Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The decision-making framework for assembly tasks planning in human–robot collaborated manufacturing system

ABSTRACT A human–robot collaborative assembly system is a new production paradigm, which has been successfully applied in practical production to effectively combine human flexibility and robot productivity. This paper proposes the task planning problem for human and robot collaboration and considers the whole process from assembly task decomposition, assembly to human and robot, and operations scheduling in hybrid assembly systems. The decision-making framework for the task planning problem is first introduced from five steps: data input, task decomposition, resource evaluation, operation allocation and scheduling, and collaborative assembly implementation. The task decomposition process is performed based on the hierarchical task analysis approach. The assembly operation allocation and scheduling are then considered in an integrated way, and the joint optimization model is developed considering the assembly operation sequence and the collaboration of humans and robots. Triple objectives are considered not only to minimize the competition time and total production costs but also to improve the automation degree of the hybrid system. The improved heuristic algorithm is developed to address the joint optimization problem. Finally, the application of this decision-making framework is described and verified based on two industrial cases. Computational results are presented to show the performance and feasibility of the proposed methodology.
Process Optimization and Characterization of Bioethanol from Yam (Dioscorea rotundata) Peels

- Today, fossil fuels are been used for both domestic and commercial energy needs in the World. Environmental effects, coupled with the depletion issue of these fossil fuels has led to the search for alternative energy sources. Bioenergy is one of these alternative energy resources. It represents the production of sustainable chemicals and fuels by utilizing biomass as starting raw material. Bioethanol and biogas are the common fuels that are obtained from biomass. The present study is aimed at optimizing the production process and characterizing bioethanol produced from yam peels. Different hydrolysis temperatures and times were used to determine the temperature and time that could give an optimal yield of glucose. The results revealed that hydrolysis temperature of 110 ⁰ C and hydrolysis time 180 minutes gave the optimal yield of glucose. This temperature and time were then used for the production of bioethanol. Results obtained revealed that two hundred grams of the sample gave yields of 180 mL after fermentation for 5 days. The bioethanol produced from yam peel was characterized to determine its density, specific gravity, refractive index, sulphur content, flash point and cloud point. Results obtained revealed that the properties of the bioethanol produced correspond to the properties of bioethanol recommended by the American society for testing and materials (ASTM).
Why So Salty? Transient Diabetes Insipidus After Discontinuation of Vasopressin

In recent years, vasopressin has been increasingly used as an early treatment of vasopressor-refractory septic shock. In this article, we describe 2 episodes of transient diabetes insipidus after vasopressin for the treatment of septic shock was discontinued, which adds to a modest number of case studies reporting the same phenomenon. With the anticipated continued use of vasopressin in intensive care units, it can be expected that this adverse effect will occur with some frequency. Awareness and early recognition of this phenomenon can lead to prompt diagnosis and treatment.
Mayoral Influence on Participatory Budgeting in Lithuania during Covid-19

The paper deals with two topics: Participatory Budgeting (PB) and mayoral impact on its success. Its theoretical background is rooted in the interrelation of the discourse of PB and characteristics of mayors as city leaders. The paper analyzes articles revealing personal, social and political characteristics of mayors and their impact on civic governance. The scope of collected characteristics was researched with a view on how they impact succession and the resilience of PB. The idea behind this analysis was not only to reveal mayoral characteristics and their impact on PB in general, but to test them against the background of the Covid-19 pandemic as an example of an external crisis. PB practice in Lithuanian municipalities was researched. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with mayors or their subordinates and helped to reveal the mayors’ role and impact on PB resiliency. Relevant statistical data was collected and analyzed in order to obtain the specific characteristics. The results proved the impact of mayors’ social and personal backgrounds on PB resiliency, but during challenging times or even crises, political affiliation, interrelation with the council or administrative and political skills are supportive factors. The paper suggests that mayors cannot ensure the persistence of PB alone when finances are scarce during times of crisis. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2022-SPER-011 Full Text: PDF
Education Aspirations and Barriers to Achievement for Street‐Involved Youth in Victoria, Canada

Much of the literature on street‐involved youth focuses on their deficits, including their high risk of withdrawing before completing high school, which is often interpreted as a rejection of formal education. Missing from the literature is an understanding of street‐involved youth’s educational aspirations. We employed thematic analysis of qualitative data from in‐person interviews with a purposive sample of street‐involved youth (N = 69) residing in one city in Canada, who were partly or fully disengaged from school at the time of the interview. We asked the youth to talk about their opinions of formal education, its importance for young people, whether learning was important for them, and whether they imagined returning to school/continuing with school. We discovered that the majority of youth had a positive view of school/formal education and stated they liked learning new things and recognized the benefits of continuing/completing their education. At the same time, the youth identified material hardship and other barriers to achieving their educational goals. We discuss these findings in light of the relevant literature and make policy recommendations to improve educational success for youth struggling with poverty and homelessness in Canada.
Motion-based material characterization in sensor-based sorting

Abstract Sensor-based sorting provides state-of-the-art solutions for sorting cohesive, granular materials. Typically, involved sensors, illumination, implementation of data analysis and other components are designed and chosen according to the sorting task at hand. A common property of conventional systems is the utilization of scanning sensors. However, the usage of area-scan cameras has recently been proposed. When observing objects at multiple time points, the corresponding paths can be reconstructed by using multiobject tracking. This in turn allows to accurately estimate the point in time and position at which any object will reach the separation stage of the optical sorter and hence contributes to decreasing the error in physical separation. In this paper, it is proposed to further exploit motion information for the purpose of material characterization. By deriving suitable features from the motion information, we show that high classification performance is obtained for an exemplary classification task. The approach therefore contributes towards decreasing the detection error of sorting systems.
Evaluation of Different Satellite Images for Urban Land Use Analysis: A Case Study of Greater Manchester, United Kingdom

Background: The complexity of an urban area makes mapping it very difficult as its surface materials are highly spatial and spectrally diverse. This study evaluates the problems associated with remote sensing of urban land cover types. Methodology: Three satellite image sensors; Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), Landsat TM and colour infrared were used to investigate their potential in mapping and characterizing land cover in a part of Greater Manchester. Supervised and unsupervised image classifications were used to map urban land use and cover. Results: The satellite image sensors and their accuracy were statistically tested to see if there is a significant relationship between them. The colour infrared image was the best in discriminating among different types of land cover with an overall accuracy of 80% followed by the Landsat image with an overall accuracy of 61% while the DMC image had the least potential in discriminating among different types of land cover with an overall accuracy of 55%. Conclusion: The colour infrared image is the most suitable for urban land cover analysis as the misclassifications are minimal compared to the other two and the features can be vividly recognized due to its spatial resolution.
Insights to the Structural Basis for the Stereospecificity of the Escherichia coli Phytase, AppA

AppA, the Escherichia coli periplasmic phytase of clade 2 of the histidine phosphatase (HP2) family, has been well-characterized and successfully engineered for use as an animal feed supplement. AppA is a 1D-6-phytase and highly stereospecific but transiently accumulates 1D-myo-Ins(2,3,4,5)P4 and other lower phosphorylated intermediates. If this bottleneck in liberation of orthophosphate is to be obviated through protein engineering, an explanation of its rather rigid preference for the initial site and subsequent cleavage of phytic acid is required. To help explain this behaviour, the role of the catalytic proton donor residue in determining AppA stereospecificity was investigated. Four variants were generated by site-directed mutagenesis of the active site HDT amino acid sequence motif containing the catalytic proton donor, D304. The identity and position of the prospective proton donor residue was found to strongly influence stereospecificity. While the wild-type enzyme has a strong preference for 1D-6-phytase activity, a marked reduction in stereospecificity was observed for a D304E variant, while a proton donor-less mutant (D304A) displayed exclusive 1D-1/3-phytase activity. High-resolution X-ray crystal structures of complexes of the mutants with a non-hydrolysable substrate analogue inhibitor point to a crucial role played by D304 in stereospecificity by influencing the size and polarity of specificity pockets A and B. Taken together, these results provide the first evidence for the involvement of the proton donor residue in determining the stereospecificity of HP2 phytases and prepares the ground for structure-informed engineering studies targeting the production of animal feed enzymes capable of the efficient and complete dephosphorylation of dietary phytic acid.
Spatiotemporal Analysis of Fire Foci and Environmental Degradation in the Biomes of Northeastern Brazil

Forest fires destroy productive land throughout the world. In Brazil, mainly the Northeast of Brazil (NEB) is strongly affected by forest fires and bush fires. Similarly, there is no adequate study of long-term data from ground and satellite-based estimation of fire foci in NEB. The objectives of this study are: (i) to evaluate the spatiotemporal estimation of fires in NEB biomes via environmental satellites during the long term over 1998–2018, and (ii) to characterize the environmental degradation in the NEB biomes via orbital products during 1998–2018, obtained from the Burn Database (BDQueimadas) for 1794 municipalities. The spatiotemporal variation is estimated statistically (descriptive, exploratory and multivariate statistics) from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) through the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation Station (CHIRPS). Moreover, we identify 10 homogeneous groups of fire foci (G1–G10) with a total variance of 76.5%. The G1 group is the most extended group, along with the G2 group, the exception being the G3 group. Similarly, the G4–G10 groups have a high percentage of hotspots, with more values in the municipality of Grajaú, which belongs to the agricultural consortium. The gradient of fire foci from the coast to the interior of the NEB is directly associated with land use/land cover (LULC) changes, where the sparse vegetation category and areas without vegetation are mainly involved. The Caatinga and Cerrado biomes lose vegetation, unlike the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes. The fires detected in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes are the result of agricultural consortia. Additionally, the two periods 2003–2006 and 2013–2018 show periods of severe and prolonged drought due to the action of El Niño.
Recent Transport and Deposition of Littoral Sand Across the Inner-Shelf of Central Oregon: Further Constraints on Estimating Depths of Closure (30–34 m) during Future Sea Level Rise in the Pacific Northwest Region, USA

In this article, geologically recent sedimentation rates across a high wave- and wind-energy inner-shelf are used to constrain depths of closure, which are needed to estimate potential offshore displacements of littoral (beach) sand that could result from future sea level rise (SLR). Seven shallow vibracores (1.0–2.3 m subsurface depth) were analyzed from a single transect across the inner-shelf (19–72 m water depth) at the South PacWave study site in the high-wave energy (peak wave Hs= 10–15 m) coast of Central Oregon. The vibracores were 14C dated to establish 1) near-modern mixing depths and 2) net sedimentation rates that equaled or exceeded rates of coeval SLR (10 cm century-1) during very latest-Holocene time (≤1.0 ka). Sedimentation rates of 17 cm century-1 and 31 cm century-1 for vibracore P1-2A22 in 34 m water depth do exceed coeval SLR, even after accounting for apparent mixing depths of 60–100 cm. But sedimentation rates in deeper core sites (47–53 m water depth) do not approach coeval SLR rates. These results support a proposed near future (one century) 30 m depth of closure in the innermost-shelf of northern Oregon. Vibracore sand grain sizes (mean 0.20±0.03 mm 1σ, n=18) are similar across the inner-shelf, but heavy-mineral sand tracers confirmed that the latest-Holocene inner-shelf sand accumulations were supplied from seaward transport of littoral sand. The net loss of littoral sand to the inner-shelf sand sink accounts for the narrowing and thinning of beach deposits in northern Oregon during latest-Holocene time. A 1.0 m thickness of littoral sand displaced across the innermost-shelf (5–30 m water depth) following a 1.0 m SLR, or equivalent increase in offshore accommodation space, would yield a cross-sectional area of 1.5x103 m2. That value is three times larger than the mean cross-sectional area of the modern adjacent beaches (mean 4.8x102 m2) in the South PacWave study area. Following a possible near future SLR of 1.0 m, the popular sandy beaches of northern Oregon could be converted to intertidal gravel/algae covered bedrock platforms.
Investigating the consumer evaluation of the co-branding of luxury brands

China as a hot luxury market has witnessed high growth in luxury sales despite the COVID-19. In recent years, many luxury companies have further improved their brand value and influence via co-branding strategies, however, their brand cooperation received mixed evaluations. Drawing on the conceptual blending theory and self-concept consistency theory, this paper constructs and verifies the structural equation model of consumer evaluation of luxury co-branding from the perspectives of the brands and the consumers. The study reveals that luxury co-branding fit, advertising types and the consumers’ life-role transition have a positive impact on consumer evaluation. Both the type of advertising and consumers’ life-role transition have a moderating effect on consumer evaluation. Specifically, (i) In luxury co-branding, the co-branded products paired with a high fit between the values of the cooperative brands are more likely to receive high consumer evaluation; (ii) The publicity of the brand image of the co-branded products has a stronger moderating effect on the perceived quality, appeal and purchase intention of luxury users than the publicity of the features of the co-branded products; (iii) For luxury brands with a high degree of joint fit, consumers who have not experienced life-role transformation have a stronger regulatory effect on consumers' perceived quality, attractiveness and purchase intention than consumers who have experienced life-role transformation.
3-D model of wrap around CNTEFT with multiple CNT channel and analytical modeling of its capacitances

Wrap around CNTFET has gate around it except the bottom portion. Wrap around gate carbon nanotube field effect transistor (CNTFET) has the advantage of more accurately controlled channel than top gated CNTFET. 3-D simulation is performed using Finite Element Method (FEM) to model wrap around CNTFET with multi-CNT channel. For predicting the device speed, capacitance modeling is necessary. Along with gate to channel capacitance, there are fringing capacitance as well. Analytical expressions to model various capacitances of the same device are also derived from capacitances for 1-D FET with multiple cylindrical conducting channels incorporating screening effect due to multiple CNT. Various capacitances thus obtained exhibit remarkable improvement over planar top gate device with multiple conducting channels. This is attributed to the charge enhancement and better charge confinement in the channel of the wrap around CNTFET with multi-CNT channel. Capacitances are also extracted from the proposed FEM model. The extracted capacitances are in excellent agreement with the capacitances obtained from the analytical model presented in this study. Temperature distribution of wrap around CNTFET with multi-cnt is presented in this paper. For predicting the device characteristics, temperature modeling is necessary. Temperature distribution is changed due to multi-cnt as voltage of adjacent cnt affects temperature of mid cnt. Again it is also changed by temperature dependent thermal conductivity of single walled carbon nano tube (SWCNT). Current flow is changed both due to multi-cnt wrap around structure and due to the temperature change. So, temperature has a great impact on current modeling and thus on device characteristics. All these issues are considered in this paper using finite element method.
Transcriptome Analysis and Identification of a Female-Specific SSR Marker in Pistacia chinensis Based on Illumina Paired-End RNA Sequencing

Pistacia chinensis Bunge (P. chinensis), a dioecious plant species, has been widely found in China. The female P. chinensis plants are more important than male plants in agricultural production, as their seeds can serve as an ideal feedstock for biodiesel. However, the sex of P. chinensis plants is hard to distinguish during the seedling stage due to the scarcity of available transcriptomic and genomic information. In this work, Illumina paired-end RNA sequencing assay was conducted to unravel the transcriptomic profiles of female and male P. chinensis flower buds. In total, 50,925,088 and 51,470,578 clean reads were obtained from the female and male cDNA libraries, respectively. After quality checks and de novo assembly, a total of 83,370 unigenes with a mean length of 1.3 kb were screened. Overall, 64,539 unigenes (77.48%) could be matched in at least one of the NR, NT, Swiss-Prot, COG, KEGG, and GO databases, 71 of which were putatively related to the floral development of P. chinensis. Additionally, 21,662 simple sequence repeat (SSR) motifs were identified in 17,028 unigenes of P. chinensis, and the mononucleotide motif was the most dominant type of repeats (52.59%) in P. chinensis, followed by dinucleotide (22.29%), trinucleotide (20.15%). The most abundant repeats were AG/CT (13.97%), followed by AAC/GTT (6.75%) and AT/TA (6.10%). Based on these SSR, 983 EST-SSR primers were designed, 151 of which were randomly chosen for validation. Of these validated EST-SSR markers, 25 SSR markers were found to be polymorphic between male and female plants. One SSR marker, namelyPCSSR55, displayed excellent specificity in female plants, which could clearly distinguish between male and female P. chinensis. Altogether, our findings not only reveal that the EST-SSR marker is extremely effective in distinguishing between male and female P. chinensis but also provide a solid framework for sex determination of plant seedlings.
Longitudinal Cohort Study of Verbatim-Reported Postural Instability Symptoms as Outcomes for Online Parkinson’s Disease Trials

Background: The Parkinson’s Disease Patient Report of Problems (PD-PROP) captures the problems and functional impact that patients report verbatim. Online research participation and advances in language analysis have enabled longitudinal collection and classification of symptoms as trial outcomes. Objective: Analyze verbatim reports longitudinally to examine postural-instability symptoms as 1) precursors of subsequent falling and 2) newly occurring symptoms that could serve as outcome measures in randomized controlled trials. Methods: Problems reported by >25,000 PD patients in their own words were collected online in the Fox Insight observational study and classified into symptoms by natural language processing, clinical curation, and machine learning. Symptoms of gait, balance, falling, and freezing and associated reports of having fallen in the last month were analyzed over three years of longitudinal observation by a Cox regression model in a cohort of 8,287 participants. New onset of gait, balance, falling, and freezing symptoms was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier survival techniques in 4,119 participants who had not previously reported these symptoms. Results: Classified verbatim symptoms of postural instability were significant precursors of subsequent falling among participants who were older, female, and had longer PD duration. New onset of symptoms steadily increased and informed sample size estimates for clinical trials to reduce the onset of these symptoms. Conclusion: The tools to analyze symptoms reported by PD patients in their own words and capacity to enroll large numbers of research participants online support the feasibility and statistical power for conducting randomized clinical trials to detect effects of therapeutic interventions.
Radial basis function neural network based second-order sliding mode control for robotic manipulator

An adaptive second-order sliding mode control method based on RBF neural network is proposed for n-DOF robotic manipulators in the presence of external disturbances. First, RBF neural network is used to approximate the model information. Second, by using adaptive technology to compensate the uncertainty, whose prior knowledge about upper bound is not required. In addition, since the proposed control scheme is continuous, the chattering phenomenon is almost completely eliminated. Finally, the stability and finite time convergence of the proposed method are proved by Lyapunov stability theory. Through the simulation of 2-DOF manipulator and 5-DOF manipulator, the effectiveness and superiority of the control scheme are verified.