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mmFruit: A Contactless and Non-Destructive Approach for Fine-Grained Fruit Moisture Sensing Using Millimeter-Wave Technology
Get PDFWireless sensing offers a promising approach for non-destructive and contactless identification of the moisture content in fruits. Traditional methods assess fruit quality based on external features such as color, shape, size, and texture. However, fruits often appear perfect externally while being rotten inside. Thus, accurately measuring internal conditions is crucial. This paper introduces mmFruit, a non-destructive and ubiquitous system that employs mmWave signals for precise and robust moisture level sensing in thin and thick pericarp fruits. We propose a novel dual incidence moisture estimation model for regular moisture monitoring to achieve high granularity and eliminate fruit type and size dependency. Additionally, we leverage unique reflection responses across different mmWave frequencies to provide discriminative information about fruit moisture levels. Our comprehensive theoretical model demonstrates how fruits' refractive index, attenuation factor, and elasticity can be estimated by eliminating fruit type dependency. We developed an electric field distribution model utilizing two receiving antennas to address the challenge of varying fruit sizes through a differential approach, aiming to improve overall robustness. mmFruit integrates a customized Spatial-invariant network (SpI-Net) to eliminate interference from different frequencies and locations, ensuring stable moisture monitoring regardless of target displacement. Extensive experiments were conducted over a month in varied environments on seven types of fruits with thin and thick pericarps (apple, pear, peach, mango, orange, dragon fruit, and watermelon). The results demonstrate that mmFruit achieves a commendable RMSE of 0.276 in moisture estimation. It accurately distinguishes fruits with minor moisture level differences (0% to 7%) with 93.6% accuracy and higher moisture differences (45% to 65%) with over 95.1% accuracy, even in scenarios involving diverse displacements and rotations
Involving Patients and the Public in Cancer Associated Thrombosis Research: a strategy for success.
Get PDFThe role of public involvement (PI) in biomedical research has never been greater, with accumulating evidence demonstrating its ability to improve the quality of research and the likelihood of translating findings into clinical practice. As the demand for meaningful PI in research continues to grow, research teams are required to provide more than a tokenistic acknowledgement of the role of public contributors to the success of a project. This paper presents an overview of PI as a whole and specifically reflects on how it has added value, to an international cancer associated thrombosis research program. It introduces tools designed to guide teams unfamiliar with PI, introducing the Public Involvement in Research Impact Toolkit (PIRIT) which provides a structure for planning and reporting on PI activities from the study inception through conduct, to its impact
Fixed ‘Formative-Specific' Assessment Rubrics and ‘Formal’ Formative Assessment: Evolving formative assessment processes for a large-scale international student-taught master’s Education module
Get PDFAssessment rubrics are a central component of developing students’ assessment literacy. They are usually used both for the summative assessment of learning, and, formatively, to develop students’ understanding of the standard of work required to be successful. The objective of this research was to evaluate the use of a ‘formative-specific’ assessment rubric designed for providing formative assessment feedback, and a distinct rubric designed for summative assessment. Data was collected through an online questionnaire and anecdotal conversations with colleagues and students. A total of (n=45) postgraduate students completed the questionnaire. The findings suggest that a ‘formative-specific’ assessment rubric contributes both to facilitating students’ understandings of the level and quality of work required for postgraduate study and to developing their assessment literacy. The data also shows that the students found the summative assessment rubric useful in progressing to their next assignments in their master’s level degree programme. More importantly, the study introduces the concept of a ‘fixed-formal’ formative assessment process
Behind Bars: HMPPS Education and Higher Education Policy Framework: Critiques and recommendations from a lifer’s lived experience
Get PDFDoes productive agreement morphology increase sensitivity to agreement in a second language?
Get PDFAdult language learners have variable performance with subject-verb number agreement. But it is unclear whether their performance additionally depends on the availability of agreement morphology in their first language. To address this question, we conducted a self-paced reading task comparing different speaker groups: (a) first vs. second language speakers of German; (b) intermediate-to-advanced German learners whose first language had more or less productive number agreement morphology (Spanish vs. English). Two manipulations were used to diagnose number processing: agreement violations and agreement attraction. Our results showed decreased sensitivity to agreement violations in language learners, irrespective of the morphological productivity of their first language. Meanwhile, differences in attraction effects were inconclusive in all between-group comparisons. We suggest that second language variability with subject-verb agreement is unlikely to result from increased retrieval interference – the effect underlying attraction. Instead, variable performance more likely arises because learners have difficulties in the real-time mapping of inflectional morphemes to syntactic features
Polymer electrolyte fuel cell operating with nickel foam-based gas diffusion layers: A numerical investigation
Get PDFDue to their outstanding structural, transport and electrical characteristics, nickel foams serve as excellent candidate materials for gas diffusion layers (GDLs) in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). In this work, a new three-dimensional PEFC model was developed to explore the local and global fuel cell performance with nickel foam-based GDLs. The fuel cell operating with nickel foam GDLs was shown to have, due to its superior mass and charge transport properties, higher oxygen and water concentration and current density compared to that operating with the conventional carbon fibre-based GDLs. The results show that the pumping power should be taken into account when optimising the dimensions of the flow channels and as such the net power density must be the criterion for optimisation. The optimal dimensions of the flow channels for the fuel cell operating with nickel foam based GDLs were found to be 0.25 mm for the channel height and 1 mm for the channel width; the maximum net power density with these dimensions was around 0.95 W/cm2 which is two times higher than that operating with carbon fibre based GDLs. All the results have been presented and critically discussed
An examination of daily CO2 emissions prediction through a comparative analysis of machine learning, deep learning, and statistical models
Get PDFHuman-induced global warming, primarily attributed to the rise in atmospheric CO2,poses a substantial risk to the survival of humanity. While most research focuses on predicting annual CO2emissions, which are crucial for setting long-term emission mitigation targets, the precise prediction of daily CO2 emissions is equally vital for setting short-term targets. This study examines the performance of 14 models in predicting daily CO2 emissions data from 1/1/2022 to 30/9/2023 across the top four polluting regions (China, India, the USA, and the EU27&UK). The 14 models used in the study include four statistical models (ARMA, ARIMA, SARMA, and SARIMA), three machine learning models (support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and gradient boosting (GB)), and seven deep learning models (artificial neural network (ANN), recurrent neural network variations such as gated recurrent unit (GRU), long short-term memory (LSTM), bidirectional-LSTM (BILSTM), and three hybrid combinations of CNN-RNN). Performance evaluation employs four metrics (R2, MAE, RMSE, and MAPE). The results show that the machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models, with higher R2 (0.714–0.932) and lower RMSE (0.480–0.247) values, respectively, outperformed the statistical model, which had R2 (− 0.060–0.719) and RMSE (1.695–0.537) values, in predicting daily CO2 emissions across all four regions. The performance of the ML and DL models was further enhanced by differencing, a technique that improves accuracy by ensuring stationarity and creating additional features and patterns from which the model can learn. Additionally, applying ensemble techniques such as bagging and voting improved the performance of the ML models by approximately 9.6%, whereas hybrid combinations of CNN-RNN enhanced the performance of the RNN models. In summary, the performance of both the ML and DL models was relatively similar. However, due to the high computational requirements associated with DL models, the recommended models for daily CO2 emission prediction are ML models using the ensemble technique of voting and bagging. This model can assist in accurately forecasting daily emissions, aiding authorities in setting targets for CO2 emission reduction
Harms of Morphine for Chronic Breathlessness in Relation to Dose, Duration and Titration Phase
Get PDFContext: Morphine to treat severe chronic breathlessness might increase adverse events (AEs). Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the risk of AEs in relation to dose, duration and titration phase of regular, low-dose sustained-release (SR) oral morphine for chronic breathlessness in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Secondary analysis of a double-blind, randomized, trial of SR morphine titrated to 0–32 mg/day over three weeks in people with COPD and chronic breathlessness. Risk of AEs by morphine or placebo dose, duration and titration phase (initiation, stable dose or up-titration) was analyzed using multivariable generalized estimating equation (GEE) models. Results: We included 156 people (49% female) of whom 100 (64%) experienced any AE during week 1: 64% of those on 8 mg/morphine/day; 78% on 16 mg/morphine/day; and 48% on placebo. In multivariable analysis, the AE risk was highest the first week of morphine treatment and decreased in week two (adjusted rate ratio [aRR] 0.71; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.54, 0.94) and week three (aRR 0.49; 95% CI 0.37, 0.67). Over the three weeks, the AE risk was similar between titration phases, and there was no statistically significant trend with higher morphine doses (P-values>0.10). Most AEs did not require treatment discontinuation or dose reduction and resolved by the end of titration. Conclusion: In people with COPD and severe chronic breathlessness, the risk of AEs was highest during the first week of treatment in a dose-related fashion but did not differ by titration phase or by dose of once-daily SR morphine between 8 and 32 mg/day. Trial registration NCT02720822
Oxygen Concentration Plays a Critical Role in Fibrinogen-Mediated Platelet Activation via Inactivation of αIIbβ3 and Modulation of Fibrinogen
Get PDFIn the vascular system, pathological conditions that cause hypoxia are associated with increased platelet activity and thrombosis. Using a platelet spreading assay, we show that severe hypoxia (i.e., 1%), venous (i.e., 5%), and, surprisingly, arterial (i.e., 12%) oxygen concentrations cause a significant reduction in platelet surface area coverage on fibrinogen in comparison to atmospheric oxygen condition (i.e., 21% oxygen), whilst adhesion and spreading on collagen and CRP were not affected. Importantly, the addition of thrombin or zinc restored full platelet spreading on fibrinogen, indicating that the inhibition of platelet spreading on fibrinogen was due to defective integrin activation. Analysis of integrin activation with FACs via PAC-1 staining supported a significant reduction in integrin activation in hypoxic conditions. Interestingly, a fibrinogen matrix prepared at 1%, 5%, or 12% oxygen failed to induce full platelet spreading, even when the experiments were performed at atmospheric oxygen concentration, indicating that the structure and activity of the fibrinogen coating is affected by oxygen. The effect of oxygen on different matrix proteins is critical to understand, as these data clearly demonstrate that collagen and CRP can support platelet activation at all O2 concentrations, whilst fibrinogen mediated platelet activation and spreading is lost at physiological and pathological O2 concentrations. These data have clear implications for thrombus formation data and highlight the role of oxygen in regulating platelet function
‘Strengthen Them Inside’: Supporting Prison Staff Wellbeing in England through Creative Writing
Get PDFPrison staff experience multiple stressors in the course of their working lives and existing literature consistently emphasises the negative wellbeing implications of prison work. There is a gap in existing research regarding the types of wellbeing support that are appropriate and positively impactful for this occupational group. This article presents original findings following the delivery of an innovative wellbeing activity across two prisons in England which involved groups of prison staff engaging in an 8-week creative writing course. The activity brought together prisoner-facing and support staff resulting in an important opportunity to collaborate, reflect and enhance role appreciation. The core benefits of the course were improvements in personal and professional wellbeing and an opportunity to ‘detox’ negative prison working cultures