Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT)

Pilot-vehicle interface designs must be driven by the gaol of establishing and maintaining high pilot situation awareness. The situation-awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT), developed to assist in this process by providing an objective measure of pilot's situation awareness with any given aircraft design, is described. SAGAT is considered to represent a substantial improvement in the evaluation of pilot-vehicle interface designs, facilitating the development of cockpits which assist the pilot in surviving combat. A formal definition of situation awareness is presented a description of the SAGAT methology and a discussion of its validation. <<ETX>>
In Silico Analysis of Glucose Oxidase from Aspergillus niger: Potential Cysteine Mutation Sites for Enhancing Protein Stability

Glucose oxidase (GOx) holds considerable advantages for various applications. Nevertheless, the thermal instability of the enzyme remains a grand challenge, impeding the success in applications outside the well-controlled laboratories, particularly in practical bioelectronics. Many strategies to modify GOx to achieve better thermal stability have been proposed. However, modification of this enzyme by adding extra disulfide bonds is yet to be explored. This work describes the in silico bioengineering of GOx from Aspergillus niger by judiciously analyzing characteristics of disulfide bonds found in the Top8000 protein database, then scanning for amino acid residue pairs that are suitable to be replaced with cysteines in order to establish disulfide bonds. Next, we predicted and assessed the mutant GOx models in terms of disulfide bond quality (bond length and α angles), functional impact by means of residue conservation, and structural impact as indicated by Gibbs free energy. We found eight putative residue pairs that can be engineered to form disulfide bonds. Five of these are located in less conserved regions and, therefore, are unlikely to have a deleterious impact on functionality. Finally, two mutations, Pro149Cys and His158Cys, showed potential for stabilizing the protein structure as confirmed by a structure-based stability analysis tool. The findings in this study highlight the opportunity of using disulfide bond modification as a new alternative technique to enhance the thermal stability of GOx.
Effects of hypertonic alkaline nasal irrigation on COVID‐19

The causative agent of COVID‐19 is a novel member of coronaviridaes, SARS‐CoV‐2. It has been reported that the spike (S) protein of SARS‐CoV‐2 is responsible of infectivity. The S protein is demonstrated to be inactivated under environmental condition, such as hypertonicity and alkaline pH. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of hypertonic alkaline nasal irrigation (HANI) on SARS‐CoV‐2.
Validity of a Screening Tool for Patients with a Sub-Threshold Level of Lumbar Instability: A Cross-Sectional Study

Lumbar instability (LI) comprises one subgroup of those with chronic low back pain (CLBP); it indicates the impairment of at least one of the spinal stabilizing systems, and radiographic criteria of translation and rotation are used for its diagnosis. Previous studies have developed and tested a screening tool for LI where patients with sub-threshold lumbar instability (STLI) were detected in the initial stage of lumbar pathology using radiographs as a gold standard for diagnosis. The radiographic measurement in STLI lies between the range of translation and rotation of the LI and asymptomatic lumbar motion. However, there are no studies indicating the validity and cut-off points of the screening tool for STLI. The current study aimed to determine the validity of an LI screening tool to support the diagnostic process in patients with STLI. This study design was cross-sectional in nature. A total of 135 participants with CLBP, aged between 20 and 60 years, who had undergone flexion and extension radiographs, answered a screening tool with 14 questions. The cut-off score for identifying STLI using the screening tool was at least 6/14 positive responses to the LI questions. The findings suggested that the LI screening tool we tested is effective for the detection of STLI. The tool can be used in outpatient settings.
Edge-Centric Programming for IoT Applications With Automatic Code Partitioning

IoT application development usually involves separate programming at the device side and server side. While separate programming style is sufficient for many simple applications, it is not suitable for many complex applications that involve complex interactions and intensive data processing. We propose EdgeProg, an edge-centric programming approach to simplify IoT application programming, motivated by the increasing popularity of edge computing. With EdgeProg, users could write application logic in a centralized manner with an augmented If-This-Then-That (IFTTT) syntax and virtual sensor mechanism. The program can be processed at the edge server, which can automatically generate the actual application code and intelligently partition the code into device code and server code, for achieving the optimal latency. EdgeProg employs dynamic linking and loading to deploy the device code on a variety of IoT devices, which do not run any application-specific codes at the start. Results show that EdgeProg achieves an average reduction of 20.96%, 27.8% and 79.41% in terms of execution latency, energy consumption, and lines of code compared with state-of-the-art approaches.
Effect of replacement of forage sorghum silage with biomass sorghum silage in diets for dairy heifers

This trial aimed to analyze the replacement of forage sorghum silage (FS silage) with biomass sorghum silage (BRS 716 silage) in diets for heifers ¾ Holstein x ¼ Zebu on their nutrient intake and digestibility, nitrogen balance, microbial production, feeding behavior, and animal performance. Eight heifers with average age 18±4 months (mo) and average body weight (BW) 271 ± 57 kg were used. The experimental design was double-Latin square, 4×4, being four diets, four experimental periods and four animals. Four experimental diets with 0, 33, 67 and 100% substitution of forage sorghum silage with biomass sorghum silage were used. The roughage:concentrate ratio in the total dry matter (DM) of the diets was 75:25. The fraction “b” of DM was higher in the BRS 716 silage. There was no difference (p> 0.05) for dry matter intake (DMI; p = 0.45) and total digestible nutrients intake (p = 0.76). The dry matter digestibility (DMD), crude protein, ether extract and neutral detergent fiber increased linearly with the inclusion of BRS 716 silage. The feeding times, ruminating and idle have not been changed (p > 0.05). The replacement of FS silage with BRS 716 silage did not modify the average daily weight gain (ADG; p > 0.05; mean 1.30 ± 0.025 kg). Biomass sorghum silage can replace up to 100% forage sorghum silage in the diets of ¾ Holstein x ¼ Zebu heifers.
Microfabricated BTU Monitoring Device for System-Wide Natural Gas Monitoring

The natural gas industry seeks inexpensive sensors and instrumentation to rapidly measure gas heating value in widely distributed locations. For gas pipelines, this will improve gas quality during transfer and blending, and will expedite accurate financial accounting. Industrial endusers will benefit through continuous feedback of physical gas properties to improve combustion efficiency during use. To meet this need, Sandia has developed a natural gas heating value monitoring instrument using existing and modified microfabricated components. The instrument consists of a silicon micro-fabricated gas chromatography column in conjunction with a catalytic micro-calorimeter sensor. A reference thermal conductivity sensor provides diagnostics and surety. This combination allows for continuous calorimetric determination with a 1 minute analysis time and 1.5 minute cycle time using air as a carrier gas. This system will find application at remote natural gas mining stations, pipeline switching and metering stations, turbine generators, and other industrial user sites. Microfabrication techniques will allow the analytical components to be manufactured in production quantities at a low per-unit cost.
Impact of saturation and inverter cost on interior PM synchronous machine drive optimization

This paper discusses cost-optimized interior permanent-magnet (IPM) synchronous machine drive designs and the impact that magnetic saturation and inverter cost have on their performance and design optimization. Cost-optimized designs for IPM machines and combined machine-inverter systems are compared for an automotive starter/alternator application. The optimization is performed twice, once with a linear lumped parameter model, and again using a nonlinear saturating model. The saturating model produces cost-optimized IPM machines that have lower saliency ratios, larger volumes, and more magnet material than the linear nonsaturating designs, but the saturating model designs are electromagnetically realizable unlike the linear model designs. The inclusion of inverter cost in the drive cost optimization has a significant impact on the machine design, exchanging a larger and more expensive machine for lower power electronics costs made possible by reduced inverter current.
Finite element analysis of electromagnetic wave diffraction from buildings incorporating frequency selective walls

A finite-element approach has been used to study the field distribution inside a simple building construction illuminated by a plane wave. To solve electromagnetic scattering problems for such electrically large dielectric objects, which can have losses and frequency selective surfaces in their construction, a hybrid FE method has been chosen. A numerical example demonstrates the contribution of an array of metal rods, such as are used for reinforcement in building work, to the transmission/reflection properties of the dielectric walls of a simple room, and the consequent effect on the fields inside. Computed field distributions are presented at frequencies where the equivalent wall grating transmittivities are high and low, but typical of values obtained with single-layer FSS.
Experimental V2X Evaluation for C-V2X and ITS-G5 Technologies in a Real-Life Highway Environment

In the coming years, connectivity between vehicles with autonomous driving features and roadside infrastructure will become more and more a reality on our roads, pursuing to improve road safety and traffic efficiency. In this regard, two main communication standards are considered as key enablers, that is ITS-G5 (based on IEEE 802.11p) and C-V2X (3GPP). To assess the real performance of these technologies, there is still need for an objective and independent one-to-one comparison of these technologies using off-the-shelf hardware under identical and real-life traffic conditions. Until today, performance evaluations are limited to simulations, emulations or individual technology assessments in real-life circumstances. In this paper, an exhaustive and fair evaluation of the technologies has been conducted in a real-life highway environment under identical conditions. Tailored evaluation tools in combination with our in-house CAMINO vehicular framework has been utilized to perform the tests and analyze the results for different well-specified test cases. The performance evaluation shows that for the short-range technologies, C-V2X PC5 has, in general, a higher range than ITS-G5, while ITS-G5 offers lower latency than C-V2X PC5 in low-density scenarios. Long-range 4G C-V2X can be considered as an alternative for certain use cases. The outcome of this experimentation study can be used as valuable information for the further development of future (5G) connected and autonomous driving.
Novel multiple antenna techniques for improved diversity in wireless communication systems

The focus of this thesis is to enhance the performance of wireless communication systems through the exploitation of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver ends of a communication link. Such a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) connection can theoretically provide spatially independent channels which can be exploited to provide diversity gain and thereby mitigate the problem of channel fading. To integrate such MIMO technology with emerging wireless systems such as third generation code division multiple access (CDMA) and fourth generation orthogonal division multiple access (OFDMA) based-approaches novel advanced signal processing techniques are required. The major advantages of MIMO systems, including array, diversity and multiplexing gains, are initially reviewed. Diversity gain is identified as the key property, which leverages the spatial independent channels to increase the robustness of the communication link. The family of space-time block codes is then introduced as a low computational complexity scheme to benefit from diversity gain within wireless systems. In particular, extended-orthogonal and quasi-orthogonal space-time block codes (EO-/QO-STBCs) are introduced for systems with four transmit antennas which can operate either in open or closed-loop forms. New EO-STBC and QO-STBC wideband CDMA transmission schemes are proposed which when operating in closed-loop mode, i.e. channel state information is exploited at the transmitter, is shown to attain full diversity and thereby outperform previous schemes in terms of attain able symbol error rate performance. This advantage is then utilized in MIMO-OFDM transmission schemes and similar frame error rate (FER) performance advantage is attained. Finally, to mitigate multiuser interference within the proposed MIMO-OFDM system a novel two-step combined parallel interference canceller and multiuser detection scheme is proposed. Simulation studies based upon FER confirm the efficacy of the technique.
Fuzzy Control for an Unmanned Helicopter

The overall objective of the Wallenberg Laboratory for Information Technology and Autonomous Systems (WITAS) at Linkoping University is the development of an intelligent command and control system, containing vision sensors, which supports the operation of a unmanned air vehicle (UAV) in both semi- and full-autonomy modes. One of the UAV platforms of choice is the APID-MK3 unmanned helicopter, by Scandicraft Systems AB. The intended operational environment is over widely varying geographical terrain with traffic networks and vehicle interaction of variable complexity, speed, and density. The present version of APID-MK3 is capable of autonomous take-off, landing, and hovering as well as of autonomously executing pre-defined, point-to-point flight where the latter is executed at low-speed. This is enough for performing missions like site mapping and surveillance, and communications, but for the above mentioned operational environment higher speeds are desired. In this context, the goal of this thesis is to explore the possibilities for achieving stable ‘‘aggressive’’ manoeuvrability at high-speeds, and test a variety of control solutions in the APID-MK3 simulation environment. The objective of achieving ‘‘aggressive’’ manoeuvrability concerns the design of attitude/velocity/position controllers which act on much larger ranges of the body attitude angles, by utilizing the full range of the rotor attitude angles. In this context, a flight controller should achieve tracking of curvilinear trajectories at relatively high speeds in a robust, w.r. t. external disturbances, manner. Take-off and landing are not considered here since APIDMK3 has already have dedicated control modules that realize these flight modes. With this goal in mind, we present the design of two different types of flight controllers: a fuzzy controller and a gradient descent method based controller. Common to both are model based design, the use of nonlinear control approaches, and an inner- and outer-loop control scheme. The performance of these controllers is tested in simulation using the nonlinear model of APID-MK3.
Reduction of Cost and Environmental Impact in the Treatment of Textile Wastewater Using a Combined MBBR-MBR System

A hybrid Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor—Membrane Bioreactor (MBBR-MBR) was developed for the treatment of wastewater from a Spanish textile company. Compared with conventional activated sludge (CAS) treatment, the feasibility of this hybrid system to reduce economic and environmental impact on an industrial scale was conducted. The results showed that, technically, the removal efficiency of COD, TSS and color reached 93%, 99% and 85%, respectively. The newly dyed fabrics performed with the treated wastewater were qualified under the standards of the textile industry. Economically, the values of Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) calculated for the hybrid MBBR-MBR system are profitable because of the reduction in Operational Expenditure (OPEX) when compared with CAS treatment, due to the lower effluent discharge tax thanks to the higher quality of the effluent and the decolorizing agent saved. The result of Net Present Value (NPV) and the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 18% suggested that MBBR-MBR is financially applicable for implantation into the industrial scale. The MBBR-MBR treatment also showed lower environmental impacts than the CAS process in the life cycle assessment (LCA) study, especially in the category of climate change, thanks to the avoidance of using extra decolorizing agent, a synthetic product based on a triamine.
Childhood immuno-metabolic markers and risk of depression and psychosis in adulthood: A prospective birth cohort study

Metabolic and inflammatory disorders commonly co-occur with depression and psychosis, with emerging evidence implicating immuno-metabolic dysfunction in their aetiology. Previous studies have reported metabolic dysfunction and inflammation in adults with depression and psychosis. However, longitudinal studies testing the direction of association, and the effects of different dimensions of early-life immuno-metabolic dysfunction on adult psychopathology, are limited. Using data from 3875 birth cohort participants we examined longitudinal associations of three metabolic hormones (leptin, adiponectin, insulin) at age 9 with risks for depression- and psychosis-spectrum outcomes at age 24. In addition, using nine immuno-metabolic biomarkers, we constructed an exploratory bifactor model showing a general immuno-metabolic factor and three specific factors (adiposity, inflammation, and insulin resistance), which were also used as exposures. Childhood leptin was associated with adult depressive episode (adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=1.28; 95% CI, 1.00-1.64) and negative symptoms (aOR=1.12; 95% CI, 1.05-1.20). The general immuno-metabolic factor was associated with depressive symptoms (aOR=1.05; 95% CI, 1.01-1.08) and psychotic experiences (aOR=1.20; 95% CI, 1.01-1.42). The adiposity factor was associated with negative symptoms (aOR=1.07; 95% CI 1.02-1.12). All associations tended to be stronger in women, though 95% credible intervals overlapped with that for men. In women, the inflammatory factor was associated with depressive episode (aOR=1.23; 95% CI, 1.01-1.47) and atypical depressive symptoms (aOR=1.10; 95% CI, 1.02-1.19). While general immuno-metabolic dysfunction in childhood may contribute to risks for both psychotic and depressive symptoms in adulthood, childhood adiposity and inflammation are linked to affective (depressive, atypical, and negative) symptoms.
On the Use of Spiking Neural Networks for Ultralow-Power Radar Gesture Recognition

Radar processing via spiking neural networks (SNNs) has recently emerged as a solution in the field of ultralow-power wireless human–computer interaction. Compared to traditional energy- and area-hungry deep learning methods, SNNs are significantly more energy-efficient and can be deployed in the growing number of compact SNN accelerator chips, making them a better solution for ubiquitous IoT applications. We propose a novel SNN strategy for radar gesture recognition, achieving more than 91% of accuracy on two different radar datasets. Our work significantly differs from previous approaches as: 1) we use a novel radar-SNN training strategy; 2) we use quantized weights, enabling power-efficient implementation in real-world SNN hardware; and 3) we report the SNN energy consumption per classification, clearly demonstrating the real-world feasibility and power savings induced by SNN-based radar processing. We release an evaluation code to help future research.
Phase Change Material on Augmentation of Fresh Water Production Using Pyramid Solar Still

The augmentation of fresh water and increase in the solar still efficiency of a triangular pyramid is added with phase change material (PCM) on the basin. Experimental studies were conducted and the effects of production of fresh water with and without PCM were investigated. Using paraffin as the PCM material, performance of the solar still were conducted on a hot, humid climate of Chennai (13°5′ 2" North, 80°16′ 12"East), India. The use of paraffin wax increases the latent heat storage so that the energy is stored in the PCM and in the absence of solar radiation it rejects its stored heat into the basin for further evaporation of water from the basin. Temperatures of water, Tw, Temperature of phase change material, TPCM, Temperature of cover, Tc were measured using thermocouple. Results show that there is an increase of maximum 20%, in productivity of fresh water with PCM.
Relative humidity sensor based on corrosive seven-core fiber coated with graphene oxide

Abstract. A relative humidity (RH) sensor based on a seven-core fiber (SCF) coated with graphene oxide (GO) is proposed. The sensing structure consists of a part of the SCF sandwiched between two parts of no-core fibers (NCFs). The SCF was corroded by hydrofluoric acid until the six outer cores were exposed to air and then coated with a layer of GO. The two NCFs play splitting and coupling roles because of the core diameter mismatch. The center core of the SCF acts as the reference arm, and the outer six cores of the SCF act as the sensing arm to construct a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. When GO absorbs water molecules, its refractive index changes. Consequently, the phase difference between the center core and outer core modes varies, and the resonant dip moves. The experimental results indicate that the RH sensitivity can reach 0.165 nm/%RH in the range of 30% to 100%, and the corresponding linear fitting coefficient is 99.9%.