Document classification is one of the most critical steps in the document analysis pipeline. There are two types of approaches for document classification, known as image-based and multimodal approaches. The image-based document classification approaches are solely based on the inherent visual cues of the document images. In contrast, the multimodal approach co-learns the visual and textual features, and it has proved to be more effective. Nonetheless, these approaches require a huge amount of data. This paper presents a novel approach for document classification that works with a small amount of data and outperforms other approaches. The proposed approach incorporates a hierarchical attention network(HAN) for the textual stream and the EfficientNet-B0 for the image stream. The hierarchical attention network in the textual stream uses the dynamic word embedding through fine-tuned BERT. HAN incorporates both the word level and sentence level features. While the earlier approaches rely on training on a large corpus (RVL-CDIP), we show that our approach works with a small amount of data (Tobacco-3482). To this end, we trained the neural network at Tobacco-3428 from scratch. Thereby, we outperform state-of-the-art by obtaining an accuracy of 90.3%. This results in a relative error reduction rate of 7.9%.

In order to correct attenuated millimeter-wavelength (Ka-band) radar data and address the problem of instability, an attenuation correction methodology (attenuation correction with variation trend constraint; VTC) was developed. Using synchronous observation conditions and multi-band radars, the VTC method adopts the variation trends of reflectivity in X-band radar data captured with wavelet transform as a constraint to adjust reflectivity factors of millimeter-wavelength radar. The correction was evaluated by comparing reflectivities obtained by millimeter-wavelength cloud radar and X-band weather radar. Experiments showed that attenuation was a major contributory factor in the different reflectivities of the two radars when relatively intense echoes exist, and the attenuation correction developed in this study significantly improved data quality for millimeter-wavelength radar. Reflectivity differences between the two radars were reduced and reflectivity correlations were enhanced. Errors caused by attenuation were eliminated, while variation details in the reflectivity factors were retained. The VTC method is superior to the bin-by-bin method in terms of correction amplitude and can be used for attenuation correction of shorter wavelength radar assisted by longer wavelength radar data.

Marine renewable energy is emerging as one of the fast-growing industry in the last decades, as modern society pushes for technologies that can convert energy contained from winds, waves, tides and stream flows. The implementation of renewable energy technologies impose high demands on both structural and environmental engineering, as the energy converters have to work under extreme conditions where parameters such as sea-bottom configuration, water transparency and depth, sea-states and prevailing winds are harsh. Constant monitoring of the marine environment is crucial in order to keep this sector reliable. Active acoustics is becoming a standard tool to collect multi-dimensional data from physical, geological and biological properties of the marine environment. The Div. of Electricity of Uppsala University have been developing an environmental monitoring platform based on sonar (Sound Navigation And Raging) systems. This platform aims to monitor the installation, operation and decommissioning of marine renewable energy converters. The focus will be given the observations of behaviours of marine animals in vicinity of energy converters but also structural inspection and monitoring of MRETs. This paper describes how this multifunctional environmental monitoring platform come to existence from the design to the deployment phase.

The growing attention for plug-in electric vehicles, and the associated high-performance demands, have initiated a development trend towards highly efficient and compact on-board battery chargers. These isolated ac-dc converters are most commonly realized using two conversion stages, combining a non-isolated power factor correction (PFC) rectifier with an isolated dc-dc converter. This, however, involves two loss stages and a relatively high component count, limiting the achievable efficiency and power density and resulting in high costs. In this paper a single-stage converter approach is analyzed to realize a single-phase ac-dc converter, combining all functionalities into one conversion stage and thus enabling a cost-effective efficiency and power density increase. The converter topology consists of a quasi-lossless synchronous rectifier followed by an isolated dual active bridge (DAB) dc-dc converter, putting a small filter capacitor in between. To show the performance potential of this bidirectional, isolated ac-dc converter, a comprehensive design procedure and multi-objective optimization with respect to efficiency and power density is presented, using detailed loss and volume models. The models and procedures are verified by a 3.7 kW hardware demonstrator, interfacing a 400 V dc-bus with the single-phase 230 V, 50 Hz utility grid. Measurement results indicate a state-of-the-art efficiency of 96.1% and power density of 2.2 kW/dm³, confirming the competitiveness of the investigated single-stage DAB ac-dc converter.

Aims: In late December 2019, early reports predicted the onset of a potential Coronavirus outbreak in china, given the estimate of a reproduction number for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Because of high ability of transmission and widespread prevalence, the mortality of COVID-19 infection is growing fast worldwide. Absent of an anti-COVID-19 has put scientists on the urge to repurpose already approved therapeutics or to find new active compounds against coronavirus. Here in this study, a set of computational approaches were performed in order to repurpose antivirals for dual inhibition of the frontier proteases involved in virus replication, papain-like protease (PLpro; corresponding to nsp3) and a main protease (Mpro), 3C‑like protease (3CLpro; corresponding to nsp5). Materials and Methods: In this regard, a rational virtual screening procedure including exhaustive docking techniques was performed for a database of 160 antiviral agents over 3CLpro and PLpro active sites of SARS-CoV-2. The compounds binding energies and interaction modes over 3CLpro and PLpro active sites were analyzed and ranked with the aid of free Gibbs binding energy. The most potent compounds, based on our filtering process, are then proposed as dual inhibitors of SARSC-CoV-2 proteases. Key findings: Accordingly, seven antiviral agents including two FDA approved (Nelfinavir, Valaganciclovir) and five investigational compounds (Merimepodib, Inarigivir, Remdesivir, Taribavirine and TAS106-106) are proposed as potential dual inhibitors of the enzymes necessary for RNA replication in which Remdesivir as well as Inagrivir have the highest binding affinity for both of the active sites. Significance: The mentioned drug proposed to inhibit both PLpro and 3CLpro enzymes with the aim of finding dual inhibitors of SARSC-CoV-2 proteases.

This study sought to investigate steel frames’ performance with dual lateral loader system (Frame bending + bracings of divergent and convergent) in near and far filed to fault. In order to this, four categories of steel frame with dual system with 8, 10 and 12 story are designed with average formation based on existing seismic regulation in 2800 standard of Iran and tenth chapter of national regulations of construction (planning and performing steel construction). Time history non-linear dynamic analysis under the effect of near and far field earthquakes has been done on plan’s models. Then the maximum of floors’ dislocation, floors’ drift, roof dislocation, base shear and energy curves of frames are shown and compared with each other. All non-linear time history analyses have been accomplished using PERFORM 3D software.

Tissue-like phantoms are widely used as a model for mimicking the optical properties of live tissue. This paper presents the results of a diffusion reflection method as well as fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy measurements of fluorescein-conjugated gold nanorods in solution as well as inserted in solid tissue-imitating phantoms. A lack of consistency between the fluorescence lifetime results of the solutions and the phantoms raises a question about the ability of tissue-like phantoms to maintain the optical properties of inserted contrast agents.

Syanyonja village in the gold district of Busia, South East of the Republic of Uganda contain geologically epigenetic gold quartz vein deposits in carbonate-altered mafic metavolcanic rocks, deposited as quartz reefs in mineralized shear zones. In supracrustal rocks, alluvial gold is obtained from weathered auriferous quartz veins, which are of late orogenic granitic activity. The Syanyonja gold deposits have long been subjected to artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) by the locals for livelihood. This study determined the amount of mercury discharged with tailings into Namukombe stream, a major water body in Syanyonja village and investigated the impacts of ASGM on the mining population and the environment. Quantitation of mercury discharged with tailings was done by mass balance method. Field survey at the mining sites was done followed by administration of questionnaires to 50 stampeders in the village. The study indicates that about 8% of mercury mixed with auriferous materials are lost in tailings, accounting for an annual mercury release of about 1.757 kg into the environment. Socio-demographic results indicate that the majority of the mining population (64%) are male and ASGM have left health and environmental footprints, which directly or indirectly affects the population. The most common health problems among miners are malaria (36%) and abdominal pain (20%). The standard of living of the miners are evidently low, and most mines are characterized by school dropouts, prostitutes and thieves. Mining sites have deplorably poor hygiene, with evident burning of amalgams to recover gold. ASGM have been accompanied by wanton mowing down of vegetation, land degradation as well as mercuric pollution of water, air, land and aquatic ecosystems. It is suggested that the Ugandan government should re-enforce committees to follow up on ASGM activities, train artisans on sustainable gold mining using borax, magnets, sluice boxes as well as take up farming actively as an alternative.

Semantic image segmentation has recently witnessed considerable progress by training deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The core issue of this technique is the limited capacity of CNNs to depict visual objects. Existing approaches tend to utilize approximate inference in a discrete domain or additional aides and do not have a global optimum guarantee. We propose the use of the multi-label manifold ranking (MR) method in solving the linear objective energy function in a continuous domain to delineate visual objects and solve these problems. We present a novel embedded single stream optimization method based on the manifold ranking (MR) model to avoid approximations without sacrificing expressive power. In addition, we propose a novel network, which we refer to as dual multi-scale manifold ranking (\textbf{DMSMR}) network, that combines the dilated, multi-scale strategies with the single stream MR optimization method in the deep learning architecture to further improve the performance. Experiments on high resolution images, including close-range and remote sensing datasets, demonstrate that the proposed approach can achieve competitive accuracy without additional aides in an end-to-end manner.

Although mammography has been the gold standard for early detection of breast cancer, if a woman has dense breast tissue, a false negative diagnosis may occur. Breast ultrasound, whether hand-held or automated, is a useful adjunct to mammography but adds extra time and cost. The primary aim was to demonstrate that our second-generation Aceso system, which combines full-field digital mammography (FFDM) and automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) in a single platform, is able to produce improved quality images that provide clinically meaningful results. Aceso was first tested using two industry standards: a CDMAM phantom to assess the FFDM images; and the CIRS 054GS phantom to evaluate the ABUS images. In addition, 25 women participated in a clinical trial: 14 were healthy volunteers while 11 were patients referred by the breast clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital. The CDMAM phantom results showed the FFDM results were better than EUREF’s standard of “acceptable” and were approaching “achievable”. The ABUS results showed lateral and axial spatial resolution of 0.5 mm and adequate depth penetration of 80 mm. Our second-generation Aceso system, with its improved quality of clinical FFDM and ABUS images, has demonstrated its potential for early detection of breast cancer in a busy clinic.

Suicide and suicidal behavior are major public health concerns and affect 3-9% of the population worldwide. Despite growing evidence, there are still few effective interventions available to reduce suicide risk. In this article, we describe theoretical models of suicide ideation and behavior and propose to examine the possible effectiveness of a new and innovative preventive strategy. A model of suicidal intrusion (mental imagery related to suicide, also referred to as suicidal flash-forwards) is presented describing one of the assumed mechanisms in the etiology of suicide and the mechanism of therapeutic change. We provide a brief rationale for an Eye Movement Dual Task (EMDT) treatment for suicidal intrusions describing techniques that can be used to target these suicidal mental images and thoughts to reduce overall behavior. Based on the available empirical evidence for the mechanisms of suicidal intrusions, this approach appears to be a promising new treatment to prevent suicidal behavior as it potentially targets one of the linking pins between suicidal ideation and suicidal actions.

Channel bends are one of the most important characteristic features of natural streams. These bends often create the conditions for a hyporheic zone, which has been recognized as a critical component of stream ecosystems. The streambed vertical hydraulic conductivity (K_v), vertical hydraulic gradient (VHG) and Darcian flux (DF) in the hyporheic zone were estimated at 61 locations along a channel bend of the Beiluo River during July 2015 and January 2016. All the streambed attributes showed great spatial variability along the channel bend. Both upward fluxes and downward fluxes occurred during the two test periods, most of studied stream sections were controlled by downwelling, indicating stream water discharge into the subsurface. The average downward flux was higher at the downstream side than at the upstream side of the channel bend, especially in July 2015. The distribution of streambed sediment grain size has a significant influence on the variability of K_v; high percentages of silt and clay sediments generally lead to low K_v values. Higher K_v at the depositional left bank at the upstream site shifted toward the erosional right bank at the downstream site, with K_v values positively correlated with the water depth. This study suggested that the variabilities of K_v and VHG were influenced by the stream geomorphology and that the distribution of K_v was inversely related, to a certain extent, to the distribution of VHG across the channel bend. K_v and VHG were found to have opposite effects on the DF, and the close relationship between K_v and DF indicated that the water fluxes were mainly controlled by K_v.

This article develops duality principles and related convex dual formulations suitable for the local optimization of non-convex primal formulations for a large class of models in physics and engineering. The results are based on standard tools of functional analysis, calculus of variations and duality theory. In particular, we develop applications to a Ginzburg-Landau type equation.

Grid energy storage system for PV Applications is connected with three different power sources i.e. PV Array, Battery and the Grid. It is advisable to have Isolation between these three different sources to provide safety for the equipment. The configuration proposed in this paper provides the complete isolation between the three sources. A Power Balancing Control (PBC) for this configuration is proposed to operate the system in three different modes of operation. Control of a dual active bridge (DAB) based battery charger which provides a galvanic isolation between batteries and other sources is explained briefly. Various modes of operation of a Grid energy storage system are also presented in this paper. Hardware-In-Loop (HIL) Simulation is carried out to check the performance of the system and the PBC algorithm. Power circuit (comprises of inverter, dual active bridge based battery charger, grid, PV cell, batteries, contactors and switches) is simulated and the controller hardware and user interface panel are connected as HIL with the simulated power circuit through Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS). HIL simulation results are presented to explain the control operation, steady state performance in different modes of operation and the dynamic response of the system.

Analytical channel design tools have not advanced appreciably in the last decades, and continue to produce designs based upon a single representative discharge that may not lead to overall sediment continuity. It is beneficial for designers to know when a simplified design may be problematic and to efficiently produce alternative designs that approximate sediment balance over the entire flow regime. The Capacity/Supply Ratio (CSR) approach, an extension of the Copeland method of analytical channel design for sand channels, balances the sediment transport capacity of a design reach with the sediment supply of a stable upstream reach over the entire flow duration curve (FDC) rather than just a single discharge. Although CSR has a stronger physical basis than previous analytical channel design approaches, it has not been adopted in practice because it can be a cumbersome and time-consuming iterative analysis without the use of software. We investigate eighteen sand-bed rivers in a comparison of designs based on the CSR approach and five single-discharge metrics: the effective discharge (Qeff), the 1.5-year recurrence interval discharge (Q1.5), the bankfull discharge (Qbf), and the discharges associated with 50th (Qs50) and 75th (Qs75) percentiles of the cumulative sediment yield curve. To facilitate this analysis we developed a novel design tool using the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language in Excel® to produce stable channel slope-width combinations based on the CSR methodology for both sand- and gravel-bed streams. The CSR Stable Channel Design Tool’s (CSR Tool) code structure was based on Copeland’s method in SAM and HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System) and was tested with a single discharge to verify outputs. The Qs50 and Qs75 single-discharge designs match the CSR output most closely, followed by the Qbf, Qeff, and Q1.5. The Qeff proved to be the most inconsistent design metric because it can be highly dependent on the binning procedure used in the effectiveness analysis. Furthermore, we found that the more rigorous physical basis of the CSR analysis is potentially most important in designing ‘labile’ channels with highly erodible substrate, high perennial flow ‘flashiness,’ low width-to-depth ratio, and high incoming sediment load. The CSR Tool provides a resource for river restoration practitioners to efficiently utilize in-depth design techniques that can promote sediment balance in dynamic fluvial systems.

Continuous object tracking in WSNs, such as monitoring of mud-rock flows, forest fires etc., is a challenging task due to characteristic nature of continuous objects. They can appear randomly in the network field, move continuously, and can change in size and shape. Monitoring such objects in real-time generally require tremendous amount of messaging between sensor nodes to synergistically estimate object’s movement and track its location. In this paper, we propose a novel twofold-sink mechanism, comprising of a mobile and a static sink node. Both sink nodes gather information about boundary sensor nodes, which is then used to uniformly distribute energy consumption across all network nodes, thus helping in saving residual energy of network nodes. Numerous object tracking schemes, using mobile sink, have been proposed in the literature. However, existing schemes employing mobile sink cannot be applied to track continuous objects, because of momentous variation of network topology. Therefore, we present in this paper a mechanism, transformed from K-means algorithm, to find the best sensing location of the mobile sink node. It helps to reduce transmission load on the intermediate network nodes situated between static sink node and the ordinary network sensing nodes. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme can distinctly improve life time of the network, compared to one-sink protocol employed in continuous object tracking.

An adaptive spatial clustering (ASC) algorithm is proposed in this present study, which employs sweep-circle techniques and a dynamic threshold setting based on the Gestalt theory to detect spatial clusters. The proposed algorithm can automatically discover clusters in one pass, rather than through the modification of the initial model (for example, a minimal spanning tree, Delaunay triangulation or Voronoi diagram). It can quickly identify arbitrarily-shaped clusters while adapting efficiently to non-homogeneous density characteristics of spatial data, without the need of prior knowledge or parameters. The proposed algorithm is also ideal for use in data streaming technology with dynamic characteristics flowing in the form of spatial clustering in large data sets.

In this study, a full-scale pilot testing was performed with side-by-side operation of a conventional enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) process and a side-stream EBPR (S2EBPR) process. A comparison of the performance, activities and population dynamics of key functionally relevant populations between the two configurations were carried out. The results demonstrated that, with the same influent wastewater characteristics, S2EBPR configuration showed more effective and stable orthophosphate (PO₄-P) removal performance (up to 94% with average effluent concentration down to 0.1 mg P/L) than conventional EBPR, especially when the mixers in side-stream reactor were operated intermittently. Mass balance analysis illustrated that both denitrification and EBPR performance have been enhanced in S2EBPR configuration through diverting primary effluent to anoxic zone and producing additional carbon (~40%) via fermentation in side-stream reactor. Microbial characterization showed that there was no significant difference in the relative abundances of Ca. Accumulibacter (~5.9%) and Tetrasphaera (~16%) putative polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) between the two configurations. However, lower relative abundance of known GAOs was observed in S2EBPR configuration (1.1%) than the conventional one (2.7%). A relatively higher PAO activity and increased degree of dependence on glycolysis pathway than TCA cycle was observed in S2EBPR configuration using P release and uptake batch test. Adequate anaerobic solid retention time (SRT) and conditions that generate continuous and slow feeding/production of volatile fatty acid (VFA) with higher composition percentage of propionate in the side-stream reactor of S2EBPR process likely provide a competitive advantage for PAOs over GAOs.

We consider a multitude of topics in mathematics where unification constructions play an important role: the Yang–Baxter equation and its modified version, Euler’s formula for dual numbers, means and their inequalities, topics in differential geometry, etc. It is interesting to observe that the idea of unification (unity and union) is also present in poetry. Moreover, Euler’s identity is a source of inspiration for the post-modern poets.

Side-stream EBPR process (S2EBPR) is a new alternative to address the common challenges in EBPR related to weak wastewater influent and to improve EBPR process stability. A systematic evaluation and comparison of the process performance and microbial community structure between four S2EBPR with conventional EBPR configurations in US was conducted. The statistical analysis suggested higher performance stability in S2EBPR than the conventional EBPRs, although possible bias is recognized due to variations in the target permit levels and plant-specific factors among the plants. Total and known PAOs and GAOs abundance and identities were investigated with FISH, DAPI, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and Raman microspectroscopy. The results suggested comparable relative PAO and Candidatus Accumulibacter abundances in S2EBPR and conventional EBPR systems. Tetrasphaera, a putative PAO, was also found at similar abundance in S2EBPR as in conventional facilities, whereas the relative abundance of known GAOs was lower in S2EBPR than those typically seen at conventional EBPRs. Microbial community analyses via 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed differences in the community phylogenetic fingerprints between S2EBPR and conventional plants. Shannon and Inverse Simpson indices, which are combined measures of richness and evenness evaluation of the microbial communities, suggested that the microbial diversity in S2EBPR plants were higher than those in conventional EBPRs.

Dislocation is one of the major challenges in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) image stitching. In this paper, we propose a new dynamic programming for seamlessly stitching UAV images using optical flow. Our solution consists of two steps: Firstly, an image-matching algorithm is used to correct the images so that they are in the same coordinate system. Secondly, a new dynamic programming algorithm is develop based on the concept of a stereo dual-channel energy accumulation using optical flow. A new energy aggregation and traversal strategy is adopted in our solution, which can find a more optimal seam line for adjacent image stitching. Our algorithm overcomes the theoretical limitation of the classical Duplaquet algorithm. Experiments show that the algorithm can effectively solve the dislocation problem in UAV image stitching. Beyond that, our solution is also direction-independent, which has more adaptability and robustness for UAV images.

Aravalli Mountain Range is an example of erosional mountains, trending NE-SW, shows numerous faults and lineaments. Udaipur area, situated south-east part of the mountain, is considered as tectonically active. So the main objective is to study relative tectonic activity of the Ahar watershed of Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. To assess relative tectonic activity of the area, geomorphic indices such as stream length gradient index (SL), asymmetry factor (Af), basin shape (Bs), valley floor width to valley height ratio (Vf), mountain front sinuosity (Smf), hypsometic integral (Hi), hypsometric curve and transverse topographic symmetry factor (T) is applied. DEM (SRTM), Google earth image and enhanced image of Landsat TM (2008) is used to extract linear features. Result of these geomorphic indices of each sub-watersheds are used to divide area from low to high relative tectonic activity classes, expressed as relative tectonic active index (Iat) and according to Iat value the sub watershed UDSW2, 3 and 4 is tectonically relatively more active than remaining part of the area. Field validation associated with evidences highlighted by using geomorphic indices as well as stream deflrction and lineament analysis reveals that the Ahar watershed of Aravalli Range, particularly the north-western flank, is most affected by tectonic activity.

Percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI) with stenting for the treatment of acute coronary syndrome(ACS) is the contemporary standard of care. Such treatment is followed by Dual anti-platelet therapy(DAPT) comprising of aspirin and a P2Y12 inhibitor. The efficacy of this therapy has been well established but the optimal duration of DAPT remains elusive, and has thus far attracted a prodigious deal of scientific attention. Decision regarding DAPT duration can be challenging clinically in the modern era with the evolution of newer stents, more potent antiplatelet agents and novel anticoagulant drugs in addition to an older patient population with multiple comorbidities. Major societal guidelines have emphasized comprehensive assessment of ischemic and bleeding risk, in turn recommending individualization of DAPT duration, thus encouraging "shared decision making". The following review is aimed at critically evaluating the available evidence to help make these crucial clinical decisions regarding duration of DAPT and triple therapy.

The mitigation of NLOS (non-line-of-sight) propagation conditions is one of main challenges in wireless signals based indoor localization. When RFID localization technology is applied in applications, RSS fluctuates frequently due to the shade and multipath effect of RF signal, which could result in localization inaccuracy. In particularly, when tags carriers are walking in LOS (line-of-sight) and NLOS hybrid environment, great attenuation of RSS will happen, which would result in great location deviation. The paper proposes an IMU-assisted (Inertial Measurement Unit) RFID based indoor localization in LOS/NLOS hybrid environment. The proposed method includes three improvements over previous RSS based positioning methods: IMU aided RSS filtering, IMU aided LOS/NLOS distinguishing and IMU aided LOS/NLOS environment switching. Also, CRLB (Cramér-Rao Low Bound) is calculated to prove theoretically that indoor positioning accuracy for proposed method in LOS/NLOS mixed environment is higher than position precision of only use RSS information. Simulation and experiments are conducted to show that proposed method can reduce the mean positioning error to around 3 meters without site survey.

Vertical-channel organic dual-gate/base transistors would be highly interesting since vertical organic transistors are the fastest organic transistors demonstrated today. However, incorporating a dual gate/base structure into an ultra-short channel vertical architecture represents a substantial challenge. Here, we successfully realize a new device concept of vertical organic permeable dual-base transistors (OPDBTs), where either of both base electrodes can be used to change the on-currents and tune the threshold voltages. The optimized devices yield a high on-current density of 1.54 A cm^-2 and a large current gain of 9.2×10⁵, corresponding to a high transmission value of 99.998%. The detailed operation mechanisms are investigated by calibrated TCAD simulations with the Poole-Frenkel mobility model, Gaussian density of states and tunneling model. Finally, high-performance logic circuits, e.g. inverter, NAND/AND computation functions are demonstrated with one single OPDBT operating at supply voltages of < 2.0 V. We believe that OPDBTs offer a compact and technologically simple hardware platform with excellent application potential for vertical-channel organic transistors in complex logic circuits.

This paper is a continuation of previous papers on unification theories publishes in AXIOMS. We present results about the (modified) Yang-Baxter equation, Euler’s formula, dual numbers, coalgebra structures, non-associative structures, differential geometry, and (mean) inequalities. We will also attempt to relate our discussion to some Brain Studies and Machine Learnig.

Abstract: In this study the semi-distributed model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool), were applied to evaluate stream flow of Didessa sub basin, which is one of the major sub basins in Abay river basin of Ethiopia. The study evaluated the quality of observed meteorological and hydrological data, established SWAT hydrological model, identified the most sensitive parameters, evaluated the best distribution for flow and developed peak flow for major tributary in the sub basin. The result indicated that the SWAT model developed for the sub basin evaluated at multi hydro-gauging stations and its performance certain with the statistical measures, coefficient about determination (R2) and also Nash coefficient (NS) with values ranging 0.62 to 0.8 and 0.6 to 0.8 respectively at daily time scale. The values of R2 and NS increases at monthly time scale and found ranging 0.75 to 0.92 and 0.71 to 0.91 respectively. Sensitivity analysis is performed to identify parameters those were most sensitive for the sub basin. CN2, GWQMN, CH_K, ALPHA_BNK and LAT_TIME are the most sensitive parameters in the sub basin. Finally, the peak flow for 2-10000 returns periods were determined after the best probability distribution is identified in EasyFit computer program.

Recently, there have been revolutions in the development of both gene therapy and genome surgical treatments for inherited diseases. Much of this progress has been centered around hereditary retinal dystrophies, because the eye is an immune-privileged and anatomically ideal target. Gene therapy treatments, already demonstrated to be safe and efficacious in numerous clinical trials, are benefitting from the development of new viral vectors, such as dual and triple AAVs. CRISPR/Ca9, which revolutionized the field of gene editing, is being adapted into more precise “high fidelity” and catalytically dead variants. New CRISPR endonucleases, such as CjCas9 and Cas12a, are generating excitement in the field as well. Stem cell therapy has emerged as a promising alternative, allowing human embryo derived stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells to be edited precisely in vitro and then reintroduced into the body. This article highlights recent progress made in gene therapy and genome surgery for retinal disorders, and it provides an update on precision medicine FDA treatment trials.

In order to summarized the polygenic background of psychiatric diseases, polygenic risk scores (PRS) have been developed. Recently, PRS have been use to predict patients with higher comorbidities in psychiatric diseases, like dual diagnosis. PRS are principally derived in analysis of Caucasian and Asian populations, we are not aware of how this PRS could be applied in populations with high admixture. In order to explored this, the present work has the aim to analyzed if previous calculated PRS for psychiatric diseases could predict dual diagnosis in Mexican population, and also, if PRS calculation could be influenced by Mexican Amerindian (MA) global ancestry. We performed PRS calculation, using PRSice, with summary genome-wide association statistics previously published for psychiatric diseases, and also, performed Nagelkerke correlation test in order to established if PRS are correlated with dual diagnosis. We found that dual diagnosis could be predicted by major depressive disorder polygenic risk score. Nevertheless, schizophrenia polygenic risk score is highly correlated with global MA ancestry, independently of the schizophrenia diagnosis. Our results reinforced the notion that PRS calculation could be deviated by the MA global ancestry, nevertheless analysis on larger sample sizes are required in order to clarified this issue.

In this paper a microstrip Wilkinson power divider with a 90^° phase delay at one output port is proposed to obtain circular polarization to feed a dual port RFID antenna. The 90^° phase delay was obtained by embedding an extra quarter wavelength at one port of the Wilkinson power divider. The feeding circuit is then mounted on the ground plane of the microstrip antenna feeding the radiating patch directly through the ground plane and dielectric layer thus reducing any fringing effect and resulting a mechanically compact unit. The proposed feeding method offers better expectation of antenna performance with minimal attenuation and coupling losses. The design process generalizes geometric pa- rameters of the Wilkinson power divider for variable port distances. The paper considers both UK and US RFID center frequencies, 870 MHz and 915 MHz respectively. Numeri- cally computed values for geometric design parameters for both frequencies are tabled as future design tools for port distances varying from 18 mm up to 34 mm at 870 MHz and 17 mm up to 32 mm at 915 MHz. Simulation results indicate a return loss (S11) of -20 dB and -26 dB at 870 MHz and 915 MHz operational frequencies respectively at 270^° angled quarter wavelength.

The superharmonic imaging of tissue has the potential for high spatial and contrast resolutions, compared to the fundamental and second harmonic imaging. For this technique, the spectral bandwidth of an ultrasound transducer is divided for transmission of ultrasound and reception of its superharmonics (i.e., higher than the second harmonic). Due to the spectral division for the transmission and reception, transmitted ultrasound energy is not sufficient to induce superharmonics in media without using contrast agents, and it is difficult that a transducer has a -6-dB fractional bandwidth of higher than 100%. For the superharmonic imaging of tissue, thus, multi-frequency array transducers are the best choice if available; transmit and receive elements are separate and have different center frequencies. However, the construction of a multi-frequency transducer for intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging is particularly demanding because of its small size of less than 1 mm. Here, we report a recently developed dual-element focused IVUS transducer for the third harmonic imaging of tissue, which consists of a 35-MHz element for ultrasound transmission and a 105-MHz element for third harmonic reception. For high quality third harmonic imaging, both elements were fabricated to have the same focus at 2.5 mm. The results of tissue mimicking phantom tests demonstrated that the third harmonic images produced by the developed transducer had higher spatial resolution and deeper imaging depth than the fundamental images.

The nature of contemporary Spatial Data Infrastructures lies in the provision of geospatial information in an on-demand fashion. Though recent applications identified the need to react to real-time information in a time-critical way. In particular, research efforts in the field of geospatial Internet of Things have identified substantial gaps in this context, ranging from a lack of standardization for event-based architectures to the meaningful handling of real-time information as ''events''. This manuscript presents work in the field of Event-driven Spatial Data Infrastructures with a particular focus on sensor networks and the devices capturing in-situ measurements. The current landscape of Spatial Data Infrastructures is outlined and used as the basis for identifying existing gaps that retain certain geospatial applications from using real-time information. We present a selection of approaches - developed in different research projects - to overcome these gaps. Being designed for specific application domains, these approaches share commonalities as well as orthogonal solutions and can build the foundation of an overall Event-driven Spatial Data Infrastructure.

In this contribution, different lane-keeping control strategies for Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGV) have been analyzed and compared. The AGV must be oriented and kept within a given reference path using the front wheel steering angle as the control action for a specific longitudinal velocity. While non-linear models can describe the lateral dynamics of the vehicle in an accurate manner, they might lead to difficulties when computing some real-time control laws such as Model Predictive Control (MPC). Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) models can provide a trade-off between computational complexity and model accuracy. Another way to reduce computational complexity is to explore other control strategies, for example, the one based on the Inverse Kinematic Bicycle model (IKIBI). Additionally, AGV sensors typically work at different measurement acquisition frequencies so that Kalman Filters (KF) are usually needed for sensor fusion. If these frequencies are slower than the actuation rate, a multi-rate KF may be needed. The two control strategies (MPC using a LPV model and IKIBI) have been compared in simulations over a circuit path in the presence of process and measurement Gaussian noise. The MPC controller has shown to provide a more accurate lane-keeping behavior than an IKIBI control strategy. Finally, it has been seen that Dual-Rate Extended Kalman Filters (DREKF) constitute an essential tool when only slow and noisy sensor feedback is available in an AGV lane-keeping application.

In this paper we describe a nonparametric maximum likelihood (NPML) method for estimating multivariate mixing distributions. Given $N$ independent observations, convexity theory shows that the NPML estimator is discrete with at most $N$ support points. The original infinite NPML problem then becomes the finite dimensional problem of finding the location and probability of the support points. The probability of the support points is found by a Primal-Dual Interior-Point method; the location of the support points is found by an Adaptive Grid method. Our method is able to handle high-dimensional and complex multivariate mixture models.An important application is discussed for the problem of population pharmacokinetics and a non-trivial example is treated.Our algorithm has been successfully applied in hundreds of published pharmacometric studies. In addition to population pharmacokinetics, this research also applies to empirical Bayes estimation and many other areas of applied mathematics.

The study focused on two climatic variables i.e. precipitation and stream flow for analysing change in trend of rainfall for the River Ssezibwa Catchment area and stream flow of River Ssezibwa. This Catchment is found in the districts of Mukono and Buikwe in Uganda. In this area agriculture is majorly dependent on rainfall and irrigation on a small scale. However, rainfall occurrence has become unpredictable over the past few years as result of the changes in patterns of weather. This has caused severe effects on the agricultural cropping system as well as caused negative effects on the natural water resources. Stream flow data of 57 years (1960 – 2017) and rainfall data for 35 years (1982 – 2017) on a daily basis was analysed to find out the trend and detect change point. Trend analysis was done by using the non-parametric analysis while the change point detection was carried out by using the Pettit test (1979).Magnitude of trend for the time series data was carried out using Sen’s Slope estimator and Mann – Kendall test was done to determine the trend. Results from the statistical analysis highlighted that; for stream flow the trend was generally positive and change point detected to be in the year 2000 while for rainfall data analysis indicated that the trend was predominantly negative and change point was in the year 1998.

In this paper, we introduce the generalized dual hyperbolic Fibonacci numbers. As special cases, we deal with dual hyperbolic Fibonacci and dual hyperbolic Lucas numbers. We present Binet's formulas, generating functions and the summation formulas for these numbers. Moreover, we give Catalan's, Cassini's, d'Ocagne's, Gelin-Cesàro's, Melham's identities and present matrices related with these sequences.

The hybrid numbers are a generalization of complex, hyperbolic and dual numbers. In this paper, we introduce the Horadam hybrid polynomials called Horadam hybrinomials. We also give some special cases and algebraic properties of the Horadam hybrinomials. Finally we obtain some applications related to the Horadam hybrinomials in matrices.

Very little is known about laboratory confirmed blood stream infections (LCBIs) in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in resource-limited settings. The aim of this cohort study was to determine the incidence, risk factors, and causative agents of LCBIs in a level-2 NICU in India. The diagnosis of LCBIs was established using the Centre for Disease Control, USA criteria. A predesigned questionnaire containing risk factors associated with LCBIs was filled-in. A total of 150 neonates (43% preterm) were included in the study. The overall incidence of LCBIs was 31%. The independent risk factors for LCBIs were: preterm neonates (relative risk (RR) 2.23), duration of NICU stay more than 14 days (RR 1.75), chorioamnionitis in the mother (RR 3.18), premature rupture of membrane in mothers (RR 2.32), neonate born through meconium-stained amniotic fluid (RR 2.32), malpresentation (RR 3.05), endotracheal intubation (RR 3.41), umbilical catheterization (RR 4.18), and ventilator-associated pneumonia (RR 3.17). The initiation of minimal enteral nutrition was protective from LCBIs (RR 0.22). The predominant causative organisms were gram-negative pathogens (58%). The results of the present study can be used to design antibiotic interventions to reduce LCBIs in resource-limited settings.

Recent years have seen a massive increase in research on mindfulness as both a therapeutic practice as well as a protective health factor. While many associations have been made between mindfulness and clinical outcomes, understanding of the underlying mechanistic processes is still in its infancy. In this review, associations between mindfulness and other established frameworks in cognitive control are explored—in particular the dual modes of control framework in cognitive control theory. Studies in mindfulness providing evidence towards a dual-mode mindfulness model are reviewed and compared with the proactive and reactive modes of cognitive control to identify common underlying principles. Studies involving cognitive testing, advanced neuroimaging, and neurotransmitter levels and their associations with proactive and reactive control are reviewed in the context of the dual modes of mindfulness. While evidence supporting relationships between proactive and reactive modes of mindfulness and cognitive control are preliminary, existing literature on mindfulness already supports the notion of two components of mindfulness and is in line with the hypothesis that cognitive control and mindfulness are closely related. Since preliminary evidence suggests that proactive forms of mindfulness are more associated with improvement in clinical outcomes, mindfulness programs could be modified to target proactive mindfulness practices to maximize outcomes. The implications of proactive and reactive mindfulness on therapy, limitations of the framework, and necessity of studies providing direct evidence are further discussed.

This paper deals with developing a new class of quaternions, called hyper-dual Horadam quaternions which are constructed from the quaternions whose components are hyper-dual Horadam numbers. We investigate the algebraic properties of these quaternions.

This article develops a duality principle and a related convex dual formulation suitable for a large class of models in physics and engineering. The results are based on standard tools of functional analysis, calculus of variations and duality theory. In particular, we develop applications to a model in non-linear elasticity.

Despite the popularity of Zumba in several countries, research is scarce about its impact on older adults. Meanwhile, the integration of cognitive tasks with physical exercises, known as dual-tasking, is an evolving strategy to facilitate activities for older people. This study investigated the perceptions of older adults regarding Zumba and the potential of implementing it in a dual-task program. We conducted a qualitative-descriptive research involving 44 Filipino older adults from August to November 2020. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data. Four themes were identified: moving towards match or mismatch; balancing benefits with burdens; dual-tasking as innovative yet potentially challenging; and overcoming barriers with enablers. While Zumba is an inclusive and beneficial activity, individual and contextual limitations could hinder its suitability for older people. Dual-tasking in Zumba was also recognized as an innovative approach, although challenges should be addressed to promote its utility. Several strategies could support the design of these programs in communities. This is the first study to explore older adults’ perceptions towards Zumba and its potential utilization as a dual-tasking program. Findings could guide the implementation of appropriate Zumba and dual-tasking activities that seek to integrate cognitive and physical training for older adults.

Objective: To evaluate three different microincisional ab interno trabeculectomy procedures in a porcine eye perfusion model. Methods: In perfused porcine anterior segments, 90 degrees of trabecular meshwork (TM) were ablated using the Trabectome (T; n = 8), Goniotome (G; n = 8), or Kahook device (K; n = 8). After 24 hours, additional 90 degrees of TM were removed. Intraocular pressure (IOP) and outflow facility were measured at 5 µL/min and 10 µL/min perfusion to simulate an elevated IOP. Structure and function were assessed with canalograms and histology. Results: At 5 µL/min infusion rate, T resulted in a greater IOP reduction than G or K from baseline (76.12% decrease versus 48.19% and 47.96%, P = 0.013). IOP reduction between G and K was similar (P = 0.420). Removing another 90 degrees of TM caused an additional IOP reduction only in T and G but not in K. Similarly, T resulted in the largest increase in outflow facility at 5 µL/min compared with G and K (first ablation: 3.41 times increase versus 1.95 and 1.87; second ablation: 4.60 versus 2.50 and 1.74) with similar results at 10 µL/min (first ablation: 3.28 versus 2.29 and 1.90 (P = 0.001); second ablation: 4.10 versus 3.01 and 2.01 (P = 0.001)). Canalograms indicated circumferential flow beyond the ablation endpoints. Conclusions: T, G and K significantly increased the outflow facility. In this model, T had a larger effect than G and K.

Sediment transport is highly sensitive to flow conditions, showing significant increase during flood events. Based on this principle, this study set out to rank flood events occurring along river Trotuș (Romania) based on the amount of transported sediment and event duration. The 77 flood events recorded from 2000 to 2017 were ranked into 4 classes: type A (4%); type B (16%), type C (14%) and type D (66%). The sediment transport specific for the 4 types of flood events was related to the flow discharge (sediment rating curve and hysteresis effect), the specific stream power and the energy expenditure of these events. More than 60% of the hysteresis loops typical for flood events were clockwise, thus singling out the channel as the main sediment source. Ca. 74% of the total sediment yield was transported at stream power values higher than the 300 Wm-2 threshold, which was exceeded in less than 1% of the investigated timeframe. The changes occurring in the sediment transport rates after major floods show that these events are significant thresholds in the hydrogeomorphic evolution of river channels.

The popular motor drive systems with a single two-level voltage source inverter (VSI) have one main problem that is the occurrence of the common-mode voltage (CMV), which is an effect of the electromagnetic interference, shaft voltage, bearing currents, leakage current. These cause the high stress, increasung temperature and early mechanical failure in machine. To overcome this problem, the technology of the dual two-level VSI fed open-end three-phase ac loads is now available to eliminate the CMV at the ac/induction motor load with the 120-degree modulation technique for controlling each inverter. In this paper, the discontinuous space vector modulation (DSVM) schemes are proposed and applied for the dual two-level VSI fed open-end load. It is based on the 120-degree modulation technique by using only 12 active voltage vectors and the 10 zero voltage vectors from the total 64 voltage vectors along with the different five-segment swicthing sequence designs with centralizing pulse width modulation technqiue in order to not only cancel the CMV in the ac load, but also reduce the switching number/switching loss of the conversion system. Among the various DSVM schemes, their performances are compared in this paper, such as the number of the switching, the step and peak value of the CMV in each inverter, and the quality of the output waveform, etc. The details of the verfication and comparison are carried out by simulation using Matlab/Simulink software.

Though the energy density of lithium-ion batteries continues to increase, safety issues related with the internal short-circuit and the resulting combustion of highly flammable electrolyte impede the further development of lithium-ion batteries. It has been well-accepted that a thermal stable separator is important to postpone the entire battery short-circuit and thermal-runaway. Traditional methods to improve the thermal stability of separators includes surface modification and/or developing alternate material systems for separators which may always affect the battery performance negatively. Herein, a thermostable and shrink-free separator with little compromise in battery performance is prepared by coaxial electrospinning and tested. The separator consists of core-shell fiber networks where poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) layer serves as shell and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as the core. This core-shell fiber network exhibits little or even no shrinking/melting at elevated temperature over 250 °C. Meanwhile, it shows excellent electrolyte wettability and can take large amount of liquid electrolyte three times more than that of conventional Celgard 2400 separator. In addition, the half-cell using LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 as cathode and the aforementioned electrospun core-shell fiber network as separator demonstrates superior electrochemical behavior, stably cycling for 200 cycles at 1 C with a reversible capacity of 130 mAh g-1 and little capacity decay.

This paper deals with the merger of the two lightweight stream ciphers—A5/1 and Trivium. The idea is to make the key stream generation more secure and to remove the attacks of the individual algorithms. The bits generated by the Trivium cipher (output) will act as the input of the A5/1 cipher. The registers used in the A5/1 cipher will be filled by the output bits of the Trivium cipher. The three registers will then be connected to generate an output which will be our required key stream.

Manufacturing corporations has the acceptance of the Outsourcing Process (OP) to improve industrial activities as well as to archive the revenue objectives, and with this, Risk Analysis (RA) tools are constantly used to assure expected results. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is one of preferred RA tools, moreover, it is proven that FMEA adds uncertainty because of the human participation at the RA, afterward it is demonstrated that Pythagorean Fuzzy Dimensional Analysis – FMEA – Value Stream Mapping (PFDA-FMEA-VSM) method removes the uncertainty in RA, likewise it aids to the stakeholders for decision making, giving more advantages improving the use of the resources on the project. This document exhibits a real case scenario in a manufacturing firm applying PFDA-FMEA-VSM method adapted for manufacturing OP. The application of PFDA-FMEA-VSM shows solid RA results, removing the human intervention uncertainty added to the risk ranking, gives advantages to the stakeholders for visualize the main risks in detailed diagram, as well as make easier to take better decisions on where to apply resources and mitigate risks during OP.

This research analyzed South Korean companies’ adoption of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, by focusing on the dual labor market structure comprising of the primary (large corporations) and the secondary sectors (small and medium enterprises (SMEs)). Companies in the dual labor market were classified as per firm size. We used Statistics Korea’s August supplementary data from the Economically Active Population Survey, covering 2017–2020. This empirical study analyzed the factors affecting remote work in 2020, after the outbreak of the pandemic. The results showed that the probability of large corporations introducing remote work during the pandemic increased by a significantly larger margin than for small and medium-sized firms. This suggests that the polarization within the dual labor market structure between large corporations and SMEs also spilled over into companies’ adoption of remote work, which was initially introduced to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Additionally, the polarization in the use of digital technology is likely to persist even after the pandemic. Hence, based on our analysis of remote work adoption in the dual labor market, this study examined the system and factors of labor-management relations contributing toward such polarization and presented policy directions for the current labor market structure.

The goal of this paper is to propose a dual version of the direct cosine simplex algorithm (DDCA) for general linear problems. Unlike the two-phase and the big-M methods, our technique does not involve artificial variables. Our technique solves the dual Klee-Minty problem in two iterations and solves the dual Clausen’s problem in four iterations. The utility of the proposed method is evident from the extensive computational results on test problems adapted from NETLIB. Preliminary results indicate that this dual direct cosine simplex algorithm (DDCA) reduces the number of iterations of two-phase method.

In the past two decades the world experienced an exceptional number of unprecedented extreme weather events, some causing major human suffering and economic damage, such as the March 2012 heat event, which was called “Meteorological March Madness.” From the beginning of space era a correlation of solar flares with pressure changes in atmosphere within 2–3 days or even less was reported. In this study we wanted to test the possible relation of highly warm weather events in North-East America with Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events. For this reason we compared ground temperatures T_M in Madison, Wisconsin, with energetic particle fluxes P measured by the EPAM instrument onboard the ACE spacecraft. In particular, we elaborated case events and the results of a statistical study of the SEP events related with the largest (Dst ≤ −150nT) Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)-induced geomagnetic storms, between with the years 1997–2015. The most striking result of our statistical analysis is a very significant positive correlation between the highest temperature increase_. ΔT_M and the time duration of the temperature increase ΔT_M (r = 0.8, p <0.001) at “winter times” ( r = 0.5, p , 0.01 for the whole sample of 26 SEP examined events). The time response of T_M to P was found to be in general short (a few days), but in the case of March 2015, during a gradual P8 increase, a cross-correlation test indicated highest c.c. within 1 day (p < 0.05). The March 2012 “meteorological anomaly” was elaborated in the case of South-East Europe, where, beside a period of strong winds and rainfall (6-13.3.2012), intense precipitation in North-East Greece (Alexandroupoli) were found to be correlated with distinct high energy flux enhancements. A rough theoretical interpretation is discussed for the space—atmospheric extreme weather relationship we found. However, much work should be done to achieve early warning of space weather dependent extreme meteorological events. Such future advances in understanding the relationships between space weather and extreme atmospheric events would improve atmospheric models and help people’s safety, health and life.

The primary purpose of this article is to present a maturity model dealing with environmental manufacturing processes in a company. First, a theoretical approach is presented where evolution from the first industrial revolution to the present (Industry 4.0.) is outlined with a need to implement environmental initiatives. Chapter two contains a detailed literature review, which resulted in the creation of our own maturity model presented in the next chapter. According to some authors, Industry 4.0 is based on characteristics that have already been the focus of “lean and green” concepts. The practical part of the article is a case study that shows which areas of the manufacturing process have “environmental” potential. The goal was to move from resource consumption, pollutant emissions and more extensive manufacturing towards environmentally responsible manufacturing (ERM). Using environmental materials and methods reduces energy consumption, which generates cost savings and higher profits. Here, VSM (Value Stream Mapping) was applied to identify core processes with environmental potential. The final part of the article summarizes the work and presents future possibilities. This paper provides an understanding of the role of environmental manufacturing in the era of the 4th industrial revolution.

Ammonia-oxidizing microorganism communities are abundant and functionally efficacious in nitrification. However, ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) groups complicate this process in subtropical streams. This study investigates the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing communities south of the Dabie Mountains, China, using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Clone libraries were utilized to analyze the abundance and microbial structures of AOA and AOB in sediments. Such analysis may provide strong evidence reflecting the links within the environment. The results show that AOB had a lower abundance of copies of the ammonia-oxidizing gene (amoA) than AOA. Interestingly, the AOA and AOB community compositions were correlated with ecological characteristics. The dissolved oxygen (DO) and oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) had significant positive correlations, whereas the phosphorus within the structure had a negative correlation with the abundance of both groups. Our study shows that it might adopt some species related to Nitrosotalea clusters that can resist comparably higher pH (toward pH 6.5). Together, these results imply that the physiological adaptation of microbial guilds to environmental pressures in ammonia-oxidizing archaea might allow them to have a more substantial function of ammonia-oxidizing communities in natural habitats.

Lung cancer remains the leading cancer killer worldwide. Early diagnosis can effectively increase the patient cure rate but existing diagnostic methods limit early lung cancer diagnosis. Therefore, development of a simple but efficient lung cancer screening method is important to improvement of both the diagnosis rate and the survival rate of lung cancer patients. In this study, ten photosensitive materials with high sensitivity and high specificity were screened accurately to construct a microarray sensor that can rapidly identify six types of lung cancer biomarkers in exhaled breath. Results from hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA) and difference maps showed that the classification of the analytes agreed with structure similarity laws. The detection results from parallel experiments and structurally similar analytes, in turn, cluster into a group; the fingerprints of the different analytes have specific response regions. The well-screened sensor chip fabrication workload and cost were both reduced by approximately two thirds, while the microfluidic device sensitivity and stability increased by approximately 1.3 times their corresponding values before optimization. The dual-channel device also offers real-time contrast detection and synchronous parallel detection functions and has potential application prospects for use in extensive screening of high-risk populations for lung cancer.

(1) Aim of the study was to investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics of the airflow created by two commercially available non-contact tonometers, the CorvisST and the Ocular Re-sponse Analyser. (2) The airflow pressure was measured using a MEMS pressure sensor to inves-tigate the spatial and temporal distribution. The airflow from the CorvisST and Ocular Response Analyser were mapped to a 600µm and a 1mm resolution grid, respectively. (3) Central airflow pressure of the CorvisST (96.4 ± 1.4)mmHg was higher than the Ocular Response Analyser (91.7 ± 0.7)mmHg. The duration of the air-puffs also differed, with the CorvisST showing a shorter du-ration (21.483 ± 0.2881)ms than the ORA (23.061 ± 0.1872)ms. The rising edge of the CorvisST airflow pressure profile demonstrated a lower gradient (+8.94mmHg/ms) compared to the Oc-ular Response Analyser (+11.00mmHg/ms). Both had similar decay response edges; CorvisST -11.18mmHg/ms, Ocular Response Analyser -11.65mmHg/ms. (4) The study presents a valid method to investigate physical dimensions of the airflow pressure of non-contact tonometers. Novel findings relating to the magnitude, duration and spatial characteristics of the respective airflow pressures are reported. It is anticipated that this information will better inform clinical studies and theoretical models relating to ocular biomechanics.

Lithium-ion batteries have attracted enormous interests recently as promising power sources. However, the safety issue associated with the employment of highly flammable liquid electrolyte impedes the further development of next-generation lithium-ion batteries. Recently, researchers reported the use of electrospun core-shell fiber as the battery separator consisting of polymer layer as protective shell and flame retardants loaded inside as core. In case of a typical battery shorting, the protective polymer shell melts during thermal-runaway and the flame retardants inside would be released to suppress the combustion of the electrolyte. Due to the use of a single precursor solution for electrospinning containing both polymer and flame retardants, the weight ratio of flame retardants is limited and dependent. Herein, we developed a dual-nozzle, coaxial electrospinning approach to fabricate the core-shell nanofiber with a greatly enhanced flame retardants weight percentage in the final fibers. The weight ratio of flame retardants of triphenyl phosphate in the final composite reaches over 60 wt.%. The LiFePO4-based cell using this composite nanofiber as battery separator exhibits excellent flame-retardant property without compromising the cycling stability or rate performances. In addition, this functional nanofiber can also be coated onto commercial separators instead of being used directly as separators.

Current therapeutic protocols for the treatment of HIV infection consist of the combination of diverse anti-retroviral drugs in order to reduce the selection of resistant mutants and to allow for the use of lower doses of each single agent to reduce toxicity. However, avoiding drugs interactions and patient compliance are issues not fully accomplished so far. In this respect the identification of single agents with multitarget potential might represent the ideal solution. Accordingly, a small library of biphenylhydrazo 4-arylthiazoles derivatives has been synthesised and evaluated to investigate the ability of the new derivatives to simultaneously inhibit both associated functions of HIV reverse transcriptase. All compounds were active towards the two functions, although at different concentrations. The substitution pattern on the biphenyl moiety appears relevant to determine the activity.

Although different assessments and evaluations of Dual-Miller cycle performed, specified output power and thermal performance associated with engine determined. Besides, multi objective optimization of thermal efficiency, Ecological Coefficient of performance ( ) and Ecological function ( ) by the mean of NSGA-II technique and thermodynamic analysis performed. The Pareto optimal frontier obtaining the best optimum solution is chosen by fuzzy Bellman-Zadeh, LINMAP, and TOPSIS decision-making techniques. Based on the results, performances of dual-Miller cycles and their optimization are improved.

Based on the principle of Pancharatnam-Berry phase, we propose an approach to construct dual-functional dielectric metasurface doublets. This type of doublet, which is composed of a substrate and two metasurface layers, performs two different functionalities at two different operating wavelengths. The simulated results of the examples show that the designed dual-functional doublet works well as expected. The proposed approach can be used to design dielectric meta-structures with more layers of meta-surface and thereby with more functionalities, and would be of interest for miniaturization and integration.

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) technologies with project-based learning experiences in Science,Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STREAM) education offers the potential to enhance student engagement, critical thinking,problem-solving, and interdisciplinary learning. This paper presents a comprehensive approach to implementing AI and NLP technologies, such as ChatGPT, in STREAM project-based learning experiences, highlighting the potential advantages and challenges of this innovative educational approach. The proposed method encompasses personalized learning pathways, AI-powered research assistance, collaborative AI tools, real-time feedback, virtual mentoring, advanced simulation, and objective assessment. We also discuss the implications of this integration for educators, institutions, and students, along with recommendations for future research and development in this emerging field.

Frames are more stable as compared to bases under the action of a bounded linear operator. Sums of different frames under the action of a bounded linear operator are studied with the help of analysis, synthesis and frame operators. A simple construction of frames from the existing ones under the action of such an operator is presented here. It is shown that a frame can be added to its alternate dual frames, yielding a new frame. It is also shown that the sum of a pair of orthogonal frames is a frame. This provides an easy construction of a frame where the frame bounds can be computed easily. Moreover, for a pair of orthogonal frames, the necessary and sufficient condition is presented for their alternate dual frames to be orthogonal. This allows for an easy construction of a large number of new frames.

In hospitals and smart nursing homes, ambient-intelligent care rooms are equipped with many sensors. They can monitor environmental and body parameters, and detect wearable devices of patients and nurses. Hence, they continuously produce data streams. This offers the opportunity to collect, integrate and interpret this data in a context-aware manner, with a focus on reactivity and autonomy. However, doing this in real-time on huge data streams is a challenging task. In this context, cascading reasoning is an emerging research approach that exploits the trade-off between reasoning complexity and data velocity by constructing a processing hierarchy of reasoners. Therefore, a cascading reasoning framework is proposed in this paper. A generic architecture is presented allowing to create a pipeline of reasoning components hosted locally, in the edge of the network, and in the cloud. The architecture is implemented on a pervasive health use case, where medically diagnosed patients are constantly monitored, and alarming situations can be detected and reacted upon in a context-aware manner. A performance evaluation shows that the total system latency is mostly lower than 5 seconds, allowing for responsive intervention by a nurse in alarming situations. Using the evaluation results, the benefits of cascading reasoning for healthcare are analyzed.

A series of defective ZSM-5 zeolites (~300 nm, SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratio of 55, 100, 400 and 950) were intentionally prepared and systematically studied by XRD, SEM, ²⁹Si MAS NMR, argon physisorption, NH₃-TPD and FT-IR technologies. The nature, the amount and the accessibility of the acid sites of defective ZSM-5 zeolites are greatly different from reported ZSM-5 zeolites with perfect crystal structure. The co-existed strong Brønsted acid sites (Si(OH)Al) and weak Brønsted acid sites (hydroxyl nests) over defective ZSM-5 zeolites might lead to unique catalytic function. Zn(C₂H₅)₂ was grafted onto defective ZSM-5 zeolites through chemical liquid deposition (CLD) method. Interestingly, FT-IR spectroscopy studies find that Zn(C₂H₅)₂ was preferentially grafted on the hydroxyl nests with weak acidity rather than the Si(OH)Al groups with strong acidity over different defective ZSM-5 zeolites. Particularly, home-built operando dual beam FTIR-MS was applied to study the catalytic performance of Zn species locating at different sites of defective ZSM-5 zeolites under n-hexane transformation. Results show that Zn species grafted over hydroxyl nests obtain better dehydrogenation performance than Zn species over framework aluminum. This study provides guidance for the rational design of highly efficient alkane dehydrogenative aromatization catalysts.

The kinetics and modeling of dual-wavelength controlled photopolymerization confinement (PC) are presented and measured data are analyzed by analytic formulas and numerical data. The UV-light initiated inhibition effect is strongly monomer-dependent and different monomers have different C=C bond rate constants and conversion efficacy. Without the UV-light, for a given blue-light intensity, higher initiator concentration (C₁₀) and rate constant (k’) lead to higher conversion, as also predicted by analytic formulas, in which the total conversion rate (R_T) is an increasing function of k’R, which is proportional to k[gB₁C₁]^0.5. However, the coupling factor b₁ plays a different role that higher b₁ leads to higher conversion only in the transient regime; whereas higher b₁ leads lower steady-state conversion. For a fixed initiator concentration C₁₀, higher inhibitor concentration (C₂₀) leads to lower conversion due to stronger inhibition effect. However, same conversion reduction was found for the same H-factor of H₀ = [b₁C₁₀ - b₂C₂₀]. Conversion of blue-only are much higher than that of UV-only and UV-blue combined, in which high C₂₀ results a strong reduction of blue-only-conversion, such that the UV-light serves as the turn-off (trigger) mechanism for the purpose of spatial confirmation within the overlap area of UV and blue light. For example, UV-light controlled methacrylate conversion of a glycidyl dimethacrylate resin formulated with a tertiary amine co-initiator, and butyl nitrite, subject to a continuous exposure of a blue light, but an on-off exposure of a UV-light. Finally, we developed a theoretical new finding for the criterion of a good material/candidate governed by a double ratio of light-intensity and concentration, [I₂₀C₂₀.]/[I₁₀C₁₀].

This paper proposes a new structure of the dual-rotor hybrid-excited axial-flux permanent magnet vernier machine (DR-HEAFPMVM) with the modular stator and the consequent-pole PM (CPM) rotor for low-speed, high torque density applications such as in-wheel electric vehicles. The tooth-wound non-overlapping armature windings and direct current (DC) excitation windings are respectively arranged in stator main-teeth and split-teeth to obtain the modulated and adjustable air-gap flux densities, which result in the high torque density and outstanding flux-weakening capability. First, the design consideration, operation principle, and the air-gap flux density distributions of the proposed machine are elaborated based on the air-gap permeance function. Then, the influence of the pole ratios (PRs) and the DC excitation currents on the main electromagnetic performances of the DR-HEAFPMVM, such as the flux-weakening capability, back-electromotive force (back-EMF), on-load electromagnetic torque, loss distribution, and efficiencies, is investigated using the 3-D finite-element method (FEM). Results verify the feasibility of the flux adjustment of the DC excitation windings equipped in the split-tooth, and the design with a pole ratio of 8/1 tends to have higher torque density, higher machine efficiency, and considerable flux-weakening capability compared with the other two PRs.

Conventional mechanical Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FTS) are able to simultaneously measure absorption and dispersion spectra of gas-phase samples. However, they usually need very long measurement times to achieve time-resolved spectra with a good spectral and temporal resolution. Here, we present a mid-infrared dual-comb-based FTS in an asymmetric configuration, providing broadband absorption and dispersion spectra with a spectral resolution of 5 GHz, a temporal resolution of 20 μs, and a total measurement time of a few minutes. We used the dual-comb spectrometer to monitor the reaction dynamics of methane and ethane in an electrical plasma discharge. We observed ethane/methane formation as a recombination reaction of hydrocarbon radicals in the discharge in various static and dynamic conditions. The results demonstrate a new analytical approach for measuring fast molecular absorption and dispersion changes and monitoring fast dynamics of chemical reactions, which can be interesting for chemical kinetic research and particularly for the combustion and plasma analysis community.

Detector-based spectral CT offers the possibility of obtaining spectral information from which discrete acquisitions at different energy levels can be derived, yielding so-called virtual monoenergetic images (VMI). In this study, we aimed to develop a jointly optimized deep learning framework based on dual-energy CT pulmonary angiography (DE-CTPA) data to generate synthetic monoenergetic images (SMI) for improving automatic pulmonary embolism (PE) detection in single-energy CTPA scans. For this purpose, we used two data sets: our institutional DE-CTPA data set D1 comprising polyenergetic arterial series and the corresponding VMI at low-energy levels (40 keV) with 7,892 image pairs, and a 10% subset of the 2020 RSNA Pulmonary Embolism Detection Challenge data set D2, which consisted of 161,253 polyenergetic images with dichotomous slice-wise annotations (PE/no PE). We trained a fully convolutional encoder-decoder on D1 to generate SMI from single-energy CTPA scans of D2, which were then fed into a ResNet50 network for training of the downstream PE classification task. The quantitative results on the reconstruction ability of our framework revealed high-quality visual SMI predictions with reconstruction results of 0.984 ± 0.002 (structural similarity) and 41.706 ± 0.547 dB (peak-signal-to-noise ratio). PE classification resulted in an AUC of 0.84 for our model, which achieved improved performance compared to other naive approaches with AUCs up to 0.81. Our study stresses the role of using joint optimization strategies for deep learning algorithms to improve automatic PE detection. The proposed pipeline may prove to be beneficial for computer-aided detection systems and could help rescue CTPA studies with suboptimal opacification of the pulmonary arteries from single-energy CT scanners.

This paper presents two designs of high-efficiency polarizer reflectarray antennas able to generate a collimated beam in dual-circular polarization using a linearly polarized feed, with application to high-gain antennas for data transmission links from a Cubesat. First, an 18 cm x 18 cm polarizer reflectarray operating in the 17.2 - 22.7 GHz band has been designed, fabricated and tested. The measurements of the prototype show an aperture efficiency of 52.7% for right-handed circular polarization (RHCP) and 57.3% for left-handed circular polarization (LHCP), both values higher than those previously reported in related works. Then, a dual-band polarizer reflectarray is presented for the first time, which operates in dual-CP in the frequency bands of 20 and 30 GHz. The proposed antenna technology enables a reduction of the complexity and cost of the feed chain to operate in dual-CP, as a linear-to-circular polarizer is no longer required. This property, combined with the lightweight, flat profile and low fabrication cost of printed reflectarrays, makes the proposed antennas good candidates for Cubesat applications.

Durability monitoring of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) containing a pyrethroid in combination with a second active ingredient (AI) must be adapted so that the insecticidal bioefficacy of each AI can be monitored independently. An effective way to do this is to measure rapid knock down of a pyrethroid-susceptible strain of mosquitoes to assess the bioefficacy of the pyrethroid component and to use a pyrethroid-resistant strain to measure the bioefficacy of the second ingredient. To allow robust comparison of results across tests within and between test facilities, and over time, protocols for bioefficacy testing must include either characterisation of the resistant strain, standardisation of the mosquitoes used for bioassays, or a combination of the two. Through a series of virtual meetings, key stakeholders and practitioners explored different approaches to achieving these goals. Via an iterative process we decided on the preferred approach and produced a protocol consisting of characterising mosquitoes used for bioefficacy testing before and after a round of bioassays, for example at each time point in a durability monitoring study. We present the final protocol and justify our approach to establishing a standard methodology for durability monitoring of ITNs containing pyrethroid and a second AI.

Energy-efficient microprocessors are essential for a wide range of applications. While near-threshold computing is a promising technique to improve energy efficiency, optimal supply demands from logic core and on-chip memory are conflicting. In this paper, we perform static reliability analysis of 6T SRAM and discover the variance among different sizing configuration and asymmetric minimum voltage requirements between read and write operations. We leverage this asymmetric property in near-threshold processors equipped with voltage boosting capability by proposing an opportunistic dual-supply switching scheme with a write aggregation buffer. Our results show that proposed technique improves energy efficiency by more than 21.45% with approximate 10.19% performance speed-up.

The aim of this work was to investigate the microstructure and the mechanical properties of la-ser-welded joints combined of DP800 and DP1000 high strength thin steel sheets. The welded joints (WJ) comprised of similar/dissimilar steels with similar/dissimilar thickness were consisted of different zones and exhibited similar microstructural characteristics. The trend of microhard-ness for all WJs was consistent, characterized of the highest value at hardening zone (HZ) and lowest at softening zone (SZ). The degree of softening was more severe and the size of SZ was wider in the WJ combinations of DP1000 than DP800. The tensile test fractures were located at the base material (BM) for all DP800 weldments, while the fractures occurred at the fusion zone (FZ) for the weldments with DP1000 and those with dissimilar sheet thicknesses. The DP800-DP1000 weldment presented similar yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) values but lower elongation (EI) in comparison with the DP800-DP800 weldment, which showed similar strength properties as the BM of DP800. However, the EI of DP1000-DP1000 weldment was much lower in comparison with the BM of DP1000. The DP800-DP1000 weldment with dissimilar thicknesses showed the highest YS and UTS values compared with the other weldments, but with the lowest EI. The fatigue fractures occurred at the WJ for all types of weldments. The DP800-DP800 weldment had the highest fatigue limit and DP800-DP1000 with dissimilar thick-nesses had the lowest fatigue limit. The fatigue crack initiated from the weld surface.

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) are promising versatile oxidative biocatalysts. However, the practical use of P450s in vitro is limited by their dependence on the co-enzyme NAD(P)H and the complex electron transport system. Using H2O2 simplifies the catalytic cycle of P450s; however, most P450s are inactive in the presence of H2O2. By mimicking the molecular structure and catalytic mechanism of natural peroxygenases and peroxidases, an artificial P450 peroxygenase system has been designed with the assistance of a dual-functional small molecule (DFSM). DFSMs, such as N-(ω-imidazolyl fatty acyl)-l-amino acids, use an acyl amino acid as an anchoring group to bind the enzyme, and the imidazolyl group at the other end functions as a general acid-base catalyst in the activation of H2O2. In combination with protein engineering, the DFSM-facilitated P450 peroxygenase system has been used in various oxidation reactions of non-native substrates, such as alkene epoxidation, thioanisole sulfoxidation, and alkanes and aromatic hydroxylation, which showed unique activities, and regio- and enantioselectivities when compared with native P450s. Moreover, the DFSM-facilitated P450 peroxygenase system can switch to the peroxidase mode by mechanism-guided protein engineering. In this short review, the design, mechanism, evolution, application, and perspective of these novel non-natural P450 peroxygenases for the oxidation of non-native substrates are discussed.

For developmental processes we know most of the gene networks controlling specific cell responses. We still have to determine how these networks cooperate and how signals become integrated. The JNK pathway is one of the key elements modulating cellular responses during development. Yet, we still know little on how the core components of the pathway interact with additional regulators or how this network modulates cellular responses in the whole organism in homeostasis or during tissue morphogenesis. We have performed a promoter analysis searching for potential regulatory sequences of puc and identified different specific enhancers directing gene expression in different tissues and at different developmental times. Remarkably, some of these domains respond to the JNK activity, but not all. Altogether, these analyses show that puc expression regulation is very complex and that JNK activities participate in non-previously known processes during the development of Drosophila.

The tumour-associated isoenzymes, hCA IX and hCA XII catalyze the hydration of carbon dioxide to bicarbonate and protons. These isoforms are highly overexpressed in many types of cancer, where they contribute for the acidification of the tumor environment promoting the tumor cell invasion and metastasis. In this work, in order to identify novel dual hCA IX and XII inhibitors, virtual screening techniques and biological assays were combined. A structure based virtual screening towards hCA IX and XII was performed using a database of approximately 26000 natural compounds. The best shared hits were submitted to a thermodynamic analysis and 3 promising best hits were identified and evaluated in terms of their hCA IX and XII inhibitor activity. In vitro biological assays are in line with the theoretical studies and revealed that Syringin, Lithospermic acid, and (-)- Dehydrodiconiferyl alcohol behave as good hCA IX and hCA XII dual inhibitors.

Climate change plays a pivotal role in the hydrology of tributaries in the upper Blue Nile basin. This study was designed to reveal the extent to which climate change impacts on stream flow of the Gumara watershed under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) climate change scenario. The study considered the RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios using the second generation Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM2). The Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) was used for calibration and projection of future climatic data of the study area. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used for simulation of the future stream flow of the watershed. Result showed that the average temperature will be increasing by 0.84oC, 2.6oC and 4.1oC in the end of this century under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios respectively. The change in monthly rainfall amount showed a fluctuating trend in all scenarios but the overall annual rainfall amount is projected to increase by 8.6%, 5.2% and 7.3% in RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5 respectively. Overall, this study revealed that, due to climate change, the stream flow of the watershed is found to be increasing by 4.06%, 3.26%, and 3.67% under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios respectively.

In computer networks, loss of data packets is inevitable, in particular, because of the buffer memory overflow of at least one of the nodes located on the path from the source to the receiver, including the latter. Such losses associated with overflows are hereinafter referred to as congestion of network nodes. There are many ways to prevent and eliminate overloads; these methods, in the majority, are based on the management of data flows. A special place is taken by the maintenance of packages, taking into account their priorities. The article considers a number of original technical solutions to improve the quality of control and reduce the required amount of buffer memory of network nodes. The ideas of these solutions are quite simple for their implementation in the development of appropriate software and hardware for telecommunication devices.

To meet the growing interest in the development of innovative biological nutrient removal (BNR) alternatives for energy neutrality, resource recovery, and decarbonization, the adsorption/bio-oxidation (A/B) process has been widely studied for carbon capture and shortcut nitrogen (N) removal, while limited research has focused on incorporating enhanced biological phosphorus (P) removal (EBPR), mainly due to the differential carbon usage characteristics of functionally relevant microorganisms. Here, a full-scale pilot testing with an integrated system combining A-stage high-rate activated sludge (HRAS) with B-stage partial (de)nitrification/anammox and side-stream EBPR (HRAS-P(D)N/A-S2EBPR) was conducted treating real municipal wastewater. The results demonstrated that, despite the low influent carbon load, the B-stage P(D)N-S2EBPR system achieved effective and stable P removal performance, especially when the volatile fatty acid (VFA) load from A-stage was elevated. Sludge fermentation in both A-stage and B-stage promoted carbon redistribution and likely provided more competitive advantages for ammonium-oxidizing bacteria and polyphosphate accumulating organisms, leading to carbon-efficient shortcut N removal mainly through partial nitrification pathway and influent carbon-independent EBPR simultaneously. Exposure to high VFA levels was considered a potential selection factor for the suppression of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in the system. The involvement of internal carbon-accumulating organisms would potentially play an important role in endogenous denitrification. This study provided new insights into the effects of incorporating side-stream EBPR into the A/B process on microbial ecology, metabolic activities, and system performance.

The modern era of polarimetric radar begins with radiowave propagation research starting in the early 1970s with applications to measurement and modeling of wave attenuation in rain and depolarization due to ice particles along satellite-earth links. While there is a rich history of radar in meteorology after World War II, the impetus provided by radiowave propagation requirements lead to high quality antennas and feeds. Our journey starts by describing the key institutions and personnel responsible for development of weather radar polarimetry. The early period was dominated by circularly polarized radars for propagation research and at S-band for hail detection. By the mid-to late 70s, a paradigm shift occurred which led to the dominance of linear polarizations with applications to slant path attenuation prediction as well as estimation of rain rates and inferences of precipitation physics. The period from early 1980s to 1995 can be considered as the “golden” period of rapid research that brought in meteorologists, cloud physicists and hydrologists. This article describes the evolution of this technology from the vantage point of the authors. Their personal reflections and “behind the scenes” descriptions offer a glimpse into the inner workings at several key institutions which cannot be found elsewhere.

Abstract: Ambulatory cancer centers face fluctuating patient demand and deploy specialized personnel who have variable availability. This undermines operational stability through misa-lignment of resources to patient needs, resulting in overscheduled clinics, budget deficits, and wait times exceeding provincial targets. We describe deployment of a Learning Health System framework for operational improvements within the entire ambulatory center. Known methods of value stream mapping, operations research and statistical process control were applied to achieve organizational high performance that is data-informed, agile and adaptive. We transitioned from a fixed template model by individual physician to a caseload management by disease site model that is realigned quarterly. We adapted a block schedule model for the ambulatory oncology clinic to align the regional demand for specialized services with optimized human and physical resources. We demonstrated improved utilization of clinical space, increased weekly consistency and im-proved distribution of activity across the workweek. Increased value, represented as the ratio of monthly encounters per nursing worked hours, and increased percentage of services delivered by full-time nurses were benefits realized in our cancer system. The creation of a data-informed demand capacity model enables application of predictive analytics and business intelligence tools that will further enhance clinical responsiveness..

In the past decades, a significant rise in the adoption of streaming applications has changed the decision-making process for the industry and academia sectors. This movement led to the emergence of a plurality of Big Data technologies such as Apache Storm, Spark, Heron, Samza, Flink, and other systems to provide in-memory processing for real-time Big Data analysis at high throughput. Spark Streaming represents one of the most popular open-source implementations which handles an ever-increasing data ingestion and processing by using the Unified Memory Manager to manage memory occupancy between storage and processing regions dynamically, which is the focus of this study. The problem behind memory management for data-intensive stream processing pipelines is that the incoming data is faster than the downstream operators can consume. Consequently, the backpressure of Spark acts in the opposite direction of downstream operators. In such a case, the incoming data overwhelms the memory manager and provokes memory leak issues. As a result, it affects the performance of applications generating, e.g., high latency, low throughput, or even data loss. In such a case, the initial intuition motivating our work is that memory management became the critical factor in keeping processing at scale and system stability of Spark. This work provides a deep dive into Spark backpressure, evaluates its structure, presents the main characteristics to support data-intensive streaming pipelines, and investigates the current in-memory-based performance issues.

In previous work, a quantum mathematical formalism associated an element of experience with a single sensory neuron, as a local reduction of a global mental state. In contrast to the binary objective states of neuronal polarisation/depolarisation, neuronal experience was modeled as a continuous variable, the instantaneous value of which could only be estimated statistically from an ensemble of evoked responses to stereotyped stimulus presentation. In the present work, the quantum operations formalism of energy dissipation through amplitude damping is adopted to explain how smooth evolution of conscious experience might arise from discrete spikes and discontinuous synaptic transmission between neurons.

In this paper, I give readers an idea of what some scholars are interested in, what I found interesting, and what may be of future interest in the philosophy of emotion. I begin with a brief overview of the general topics of interests in the philosophy of emotion. I then discuss what I believe to be some of the most interesting topics in the contemporary discourse, including questions about how philosophy can inform the science of emotion, conceptions of the mind and the mind-body problem, concerns about perception, cognition, and emotion, along with questions about the place of 4E approaches and meta-semantic pluralist approaches in the embodied cognitive tradition. Finally, I discuss the emerging field of cultural evolution, the import of a dual-inheritance theory in this emerging field, and I propose a possible way to integrate the frameworks of dual-inheritance theory and meta-semantic pluralism to demonstrate at least one way in which the philosophy of emotion can contribute to the emerging field of cultural evolution.

The main target of this study was to evaluate the impact of future climate change on the available surface water resources in the Dhidhessa Sub-basin, Abbay Basin, Ethiopia. For the prediction, high-resolution Regional Climate Models (RCMs) from multiple climate models with data from Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) prepared by the CCAFS were used. The predictions of future discharge (stream flow) were based on climate scenarios data of baseline period of 1991 to 2020 and for the future with two time windows, 2044 (2030–2059) and 2084 (2070–2099), on a monthly time step after bias correction was conducted to both precipitation and temperature in the future climate under each RCP scenario. After sensitivity analysis, calibration (1994–2011), and validation (2012–2020) of the model for the Dhidhessa Sub-basin with the SUFI-2 program in the SWAT-CUP model, the SWAT model was used to determine water balance and stream flow from the SWAT model system. The SWAT model performed well in predicting stream flow in the Dhidhessa Sub-basins, with a coefficient of determination (R2) ranging from 0.8 to 0.94 and a Nash Sutcliffe value (NSE) ranging from 0.76 to 0.89. The percent decrease in mean annual stream flow from 2044 and 2084 were 10 %, in 2044, and 6.3% in 2084 respectively. The seasonal result under short-term 2044 of stream flow present change significantly decreased in spring, winter, and autumn with 20.2%, 67.4%, and 67.4% respectively. While summer season increased by 43.1%, under short-term 204. In long-term 2084 percent change declined except summer seasons, with 14.7%, 58.1%, and 3.3%, change in spring, winter, and autumn, respectively, and summer, with 51.1% increased and With RCP4.5 (1.64%) and RCP8.5 (2.1%) changed. In the future Dhidhessa stream flow increases and decreases from the baseline era. The decreasing stream flow in 2044 and 2084 will negatively affect agricultural production. This study revealed that any effect on this river resulting in a drop in flow will have a direct impact on ongoing water resource development and socio-economic development of the area.

We construct families of ground state representations of the U(1)-current net and of the Virasoro nets Vir_c with central charge c ≥ 1. We show that these representations are not covariant with respect to the original dilations, and those on the U(1)-current net are not solitonic. Furthermore, by going to the dual net of with respect to the ground state representations of Vir_c, one obtains possibly new family of Möbius covariant nets on S¹.

Recombinant laboratory plasmids (RLPs) are common in biological research and freely shared among academic research laboratories (ARLs), a practice required by many research funding agencies. However, the generation of accurate, reproducible results in experiments utilizing RLPs can be hampered by a lack of accompanying sequence information and metadata. This culture of RLP sharing without knowledge of sequence or etiology is accepted by publishers, not regulated by governments, and outside the realm of bio-industry. In addition, no centralized infrastructure currently exists to collate such data, which at the moment is fragmented across companies, non-profits, and governments and thus is not easily accessed or enacted toward threat assessment. The ubiquity, free exchange, and dual-use risk of RLPs exemplifies a biosecurity threat and elevates the need to characterize their composition to facilitate improved biorisk management by the academic community. A number of common sense solutions are available to create a culture that addresses the biosecurity gap posed by RLP sharing. Culture shift in RLP management will require new norms, effective data management for collation of RLP sequences and metadata, and an incentive structure that encourages sequencing by stakeholders. The next generation of researchers must initiate and champion this shift with support from funding agencies and endorsement from governments and international organizations. Coordination of efforts and stakeholders will require international public/private collaboration, a structure that will be critical to ensure widespread utility as well as the ability of lower-resourced partners to participate, contribute, and benefit.

Lift-offs of the sensor could significantly affect the measurement signal and reconstruction of material properties when using the electromagnetic (inductive) eddy current sensor. Previously, various methods (including novel sensor designs, and features like zero-crossing frequency, lift-off point of intercept) have been used for eliminating the measurement error caused by the lift-off distance effect of the sensor. However, these approaches can only be applied for a small range of lift-off variations. In this paper, a linear relationship has been found between the sensor lift-off and ratio of dual-frequency eddy current signals, particularly under the high working dual frequencies. Based on this linear relationship, the lift-off variation can be reconstructed firstly with a small error of 2.5 % when its actual value is up to 10 mm (10.1 % for 20 mm). The reconstructed lift-off is used to further get the property of the material under a low single frequency. Experiments on different ferrous metals have been carried out for the testing of the reconstruction scheme. Since the inductance is more sensitive to the material property (and less sensitive to the lift-off) under low frequencies, the reconstruction error of the material property is much smaller than that of the lift-off, with 1.4 % under 12 mm (and 4.5 % under 20 mm).

Influence of core flow inlet swirl angle on aerodynamic performances of an exhaust nozzle with scarfed lobed mixer was studied by the validated computational approach. The computational simulation was conducted by resolving the steady form of discretized three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the shear stress transport k-Ω turbulence model. Simulation results depict that swirling motions have ignorable influence on the flow field of the top part in the cross sections slightly downstream of the lobed trailing edge. Besides, for the flow field downstream of the L/D=0.1 cross section, the swirling motions are suggested to cause the clockwise stream-wise vortex to stretch into several smaller-scale vortexes. When the case with a bigger swirling angle is investigated, the induced smaller-scale vortexes are more strengthened by the swirling motions. Concerning the 15° swirling case, the loss caused by the destroyed vortex pattern and the benefit induced by the improved smaller-scale vortexes almost counteract with each other with respect to the thermal mixing efficiency. In the last studied cross section as compared with the baseline case, the case with a maximum swirling angle of 30° has increased 6.94% for the thermal mixing efficiency and decreased 0.42% for the total pressure recovery coefficient.

We analyzed the peak spring tidal current speeds, annual mean tidal power densities (TPD) and annual energy production (AEP) obtained from experiment 06.1, referred as the "HYCOM model" throughout, of the three dimensional (3D), global model HYCOM in an area covering the Baja California Pacific and the Gulf of California. The HYCOM model is forced with astronomical tides and surface winds alone, and therefore is particularly suitable to assess the tidal current and wind-driven current contribution to in-stream energy resources. We find two areas within the Gulf of California, one in the Great Island Region and one in the Upper Gulf of California, where peak spring tidal flows reach speeds of 1.1 meters per second. Second to fifth-generation tidal stream devices would be suitable for deployment in these two areas, which are very similar in terms of tidal in-stream energy resources. However, they are also very different in terms of sediment type and range in water depth, posing different challenges for in-stream technologies. The highest mean TPD value when excluding TPDs equal or less than 50 W/m² (corresponding to the minimum velocity threshold for energy production) is of 172.8 W/m², and is found near the town of San Felipe, at (lat lon) = (31.006 -114.64); here energy would be produced during 39.00% of the time. Finally, wind-driven currents contribute very little to the mean TPD and the total AEP. Therefore, the device, the grid, and any energy storage plans need to take into account the periodic tidal current fluctuations, for optimal exploitation of the resources.

This paper presents a configuration of dual output single phase current source inverter with 6 switches for microgrid applications. The inverter is capable of delivering power to two independent set of loads of equal voltages or different voltages at the load end. The control strategy is based on Integral Sliding Mode Control (ISMC). The remote monitoring of the inverter is performed with cyber infrastructure. The cyber physical test bench is developed based on Reconfigurable I/O processor (NI MyRIO-1900) for control and monitoring of the inverter. The inverter prototype is tested in cyber physical test bench in laboratory conditions. The performance of the inverter is analyzed and monitored through the remote system. Also, the inverter is analyzed with different voltage conditions.

In this paper, the design process of BLDC adopting the dual rotor method that can reduce the overall size of the motor while generating the same torque as the conventional Permanent Magnet BLDC is analyzed. A simple size is selected by obtaining the torque per rotor volume (TRV), and a method of matching the counter electromotive force by selecting the pole arc of the magnet through a magnetic equivalent circuit is analyzed. Since the efficiency is low because the 120-degree commutation method is selected, the middle stator is optimized through detailed design through the experimental design method. Afterwards, it has the advantage of being able to shift without stopping due to the characteristic of a dual rotor. For this, an analysis of the driving characteristics for each mode is performed.

In this paper, we study singularities of the spherical indicatrix and evolute of spacelike ruled surface with spacelike ruling. Finally, we give an example to illustrate our results.

While many in-steam tidal energy resource studies have been carried out globally, very few studies have assessed the effect of seabed changes on tidal energy resources. For coastal regions in particular, where the seabed is generally more mobile than in deep waters, bathymetric evolution could have a significant effect on tidal energy production. Here two high-resolution models, one purely hydrodynamic and one morphodynamic, are used to analyse the potential effect of natural morphodynamic evolution on tidal energy resources at two macro-tidal sandy bays, Adaír Bay and San Jorge Bay, in the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico. The high-resolution models are validated using a low-resolution model and ADCP observations to assess the agreement between model predictions and observations of tides at three ADCP moorings within the domain of interest. The models’ skill is evaluated using several error statistics such as the mean relative error, the root mean square error (RMSE), and the correlation coefficient. It was found that the regions with the largest bed changes, and also the largest renewable energy resources, were near the shore. Moreover, the results indicated a good correlation between a) regions with the most significant depth changes, and b) the regions where the difference in annual energy production with and without depth change was largest. Finally, the morphodynamic model was run for two years, and the evolution of a zonal profile (in the west-east direction) off the coast at the southeastern corner of Adaír Bay was inspected. This profile evolved towards a featureless equilibrium profile, in good agreement with the morphological classification for macro-tidal sandy environments and with the model assumptions. But most importantly, this natural evolution would not be detrimental to tidal energy exploitation at the site.

Purpose: Hearing assistive technology (HAT) has been shown to be a viable solution to the speech-in-noise perception (SPIN) issue in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, little is known about its efficacy in tonal language speakers. This study compared sentence-level SPIN performance between Chinese children with ASD and neurotypical (NT) children and evaluated HAT use in improving SPIN performance and easing SPIN difficulty. Methods: Children with ASD (n=26) and NT children (n=19) aged 6-12 performed two adaptive tests in steady-state noise and three fixed-level tests in quiet and steady-state noise with and without using HAT. Speech recognition thresholds (SRT) and accuracy rates were assessed using adaptive and fixed-level tests, respectively. Parents or teachers of the ASD group completed a questionnaire regarding children’s listening difficulty under six circumstances before and after a ten-day trial period of HAT use. Results: Although the two groups of children had comparable SRTs, the ASD group showed a significantly lower SPIN accuracy rate than the NT group. Also, a significant impact of noise was found in the ASD group’s accuracy rate, but not in the NT group’s. There was a general improvement in the ASD group’s SPIN performance with HAT and a decrease in their listening difficulty ratings across all conditions after the device trial. Conclusion: The findings indicated inadequate SPIN in the ASD group using a relatively sensitive measure to gauge SPIN performance among children. The markedly increased accuracy rate in noise during HAT-on sessions for the ASD group confirmed the feasibility of HAT for improving SPIN performance in controlled laboratory settings, and the reduced post-use ratings of listening difficulty further confirmed the benefits of HAT use in daily scenarios.

Pedestrian detection is the core of driver assistance system, which collects the road conditions through the radars or cameras on the vehicle, judges whether there is a pedestrian in front of the vehicle, supports decisions such as raising the alarm, automatically slowing down or emergency stopping to keep pedestrians safe, and improves the security when the vehicle is moving. Suffered from weather, lighting, clothing, large pose variations and occlusion, the current pedestrian detection still has a certain distance from the practical applications. In recent years, deep networks have shown excellent performance for image detection, recognition and classification. Some researchers employed deep network for pedestrian detection and achieve great progress, but deep networks need huge computational resources which make it difficult to put into practical applications. In real scenarios of autonomous vehicle, the computation ability is limited. Thus, the shallow networks such as UDN (Unified Deep Networks) is a better choice since it performs well on consuming less computation resources. Base on UDN, this paper proposes a new deep network model named as two-stream UDN, which augments another branch for solving traditional UDN’s indistinction of the difference between trees / telegraph poles and pedestrians. The new branch accepts the upper third part of the pedestrian image as input, and the partial image has less deformation, stable features and more distinguished characters from other objects. For the proposed two-stream UDN, multi-input features including HOG feature, Sobel feature, color feature and foreground regions extracted by GrabCut segmentation algorithms are fed. Compared with the original input of UDN, the multi-input features are more conducive for pedestrian detection since the fused HOG features and significant objects are more significant for pedestrian detection. Two-stream UDN is trained through two steps: First, the two sub-networks are trained until converge; then we fuse results of the two subnets as the final result and feed it back to the two subnets to fine tune network parameters synchronously. To improve the performance, Softplus is adopted as activation function to obtain faster training speed, and positive samples are mirrored and rotated with small angle to make positive and negative samples more balanced.

Dual-method use is the most reliable form of protection against unintended pregnancies and HIV/STIs. Although dual-method use remains uncommon among women in stable relationships, some women do practice it. In this study, we explored the barriers that make dual-method use rare and the behaviors of women who practice dual-method use using a positive deviance framework in Uganda. We screened 150 women using highly effective contraceptives at five health facilities. We identified nine women who practiced dual-method use and 141 women who did not. In a qualitative study, we conducted in-depth interviews with all nine women practicing dual-method use and 10 women randomly selected out of the 141 who did not. We performed a thematic analysis using the positive deviance framework. Regardless of practicing dual-method use or not, women faced perceived barriers against dual-method use, such as partner’s objection, distrust, shyness about introducing condoms into marital relationships, and limited access to condoms. However, women practicing dual-method use had higher levels of risk perception about unintended pregnancies and HIV/STIs. They also engaged in unique behaviors, such as influencing their partners’ condom use by initiating discussions, educating their partners on sexual risks and condom use, and obtaining condoms by themselves. These findings will be useful in developing effective community-led and peer-based interventions promoting dual-method use to reduce the dual burden of unintended pregnancies and HIV/STIs among women in Uganda.

The etiology of ‘dual harm’ (the co-occurrence of self-harm and externalized violence in the same individual) is under-researched. Risk factors have mostly been investigated for each behavior separately. We aimed to examine adversities experienced between birth and age 15 years among adolescents and young adults with histories of self-harm and violent criminality, with a specific focus on dual harm. Three nested case-control studies were delineated using national interlinked Danish registers; 58,409 cases in total aged 15-35 were identified: 28,956 with a history of violent criminality (but not self-harm), 25,826 with a history of self-harm (but not violent criminality), and 3987 with dual harm history. Each case was matched by date of birth and gender to 20 controls who had not engaged in either behavior. We estimated exposure prevalence for cases vs. controls for each of the three behavior groups, and incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Experiencing 5 or more childhood adversities was more prevalent among individuals with dual harm history (19.3%; 95% CI 18.0, 20.8%) versus self-harm (10.9%; 10.5, 11.3%) and violence (11.4%; 11.0%, 11.8%) histories. The highest IRRs for dual harm were linked with parental unemployment (5.15; 95% CI 4.71, 5.64), parental hospitalization following self-harm (4.91; 4.40, 5.48) or assault (5.90; 5.07, 6.86), and parental violent criminality (6.11; 5.57, 6.70). Growing up in environments that are characterized by poverty, violence and substance misuse, and experiencing multiple adversities in childhood, appear to be especially strongly linked with elevated dual harm risk. These novel findings indicate potential etiologic pathways to dual harm.

Single nanowires (NWs) are of great importance for optoelectronic applications, especially solar cells serving as powering nanoscale devices. However, weak off-resonant absorption can limit its light-harvesting capability. Here, we propose a single NW coated with the graded-index dual shells (DSNW). We demonstrate that with appropriate thickness and refractive index of the inner shell, the DSNW exhibits significantly enhanced light trapping compared with the bare NW (BNW), and the NW only coated with the outer shell (OSNW) and the inner shell (ISNW), which can be attributed to the optimal off-resonant absorption mode profiles due to the improved coupling between the reemitted light of the transition modes of the leak mode resonances of the Si core and the nanofocusing light from the dual shells with the graded refractive index. We found that the light absorption can be engineered via tuning the thickness and the refractive index of the inner shell, the photocurrent density is significantly enhanced by 134% (56%, 12%) in comparison with that of the BNW (OSNW, ISNW). This work advances our understanding of how to improve off-resonant absorption by applying graded dual-shell design and provides a new choice for designing high-efficiency single NW photovoltaic devices.

The accumulation of process waste in the production line causes fluctuations, bottlenecks, and increased inventory in workstations disrupting process flow. In this paper, the aim is the use a simulated value stream mapping (SVSM) as a lean assessment tool for decision-making in the continuous improvement process to influence and provide consideration and consistency on productivity improvement in the production system. The proposed methodology applied discrete event simulation for production process operations improvement to eliminate non-value adding times and provides good quality products at the lowest cost and highest efficiency. The results are the analysis of the current state of the production system in a South African truck manufacturing industry small and medium enterprise (SMEs) as a potential solution for the production system future state. The identified non-value adding times in the 6 most critical workstations was eliminated by SVSM which resulted in a productivity improvement of 4%, most importantly bringing the productivity to 95% and total cycle time improvement to 451 for small units and 466 for large units. The results proposed combined VSM and Simulation techniques which enhance the LEAN application by DES to increase productivity and performance improvement to remain competitive in the global economy.

Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) is a natural sweetener with diterpenic glycosides, offering 300 times more sweetness than sucrose, and boasting low-calorie content, along with medicinal and therapeutic properties. To address a limited genetic diversity, a germplasm bank comprising 115 segregated lines of stevia was established in Colombia. Notwithstanding, the fungus Athelia rolfsii adversely impacted key stevia lines, leading to wilting and plant mortality. For this reason our study aimed to explore the biocontrol potential of native strains of Trichoderma spp., isolated from productive lots in Colombia's Cordoba department, as a solution to manage A. rolfsii. Soil samples underwent serial dilution technique (103 conidia.mL-1) to obtain Trichoderma spp. isolates, which were thoroughly morphologically and molecularly characterized. A total five native strains were identified through sequencing the PCR products using universal ITS primers, and comparisons with the GENBANK database confirmed their identity (OK310695.1, ON237703.1, ON238106.1, ON237737.1, and ON237923.1). Their biocontrol efficacy against A. rolfsii was evaluated using the dual culture technique. Remarkably, all strains exhibited significant biocontrol capacity against the A. rolfsii isolate INVEPAR-05 (OK271308.1), except for Trichoderma viride INVEPAR-T10 (ON237923.1). These findings suggest that Trichoderma spp. could be a potential option to manage the fungus in stevia.

This article purposed to examine the impact of integration between Lean accounting (LA) tools & Just in Time (JIT) technique on Cost Reduction (CR) in modern manufacturing environment in Saudi establishments, these two variable moderated by Ethical Standards (ESs). A quantitative methodology was used for realizing the study objectives and answering study questions, the main tool exercised for producing the incipient data was a fully-structured questionnaire with closed ended questions, which was designed and passed around online among a selected sample of (109) managers and accountants in Saudi manufacturing firms. Descriptive and deductive statistics adopted to derive the findings, wherefore the compiled responses analyzed by SPSS & AMOS and the results showed that there is direct and indirect effect of LA tools & JIT technique on CR in Saudi industrial companies, especially when using ESs. These findings could provide decision makers in Saudi manufacturing companies with the acuity of adopting both methods in a combined way to maximize the profits of these firms. The results of this study also suggest that the application of LA tools & JIT technique has a positive effect on the promotion of sustainable manufacture and consequent achievement of high sustainable performance.