Weighted proportional window control of TCP traffic

This article describes a technique for weighted proportional window control of elastic traffic such as that generated by TCP. This is achieved through the modification of the receiver's advertised window of TCP connections sharing the bottleneck link while taking into account the price that each user of a connection has paid for the service and the total number of active connections sharing the bottleneck link. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measurement of Electrophysiological Signals In Vitro Using High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors

Biological environments use ions in charge transport for information transmission. The properties of mixed electronic and ionic conductivity in organic materials make them ideal candidates to transduce physiological information into electronically processable signals. A device proven to be highly successful in measuring such information is the organic electrochemical transistor (OECT). Previous electrophysiological measurements performed using OECTs show superior signal-to-noise ratios than electrodes at low frequencies. Subsequent development has significantly improved critical performance parameters such as transconductance and response time. Here, interdigitated-electrode OECTs are fabricated on flexible substrates, with one such state-of-the-art device achieving a peak transconductance of 139 mS with a 138 µs response time. The devices are implemented into an array with interconnects suitable for micro-electrocorticographic application and eight architecture variations are compared. The two best-performing arrays are subject to the full electrophysiological spectrum using prerecorded signals. With frequency filtering, kHz-scale frequencies with 10 µV-scale voltages are resolved. This is supported by a novel quantification of the noise, which compares the gate voltage input and drain current output. These results demonstrate that high-performance OECTs can resolve the full electrophysiological spectrum and suggest that superior signal-to-noise ratios could be achieved in high frequency measurements of multiunit activity.     

A novel image fusion framework for night-vision navigation and surveillance

The night-vision image fusion plays a critical role in detecting targets and obstructions in low light or total darkness, which has great importance for pedestrian recognition, vehicle navigation, surveillance and monitoring applications. The central idea is to fuse low-light visible and infrared imagery into a single output. In this paper, we describe a new fusion framework for spatially registered visual and infrared images. The proposed framework utilizes the properties of fractal dimension and phase congruency in the non-subsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) domain. The proposed framework applies multiscale NSCT on visual and IR images to get low- and high-frequency bands. The varied frequency bands of the transformed images are then fused while exploiting their characteristics. Finally, the inverse NSCT is performed to get the fused image. The performance of the proposed framework is validated by extensive experiments on different scene imaginary, where the definite advantages are demonstrated subjectively and objectively.     

Engineering Gold Nanotubes with Controlled Length and Near‐Infrared Absorption for Theranostic Applications

Important aspects in engineering gold nanoparticles for theranostic applications include the control of size, optical properties, cytotoxicity, biodistribution, and clearance. In this study, gold nanotubes with controlled length and tunable absorption in the near‐infrared (NIR) region have been exploited for applications as photothermal conversion agents and in vivo photoacoustic imaging contrast agents. A length‐controlled synthesis has been developed to fabricate gold nanotubes (NTs) with well‐defined shape (i.e., inner void and open ends), high crystallinity, and tunable NIR surface plasmon resonance. A coating of poly(sodium 4‐styrenesulfonate) (PSS) endows the nanotubes with colloidal stability and low cytotoxicity. The PSS‐coated Au NTs have the following characteristics: i) cellular uptake by colorectal cancer cells and macrophage cells, ii) photothermal ablation of cancer cells using single wavelength pulse laser irradiation, iii) excellent in vivo photoacoustic signal generation capability and accumulation at the tumor site, iv) hepatobiliary clearance within 72 h postintravenous injection. These results demonstrate that these PSS‐coated Au NTs have the ideal attributes to develop their potential as effective and safe in vivo imaging nanoprobes, photothermal conversion agents, and drug delivery vehicles. To the best of knowledge, this is the first in vitro and in vivo study of gold nanotubes.     

Vertically Aligned WS2 Nanosheets for Water Splitting

Vertically aligned WS₂ (VAWS₂) nanosheet films are prepared using a lithium based anodization electrolyte to fabricate WO₃ films followed by sulfurization. The VAWS₂ synthesized here is self‐organized as a conformal structure to expose active edge sites for water splitting. These vertically aligned nanosheets are composed of exfoliated WS₂ to provide abundant active edges for catalytic reactions. Hydrogen evolution activity of the VAWS₂ is demonstrated to show high catalytic current, low onset overpotential and small Tafel slope. By certain measures, this VAWS₂ nanosheet film outperforms some of the state‐of‐the‐art hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts, which opens up a new pathway to simply and scalably fabricate high‐performance water electrolysis catalysts.     

A management architecture for client‐defined cloud storage services

Cloud service providers offer virtual resources to users, who then pay for as much as they use. High‐speed networks help to overcome the limitation of geographical distances between clients and cloud servers, which encourage users to adopt cloud storage services for data backup and sharing. However, users use only a few cloud storage services because of the complexity of managing multiple accounts and distributing data to store. In this paper, we propose the client‐defined management architecture (CLIMA) that redefines a storage service by coordinating multiple cloud storage services from clients. We address practical issues of coordinating multiple cloud service providers using a client‐based approach. We implement a prototype as a realization of CLIMA, which achieves both reliability and privacy protection using erasure code and higher performance by optimally scheduling data transmission. We use our prototype to evaluate the benefits of CLIMA on commercial cloud storage service providers. Finally, CLIMA empowers clients to increase the manageability and flexibility of cloud storage services. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Positive Time-Frequency Distributions via Quadratic Programming

A new method for computing positive time-frequency distributions (TFDs) for nonstationary signals is presented. This work extends the earlier work of the author and his colleagues in computing positive TFDs [8,11]. This paper describes a general quadratic programming approach to the problem of computing these signal-dependent distributions. The method is based on an evolutionary spectrum formulation of positive TFDs. The minimization problem reduces to a linearly-constrained quadratic programming problem, for which standard solutions are widely available.     

An Adaptive Tourniquet for Improved Safety in Surgery

The increasingly recognized inability of the current generation of pneumatic tourniquets to control pressure with adequate accuracy, reliability, and stability has been associated with continuing reports of tourniquet-related injuries, incidents, and hazards. Moreover, the labor-intensiveness and operating costs associated with the use of current types of pneumatic tourniquets have significant cost implications for hospitals. To a large extent, the recent development of a microprocessor-based tourniquet capable of safely and accurately maintaining a desired pressure, and capable of simultaneously performing other functions such as detection of alarm conditions, has reduced these hazards and operating-cost implications. Furthermore, the availability of a microprocessor-based tourniquet has facilitated the development of the adaptive tourniquet described in this paper, in which the pressure in a tourniquet cuff is changed throughout a surgical procedure as a function of the patient's changing intraoperative systolic pressure, thus approximating the minimum safe pressure necessary to maintain a bloodless field for surgery. While the use of an adaptive tourniquet, rather than just a microprocessor-based tourniquet set at a constant pressure may not be necessary in most cases, it promises to have significant value in certain surgical procedures and for patients who may be at greater risk of tourniquet-induced complications. Also, the lower average pressures possible through the use of an adaptive tourniquet may permit the evolution of surgical techniques of longer duration without a concomitant increase in the risk of tourniquet-induced complications.     

Biology of pheromone release by male caribbean fruit flies,Anastrepha suspensa (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Males of the Caribbean fruit fly,Anastrepha suspensa (Loew), typically form leks and attract females by releasing a multicomponent volatile pheromone. Previous reports have identified two nine-carbon alcohols, three lactones, a sesquiterpene, and a monoterpene in the volatiles. The present report is a study of the physiology of male pheromone release and of ecological and social interactions that influence pheromone release by laboratoryreared flies. Volatiles released by males were trapped on Tenax, eluted, separated, and quantitatively measured by gas chromatography. Experiments showed that the volatiles were primarily released from mouth and anus. Sealing the anal opening or the mouth with melted beeswax resulted in up to 40% or greater reduction in most components, and sealing both mouth and anus further reduced release of volatiles, but some volatiles are possibly still released directly from the cuticle. An anal pouch of everted tissue played a major role as a large evaporative surface for release of some of the volatile components. Male flies entrained to a 1410 light-dark cycle showed a peak release of volatiles at 11–12 hr into the photophase, but smaller quantities of the same volatiles were released over a broad period during the daylight hours. Laboratory-reared males peaked in pheromone release at 7–10 days and production and release continued through 35 days of age. Single males released significantly more of all components measured than did groups of males. The reduction by aggregations of males may be related to lekking behavior in this fruit fly. The pheromone probably serves to attract females to a lek site, but additional parameters are likely to enter into the choice of male made by the arriving female.This is University of Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Series No. 9589.     

Reaction of Iradium with Metal Carbides in the Temperature Range of 1923 to 2400 K

The reactions of titanium carbide and hafnium carbide with iridium have been studied in thin film couples fabricated by vapor deposition processes. The reaction product layers after exposure in the temperature range of 1923 to 2400 K are dependent on the stoichiometry of the metal carbide layers and range from simple solid solutions to MIr_x compounds. The observed microstructures are predictable from available thermochemical data. The morphology of residual carbon in the reacted metal carbide-iridium product layer varies from interfacial deposits to uniform carbon dispersion and depends upon exposure temperature and metal carbide stoichiometry.