gene tree, multilocus species tree and species delimitation analyses indicate the presence of three distinct lineages: one in the Iberian refugium, one in the Caucasus refugium, and one comprising the Italian and Balkan refugia and broader Europe. Our gene flow analysis suggests isolation of both the Iberian and Caucasus lineages but extensive exchange between Italy, the Balkans and broader Europe. Demographic stability could not be rejected for any refugial population, except the very recent expansion in the Caucasus. By contrast, northern European populations may have experienced two expansion periods. Iberia and Caucasus had much smaller historical populations than other populations. Although our results support the paradigm, in general, they also suggest that in highly dispersive taxa, isolation of neighbouring refugia was incomplete, resulting in large super-refugial populations.

Identification of a small molecule inhibitor that stalls splicing at an early step of spliceosome activation

Small molecule inhibitors of pre-mRNA splicing are important tools for identifying new spliceosome assembly intermediates, allowing a finer dissection of spliceosome dynamics and function. Here, we identified a small molecule that inhibits human pre-mRNA splicing at an intermediate stage during conversion of pre-catalytic spliceosomal B complexes into activated Bact complexes. Characterization of the stalled complexes (designated B028) revealed that U4/U6 snRNP proteins are released during activation before the U6 Lsm and B-specific proteins, and before recruitment and/or stable incorporation of Prp19/CDC5L complex and other Bact complex proteins. The U2/U6 RNA network in B028 complexes differs from that of the Bact complex, consistent with the idea that the catalytic RNA core forms stepwise during the B to Bact transition and is likely stabilized by the Prp19/CDC5L complex and related proteins. Taken together, our data provide new insights into the RNP rearrangements and extensive exchange of proteins that occurs during spliceosome activation.

Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Episomes among Ecologically Cohesive Bacterial Populations

ABSTRACTAlthough plasmids and other episomes are recognized as key players in horizontal gene transfer among microbes, their diversity and dynamics among ecologically structured host populations in the wild remain poorly understood. Here, we show that natural populations of marineVibrionaceaebacteria host large numbers of families of episomes, consisting of plasmids and a surprisingly high fraction of plasmid-like temperate phages. Episomes are unevenly distributed among host populations, and contrary to the notion that high-density communities in biofilms act as hot spots of gene transfer, we identified a strong bias for episomes to occur in free-living as opposed to particle-attached cells. Mapping of episomal families onto host phylogeny shows that, with the exception of all phage and a few plasmid families, most are of recent evolutionary origin and appear to have spread rapidly by horizontal transfer. Such high eco-evolutionary turnover is particularly surprising for plasmids that are, based on previously suggested categorization, putatively nontransmissible, indicating that this type of plasmid is indeed frequently transferred by currently unknown mechanisms. Finally, analysis of recent gene transfer among plasmids reveals a network of extensive exchange connecting nearly all episomes. Genes functioning in plasmid transfer and maintenance are frequently exchanged, suggesting that plasmids can be rapidly transformed from one category to another. The broad distribution of episomes among distantly related hosts and the observed promiscuous recombination patterns show how episomes can offer their hosts rapid assembly and dissemination of novel functions.IMPORTANCEPlasmids and other episomes are an integral part of bacterial biology in all environments, yet their study is heavily biased toward their role as vectors for antibiotic resistance genes. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of all episomes within several coexisting bacterial populations ofVibrionaceaefrom the coastal ocean and represents the largest-yet genomic survey of episomes from a single bacterial family. The host population framework allows analysis of the eco-evolutionary dynamics at unprecedented resolution, yielding several unexpected results. These include (i) discovery of novel, nonintegrative temperate phages, (ii) revision of a class of episomes, previously termed “nontransmissible,” as highly transmissible, and (iii) surprisingly high evolutionary turnover of episomes, manifest as frequent birth, spread, and loss.

Political aspects in Hans Blumenberg’s philosophy

The scientific community in the humanities agrees that the work of the German post-war philosopher Hans Blumenberg is fascinating, compelling and inspiring, although the texts remain to some extent hard to understand. His extensive exchange with authors like Carl Schmitt, Jacob Taubes or Hannah Arendt show the often forgotten and sometimes systematically hidden political aspects of his philosophy. The theory of modernity, the theory of myth and of course his metaphorology are the main areas of debate which can be checked for their political implications and ramifications. However, the a priori exclusion of republican arguments and ideas points to a systematic problem in Blumenberg’s thought. All his thinking remains in the framework of what has been called “subject-philosophy”, it seems. While his early publications allowed a certain critique of ideology (from the perspective of metaphorology), this gesture almost disappears in his later writings. It is basically the single subject which works on myth, which seems to project “significance” (Bedeutsamkeit) into the world, which makes sense of his life in anecdotes. However, human self-assertion is always a common project, an inherited technique which creates not only myths but also institutions and law. The political aspects in Blumenberg’s work therefore also make transparent the limitations of his thought.

Towards a Semantic Web Approach for Disassembly Planning

Disassembly, as one of the core steps in the End of Life (EOL) activities, has been a popular topic of research in both industrial and academic areas. It not only reduces product lifecycle cost, but also substantially influences environmental impact. Although different methods have been proposed for tackling different aspects of the disassembly planning problems, certain gaps still exist. For example, in the case of the disassembly sequencing, traditional methods focus mainly on the geometry and topology constraints, but omit the important technical constraints like force (gravity), connector type, etc.; it makes these methods less efficient and realistic. Also, the determination of an optimal disassembly sequence requires an extensive exchange and sharing of the disassembly related knowledge among the different stakeholders like manufacturers, product designers, maintenance staffs and material engineers. A mechanism to support such information interoperability is important in the disassembly process. In order to address those research issues, this paper proposes a Semantic Web based Disassembly Planning Framework. In the framework, the proposed “Disassembly Core Ontology” (DCO) serves as a formal, explicit information core for different users like product designer and disassembler. By exploiting the rich semantic knowledge (like gravity, connector type, etc.) that has been explicitly embedded in the proposed DCO, it has been demonstrated that the semantic web approach has potentials to address both efficiency- and interoperability-related issues in disassembly planning problems.

Risk and the evolution of human exchange

Compared with other species, exchange among non-kin is a hallmark of human sociality in both the breadth of individuals and total resources involved. One hypothesis is that extensive exchange evolved to buffer the risks associated with hominid dietary specialization on calorie dense, large packages, especially from hunting. ‘Lucky’ individuals share food with ‘unlucky’ individuals with the expectation of reciprocity when roles are reversed. Cross-cultural data provide prima facie evidence of pair-wise reciprocity and an almost universal association of high-variance (HV) resources with greater exchange. However, such evidence is not definitive; an alternative hypothesis is that food sharing is really ‘tolerated theft’, in which individuals possessing more food allow others to steal from them, owing to the threat of violence from hungry individuals. Pair-wise correlations may reflect proximity providing greater opportunities for mutual theft of food. We report a laboratory experiment of foraging and food consumption in a virtual world, designed to test the risk-reduction hypothesis by determining whether people form reciprocal relationships in response to variance of resource acquisition, even when there is no external enforcement of any transfer agreements that might emerge. Individuals can forage in a high-mean, HV patch or a low-mean, low-variance (LV) patch. The key feature of the experimental design is that individuals can transfer resources to others. We find that sharing hardly occurs after LV foraging, but among HV foragers sharing increases dramatically over time. The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that people are pre-disposed to evaluate gains from exchange and respond to unsynchronized variance in resource availability through endogenous reciprocal trading relationships.