Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Acoustic Emission Signal for Prediction of Corrosion on Carbon Steel Pipelines

Naturally, all materials deteriorate over time and this is an obvious in the case of carbon steel pipelines. The harsh environment it is placed in and the corrosion assisting fluids that flow through it increases the rate of structural deterioration even further. Ineffective and inadequate corrosion monitoring often lead to pipeline explosions that can damage the surrounding living things and environment. This project trained and tested two prediction algorithms, the quadratic Support Vector Machine (SVM) and ensemble RUSBoost trees, which classified Acoustic Emission (AE) data into three regions. Region 1 represents AE activity experiencing decreasing corrosion rate. Region 2 represents AE activity experiencing stagnant corrosion rate whereas Region 3 represents AE activity experiencing increasing corrosion rate. The AE data consists of 17 AE features extracted by an AEWIN software as well as the date and time for each hit. These features were analyzed in the time domain and frequency domain using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) in MATLAB. Then, the Kruskall-Wallis test ANOVA test was conducted using SPSS software to check if the median between two or more groups are significantly different from each other for all possible AE feature pairs. Features that show most significant differences between regions were found to improve classification accuracy. When the significant features are not considered in the training and testing of classification models, it showed a decrease in classification accuracy. Six features were selected to be used as input into the two algorithms. A maximum accuracy of 86% was reached using ensemble RUSBoost trees algorithm.
Reconfigurable Microwave Photonic Topological Insulator

Using full 3D finite element simulation and underlining Hamiltonian models, we demonstrate reconfigurable photonic analogues of topological insulators on a regular lattice of tunable posts in a re-entrant 3D lumped element type system. The tunability allows dynamical {\it in-situ} change of media chirality and other properties via alteration of the same parameter for all posts, and as a result, great flexibility in choice of bulk/edge configurations. Additionally, one way photon transport without an external magnetic field is demonstrated. The ideas are illustrated by using both full finite element simulation as well as simplified harmonic oscillator models. Dynamical reconfigurability of the proposed systems paves the way to a new class of systems that can be employed for random access, topological signal processing and sensing.
Aeroscapes and the Sensory Ecology of Olfaction in a Tropical Dry Forest

Aeroscapes—dynamic patterns of air speed and direction—form a critical component of landscape ecology by shaping numerous animal behaviors, including movement, foraging, and social and/or reproductive interactions. Aeroecology is particularly critical for sensory ecology: air is the medium through which many sensory signals and cues propagate, inherently linking sensory perception to variables such as air speed and turbulence. Yet, aeroscapes are seldom explicitly considered in studies of sensory ecology and evolution. A key first step towards this goal is to describe the aeroscapes of habitats. Here, we quantify the variation in air movement in two successional stages (early and late) of a tropical dry forest in Costa Rica. We recorded air speeds every 10 seconds at five different heights simultaneously. Average air speeds and turbulence increased with height above the ground, generally peaked midday, and were higher overall at the early successional forest site. These patterns of lower air speed and turbulence at ground level and overnight have important implications for olfactory foraging niches, as chemotaxis is most reliable when air movement is low and steady. We discuss our results in the context of possible selective pressures and observed variation in the foraging ecology, behaviors, and associated morphologies of resident vertebrates, with a focus on mammals. However, these data also have relevance to researchers studying socioecology, invertebrate biology, plant evolution, community ecology and more. Further investigation into how animals use different forest types, canopy heights and partition activities across different times of day will further inform our understanding of how landscape and sensory ecology are interrelated. Finally, we emphasize the timeliness of monitoring aeroecology as global wind patterns shift with climate change and human disturbance alters forest structure, which may have important downstream consequences for biological conservation.
A Textile-Based Approach to Wearable Haptic Devices

Our sense of touch offers a useful mode of communication through haptics that can augment the often-crowded visual and auditory pathways, but haptic devices have yet to be fully integrated into garments and other soft wearables in a way that maintains the compliance and comfort of everyday clothing, resulting in a barrier to widespread adoption. We introduce a haptic device—a squeeze band—made entirely from textiles. This textile-based device is actuated by pressurized air, and its force-pressure response can be tailored in a controllable manner by altering the geometry of internal inflatable regions within the device during a rapid and inexpensive process of fabrication. We describe this fabrication and characterize six different squeeze bands that exemplify the highly tunable nature of our textile-based approach to wearable haptic devices.
Tailor-made smart glove for robot teleoperation, using printed stretchable sensors

This article introduces a taylor-made smart glove that integrates resistive strain and pressure sensors. A home-made silver based stretchable ink is screen printed over textile to create a strain sensor that estimates finger bending for all fingers. Another piezo resistive ink was synthesized, and screen printed on fingertips, using a specific architecture for pressure sensing that can be used to determine the pressure applied on a fingertip. Using these two techniques, a full glove is printed and is used as a Human Machine Interface (HMI) by recognition of different hand gestures. Unlike previous gloves that are based on placement of external bending sensors, the developed glove in this work can be taylor-made based on user's hand size and the desired resolution of the sensors. Furthermore, the e-textile based gesture recognition architecture is comfortable enough for long-term use. We demonstrate recognition of 10 gestures, that are used to tele-operate different gaits of a walking robot.
Measuring Motion of Deformed Surfaces for Soft-bodied Robots/Animals with Multi-colored Markers

This paper presents a 3D multi-colored direction-detection marker and the shape estimation algorithm designed to sense the motion of complex deformed surfaces for a soft-bodied robot. The proposed approach utilizes the area ratio of the four colors captured by a single camera to detect the marker's direction. By attaching many of these markers to the surface of a soft robot or an animal, we measure the complex deformation and motion of a soft robot/animal with the proposed algorithm using the image processing library, OpenCv. The results of three experimental use cases demonstrate that the measurement system successfully and easily captured the motions containing multi-modal deformations of a soft-bodied caterpillar-like robot, a live fish, and two fingers of a gloved hand. The proposed method may be utilized to design sensor-rich feedback controllers.
Metasurface Based Horn Replacement Antennas

A metasurface-loaded lens situated in front of an open ended rectangular waveguide is presented as an alternative to a horn antenna operating in the frequency range from 9.5 GHz to 10.5 GHz. A periodic array of single-layer unit cells is utilized to construct the metasurface, which is backed by a dielectric sphere in front of a waveguide feed. The spherical dielectric and metasurface collectively form the overall lensing structure. The lens exhibits a directive gain that is approximately 5.5 dB higher than a standard horn antenna, whilst occupying 20% less physical space.
Opportunistic UAV Relaying for Urban Vehicular Networks

We study the impact of employing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) flying random, arbitrary missions as purely-opportunistic relays for cooperative awareness applications in vehicular networks. We do not require that opportunistically relaying UAVs alter trajectory nor speed, so that the additional relaying task can be executed with close-to-zero impact on the execution of the primary mission. Based on extensive computer simulations we demonstrate that, within a wide band of acceptable speeds, flight routes (up to a standard deviation of 300 m from the optimum), as well as altitudes, opportunistic relaying of transmissions via UAVs can yield a benefit to system performance that is on the same order of magnitude as that of optimally deployed UAVs. Moreover, much of the reduction in impact due to suboptimal missions can be recovered simply by moderately increasing the number of UAVs.
Curvature and Contact Sensing with Optical Waveguides for Soft Silicone Pneumatic Actuator

Optical waveguide sensors exhibit fast response, radically low power consumption, and offer one of the most efficient means of detecting bends in soft actuators. They are, however, sensitive to non-uniform deformations at high curvature and external stimuli and much remains to be done to improve their robustness and resilience. In this study, we present a series of improvements to the design and fabrication of a soft multi-point waveguide sensor. The developed pressure-sensitive sensor measures bending longitudinally along a soft silicone pneumatic actuator (SSPA). SSPAs exhibit uniform bending behaviour as compared to fabric-based actuators, which makes for a more stable medium within which to embed our sensor. Additionally, the sensor can detect bending behaviour at multiple points in a soft actuator. In previous work, we demonstrated the multi-point sensor's ability to accurately measure curvature in a fabric finger. In this paper, we report on various enhancements to the waveguide sensor that optimise its performance in various bending scenarios. The design is optimised in terms of novel material use for the sensor housing, reduction in size and weight, plus, by integrating with an SSPA, we achieve bending beyond 90°. The newly optimised sensor's characteristics and increased sensitivity are investigated by performing reliability tests, ten-cycle cyclic-compression tests, and free bending. In addition, we subject the actuator to bending while grasping various shapes, including a sphere, a hollow cylinder, a cube, and a hexagon, while varying the pressure intake.
Design, Characterization, and Dynamic Modeling of BEAST: a Bistable Elastomeric Actuator for Swift Tasks

Recent work in fluid-driven soft robots has demonstrated the potential to achieve high power-to-weight ratios, low fabrication costs, and improved safety, making them well suited for interactive tasks. However, the low speed of pneumatic actuation prevents use of these robots in more dynamic tasks. This paper aims to design, characterize, and model a bistable elastomeric actuator for swift tasks (BEAST). This actuator enables both fast actuation and mechanical compliance, and is designed by integrating silicone and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in a bendy straw structure. The BEAST contains three states - compressed, natural, and stretched states. Two operation modes - compressed and stretched modes, are defined to model the continuous elongation dynamics before and after the quickly switching around the natural state. A set of design rules and a novel fabrication method are presented to develop the BEAST. The actuator characterization shows that the maximum extension ratio, snapping speed, and output force of the BEAST to be 0.58, 1.5m/s, and 48N, respectively. A hybrid linear parameter varying (HLPV) model is developed to describe the pressure-dependent dynamics of the actuator. The actuators are evaluated in an object sorting task where both fast and gentle behaviors are demonstrated.
Miniatured Ring Slotted Circular Patch GNSS Antenna

A compact circularly polarized antenna for the Global Navigation Satellite System L1 band at 1575 MHz is presented. A circular patch antenna is first designed to operate before being integrated with four ring slots to achieve the circular polarization. The antenna features a bandwidth of 1.15 % in L1, with an axial ratio bandwidth of 0.58 %. The antenna radiates towards 0° with a realized gain of 4.4 dB and an angular beamwidth of 101.3°.
Analysis of genetic characteristics of 436 children with dysplasia and detailed analysis of rare karyotype

Abstract Chromosomal abnormality is one of the important causes of dysplasia in children. However, due to regional and ethnic differences, the reported rates of chromosomal abnormalities in patients with dysplasia vary greatly. Moreover, the clinical manifestations in children with rare chromosomal diseases were heterogeneous. So, we retrospectively analyzed the karyotype results of 436 children with dysplasia and conducted a detailed analysis of rare chromosomal diseases. The results showed that chromosomal abnormalities were present in 181 of 436 cases. Intellectual disability, dysmorphology, congenital malformations, the disorder of sexual development, and short stature were the main five clinical symptoms in children with chromosomal abnormalities. Moreover, 136 cases of Trisomy 21 (Tri21) were detected, of which 130 were standard Tri21, 5 were robertsonian Tri21, and 1 was chimera type. In addition, 16 cases of rare abnormal karyotype, including complex Tri21, complex Turner syndrome, 4p-syndrome, 18q-syndrome, and 5p-syndrome, were also detected. In summary, chromosome abnormality is one of the important causes of dysplasia in children. Furthermore, prenatal screening and diagnosis could play a great significance in preventing dysplasia in children. In addition, the retrospective analysis of rare cases is valuable for clinical diagnosis and risk assessment of recurrence.
Characterisation and Modelling of Microwave Open-Ended Coaxial Sensor for In Vivo Non-invasive Glucose Content Measurements

Diabetes is one of the world-leading lethal diseases that have no cure, but it is manageable to prevent further deterioration. The in vivo non-invasive glucose monitoring method can be a key to aid the diabetes patient in monitoring the glucose level effectively in the future with the features of cost-effectiveness, painless and minimum infection. In this paper, the dielectric measurement technique has been applied to obtain the relationship between dielectric properties and the in vivo blood glucose concentration on a human subject. An open-ended coaxial sensor is used to measure the EM parameters at various blood glucose concentrations by placing them on Pulse, Thumb and Finger. The measurement data have been collected and compared to the commercial invasive glucose meter. The characterisation and modelling have been performed with a few selected frequencies at 1GHz, 2GHz and 4GHz. Based on the analysis, the dielectric constant drops and the loss factor rises as the glucose level increases. The models have been validated, and the performance has been analysed. It was showed that the Pulse is the optimal position to apply for the non-invasive blood glucose measurement.
OobSoft Gripper: A Reconfigurable Soft Gripper Using Oobleck for Versatile and Delicate Grasping

Grasping and holding objects are essential tasks for robotic manipulators. However, the development of universal grippers capable of manipulating unknown objects with widely varying shapes and surface properties remains a challenge. To address this, we present a novel reconfigurable soft gripper (OobSoft) based on Oobleck, deposited on a rubber membrane with a two-finger configuration with an actuation mechanism. This article presents a prototype and the development of this soft gripper with grasping and holding capabilities enabled by a simple actuation mechanism. This objective was achieved by taking advantage of a combination of soft materials, including the properties of Oobleck, rubber, and a bio-inspired design. When pressed on a target object, the fingers (Oobleck inside a rubber membrane) flow around the object and conform to its shape. Upon application of the actuation mechanism, the viscosity of the Oobleck increases, so it quickly hardens to pinch and hold the object without requiring sensory feedback. The development of the soft gripper is explained by the characteristics of the Oobleck and the prototype. The design of the soft gripper involved the anthropomorphic approach used in the design of the fingers. The results of grasping objects and the ability to hold them in position were demonstrated through experimental tests.
Molecular recognition of the interaction between ApoE and the TREM2 protein

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. The ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene is the strongest known genetic risk factor for late-onset AD. Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) is another important risk factor affecting the AD process after ApoE. Emerging evidence has identified TREM2 as a putative receptor for ApoE, raising the possibility that interactions between ApoE and TREM2 modulate the pathogenesis of AD. In this study, we performed molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) analyses to characterize the ApoE–TREM2 interaction and further investigated the effect of the major TREM2 disease-associated mutation (R47H) on the affinity of TREM2 for ApoE. The results indicate that the binding energy between ApoE and TREM2 occurs in an isoform-dependent manner with the following potency rank order: ApoE4 > ApoE3 > ApoE2. In addition, the R47H mutant reduced the interaction between ApoE and TREM2 protein, which may be attributed to decreased hydrogen-bonding interactions, hydrophobic interactions, and electrostatic forces between ApoE and TREM2. Our study analyzed the molecular pattern of the interactions between ApoE and TREM2 and how the variants affect these interactions based on in silico modeling, and the results might help to elucidate the interaction mechanism between ApoE and TREM2. Additional experimental studies will be needed to verify and explore the current findings.
Adaptive UKF Method with Applications to Target Tracking

1 Abstract To improve low flltering precision and divergence caused by unknown system noise statistics in target tracking, an adaptive UKF (Unscented Kalman fllter) is proposed. In the flltering process, by introducing the modifled Sage-Husa noise statistic estimator, the new algorithm can estimate the statistical parameters of unknown system noises online and restrain the flltering divergence. Therefore, the fllter numerical stability is efiectively improved and the state estimation error is reduced. Simulation results show that compared with the standard UKF algorithm the proposed algorithm provides better accuracy and stability for target tracking.
C4: verified transactional objects

Transactional objects combine the performance of classical concurrent objects with the high-level programmability of transactional memory. However, verifying the correctness of transactional objects is tricky, requiring reasoning simultaneously about classical concurrent objects, which guarantee the atomicity of individual methods—the property known as linearizability—and about software-transactional-memory libraries, which guarantee the atomicity of user-defined sequences of method calls—or serializability. We present a formal-verification framework called C4, built up from the familiar notion of linearizability and its compositional properties, that allows proof of both kinds of libraries, along with composition of theorems from both styles to prove correctness of applications or further libraries. We apply the framework in a significant case study, verifying a transactional set object built out of both classical and transactional components following the technique of transactional predication; the proof is modular, reasoning separately about the transactional and nontransactional parts of the implementation. Central to our approach is the use of syntactic transformers on interaction trees—i.e., transactional libraries that transform client code to enforce particular synchronization disciplines. Our framework and case studies are mechanized in Coq.
Building Squares with Optimal State Complexity in Restricted Active Self-Assembly

Tile Automata is a recently defined model of self-assembly that borrows many concepts from cellular automata to create active self-assembling systems where changes may be occurring within an assembly without requiring attachment. This model has been shown to be powerful, but many fundamental questions have yet to be explored. Here, we study the state complexity of assembling $n \times n$ squares in seeded Tile Automata systems where growth starts from a seed and tiles may attach one at a time, similar to the abstract Tile Assembly Model. We provide optimal bounds for three classes of seeded Tile Automata systems (all without detachment), which vary in the amount of complexity allowed in the transition rules. We show that, in general, seeded Tile Automata systems require $\Theta{(\log^{\frac{1}{4}} n)}$ states. For single-transition systems, where only one state may change in a transition rule, we show a bound of $\Theta{(\log^{\frac{1}{3}} n)}$, and for deterministic systems, where each pair of states may only have one associated transition rule, a bound of $\Theta( (\frac{\log n}{\log \log n})^\frac{1}{2} )$.
Software quality perceptions of stakeholders involved in the software development process

Software quality is one of the primary determinants of project management success. Stakeholders involved in software development widely agree that quality is important (Barney and Wohlin 2009). However, they may differ on what constitutes software quality, and which of its attributes are more important than others. Although, software quality models depict the broad concept of quality in terms of attributes related to the product and to the process followed to develop the product, few studies have empirically examined the software quality perceptions held by different groups involved in the software development process. We argue that if stakeholder groups, such as management and developers who are involved in the software development process, differ in their opinions about software quality, and if these differences are not known, success of a software development project may be in jeopardy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to craft a socio-technical view of software quality, understand the diversity and similarities in the software quality perceptions, and investigate how the software development process can be improved to address the varied quality views of stakeholder groups. We combined case study technique with Q-methodology to provide rich contextual empirical evidence and insights about the stakeholders' subjective impressions about software quality in the context of software development. We found that stakeholders recognized four viewpoints concerning software quality - attributes that are required to `protect business', to enhance `end-user experience', to make the product `marketable/sellable', and those related to `software delivery'. The four software quality perceptions (SWQ) perceptions revealed differences and similarities in the importance of quality attributes assigned by the stakeholders. The differences and similarities were explained using Technological Frame of Reference Theory (Orlikowski and Gash 1994) and Perceptual Congruence Theory (Turban and Jones 1988) Finally, using Co-ordination Theory (Van de Ven et al. 1976) as the guiding framework, we found that several additional co-ordination mechanisms, both programming and feedback modes, could be incorporated in the SWD process to better address the varied SWQ perceptions of stakeholders.