Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epistemic Programming - An insight-driven programming concept for Data Science

This dissertation develops a didactic concept that focuses on using, adapting, and programming data-driven digital artifacts to gain new insights about the world. In terms of orientation, this approach differs from those that focus on creating software or learning how to use data as an end in itself. Instead, in the context of authentic data projects, students learn to use computer science methods as a magnifying glass to explore and analyze the world. To achieve this, they need to learn, in particular, about the use of these data-driven digital artifacts and about the data itself. By conducting such authentic programming projects, students are supposed to gain a differentiated perspective of programming in terms of getting to know another point of view that differs from the more product-orientated one, often imparted in school today. The concept, therefore, highlights the important role of data and digital artifacts regarding the active acquisition of knowledge and thus illustrates the general educational character of programming. The goal of this dissertation is to evaluate, how far this programming concept changes students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards programming and how it enables students to actively gain insights about their own environment.
Joint Energy Management for Distributed Energy Harvesting Systems

Employing energy harvesting to power the Internet of Things supports their long-term, self-sustainable, and maintenance-free operation. These energy harvesting systems have an energy management subsystem to orchestrate the flow of energy and optimize their achievable system performance. Numerous such algorithms for a single harvesting-based system have been proposed. When envisioning the joint use of multiple distributed energy harvesting nodes in a single application, the performance and behavior of the distributed system depends on the mutual energy availability and therefore energy management of all nodes. We propose to perform the energy management of multiple distributed energy harvesting nodes jointly and thus, optimize the distributed system's performance as opposed to the performance of each energy harvesting node individually. We demonstrate the novel joint optimization in a scenario with multiple energy harvesting nodes and observe that the distributed system's performance improves by 28 % compared to when each node's energy is managed individually.
A Scratch Challenge: Middle School Students Working with Variables, Lists and Procedures

With the “Lehrplan 21” school curriculum, a new subject “Media and Computer Science” was introduced in the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. The curriculum defines competence areas that should be achieved by students within this subject. One such competence area is that middle school students should be able to develop executable and correct computer programs that use variables and subprograms. To evaluate and analyze how middle school students work with these more abstract CS concepts, we organized a Scratch Challenge – an online programming competition using the block-based programming language Scratch. We then compared the 203 submitted projects with an analysis of projects from the general Scratch repository. We found a similar use of types and quantities of blocks per projects (when considering projects developed in a short timeframe), but also an increased use of the targeted abstract concepts (especially of procedures), potentially influenced by the educational materials we provided for the challenge. Secondly, we examined the way middle school students work with these abstract concepts in Scratch, the errors they typically make, which challenges they face and the preconceptions they might have. These results contribute to the little studied area of middle school students working with more abstract concepts, such as variables, lists and procedures in Scratch. With this contribution, we hope to support schools to implement the aims of the “Lehrplan 21” successfully, and at the same time gain insight into the use of Scratch for teaching and learning more advanced CS concepts.
Pushing the Limits of Respiration Sensing with Reconfigurable Metasurface

Human respiration monitoring acts as a crucial role to indicate people's daily health. Compared with traditional respiration monitoring methods, device-free wireless respiration sensing technology is emerging as a promising modality due to the less privacy intrusive and without on-body sensors. However, due to the intrinsic nature of relying on weak reflection signals for sensing, the sensing range is limited. Meanwhile, reliable sensing performance only can be achieved when the environment with little or even no interference. In this work, we propose a WiFi-based respiration system to simultaneously enlarge the sensing range and mitigate the interference. The basic idea is to employ a reconfigurable metasurface to dynamically manipulate electromagnetic waves in the environment to achieve beamforming and beam steering. Our system thus enhances the sensing range and reduces the energy of reflected signals from interferers to ensure reliable performance. Proof-of-concept experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme.
On Utilizing Smartphone Time-of-Flight Sensors to Detect Hidden Spy Cameras

Tiny spy cameras hidden in everyday objects are continuing to pose severe privacy threats to the general public as these cameras are often placed in sensitive locations such as hotels and restroom stalls. Commercially available "hidden camera detectors" have high false positive rates, and existing academic works detect (but cannot localize) only a subset of hidden cameras with wireless capabilities. We overcome these limitations by proposing LAPD, a novel hidden camera detection and localization system that leverages time-of-flight (ToF) sensors on commodity smartphones. LAPD is a smartphone app that detects hidden cameras in real-time by transmitting laser signals from the ToF sensor and searching for unique signatures representing reflections from hidden camera lenses. Using computer vision and machine learning techniques, LAPD achieves significantly higher hidden camera detection rates compared to the naked eye and hidden camera detectors.
Persistent Timekeeping Using Harvested Power Measurements

In this study, we propose SQUID, a software-based solution to predict the off-time of batteryless devices that operate in environments with short-term energy-harvesting stability. The key insight of SQUID is to sample the power in the environment when the device is on and use these samples to extrapolate the power availability when the device is off and charging its capacitor. Therefore, SQUID can predict the charging time of the batteryless sensors by using the predicted power availability. Our initial experiments showed that SQUID has a promising estimation accuracy by consuming up to 10 times less energy than existing timekeeping solutions.
Through-Screen Visible Light Sensing Empowered by Embedded Deep Learning

Motivated by the trend of realizing full screens on devices such as smartphones, in this work we propose through-screen sensing with visible light for the application of fingertip air-writing. The system can recognize handwritten digits with under-screen photodiodes as the receiver. The key idea is to recognize the weak light reflected by the finger when the finger writes the digits on top of a screen. The proposed air-writing system has immunity to scene changes because it has a fixed screen light source. However, the screen is a double-edged sword as both a signal source and a noise source. We propose a data preprocessing method to reduce the interference of the screen as a noise source. We design an embedded deep learning model, a customized model ConvRNN, to model the spatial and temporal patterns in the dynamic and weak reflected signal for air-writing digits recognition. The evaluation results show that our through-screen fingertip air-writing system with visible light can achieve accuracy up to 91%. Results further show that the size of the customized ConvRNN model can be reduced by 94% with less than a 10% drop in performance.
RESERVE: Remote Attestation of Intermittent IoT devices

Internet of Things (IoT) devices have enveloped our surroundings and have been increasingly deployed in many domains. Even though the IoT has generated unprecedented opportunities, the poorly secured design of IoT devices makes them an easy target for cyber attacks. Aimed at securing IoT devices, Remote Attestation (RA) is a security technique that identifies threat presence in IoT systems. Typically, RA is an atomic procedure that requires uninterrupted connectivity to execute. However, in energy harvesting context where intermittent IoT devices go into sleep mode immediately after regular operations, the atomic property is difficult to achieve. In this paper, we propose RESERVE, a novel lightweight RA protocol designed specifically for Intermittent IoT devices. RESERVE aims to improve the security of intermittent systems by detecting malware presence during online mode and guaranteeing with some probability software legitimacy during offline mode. In particular, RESERVE ensures trustworthiness by organizing the device's software into modules, and after regular operation each device attests as many modules as fit in its energy budget.
Structural equation model of construction safety culture

Purpose – This paper sets out to describe the development and empirical testing of a structural equation model of construction safety culture. A key contribution of the model is providing insights into the interactions among safety culture enablers, and the relation between those enablers (what the organisation is doing) and safety culture goals (what the organisation aims to achieve) in the context of the Thai construction industry.Design/methodology/approach – Based on the internationally recognised EFQM Excellence model, this paper empirically examines the interactions and causal relationships between five enablers (i.e. Leadership, Policy and strategy, People, Partnerships and resources and Processes) and safety outcome (i.e. Goals). The paper utilises the structural equation modelling technique to test the hypothesised positive inter‐relationships between the enablers and goals. A questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of construction contracting organisations operating in Thailand to elic.
Improved phase-unwrapping algorithm based on modulation and phase reliability

A new improved unwrapping algorithm based on the combination of modulation and phase fitting reliability is presented. For the measurement of the sand-like object and the surface with complex reflectivity, the noises such as saturation/cut-off and quasi-speckle in the fringe images are important error sources. The phase unwrapping algorithm only based on fringe modulation is not enough to bypass these error points. In this paper, the characteristics of the phase measurement errors caused by saturation/cut-off are analyzed, and a new phase reliability criterion that is sensitive to both modulation and some intensity noises is defined to reduce the unwrapping errors. With this new reliability criterion and 'flood' unwrapping algorithm, the phase unwrapping is implemented along the more reliable path and the errors are limited in the minimum areas.
The emerging role of bivalirudin for therapeutic anticoagulation in COVID-19 patients requiring ECMO Support: Is it time to change the routine practice?

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On the spacing of meandering jets in the strong-stair limit

Abstract Based on an assumption of strongly inhomogeneous potential vorticity mixing in quasi-geostrophic $\beta$-plane turbulence, a relation is obtained between the mean spacing of latitudinally meandering zonal jets and the total kinetic energy of the flow. The relation applies to cases where the Rossby deformation length is much smaller than the Rhines scale, in which kinetic energy is concentrated within the jet cores. The relation can be theoretically achieved in the case of perfect mixing between regularly spaced jets with simple meanders, and of negligible kinetic energy in flow structures other than in jets. Incomplete mixing or unevenly spaced jets will result in jets being more widely separated than the estimate, while significant kinetic energy outside the jets will result in jets closer than the estimate. An additional relation, valid under the same assumptions, is obtained between the total kinetic and potential energies. In flows with large-scale dissipation, the two relations provide a means to predict the jet spacing based only on knowledge of the energy input rate of the forcing and dissipation rate, regardless of whether the latter takes the form of frictional or thermal damping. Comparison with direct numerical integrations of the forced system shows broad support for the relations, but differences between the actual and predicted jet spacings arise both from the complex structure of jet meanders and the non-negligible kinetic energy contained in the turbulent background and in coherent vortices lying between the jets.
Gravity-driven film flow down a uniformly heated smoothly corrugated rigid substrate

Abstract Gravity induced film flow over a rigid smoothly corrugated substrate heated uniformly from below, is explored. This is achieved by reducing the governing equations of motion and energy conservation to a manageable form within the mathematical framework of the well-known long-wave approximation; leading to an asymptotic model of reduced dimensionality. A key feature of the approach and to solving the problem of interest, is proof that the leading approximation of the temperature field inside the film must be nonlinear to accurately resolve the thermodynamics beyond the trivial case of ‘a flat film flowing down a planar uniformly heated incline. ’ Superior predictions are obtained compared with earlier work and reinforced via a series of corresponding solutions to the full governing equations using a purpose written finite element analogue, enabling comparisons to be made between free-surface disturbance and temperature predictions, as well as the streamline pattern and temperature contours inside the film. In particular, the free-surface temperature is captured extremely well at moderate Prandtl numbers. The stability characteristics of the problem are examined using Floquet theory, with the interaction between the substrate topography and thermo-capillary instability modes investigated as a set of neutral stability curves. Although there are no relevant experimental data currently available for the heated film problem, recent existing predictions and experimental data concerning the behaviour of corresponding isothermal flow cases are taken as a reference point from which to explore the effect of both heating and cooling.
Challenges and solutions for application and wider adoption of wearable robots

Abstract The science and technology of wearable robots are steadily advancing, and the use of such robots in our everyday life appears to be within reach. Nevertheless, widespread adoption of wearable robots should not be taken for granted, especially since many recent attempts to bring them to real-life applications resulted in mixed outcomes. The aim of this article is to address the current challenges that are limiting the application and wider adoption of wearable robots that are typically worn over the human body. We categorized the challenges into mechanical layout, actuation, sensing, body interface, control, human–robot interfacing and coadaptation, and benchmarking. For each category, we discuss specific challenges and the rationale for why solving them is important, followed by an overview of relevant recent works. We conclude with an opinion that summarizes possible solutions that could contribute to the wider adoption of wearable robots.
Revisiting the remoteness of remote warfare: US military intervention in Libya during Obama’s presidency

ABSTRACT This paper aims to develop the study of remote warfare’s constitutive “remoteness. ” It proposes a novel definition of remoteness as the degree of the American public’s socio-psychological detachment from the realities of political violence fought at a physical distance from the continental United States, as mediated through spectatorship of the use of military force. The remoteness of remote warfare has physical, psychological, and social properties. We argue that it exists on a continuum subject to change over time and should not be approached as a fixed condition measured solely by the physical distance separating combatants involved in armed fighting or as the use of various weapons technologies. The numerous dynamics associated with the remoteness of remote warfare are illustrated through an examination of American military intervention in Libya during Obama’s presidency. From the height of the 2011 NATO intervention in the country onwards, US military operations in Libya became more “remote” for the American public. Whilst other contextual factors contributed toward this outcome, we argue that the diminished spectacle surrounding the 2016 Operation Odyssey Lightning helps explain the American public’s increasing remoteness from military intervention in Libya.
Local Metabolism of Ethanol to Acetic Acid/Acetate in the Central Nucleus of Amygdala Elicits Sympathoexcitatory Responses through Activation of NMDAR in Sprague Dawley Rats

Binge alcohol consumption elicits robust sympathoexcitation and excitatory neuronal output. However, the central mechanism that mediates these effects remains elusive. We investigated the effects of ethanol metabolism within the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) on sympathoexcitation, and elucidated the role of acetate in these excitatory responses. In vivo arterial blood pressure, heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity responses to CeA microinjected ethanol or acetate with appropriate inhibitors/antagonists were tracked. In vitro whole-cell electrophysiology recording responses to acetate in CeA neurons with axon projecting to the rostral ventrolateral medulla (CeA-RVLM) were investigated, and cytosolic calcium responses in primary neuronal cultures were quantified. We demonstrate that in Sprague Dawley rats, local brain metabolism of ethanol in the CeA to acetic acid/acetate elicits sympathoexcitatory responses in vivo through activation of NMDA receptor (NMDAR). Alcohol dehydrogenase or aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibition using fomepizole or cyanamide and NMDAR antagonism using AP5 or memantine blunted these effects. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in brain slices containing autonomic CeA-RVLM neurons revealed a dose-dependent increase in neuronal excitability in response to acetate. NMDAR antagonists suppressed the acetate-induced increase in CeA-RVLM neuronal excitability, and memantine suppressed the direct activation of NMDAR-mediated inward currents by acetate in brain slices. We observed that acetate increased cytosolic Ca2+ in a time-dependent manner in primary neuronal cell cultures. The acetate enhancement of calcium signaling was abolished by memantine. These findings suggest that within the CeA, ethanol is sympathoexcitatory through local brain metabolism, which generates acetic acid/acetate leading to activation of NMDAR. NEW AND NOTEWORTHY Brain ethanol metabolism to acetic acid (vinegar)/acetate causes activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) in the central nucleus of the amygdala and elicits sympathoexcitatory responses. This excitatory mechanism is opposite to the inhibitory effects of ethanol at NMDAR. Understanding the active compounds that arise from ethanol metabolism, and the molecular mechanisms by which they influence alcohol reward and cardiovascular function, may be beneficial in developing targeted intervention strategies for both alcohol use disorder and its cardiovascular sequelae. Graphical Figure Proposed mechanisms for ethanol and acetate induced increases in sympathoexcitation within the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). Abbreviations: Acetic acid (HOAc), acetate (-OAc), ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase), ALDH (aldehyde dehydrogenase), BBB (blood brain barrier), FOM (fomepizole), CYAN (cyanamide), CYP450 (cytochrome P450), IML (intermediolateral nucleus), RVLM (rostral ventrolateral medulla), SNA (sympathetic nerve activity).
Very simple 2.45/3.5/5.8 GHz triple-band circularly polarised printed monopole antenna with bandwidth enhancement

A very simple triple-band circularly polarised printed monopole antenna with bandwidth enhancement for 2.45/5.8 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) and 3.5 GHz worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) applications is presented. The circular polarisation characteristic at the WiMAX band was obtained by an inverted-U-shaped radiator rotated by 45° around the horizontal axis. To create the upper circular polarisation mode at the 5.8 GHz WLAN band, an I-shaped strip was added on the right side of the radiator. Finally, by attaching an inverted-L-shaped strip at the end of the I-shaped strip, the lower circular polarisation characteristic at the 2.45 GHz WLAN band was achieved. The proposed antenna is excited by a simple 50 Ω microstrip feed line using a transformer for impedance matching. The measured −10 dB impedance bandwidth is 450 MHz (2.35–2.8 GHz) and 4.1 GHz (3.3–7.4 GHz) and the measured 3 dB axial-ratio bandwidth reaches 12% (2.35–2.65 GHz), 10% (3.3–3.65 GHz) and 4.4% (5.6–5.85 GHz).
Reconfigurable terahertz metasurfaces coherently controlled by wavelength-scale-structured light

Abstract Structuring light–matter interaction at a deeply subwavelength scale is fundamental to optical metamaterials and metasurfaces. Conventionally, the operation of a metasurface is determined by the collective electric polarization response of its lithographically defined structures. The inseparability of electric polarization and current density provides the opportunity to construct metasurfaces from current elements instead of nanostructures. Here, we realize metasurfaces using structured light rather than structured materials. Using coherent control, we transfer structure from light to transient currents in a semiconductor, which act as a source for terahertz radiation. A spatial light modulator is used to control the spatial structure of the currents and the resulting terahertz radiation with a resolution of 5.6 ± 0.8 μm $5.6{\pm}0.8\mathrm{\,\mu m}$ , or approximately λ / 54 $\lambda /54$ at a frequency of 1 THz. The independence of the currents from any predefined structures and the maturity of spatial light modulator technology enable this metasurface to be reconfigured with unprecedented flexibility.