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When using machine learning (ML) to aid decision-making, it is critical to ensure that an algorithmic decision is fair, i.e., it does not discriminate against specific individuals/groups, particularly those from underprivileged populations. Existing group fairness methods require equal group-wise measures, which however fails to consider systematic between-group differences. The confounding factors, which are non-sensitive variables but manifest systematic differences, can significantly affect fairness evaluation. To mitigate this problem, we believe that a fairness measurement should be based on the comparison between counterparts (i.e., individuals who are similar to each other with respect to the task of interest) from different groups, whose group identities cannot be distinguished algorithmically by exploring confounding factors. We have developed a propensity-score-based method for identifying counterparts, which prevents fairness evaluation from comparing "oranges" with "apples". In addition, we propose a counterpart-based statistical fairness index, termed Counterpart-Fairness (CFair), to assess fairness of ML models. Empirical studies on the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-IV database were conducted to validate the effectiveness of CFair. We publish our code at \url{https://github.com/zhengyjo/CFair}., 18 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables

Pre-pubertal females produce more oocytes than adult individuals, but the ability of oocytes to undergo embryonic development and produce viable offspring is less in pre-pubertal animals than in adult animals. Oocyte quality is associated with abnormal gene expression. To date, the transcriptome profiles of 1-month-old lamb oocytes after in vitro maturation (IVM) are poorly reported. This study aimed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in lamb oocytes with varying competencies, affecting oocyte competence. Using RNA sequencing (RNA developmental -seq) technology, the transcriptome profiles of 1-month-old lamb oocytes after IVM were assessed, and oocytes from adult sheep large follicles were used as controls. We found 11 up-regulated and 39 down-regulated DEGs in lamb oocytes. Gene Ontology analysis of DEGs showed that molecular functions were clustered in catalytic and binding activities, while biological processes were clustered in metabolic process, cellular process, single-organism process and biological regulation. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis showed that the DEGs were involved in oxidative phosphorylation, transforming growth factor-beta signalling pathway, or DNA replication. In lamb MII oocytes, down-regulation of oxidative phosphorylation genes (ATP5E, NDUFA7 and COX6C), thiol protease inhibitor (CSTB) and 26S proteasome component (SHFM1) and up-regulation of CUL1, MARCH7 and TRIM17 might cause low competence of lamb embryos. In conclusion, this study provided detailed information on mRNA transcriptomes in lamb oocytes after IVM, which offers insights into the reduced developmental potential of lamb oocytes.

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (hereinafter referred to as S. maltophilia) has developed into an important opportunistic pathogenic bacterium, which is prevalent in nosocomial and community infections, and has adverse effects on patients with a compromised immune system. Phage vB_SmaS_BUCT548 was isolated from sewage of Beijing 307 Hospital with S. maltophilia (strain No.824) as a host. Phage morphology was observed by transmission electron microscopy and its biological and genomic characteristics were determined. The electron microscope shows that the bacteriophage belonged to the Siphoviridae and MOI is 0.001. One-step growth curve shows that the incubation period is 30 min and the burst size is 134 PFU/Cell. The host range is relatively wide and it can lysis 11of 13 S. maltophilia strains. Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) results show that the genome sequence is a dsDNA with 62354 bp length, and the GC content is 56.3% (GenBank: MN937349). One hundred and two online reading frames (ORFs) are obtained after RAST online annotation and the BlastN nucleic acid comparison shows that the phage had low homology with other phages in NCBI database. This study reports a novel S. maltophilia phage named vB_SmaS_BUCT548, which has a short incubation period, strong lytic ability, and a wide host range. The main characteristic of this bacteriophage is the novelty of the genomic sequence and the analysis of the other characteristics provides basic data for further exploring the interaction mechanism between the phage and the host.

Antiviral therapies targeting the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are urgently required. We studied an already-approved botanical drug cepharanthine (CEP) in a cell culture model of GX_P2V, a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related virus. RNA-sequencing results showed the virus perturbed the expression of multiple genes including those associated with cellular stress responses such as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and heat shock factor 1 (HSF1)-mediated heat shock response, of which heat shock response-related genes and pathways were at the core. CEP was potent to reverse most dysregulated genes and pathways in infected cells including ER stress/unfolded protein response and HSF1-mediated heat shock response. Additionally, single-cell transcriptomes also confirmed that genes of cellular stress responses and autophagy pathways were enriched in several peripheral blood mononuclear cells populations from COVID-19 patients. In summary, this study uncovered the transcriptome of a SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus infection model and anti-viral activities of CEP, providing evidence for CEP as a promising therapeutic option for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Electronic health records (EHRs) have revolutionized the field of drug hypersensitivity reaction (DHR) research. In this systematic review, we assessed 140 articles from 2000-2021, classifying them under six themes: observational studies (n=61), clinical documentation (n=27), case management (n=22), clinical decision support (CDS) (n=18), case identification (n=9), and genetic studies (n=3). EHRs provide convenient access to millions of medical records, facilitating epidemiological studies of DHRs. Though the goal of CDS is to promote safe drug prescribing, allergy alerts must be designed and used in a way that supports this effort. Ultimately, accurate allergy documentation is essential for DHR prevention.

Background: The role of glucose transporters in the transport of flavonoids remains ambiguous. Objective: In this study, we examined whether quercitrin would be absorbed intactly in modeled Caco-2 cells, as well as determined the involvement of sodium-dependent glucose transporter 1 (SGLT1) and glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2) in its transmembrane transport. Design: The first experiment was conducted to examine the uptake of quercitrin into Caco-2 cells 24 h after they were seeded and the second experiment was conducted to determine the transport across the apical and basolateral membrane of Caco-2 cells after they were cultured for 21 days in a Millicell system. Quercitrin was administered at 3, 9, or 18 μg/mL; and the time points of sampling were 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 min. Results: In the uptake experiment, the highest intracellular quercitrin concentration was observed in the cells treated with 18 μg/mL quercitrin at 60 min, with a bell-shaped kinetic curve. Quercetin, isorhamnetin, and tamarixetin were detected inside the cells, particularly when treated with a high dose. In the transport experiment, quercitrin was transported from the apical to basolateral side and vice versa; its concentrations depended on dose, time, and transport direction (P < 0.0001). Only trace amounts of isorhamnetin and tamarixetin were detected in the apical chamber when quercitrin was added to the basolateral chamber. Phloridzin and phloretin, potent inhibitors of SGLT1 and GLUT2, respectively, significantly diminished quercitrin transport from the apical to basolateral side; and phloretin had a greater inhibitory effect compared to phloridzin. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that quercitrin is absorbed intactly and then effluxed out of Caco-2 cells through both apical and basolateral membranes probably via SGLT1 and GLUT2.

Additional file 3: Supplementary Table S3. Correlation analysis between samples.

Additional file 2: Supplementary Table S2. New transcript prediction statistics.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table S1. Alignment statistics. Total reads = number (percentage) of sequences in the clean data (after sequence filtering). Total mapped = number (percentage) of sequences that can be located on the reference sequence. Multiple mapped = number (percentage) of sequences with multiple comparison positions on the reference sequence. Unique mapped = number (percentage) of sequences with unique comparison positions on the reference sequence. Read-1/Read-2 mapped = number (percentage) of Read-1 and Read-2 sequences compared to reference sequence (only the unique mapped sequences were calculated). Reads mapped to +/��� = the number (percentage) of positive and negative chains on the reference sequence compared to the sequencing sequence (only the unique mapped sequences were calculated). Non-splice reads = number (percentage) of all sequences compared to exons. Splice reads = number (percentage) of segmented comparisons of sequences (also known as junction reads) on two exons. Reads mapped in proper pairs = number (percentage) of sequences for simultaneous alignment of two terminal reads.

Background: Cataracts are defects of the lens that cause progressive visual impairment and ultimately blindness in many vertebrate species. Most cataracts are age-related, but up to one third have an underlying genetic cause. Cataracts are common in captive zoo animals, but it is often unclear whether these are congenital or sporadic acquired (age-related) lesions. Results: Here we used a functional candidate gene- screening approach to identify mutations associated with cataracts in a captive giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). We screened 11 genes often associated with human cataracts and identified a novel missense mutation (c.686G>A) in the MIP gene encoding major intrinsic protein. , whichThis is expressed in the lens and normally accumulates in the plasma membrane of lens fiber cells, where it plays an important role in fluid transport and cell adhesion. The mutation causes the replacement of serine with asparagine (p.229S>Np.S229N) in the C-terminal tail of the protein, and modeling revealed predicts that the mutation- induced induces conformational changes that may interfere with lens permeability and cell–cell interactions. Conclusion: The c.686G>A mutation was found in a captive giant panda with a unilateral cataract but not in 18 controls from diverse regions of in China, suggesting that c.686G>Ait is likely to bemost likely a genuine disease-causing associated mutation rather than a single-nucleotide polymorphism 5 regions was used in this research. Conclusions: The c.686G>A mutation was not found in healthy pandas, suggesting itThe mutation could therefore serve as a new genetic marker to predict the risk of congenital cataracts in captive giant pandas.

Since the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in human breastmilk, little is known about the antiviral property of human breastmilk to SARS-CoV-2 and its related pangolin coronavirus (GX_P2V). Here we present for the first time that whey protein from human breastmilk effectively inhibited both SARS-CoV-2 and GX_P2V by blocking viral attachment, entry and even post-entry viral replication. Moreover, human whey protein inhibited infectious virus production proved by the plaque assay. We found that whey protein from different species such as cow and goat also showed anti-coronavirus properties. And commercial bovine milk also showed similar activity. Interestingly, the main antimicrobial components of breastmilk, such as Lactoferrin and IgA antibody, showed limited anti-coronavirus activity, indicating that other factors of breastmilk may play the important anti-coronavirus role. Taken together, we reported that whey protein inhibits SARS-CoV-2 and its related virus of GX_P2V. These results rule out whey protein as a direct-acting inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 and GX_P2V infection and replication and further investigation of its molecular mechanism of action in the context of COVID-19.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB), as a crucial gate of brain-blood molecular exchange, is involved in the pathogenesis of multiple neurological diseases. Oxidative stress is caused by an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the scavenger system. Since oxidative stress plays a significant role in the production and maintenance of the BBB, the cerebrovascular system is especially vulnerable to it. The pathways that initiate BBB dysfunction include, but are not limited to, mitochondrial dysfunction, excitotoxicity, iron metabolism, cytokines, pyroptosis, and necroptosis, all converging on the generation of ROS. Interestingly, ROS also provide common triggers that directly regulate BBB damage, parameters including tight junction (TJ) modifications, transporters, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activation, inflammatory responses, and autophagy. We will discuss the role of oxidative stress-mediated BBB disruption in neurological diseases, such as hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke (IS), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). This review will also discuss the latest clinical evidence of potential biomarkers and antioxidant drugs towards oxidative stress in neurological diseases. A deeper understanding of how oxidative stress damages BBB may open up more therapeutic options for the treatment of neurological diseases.

Most of the existing blind proxy re-signature schemes are designed based on the traditional public key cryptosystems, whose security relies on the hardness of big integer factoring, discrete logarithm, elliptic curve discrete logarithm, and so on. However, these problems will be unsecure when facing the attack of quantum computers. Motivated by these concerns, we proposed a blind proxy re-signature scheme based on the problem of isomorphisms of polynomials, which can resist quantum attack, and gave its security proof under the random oracle model. In the proposed scheme, the message can be kept blind by using the hash function, and the delegatee's identity can be kept anonymous by using the problem of isomorphisms of polynomials. Compared with the existing schemes, the new scheme has more secure properties, such as quantum resistance, high efficiency, message blindness, and delegatee anonymity. It is concluded that the proposed scheme has a good application prospect in the future quantum computing environment with low-power hardware.

BACKGROUNDThe standard treatment for condyloma acuminatum is topical imiquimod. In the current study, we used a mouse model to compare the effects of an herbal medication PaiTeLing.METHODSLesion tissue was obtained from a woman with genital condyloma acuminatum. DNA genotyping revealed HPV6, 31, and 81. Tissue prism (0.5 cm3) was implanted to BALB/C nude mice, 22 days after the implantation, mice began to receive topical treatment with imiquimod, interferon-α-2b gel, or PaiTeLing over the site of implantation for 2 consecutive weeks. Mice receiving tissue implantation but no other intervention was included as a control. Skin tissue was collected for H&E staining and anti-CD207 immunohistochemistry. Blood was collected to determine a panel of cytokines.RESULTSH&E staining showed lower number of koilocytes and higher number of Langerhans cells in the treatment groups, particularly in mice receiving imiquimod or PaiTeLing. Blood levels of TNFα, IL-2, INF-γ and IL-12p70 were increased in the treatment groups, particularly in mice receiving imiquimod or PaiTeLing.CONCLUSIONImmune response in nude mice infected with HPV6, 31, and 81 is enhanced by treatment with imiquimod, interferon-α-2b and PaiTeLing. Effects of imiquimod and PaiTeLing seems to be stronger than interferon-α-2b.

The immune system has a central role in eliminating detrimental factors, by frequently launching inflammatory responses towards pathogen infection and inner danger signal outbreak. Acute and chronic inflammatory responses are critical determinants for consequences of kidney diseases, in which inflammasomes were inevitably involved. Inflammasomes are closely linked to many kidney diseases such as acute kidney injury and chronic kidney diseases. Inflammasomes are macromolecules consisting of multiple proteins, and their formation initiates the cleavage of procaspase-1, resulting in the activation of gasdermin D as well as the maturation and release of interleukin-1β and IL-18, leading to pyroptosis. Here, we discuss the mechanism in which inflammasomes occur, as well as their roles in inflammatory kidney diseases, in order to shed light for discovering new therapeutical targets for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory kidney diseases and consequent end-stage renal disease.

Malignant cells are the result of mutations in genes controlling cell proliferation, invasion, and survival. Conventional chemotherapeutic drugs were designed to target vital cellular processes, such as DNA repair and replication, cytoskeleton structure, and cell division. These processes are also critical for normal proliferating cells, that as a consequence, such drugs are associated with unavoidable toxicities. Discoveries during the last decade have identified recurrent “driver" mutations in some types of cancer. The cancer cells that harbor these genetic alterations; often exhibit dependence on an activated oncogenic pathway or protein for its sustained proliferation and survival. The mechanistic rationale of targeted approaches is to destroy the tumor by blocking aberrant cell signaling to which the cancer cell is addicted, but dispensable for healthy tissues. The targeted drugs have been designed to effectively target the oncogenically activated nodes in the major signaling pathways. These drugs have been a clinical success, and often significantly prolong the lives of individuals with cancer. Unfortunately, the initial clinical responses to targeted drugs are almost always temporary and increase progression-free survival, but this improvement does not necessarily translate into a meaningful overall survival, as acquired resistance to these drugs almost invariably develops. We have to realize the issue we are dealing with is not that there are no good drugs to inhibit targets; it is more about how to use these drugs in the optimal way to prevent or overcome drug-resistance. We must rethink how we use existing cancer drugs to optimize therapy responses. Dosing all drugs to maximum tolerated dose and combine drugs haphazardly in the hope to find more effective drug combinations should be reconsidered. We need to identify vulnerabilities of drug-resistant cancer cells and selectively target these acquired vulnerabilities. We can also consider to first trap the cancer cells into a state, such as senescence, that expose novel vulnerabilities that can be targeted. Last, but not least, we need to combine the therapies with sensitive monitoring methods to monitor clonal evolution during therapy to target these vulnerabilities optimally. This strategy appears more appealing than fighting a losing battle against the inevitable development of drug resistance.

Disease-specific ontologies, designed to structure and represent the medical knowledge about disease etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, are essential for many advanced applications, such as predictive modeling, cohort identification, and clinical decision support. However, manually building disease-specific ontologies is very labor-intensive, especially in the process of knowledge acquisition. On the other hand, medical knowledge has been documented in a variety of biomedical knowledge resources, such as textbook, clinical guidelines, research articles, and clinical data repositories, which offers a great opportunity for an automated knowledge acquisition. In this dissertation, we aim to facilitate the large-scale development of disease-specific ontologies through automated extraction of disease-specific vocabularies from existing biomedical knowledge resources. Three separate studies presented in this dissertation explored both manual and automated vocabulary extraction. The first study addresses the question of whether disease-specific reference vocabularies derived from manual concept acquisition can achieve a near-saturated coverage (or near the greatest possible amount of disease-pertinent concepts) by using a small number of literature sources. Using a general-purpose, manual acquisition approach we developed, this study concludes that a small number of expert-curated biomedical literature resources can prove sufficient for acquiring near-saturated disease-specific vocabularies. The second and third studies introduce automated techniques for extracting disease-specific vocabularies from both MEDLINE citations (title and abstract) and a clinical data repository. In the second study, we developed and assessed a pipeline-based system which extracts disease-specific treatments from PubMed citations. The system has achieved a mean precision of 0.8 for the top 100 extracted treatment concepts. In the third study, we applied classification models to reduce irrelevant disease-concepts associations extracted from MEDLINE citations and electronic medical records. This study suggested the combination of measures of relevance from disparate sources to improve the identification of true-relevant concepts through classification and also demonstrated the generalizability of the studied classification model to new diseases. With the studies, we concluded that existing biomedical knowledge resources are valuable sources for extracting disease-concept associations, from which classification based on statistical measures of relevance could assist a semi-automated generation of disease-specific vocabularies.

In high-speed ball bearings, external load has a great effect on cage stability and sliding ratio, especially for the bearings at work in the starting process. For this paper, a dynamic model of high-speed ball bearings was developed, and cage stability both under steady conditions and during the starting process was analyzed based on the model. The effect of external load on cage stability was evaluated taking into consideration the two different working conditions. The results show that cage stability is worse in the beginning of the bearing starting process. According to the investigation of cage stability on different external loads, it can be concluded that the axial load greatly influences cage dynamic performance in the bearing starting process. In addition, while ball bearings worked under steady conditions, axial load and radial load both have a great influence on cage dynamic performance. The effects of axial load on cage dynamic performance during the bearing starting process are opposite from the effects under steady conditions.

Dongfang no. 6, an intraspecific hybrid of kelp (Saccharina japonica) which was high in yield and had a high stress tolerance and was suitable for processing, was bred by crossing scientifically selected parental gametophyte clones. The sporophyte of the hybrid was raised by crossing a female gametophyte clone isolated from a Korean ecotype of S. japonica (Korean kelp) with a male gametophyte clone isolated from Lianza no. 1, a variety of S. japonica bred through continuous selection. The culture performance, stress tolerance, and suitability for processing of the hybrid and two commercial controls were compared for a period lasting 5 years (2009–2013). It was found that the hybrid was fast in growth, tolerant to high seawater temperature, resistant to strong solar irradiation, late in maturing time, and high in processed product yield. The percentage of salting processed product of the hybrid was 17.5 and 15.4 % higher than those of control 1 and 2, respectively. The yield of salting processed product of the hybrid increased by 24.2 and 38.8 % over control 1 and 2, respectively. The yield of air drying processed product of the hybrid increased by 109.4 and 88.1 % over control 1 and 2, respectively. The breeding of Dongfang no. 6 demonstrated that crossing gametophyte clones in combination with selecting desirable hybrids are highly effective for breeding kelp hybrids with high-culture performance and suitability for processing.

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are wireless networks composed of spatially distributed autonomous devices using sensors to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants, at different locations. This paper deals with the influence to data fusion of part of the relevant data on clustering network in the wireless sensor networks (WSN). According to the results of the study, the nodes' energy consumption largely depends on their location: although some of the nodes are comparatively far from sink node, they may consume more energy. The study results further show that there is a trade-off between the total energy consumption of the networks and the network lifetime, i.e. even if the total energy consumption of the networks reaches its minimum, the network lifetime is not necessarily the longest.

BRAF(V600E) mutant melanomas treated with inhibitors of the BRAF and MEK kinases almost invariably develop resistance that is frequently caused by reactivation of the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. To identify novel treatment options for such patients, we searched for acquired vulnerabilities of MAPK inhibitor-resistant melanomas. We find that resistance to BRAF+MEK inhibitors is associated with increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Subsequent treatment with the histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat suppresses SLC7A11, leading to a lethal increase in the already-elevated levels of ROS in drug-resistant cells. This causes selective apoptotic death of only the drug-resistant tumor cells. Consistently, treatment of BRAF inhibitor-resistant melanoma with vorinostat in mice results in dramatic tumor regression. In a study in patients with advanced BRAF+MEK inhibitor-resistant melanoma, we find that vorinostat can selectively ablate drug-resistant tumor cells, providing clinical proof of concept for the novel therapy identified here.

Objective. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a severe neurological disease and its risk factors remain largely unknown. A meta-analysis was carried out to investigate the relationship of overweight and obesity with PD. Methods. We used PubMed, EMBASE, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases to identify studies of associations between overweight/obesity and PD. Overweight, obesity, and PD were used as keywords, and published works were retrieved until September 30, 2013. The extracted data were classified (BMI≥30,25≤BMI

The analysis of the colored pottery figurines from Yangling Tombs of the Han Dynasty was realized by X-ray diffraction, emission spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence and fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS). Consequent results showed that the colored components were respectively mercuric(II) sulphide, ferric (III) oxide, and carbon, among which mercuric(II) sulphide was an artificial pigment.

The critical load of failure Lc is an important index for the loading capacity of a coating-substrate system. In consideration of the fact that a coating-substrate system in practice may take any one form of the four failure modes, coating failure, substrate yielding, interfacial failure or the mixed failure, this paper defines the critical load of failure of a coating-substrate system as the maximum normal load under a certain friction coefficient before any failure occurs. It also puts forward a new method, the rubbing method, to measure Lc. A multifunctional tester, Model CM-1, is developed on the basis of this method. The critical loads of bearing balls with physical vapor deposited (PVD) TiN or chemical vapor deposited (CVD) TiC or CVD TiC + Ti(CxNy) + TiN coatings under different friction coefficients are tested on this machine and their failing processes are analysed. The results show that the rubbing method is a sound new method for the measurement of Lc, and the results agree well with the those of field effect microscopy. The Lc of the CVD coating is greater than that of the PVD coating, and the Lc under smaller friction coefficient f is greater than that under larger f.

This paper investigates experimentally the effect of two-phase liquid lubricating oil with solid additives of carbon or graphite or polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE) powder on contact fatigue life. The results show that the greater the amount of the three additives mentioned above, the longer the contact fatigue life becomes, but after the amount of graphite is greater than 0.5%, the contact fatigue life becomes almost a constant value. It is thought that the mechanism to prolong the fatigue life exists in four aspects: increasing effect of viscosity, decreasing effect of Hertzian contact stress, wedge effect of additive grains and adherent effec of additives on the contact surface.

The EDA technology is an advanced tool used to design modern electronic system. The necessity of combining EDA technology with the hardware courses for electric information specialties is analyzed in this paper. Also, an effective way of introducing EDA technology to the hardware courses is provided and has been put into experiment, whose result has proved its effectiveness.

This paper deals with influence of the fusion of part of the related data in WSN on the energy consumption of network clustering based on the hypothesis that the data packets transmitted by cluster-head node after data fusion are the minimum with the rate distortion function theory. The study shows that node energy consumption largely depends on its location: although some nodes are comparatively distant from the sink node, they are likely to consume more energy. The study results further show that there is a trade-off between the total energy consumption of the networks and the network lifespan, i.e. even if the total energy consumption of the networks reaches its minimum, the network lifespan is not necessarily the longest.

One of the main objectives of wireless sensor network design is to improve the energy efficiency. How to efficiently utilize sensor nodes to prolong the lifespan of a wireless network has long been a research topic. This paper presents a location based LEACH clustering algorithm, which is an extension to the LEACH routing algorithm. Armed with distributed and local network based routing decision-making mechanism, this algorithm fully utilizes the location information of network nodes in routing to reduce the routing cost. Simulation results indicate that this algorithm can balance nodes' energy consumption and prolong the network's life span. It also has good stability and extensibility.

Effective utilization of on-chip storage space is important for reduction of memory subsystem energy consumptions of embedded systems which are powered by batteries. In the past, Cache helped to alleviate this bottleneck to some extent and had been widely used. However, a vital flaw, invalid transmission between on-chip memory and off-chip memory, indicates that it may not be the best candidate for portable/embedded devices. Software-managed on-chip memory, which is generally called as scratch-pad memory, (SPM) may be a better alternative for exploiting locality, meanwhile, how to efficiently map code & date into SPM is still a problem. In this paper, we propose a strategy which analyzes the application's binary directly and inserts instructions to implement jumping between on-chip and off-chip. Compared with previous work, this strategy not only notices the change of object's instruction number and size, but also takes the relationship among objects into accounts, therefore, the result is more accurate.

On the base of analysis of the effects of each term in Renolds equaiton on the lubrication state of helical gears, the three dimensional elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) problem is discomposed into two dimensional problems to deal with. A special boundary condition for helical gear EHL problem is led in and applying multigrid method (MGM), numerical solutions for the helical gear EHL problem are accomplished along the contact line. Film shapes and pressure ditributions with typical EHL features are obtained at discreted points on the contact line. The procedure presented here to calculate the load distribution on the contact line can also be used to calculate the load shares among different contact lines.