Background: Insomnia is a common complaint that is closely related to gastrointestinal symptoms, which is consistent with the traditional Chinese medicine classical theory of ‘‘stomach disharmony leading to restless...Background: Insomnia is a common complaint that is closely related to gastrointestinal symptoms, which is consistent with the traditional Chinese medicine classical theory of ‘‘stomach disharmony leading to restless sleep." Acupuncture is an effective complementary and alternative medicine therapy to improve gastrointestinal function and restore the normal sleep-wake cycle. However, studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture for insomnia due to spleen-stomach disharmony syndrome are limited to case reports and few randomized controlled trials; deeper research on its mechanism is still lacking. This randomized controlled trial aims to assess the treatment efficacy of ‘‘harmonizing stomach to tranquilize mind"acupuncture for insomnia and its influence on the intestinal microbiome.Methods/design: This is a randomized, single-blind, parallel-group study. Sixty eligible patients with insomnia due to spleen-stomach disharmony syndrome will be randomly divided into two groups(1:1 allocation ratio). The intervention group will use ‘‘harmonizing stomach to tranquilize mind"acupuncture, and the control group will receive sham acupuncture. Participants will receive 5 acupuncture treatment sessions per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index will be used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment by making assessments at baseline, the end of treatment and the end of the follow-up. High-throughput 16 S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene sequencing will be performed to detect changes in the intestinal microbial composition before and after treatment.Discussion: The results of this trial are expected to confirm that ‘‘harmonizing stomach to tranquilize mind" acupuncture can effectively relieve insomnia and alter the intestinal microbiome.展开更多
Quantitative security metrics are desirable for measuring the performance of information security controls. Security metrics help to make functional and business decisions for improving the performance and cost of the...Quantitative security metrics are desirable for measuring the performance of information security controls. Security metrics help to make functional and business decisions for improving the performance and cost of the security controls. However, defining enterprise-level security metrics has already been listed as one of the hard problems in the Info Sec Research Council's hard problems list. Almost all the efforts in defining absolute security metrics for the enterprise security have not been proved fruitful. At the same time, with the maturity of the security industry, there has been a continuous emphasis from the regulatory bodies on establishing measurable security metrics. This paper addresses this need and proposes a relative security metric model that derives three quantitative security metrics named Attack Resiliency Measure(ARM), Performance Improvement Factor(PIF), and Cost/Benefit Measure(CBM) for measuring the performance of the security controls. For the effectiveness evaluation of the proposed security metrics, we took the secure virtual machine(VM) migration protocol as the target of assessment. The virtual-ization technologies are rapidly changing the landscape of the computing world. Devising security metrics for virtualized environment is even more challenging. As secure virtual machine migration is an evolving area and no standard protocol is available specifically for secure VM migration. This paper took the secure virtual machine migration protocol as the target of assessment and applied the proposed relative security metric model for measuring the Attack Resiliency Measure, Performance Improvement Factor, and Cost/Benefit Measure of the secure VM migration protocol.展开更多
Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupoint application for post-stroke depression(PSD)by regulating gastrointestinal function.A secondary objective is to explore the potential mechanism underlying this ...Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupoint application for post-stroke depression(PSD)by regulating gastrointestinal function.A secondary objective is to explore the potential mechanism underlying this approach from the perspective of gut microbiota.Methods:This multicenter,randomized,double-blind(patients and assessors),placebo-controlled trial will enroll 80 patients with PSD,and include a 1-week run-in period,a 4-week treatment phase,and a 12-week follow-up.Eligible participants will randomly be assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either the acupoint application or placebo(non-acupoint)groups.Treatments will be administered thrice weekly for 4 weeks.The primary outcome is change in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression(HAMD)score.Secondary outcomes include the Beck Depression Inventory(BDI),36-Item Short-Form Health Survey(SF-36),Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living,Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation Scale(SASS),and gut microbiota profiling.All outcomes will be assessed at baseline(prior to treatment),during treatment(weeks 2 and 4),and during follow-up(weeks 8,12,and 16).The Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale(TESS)will be used for evaluation throughout the 4-week treatment phase.Discussion:The results of this study will provide important evidence supporting a novel treatment strategy for PSD that targets gastrointestinal regulation,potentially informing future clinical practice.展开更多
This paper proposes a new multi-channel Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol named as Dual Reservation Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) based MAC protocol with Power Control (DRCPC). The code channel is divided in...This paper proposes a new multi-channel Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol named as Dual Reservation Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) based MAC protocol with Power Control (DRCPC). The code channel is divided into common channel,broadcast channel and several data chan-nels. And dynamic power control mechanism is implemented to reduce near-far interference. Compared with IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) protocol,the results show that the pro-posed mechanism improves the average throughput and limits the transmission delay efficiently.展开更多
In order to improve the throughput performance of the secondary users （SUs） in the cognitive radio （CR） environment, a quality of service （QoS） based media access control （MAC） protocol is proposed. In this pr...In order to improve the throughput performance of the secondary users （SUs） in the cognitive radio （CR） environment, a quality of service （QoS） based media access control （MAC） protocol is proposed. In this protocol, the CR node maps the channel state as a vector, and the transmitter and the receiver obtain the final channel map through an AND operation to prepare for an optional channel set. Data from the upper application layer are classified into two priority levels according to the QoS requirement. The data of each level relate to different contention windows so that the priority of real time data can be guaranteed. A two-dimensional discrete-time Markov chain is utilized to evaluate the system performance, and mathematical expressions of the system throughput are derived. Simulation results show that compared with the IEEE 802. 11 distributed coordination function （DCF）, the proposed MAC protocol can achieve higher throughput.展开更多
Background: Fire-needle acupuncture, an important kind of acupuncture therapy, has been clinically used to treat upper limb spastic paralysis(ULSP) after stroke. Clinical experience has indicated that fire-needle acup...Background: Fire-needle acupuncture, an important kind of acupuncture therapy, has been clinically used to treat upper limb spastic paralysis(ULSP) after stroke. Clinical experience has indicated that fire-needle acupuncture treatment takes less time, requires fewer visits, and has more rapid results and fewer side effects compared to chemical medicine alternatives. This study will evaluate the effects of fire-needle acupuncture for ULSP in the context of standardized clinical research and provide high-quality data to inform clinical procedures and future study design.Methods/Design: A randomized controlled trial will be carried out to evaluate the effects of fire-needle acupuncture therapy in patients with ULSP from stroke. ULSP patients(n = 120) will be recruited at Changhai Hospital in Shanghai, China. Patients will be randomly divided into three groups, including fire-needle acupuncture group(FAG), filiform-needle acupuncture group(FFAG) and rehabilitation treatment group(RTG). During the 3-week treatment, the FAG will be treated every two days, while FFAG and RTG will be treated 5 d in a row and then rest for 2 d. The Simplified Fugl-Meyer Motor Function Scale and Modified Ashworth Scale will be used as the primary outcome measures. Statistical analysis will be conducted by an independent statistician.Discussion: Through this study, the utility of fire-needle acupuncture in treating ULSP after stroke will be tested, and some specific claims of fire-needle acupuncture therapy will be evaluated, such as relieving spasm and muscular tension, improving activities of daily living, rapidity of response and less frequency of treatment compared with other treatments.展开更多
BACKGROUND： Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease （COPD） is a major public health problem worldwide. Pulmonary rehabilitation （PR） is an established intervention for the management of patients with COPD. Exercise...BACKGROUND： Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease （COPD） is a major public health problem worldwide. Pulmonary rehabilitation （PR） is an established intervention for the management of patients with COPD. Exercise training is an important part of PR, and its effectiveness in patients with COPD is well established. However, alternative methods of PR training such as Daoyin have not been appropriately studied. Hence, alternative forms of exercise training that require less exercise equipment and no specific training place should be evaluated. This paper describes the study protocol of a clinical trial that aims to determine if pulmonary Daoyin training will improve the exercise capacity and psychosocial function of patients with COPD in China. METHODS AND DESIGN： A multicenter, randomized, controlled trial will be conducted. A total of 464 patients meeting the inclusion criteria will be enrolled into this study with 232 patients in each of the trial group and the control group. Based on patient education, patients in the trial group will receive pulmonary Daoyin and continue with their usual therapy for three months. In the control group, patients will continue with their usual therapy. The primary outcome measures are exercise capacity assessed by the six-minute walking distance test and lung function. Secondary outcomes include dyspnea and quality of life. Measurements will be taken at baseline （month 0） and after the study period （month 3）. DISCUSSION： It is hypothesized that pulmonary Daoyin will have beneficial effects in improving exercise capacity and psychosocial function of patients with stable COPD, and will provide an alternative form of exercise training that is accessible for the large number of people with COPD. TRIAL REGISTRATION： This trial has been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. The identifier is NCT01482000.展开更多
BACKGROUND： Rheumatoid arthritis （RA）, as a common systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease, affects approximately 1 in 100 individuals. Effective treatment for RA is not yet available because current research does...BACKGROUND： Rheumatoid arthritis （RA）, as a common systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease, affects approximately 1 in 100 individuals. Effective treatment for RA is not yet available because current research does not have a clear understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of RA. Xinfeng Capsule, a patent Chinese herbal medicine, has been used in the treatment of RA in recent years. Despite its reported clinical efficacy, there are no large-sample, multicenter, randomized trials that support the use of Xinfeng Capsule for RA. Therefore, we designed a randomized, double-blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of Xinfeng Capsule in the treatment of RA. METHODS AND DESIGN： This is a 12-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter trial on the treatment of RA. The participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group at a ratio of 1：1. Participants in the experimental group will receive Xinfeng Capsule and a pharmaceutical placebo （imitation leflunomide）. The control group will receive leflunomide and an herbal placebo （imitation Xinfeng Capsule）. The American College of Rheumatology （ACR） Criteria for RA will be used to measure the efficacy of the Xinfeng Capsule. The primary outcome measure will be the percentage of study participants who achieve an ACR 20% response rate （ACR20）, which will be measured every 4 weeks after randomization. Secondary outcomes will include the ACR50 and ACR70 responses, the side effects of the medications, the Disease Activity Score 28, RA biomarkers, quality of life, and X-rays of the hands and wrists. The first four of the secondary outcomes will be measured every 4 weeks and the others will be measured at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment. DISCUSSION： The result of this trial will help to evaluate whether Xinfeng Capsule is effective and safe in the treatment of RA. TRIAL REGISTRATION： This trial has been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. The identifier is N CT01774877.展开更多
BACKGROUND： Parkinson＇s disease （PD） is a complicated disease, commonly diagnosed among the elderly, which leads to degeneration of the central nervous system. It presently lacks an effective therapy for its compl...BACKGROUND： Parkinson＇s disease （PD） is a complicated disease, commonly diagnosed among the elderly, which leads to degeneration of the central nervous system. It presently lacks an effective therapy for its complex pathogenesis. Adverse effects from Western drug-based medical intervention prevent long-term adherence to these therapies in many patients. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has long been used to improve the treatment of PD by alleviating the toxic and adverse effects of Western drug-based intervention. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Xifeng Dingchan Pill （XFDCP）, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, taken in conjunction with Western medicine in the treatment of PD patients at different stages in the progression of the disease. METHODS AND DESIGN： This is a multicenter, randomized controlled trial. In total, 320 patients with early- （n = 160） and middle-stage PD （n = 160） will be enrolled and divided evenly into control and trial groups. Of the 160 patients with early-stage PD, the trial group （n = 80） will be given XFDCP, and the control group （n = 80） will be given Madopar. Of the 160 patients with middle-stage PD, the trial group （n = 80） will be given XFDCP combined with Madopar and Piribedil, and the control group （n = 80） will be given Madopar and Piribedil. The Unified Parkinson＇s Disease Rating Scale scores, TCM symptoms scores, quality of life, change of Madopar＇s dosage and the toxic and adverse effects of Madopar will be observed during a 3-month treatment period and through a further 6-month follow-up period. DISCUSSION： It is hypothesized that XFDCP, combined with Madopar and Piribedil, will have beneficial effects on patients with PD. The results of this study will provide evidence for developing a comprehensive therapy regimen, which can delay the progress of the disease and improve the quality of life for PD patients in different stages. TRIAL REGISTRATION： This trial has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry with the identifer ChiCTR-TRC-12002150.展开更多
Consensus tracking control problems for single-integrator dynamics of multi-agent systems with switching topology are investigated. In order to design effective consensus tracking protocols for a more general class of...Consensus tracking control problems for single-integrator dynamics of multi-agent systems with switching topology are investigated. In order to design effective consensus tracking protocols for a more general class of networks, which are aimed at ensuring that the concerned states of agents converge to a constant or time-varying reference state, new consensus tracking protocols with a constant and time-varying reference state are proposed, respectively. Particularly, by contrast with spanning tree, an improved condition of switching interaction topology is presented. And then, convergence analysis of two consensus tracking protocols is provided by Lyapunov stability theory. Moreover, consensus tracking protocol with a time-varying reference state is extended to achieve the fbrmation control. By introducing formation structure set, each agent can gain its individual desired trajectory. Finally, several simulations are worked out to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical results. The test results show that the states of agents can converge to a desired constant or time-varying reference state. In addition, by selecting appropriate structure set, agents can maintain the expected formation under random switching interaction topologies.展开更多
BACKGROUND： Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） is considered an important complementary therapy with beneficial effects for cancer patients. Elderly patients with non-small-cell lung cancer （NSCLC） are a complex ...BACKGROUND： Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） is considered an important complementary therapy with beneficial effects for cancer patients. Elderly patients with non-small-cell lung cancer （NSCLC） are a complex patient group with increasing co-morbidity and shrinking physiological reserve, and may derive substantial benefit from the supportive aspects of TCM Researchers from Shanghai Longhua Hospital found that qi and yin deficiency is a common syndrome in patients with stage III or IV lung cancer. This project was designed to study the combination of single-agent chemotherapy with TCM methods of benefiting qi and yin in elderly patients with advanced NSCLC. METHODS AND DESIGN： This is a double-blind controlled, multi-center, and prospective study with randomly selected participants from elderly NSCLC patients in China. Seventy-six patients who meet the inclusion criteria will be allocated into two groups, which will receive treatments of 3-week single-agent chemotherapy with TCM or placebo for four cycles Progression-free survival （PFS） is the primary end point, and the secondary end points are overall survival, objective response rate, time-to-progression, and quality of life （EORTC QLQ-LC43, and TCM syndrome score） Meanwhile, other end points such as toxicity, side effects and safety of the treatments will be assessed. DISCUSSION： Results from this study may provide evidence on the effectiveness, and parameters for the usage of single-agent chemotherapy combined with or without TCM on PFS of elderly patients with NSCLC.展开更多
Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells(hUC-MSCs)support revascularization,inhibition of inflammation,regulation of apoptosis,and promotion of the release of beneficial factors.Thus,they are regarded as a promisin...Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells(hUC-MSCs)support revascularization,inhibition of inflammation,regulation of apoptosis,and promotion of the release of beneficial factors.Thus,they are regarded as a promising candidate for the treatment of intractable spinal cord injury(SCI).Clinical studies on patients with early chronic SCI(from 2 months to 1 year post-injury),which is clinically common,are rare;therefore,we will conduct a prospective,multicenter,randomized,placebo-controlled,single-blinded clinical trial at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,West China Hospital of Sichuan University,and Shanghai East Hospital,Tongji University School of Medicine,China.The trial plans to recruit 66 early chronic SCI patients.Eligible patients will undergo randomization at a 2:1 ratio to two arms:the observation group and the control group.Subjects in the observation group will receive four intrathecal transplantations of stem cells,with a dosage of 1×106/kg,at one calendar month intervals.Subjects in the control group will receive intrathecal administrations of 10 mL sterile normal saline in place of the stem cell transplantations.Clinical safety will be assessed by the analysis of adverse events and laboratory tests.The American Spinal Injury Association(ASIA)total score will be the primary efficacy endpoint,and the secondary efficacy outcomes will be the following:ASIA impairment scale,International Association of Neural Restoration-Spinal Cord Injury Functional Rating Scale,muscle tension,electromyogram,cortical motor and cortical sensory evoked potentials,residual urine volume,magnetic resonance imaging–diffusion tensor imaging,T cell subtypes in serum,neurotrophic factors and inflammatory factors in both serum and cerebrospinal fluid.All evaluations will be performed at 1,3,6,and 12 months following the final intrathecal administration.During the entire study procedure,all adverse events will be reported as soon as they are noted.This trial is designed to evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of subarachnoid transplantation of hUC-MSCs to treat early chronic SCI.Moreover,it will establish whether cytotherapy can ameliorate local hostile microenvironments,promote tracking fiber regeneration,and strengthen spinal conduction ability,thus improving overall motor,sensory,and micturition/defecation function in patients with early chronic SCI.This study was approved by the Stem Cell Research Ethics Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,China(approval No.[2018]-02)on March 30,2018,and was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov(registration No.NCT03521323)on April 12,2018.The revised trial protocol(protocol version 4.0)was approved by the Stem Cell Research Ethics Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,China(approval No.[2019]-10)on February 25,2019,and released on ClinicalTrials.gov on April 29,2019.展开更多
The rising number of electronic control units （ECUs） in vehicles and the decreasing time to market have led to the need for advanced methods of calibration. A multi-ECU calibration system was developed based on the ...The rising number of electronic control units （ECUs） in vehicles and the decreasing time to market have led to the need for advanced methods of calibration. A multi-ECU calibration system was developed based on the explicit calibration protocol （XCP） and J1939 communication protocol to satisfy the need of calibrating multiple ECUs simultaneously. The messages in the controller area network （CAN） are defined in the J1939 protocol. Each CAN node can get its own calibration messages and information from other ECUs, and block other messages by qualifying the CAN messages with priority, source or destination address. The data field of the calibration message is designed with the XCP, with CAN acting as the transport layer. The calibration sessions are setup with the event-triggered XCP driver in the master node and the responding XCP driver in the slave nodes. Mirroring calibration variables from ROM to RAM enables the user to calibrate ECUs online. The application example shows that the multi-ECU calibration system can calibrate multiple ECUs simultaneously, and the main program can also accomplish its calculation and send commands to the actuators in time. By the multi-ECU calibration system, the calibration effort and time can be reduced and the variables in ECU can get a better match with the variables of other ECUs.展开更多
Attacking time-sensitive targets has rigid demands for the timeliness and reliability of information transmission, while typical Media Access Control（MAC） designed for this application works well only in very light-...Attacking time-sensitive targets has rigid demands for the timeliness and reliability of information transmission, while typical Media Access Control（MAC） designed for this application works well only in very light-load scenarios; as a consequence, the performances of system throughput and channel utilization are degraded. For this problem, a feedback-retransmission based asynchronous FRequency hopping Media Access（FRMA） control protocol is proposed. Burst communication, asynchronous Frequency Hopping（FH）, channel coding, and feedback retransmission are utilized in FRMA. With the mechanism of asynchronous FH, immediate packet transmission and multi-packet reception can be realized, and thus the timeliness is improved.Furthermore, reliability can be achieved via channel coding and feedback retransmission. With theories of queuing theory, Markov model, packets collision model, and discrete Laplace transformation, the formulas of packet success probability, system throughput, average packet end-to-end delay, and delay distribution are obtained. The approximation accuracy of theoretical derivation is verified by experimental results. Within a light-load network, the proposed FRMA has the ability of millisecond delay and 99% reliability as well as outperforms the non-feedback-retransmission based asynchronous frequency hopping media access control protocol.展开更多
Presents the new design of a reservation based medium access protocol,dynamic frame packet reservation multiple access (DF PRMA), for wireless ATM environments its mathematic model built, and analysis of such performa...Presents the new design of a reservation based medium access protocol,dynamic frame packet reservation multiple access (DF PRMA), for wireless ATM environments its mathematic model built, and analysis of such performance as delay and channel throughput its adaptbility to the fluctuation of traffic by controlling frame length dynamically and guarantee delay performance by forced collision and special reservarion slot. Thereby providing a limited access delay and QoS level and maintaining a resonable high channel throughput.展开更多
Medium access control( MAC) protocol of underwater acoustic communication network is a key technology for underwater acoustic networks( UANs). Most of the MAC protocols for wireless terrestrial communication networks ...Medium access control( MAC) protocol of underwater acoustic communication network is a key technology for underwater acoustic networks( UANs). Most of the MAC protocols for wireless terrestrial communication networks have been designed with negligible propagation delay. If it is deployed directly in an underwater environment,the UANs will perform inefficiently. In this paper,the characteristics of underwater acoustic channel are modeled and simulated by using the OPNET simulation tool,which are the speed of sound, propagation loss, and four sources for ambient noise: the turbulence,shipping,wind driven waves and thermal noise. The performance of pure Aloha( P-Aloha),carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance( CSMA / CA) and multiple access collision avoidance for wireless local area network( MACAW) protocols in underwater acoustic channel environment are evaluated. The different performance of protocols in underwater environment is compared in the simulation.展开更多
The scarcity of bandwidth in the radio spectrum has become more vital since the demand for more and more wireless applications has increased. Most of the spectrum bands have been allocated although many studies have s...The scarcity of bandwidth in the radio spectrum has become more vital since the demand for more and more wireless applications has increased. Most of the spectrum bands have been allocated although many studies have shown that these bands are significantly underutilized most of the time. The problem of unavailability of spectrum and inefficiency in its utilization has been smartly addressed by the cognitive radio （CR） technology which is an opportunistic network that senses the environment, observes the network changes, and then uses knowledge gained from the prior interaction with the network to make intelligent decisions by dynamically adapting their transmission characteristics. In this paper, some of the decentralized adaptive medium access control （MAC） protocols for CR networks have been critically analyzed, and a novel adaptive MAC protocol for CR networks, decentralized non-global MAC （DNG-MAC）, has been proposed. The results show the DNG-MAC outperforms other CR-MAC protocols in terms of time and energy efficiency.展开更多
基金supported by a grant from the Science and Technology Planned Project of Sichuan Province,China (No.18YYJC0949)
文摘Background: Insomnia is a common complaint that is closely related to gastrointestinal symptoms, which is consistent with the traditional Chinese medicine classical theory of ‘‘stomach disharmony leading to restless sleep." Acupuncture is an effective complementary and alternative medicine therapy to improve gastrointestinal function and restore the normal sleep-wake cycle. However, studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture for insomnia due to spleen-stomach disharmony syndrome are limited to case reports and few randomized controlled trials; deeper research on its mechanism is still lacking. This randomized controlled trial aims to assess the treatment efficacy of ‘‘harmonizing stomach to tranquilize mind"acupuncture for insomnia and its influence on the intestinal microbiome.Methods/design: This is a randomized, single-blind, parallel-group study. Sixty eligible patients with insomnia due to spleen-stomach disharmony syndrome will be randomly divided into two groups(1:1 allocation ratio). The intervention group will use ‘‘harmonizing stomach to tranquilize mind"acupuncture, and the control group will receive sham acupuncture. Participants will receive 5 acupuncture treatment sessions per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index will be used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment by making assessments at baseline, the end of treatment and the end of the follow-up. High-throughput 16 S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene sequencing will be performed to detect changes in the intestinal microbial composition before and after treatment.Discussion: The results of this trial are expected to confirm that ‘‘harmonizing stomach to tranquilize mind" acupuncture can effectively relieve insomnia and alter the intestinal microbiome.
文摘Quantitative security metrics are desirable for measuring the performance of information security controls. Security metrics help to make functional and business decisions for improving the performance and cost of the security controls. However, defining enterprise-level security metrics has already been listed as one of the hard problems in the Info Sec Research Council's hard problems list. Almost all the efforts in defining absolute security metrics for the enterprise security have not been proved fruitful. At the same time, with the maturity of the security industry, there has been a continuous emphasis from the regulatory bodies on establishing measurable security metrics. This paper addresses this need and proposes a relative security metric model that derives three quantitative security metrics named Attack Resiliency Measure(ARM), Performance Improvement Factor(PIF), and Cost/Benefit Measure(CBM) for measuring the performance of the security controls. For the effectiveness evaluation of the proposed security metrics, we took the secure virtual machine(VM) migration protocol as the target of assessment. The virtual-ization technologies are rapidly changing the landscape of the computing world. Devising security metrics for virtualized environment is even more challenging. As secure virtual machine migration is an evolving area and no standard protocol is available specifically for secure VM migration. This paper took the secure virtual machine migration protocol as the target of assessment and applied the proposed relative security metric model for measuring the Attack Resiliency Measure, Performance Improvement Factor, and Cost/Benefit Measure of the secure VM migration protocol.
基金supported by the Chinese Medicine Development Fund,Hong Kong SAR,China(23B2/027A_R1)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81704198).
文摘Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupoint application for post-stroke depression(PSD)by regulating gastrointestinal function.A secondary objective is to explore the potential mechanism underlying this approach from the perspective of gut microbiota.Methods:This multicenter,randomized,double-blind(patients and assessors),placebo-controlled trial will enroll 80 patients with PSD,and include a 1-week run-in period,a 4-week treatment phase,and a 12-week follow-up.Eligible participants will randomly be assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either the acupoint application or placebo(non-acupoint)groups.Treatments will be administered thrice weekly for 4 weeks.The primary outcome is change in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression(HAMD)score.Secondary outcomes include the Beck Depression Inventory(BDI),36-Item Short-Form Health Survey(SF-36),Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living,Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation Scale(SASS),and gut microbiota profiling.All outcomes will be assessed at baseline(prior to treatment),during treatment(weeks 2 and 4),and during follow-up(weeks 8,12,and 16).The Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale(TESS)will be used for evaluation throughout the 4-week treatment phase.Discussion:The results of this study will provide important evidence supporting a novel treatment strategy for PSD that targets gastrointestinal regulation,potentially informing future clinical practice.
基金Supported by the Science Foundation of Shanghai Mu-nicipal Commission of Science and Technology under contract 045115012.
文摘This paper proposes a new multi-channel Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol named as Dual Reservation Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) based MAC protocol with Power Control (DRCPC). The code channel is divided into common channel,broadcast channel and several data chan-nels. And dynamic power control mechanism is implemented to reduce near-far interference. Compared with IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) protocol,the results show that the pro-posed mechanism improves the average throughput and limits the transmission delay efficiently.
基金The National Science and Technology Major Project( No. 2010ZX03006-002-01 )the National Basic Research Program of China ( 973 Program) ( No. 2011CB302905)the Science and Technology Support Program of Jiangsu Province ( No. BE2011177)
文摘In order to improve the throughput performance of the secondary users （SUs） in the cognitive radio （CR） environment, a quality of service （QoS） based media access control （MAC） protocol is proposed. In this protocol, the CR node maps the channel state as a vector, and the transmitter and the receiver obtain the final channel map through an AND operation to prepare for an optional channel set. Data from the upper application layer are classified into two priority levels according to the QoS requirement. The data of each level relate to different contention windows so that the priority of real time data can be guaranteed. A two-dimensional discrete-time Markov chain is utilized to evaluate the system performance, and mathematical expressions of the system throughput are derived. Simulation results show that compared with the IEEE 802. 11 distributed coordination function （DCF）, the proposed MAC protocol can achieve higher throughput.
基金funded by Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality(No.17401933900)
文摘Background: Fire-needle acupuncture, an important kind of acupuncture therapy, has been clinically used to treat upper limb spastic paralysis(ULSP) after stroke. Clinical experience has indicated that fire-needle acupuncture treatment takes less time, requires fewer visits, and has more rapid results and fewer side effects compared to chemical medicine alternatives. This study will evaluate the effects of fire-needle acupuncture for ULSP in the context of standardized clinical research and provide high-quality data to inform clinical procedures and future study design.Methods/Design: A randomized controlled trial will be carried out to evaluate the effects of fire-needle acupuncture therapy in patients with ULSP from stroke. ULSP patients(n = 120) will be recruited at Changhai Hospital in Shanghai, China. Patients will be randomly divided into three groups, including fire-needle acupuncture group(FAG), filiform-needle acupuncture group(FFAG) and rehabilitation treatment group(RTG). During the 3-week treatment, the FAG will be treated every two days, while FFAG and RTG will be treated 5 d in a row and then rest for 2 d. The Simplified Fugl-Meyer Motor Function Scale and Modified Ashworth Scale will be used as the primary outcome measures. Statistical analysis will be conducted by an independent statistician.Discussion: Through this study, the utility of fire-needle acupuncture in treating ULSP after stroke will be tested, and some specific claims of fire-needle acupuncture therapy will be evaluated, such as relieving spasm and muscular tension, improving activities of daily living, rapidity of response and less frequency of treatment compared with other treatments.
基金supported by 2011 Special Fund for TCM-scientific Research in the Public Interest of Ministry of Finance, People’s Republic of ChinaState Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. 201107002)
文摘BACKGROUND： Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease （COPD） is a major public health problem worldwide. Pulmonary rehabilitation （PR） is an established intervention for the management of patients with COPD. Exercise training is an important part of PR, and its effectiveness in patients with COPD is well established. However, alternative methods of PR training such as Daoyin have not been appropriately studied. Hence, alternative forms of exercise training that require less exercise equipment and no specific training place should be evaluated. This paper describes the study protocol of a clinical trial that aims to determine if pulmonary Daoyin training will improve the exercise capacity and psychosocial function of patients with COPD in China. METHODS AND DESIGN： A multicenter, randomized, controlled trial will be conducted. A total of 464 patients meeting the inclusion criteria will be enrolled into this study with 232 patients in each of the trial group and the control group. Based on patient education, patients in the trial group will receive pulmonary Daoyin and continue with their usual therapy for three months. In the control group, patients will continue with their usual therapy. The primary outcome measures are exercise capacity assessed by the six-minute walking distance test and lung function. Secondary outcomes include dyspnea and quality of life. Measurements will be taken at baseline （month 0） and after the study period （month 3）. DISCUSSION： It is hypothesized that pulmonary Daoyin will have beneficial effects in improving exercise capacity and psychosocial function of patients with stable COPD, and will provide an alternative form of exercise training that is accessible for the large number of people with COPD. TRIAL REGISTRATION： This trial has been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. The identifier is NCT01482000.
基金supported by the Twelfth Five-Year Support Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology for clinical studies investigating Xin'an medicine in the treatment of complicated ascites diseases(No.2012BAI26B02)
文摘BACKGROUND： Rheumatoid arthritis （RA）, as a common systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease, affects approximately 1 in 100 individuals. Effective treatment for RA is not yet available because current research does not have a clear understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of RA. Xinfeng Capsule, a patent Chinese herbal medicine, has been used in the treatment of RA in recent years. Despite its reported clinical efficacy, there are no large-sample, multicenter, randomized trials that support the use of Xinfeng Capsule for RA. Therefore, we designed a randomized, double-blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of Xinfeng Capsule in the treatment of RA. METHODS AND DESIGN： This is a 12-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter trial on the treatment of RA. The participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group at a ratio of 1：1. Participants in the experimental group will receive Xinfeng Capsule and a pharmaceutical placebo （imitation leflunomide）. The control group will receive leflunomide and an herbal placebo （imitation Xinfeng Capsule）. The American College of Rheumatology （ACR） Criteria for RA will be used to measure the efficacy of the Xinfeng Capsule. The primary outcome measure will be the percentage of study participants who achieve an ACR 20% response rate （ACR20）, which will be measured every 4 weeks after randomization. Secondary outcomes will include the ACR50 and ACR70 responses, the side effects of the medications, the Disease Activity Score 28, RA biomarkers, quality of life, and X-rays of the hands and wrists. The first four of the secondary outcomes will be measured every 4 weeks and the others will be measured at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment. DISCUSSION： The result of this trial will help to evaluate whether Xinfeng Capsule is effective and safe in the treatment of RA. TRIAL REGISTRATION： This trial has been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. The identifier is N CT01774877.
基金Specific Research Funding for the Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No.200807052)
文摘BACKGROUND： Parkinson＇s disease （PD） is a complicated disease, commonly diagnosed among the elderly, which leads to degeneration of the central nervous system. It presently lacks an effective therapy for its complex pathogenesis. Adverse effects from Western drug-based medical intervention prevent long-term adherence to these therapies in many patients. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has long been used to improve the treatment of PD by alleviating the toxic and adverse effects of Western drug-based intervention. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Xifeng Dingchan Pill （XFDCP）, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, taken in conjunction with Western medicine in the treatment of PD patients at different stages in the progression of the disease. METHODS AND DESIGN： This is a multicenter, randomized controlled trial. In total, 320 patients with early- （n = 160） and middle-stage PD （n = 160） will be enrolled and divided evenly into control and trial groups. Of the 160 patients with early-stage PD, the trial group （n = 80） will be given XFDCP, and the control group （n = 80） will be given Madopar. Of the 160 patients with middle-stage PD, the trial group （n = 80） will be given XFDCP combined with Madopar and Piribedil, and the control group （n = 80） will be given Madopar and Piribedil. The Unified Parkinson＇s Disease Rating Scale scores, TCM symptoms scores, quality of life, change of Madopar＇s dosage and the toxic and adverse effects of Madopar will be observed during a 3-month treatment period and through a further 6-month follow-up period. DISCUSSION： It is hypothesized that XFDCP, combined with Madopar and Piribedil, will have beneficial effects on patients with PD. The results of this study will provide evidence for developing a comprehensive therapy regimen, which can delay the progress of the disease and improve the quality of life for PD patients in different stages. TRIAL REGISTRATION： This trial has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry with the identifer ChiCTR-TRC-12002150.
基金Projects(61075065,60774045) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject supported by the Graduate Degree Thesis Innovation Foundation of Central South University,China
文摘Consensus tracking control problems for single-integrator dynamics of multi-agent systems with switching topology are investigated. In order to design effective consensus tracking protocols for a more general class of networks, which are aimed at ensuring that the concerned states of agents converge to a constant or time-varying reference state, new consensus tracking protocols with a constant and time-varying reference state are proposed, respectively. Particularly, by contrast with spanning tree, an improved condition of switching interaction topology is presented. And then, convergence analysis of two consensus tracking protocols is provided by Lyapunov stability theory. Moreover, consensus tracking protocol with a time-varying reference state is extended to achieve the fbrmation control. By introducing formation structure set, each agent can gain its individual desired trajectory. Finally, several simulations are worked out to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical results. The test results show that the states of agents can converge to a desired constant or time-varying reference state. In addition, by selecting appropriate structure set, agents can maintain the expected formation under random switching interaction topologies.
基金supported by the Longhua Medicial Project (D-11)The Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No.12401905700)
文摘BACKGROUND： Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） is considered an important complementary therapy with beneficial effects for cancer patients. Elderly patients with non-small-cell lung cancer （NSCLC） are a complex patient group with increasing co-morbidity and shrinking physiological reserve, and may derive substantial benefit from the supportive aspects of TCM Researchers from Shanghai Longhua Hospital found that qi and yin deficiency is a common syndrome in patients with stage III or IV lung cancer. This project was designed to study the combination of single-agent chemotherapy with TCM methods of benefiting qi and yin in elderly patients with advanced NSCLC. METHODS AND DESIGN： This is a double-blind controlled, multi-center, and prospective study with randomly selected participants from elderly NSCLC patients in China. Seventy-six patients who meet the inclusion criteria will be allocated into two groups, which will receive treatments of 3-week single-agent chemotherapy with TCM or placebo for four cycles Progression-free survival （PFS） is the primary end point, and the secondary end points are overall survival, objective response rate, time-to-progression, and quality of life （EORTC QLQ-LC43, and TCM syndrome score） Meanwhile, other end points such as toxicity, side effects and safety of the treatments will be assessed. DISCUSSION： Results from this study may provide evidence on the effectiveness, and parameters for the usage of single-agent chemotherapy combined with or without TCM on PFS of elderly patients with NSCLC.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China,No.2017YFA0105403(to LMR)the Key Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province of China,No.2019B020236002(to LMR)+4 种基金The Clinical Innovation Research Program of Guangzhou Regenerative Medicine and Health Guangdong Laboratory of China,No.2018GZR0201006(to LMR)the National Natural Science Foundation of China,Nos.81772349(to BL),31470949(to BL)the Guangzhou Science and Technology Project of China,Nos.201704020221(to LMR),201707010115(to BL)the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China,No.2017A030313594(to BL)the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province of China,No.A2018547(to MP)
文摘Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells(hUC-MSCs)support revascularization,inhibition of inflammation,regulation of apoptosis,and promotion of the release of beneficial factors.Thus,they are regarded as a promising candidate for the treatment of intractable spinal cord injury(SCI).Clinical studies on patients with early chronic SCI(from 2 months to 1 year post-injury),which is clinically common,are rare;therefore,we will conduct a prospective,multicenter,randomized,placebo-controlled,single-blinded clinical trial at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,West China Hospital of Sichuan University,and Shanghai East Hospital,Tongji University School of Medicine,China.The trial plans to recruit 66 early chronic SCI patients.Eligible patients will undergo randomization at a 2:1 ratio to two arms:the observation group and the control group.Subjects in the observation group will receive four intrathecal transplantations of stem cells,with a dosage of 1×106/kg,at one calendar month intervals.Subjects in the control group will receive intrathecal administrations of 10 mL sterile normal saline in place of the stem cell transplantations.Clinical safety will be assessed by the analysis of adverse events and laboratory tests.The American Spinal Injury Association(ASIA)total score will be the primary efficacy endpoint,and the secondary efficacy outcomes will be the following:ASIA impairment scale,International Association of Neural Restoration-Spinal Cord Injury Functional Rating Scale,muscle tension,electromyogram,cortical motor and cortical sensory evoked potentials,residual urine volume,magnetic resonance imaging–diffusion tensor imaging,T cell subtypes in serum,neurotrophic factors and inflammatory factors in both serum and cerebrospinal fluid.All evaluations will be performed at 1,3,6,and 12 months following the final intrathecal administration.During the entire study procedure,all adverse events will be reported as soon as they are noted.This trial is designed to evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of subarachnoid transplantation of hUC-MSCs to treat early chronic SCI.Moreover,it will establish whether cytotherapy can ameliorate local hostile microenvironments,promote tracking fiber regeneration,and strengthen spinal conduction ability,thus improving overall motor,sensory,and micturition/defecation function in patients with early chronic SCI.This study was approved by the Stem Cell Research Ethics Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,China(approval No.[2018]-02)on March 30,2018,and was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov(registration No.NCT03521323)on April 12,2018.The revised trial protocol(protocol version 4.0)was approved by the Stem Cell Research Ethics Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,China(approval No.[2019]-10)on February 25,2019,and released on ClinicalTrials.gov on April 29,2019.
文摘The rising number of electronic control units （ECUs） in vehicles and the decreasing time to market have led to the need for advanced methods of calibration. A multi-ECU calibration system was developed based on the explicit calibration protocol （XCP） and J1939 communication protocol to satisfy the need of calibrating multiple ECUs simultaneously. The messages in the controller area network （CAN） are defined in the J1939 protocol. Each CAN node can get its own calibration messages and information from other ECUs, and block other messages by qualifying the CAN messages with priority, source or destination address. The data field of the calibration message is designed with the XCP, with CAN acting as the transport layer. The calibration sessions are setup with the event-triggered XCP driver in the master node and the responding XCP driver in the slave nodes. Mirroring calibration variables from ROM to RAM enables the user to calibrate ECUs online. The application example shows that the multi-ECU calibration system can calibrate multiple ECUs simultaneously, and the main program can also accomplish its calculation and send commands to the actuators in time. By the multi-ECU calibration system, the calibration effort and time can be reduced and the variables in ECU can get a better match with the variables of other ECUs.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61501496)
文摘Attacking time-sensitive targets has rigid demands for the timeliness and reliability of information transmission, while typical Media Access Control（MAC） designed for this application works well only in very light-load scenarios; as a consequence, the performances of system throughput and channel utilization are degraded. For this problem, a feedback-retransmission based asynchronous FRequency hopping Media Access（FRMA） control protocol is proposed. Burst communication, asynchronous Frequency Hopping（FH）, channel coding, and feedback retransmission are utilized in FRMA. With the mechanism of asynchronous FH, immediate packet transmission and multi-packet reception can be realized, and thus the timeliness is improved.Furthermore, reliability can be achieved via channel coding and feedback retransmission. With theories of queuing theory, Markov model, packets collision model, and discrete Laplace transformation, the formulas of packet success probability, system throughput, average packet end-to-end delay, and delay distribution are obtained. The approximation accuracy of theoretical derivation is verified by experimental results. Within a light-load network, the proposed FRMA has the ability of millisecond delay and 99% reliability as well as outperforms the non-feedback-retransmission based asynchronous frequency hopping media access control protocol.
文摘Presents the new design of a reservation based medium access protocol,dynamic frame packet reservation multiple access (DF PRMA), for wireless ATM environments its mathematic model built, and analysis of such performance as delay and channel throughput its adaptbility to the fluctuation of traffic by controlling frame length dynamically and guarantee delay performance by forced collision and special reservarion slot. Thereby providing a limited access delay and QoS level and maintaining a resonable high channel throughput.
基金National Natural Science Foundations of China(Nos.60872073,6097501,and 51075068)the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China(No.20110092130004)the Research Foundation and Education Bureau of Anhui Province of China(No.KJ2009B137)
文摘Medium access control( MAC) protocol of underwater acoustic communication network is a key technology for underwater acoustic networks( UANs). Most of the MAC protocols for wireless terrestrial communication networks have been designed with negligible propagation delay. If it is deployed directly in an underwater environment,the UANs will perform inefficiently. In this paper,the characteristics of underwater acoustic channel are modeled and simulated by using the OPNET simulation tool,which are the speed of sound, propagation loss, and four sources for ambient noise: the turbulence,shipping,wind driven waves and thermal noise. The performance of pure Aloha( P-Aloha),carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance( CSMA / CA) and multiple access collision avoidance for wireless local area network( MACAW) protocols in underwater acoustic channel environment are evaluated. The different performance of protocols in underwater environment is compared in the simulation.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(61304263,61233007)the Cross-disciplinary Collaborative Teams Program for Science,Technology and Innovation of Chinese Academy of Sciences-Network and System Technologies for Security Monitoring and Information Interaction in Smart Arid
文摘The scarcity of bandwidth in the radio spectrum has become more vital since the demand for more and more wireless applications has increased. Most of the spectrum bands have been allocated although many studies have shown that these bands are significantly underutilized most of the time. The problem of unavailability of spectrum and inefficiency in its utilization has been smartly addressed by the cognitive radio （CR） technology which is an opportunistic network that senses the environment, observes the network changes, and then uses knowledge gained from the prior interaction with the network to make intelligent decisions by dynamically adapting their transmission characteristics. In this paper, some of the decentralized adaptive medium access control （MAC） protocols for CR networks have been critically analyzed, and a novel adaptive MAC protocol for CR networks, decentralized non-global MAC （DNG-MAC）, has been proposed. The results show the DNG-MAC outperforms other CR-MAC protocols in terms of time and energy efficiency.
