482 research outputs found

    Digital agriculture: research, development and innovation in production chains.

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    Digital transformation in the field towards sustainable and smart agriculture. Digital agriculture: definitions and technologies. Agroenvironmental modeling and the digital transformation of agriculture. Geotechnologies in digital agriculture. Scientific computing in agriculture. Computer vision applied to agriculture. Technologies developed in precision agriculture. Information engineering: contributions to digital agriculture. DIPN: a dictionary of the internal proteins nanoenvironments and their potential for transformation into agricultural assets. Applications of bioinformatics in agriculture. Genomics applied to climate change: biotechnology for digital agriculture. Innovation ecosystem in agriculture: Embrapa?s evolution and contributions. The law related to the digitization of agriculture. Innovating communication in the age of digital agriculture. Driving forces for Brazilian agriculture in the next decade: implications for digital agriculture. Challenges, trends and opportunities in digital agriculture in Brazil

    Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

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    The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be a transformative experiment for gravitational wave astronomy, and, as such, it will offer unique opportunities to address many key astrophysical questions in a completely novel way. The synergy with ground-based and space-born instruments in the electromagnetic domain, by enabling multi-messenger observations, will add further to the discovery potential of LISA. The next decade is crucial to prepare the astrophysical community for LISA's first observations. This review outlines the extensive landscape of astrophysical theory, numerical simulations, and astronomical observations that are instrumental for modeling and interpreting the upcoming LISA datastream. To this aim, the current knowledge in three main source classes for LISA is reviewed; ultra-compact stellar-mass binaries, massive black hole binaries, and extreme or interme-diate mass ratio inspirals. The relevant astrophysical processes and the established modeling techniques are summarized. Likewise, open issues and gaps in our understanding of these sources are highlighted, along with an indication of how LISA could help making progress in the different areas. New research avenues that LISA itself, or its joint exploitation with upcoming studies in the electromagnetic domain, will enable, are also illustrated. Improvements in modeling and analysis approaches, such as the combination of numerical simulations and modern data science techniques, are discussed. This review is intended to be a starting point for using LISA as a new discovery tool for understanding our Universe

    A Contribution Towards Intelligent Autonomous Sensors Based on Perovskite Solar Cells and Ta2O5/ZnO Thin Film Transistors

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    Many broad applications in the field of robotics, brain-machine interfaces, cognitive computing, image and speech processing and wearables require edge devices with very constrained power and hardware requirements that are challenging to realize. This is because these applications require sub-conscious awareness and require to be always “on”, especially when integrated with a sensor node that detects an event in the environment. Present day edge intelligent devices are typically based on hybrid CMOS-memristor arrays that have been so far designed for fast switching, typically in the range of nanoseconds, low energy consumption (typically in nano-Joules), high density and endurance (exceeding 1015 cycles). On the other hand, sensory-processing systems that have the same time constants and dynamics as their input signals, are best placed to learn or extract information from them. To meet this requirement, many applications are implemented using external “delay” in the memristor, in a process which enables each synapse to be modeled as a combination of a temporal delay and a spatial weight parameter. This thesis demonstrates a synaptic thin film transistor capable of inherent logic functions as well as compute-in-memory on similar time scales as biological events. Even beyond a conventional crossbar array architecture, we have relied on new concepts in reservoir computing to demonstrate a delay system reservoir with the highest learning efficiency of 95% reported to date, in comparison to equivalent two terminal memristors, using a single device for the task of image processing. The crux of our findings relied on enhancing our capability to model the unique physics of the device, in the scope of the current thesis, that is not amenable to conventional TCAD simulations. The model provides new insight into the redox characteristics of the gate current and paves way for assessment of device performance in compute-in-memory applications. The diffusion-based mechanism of the device, effectively enables time constants that have potential in applications such as gesture recognition and detection of cardiac arrythmia. The thesis also reports a new orientation of a solution processed perovskite solar cell with an efficiency of 14.9% that is easily integrable into an intelligent sensor node. We examine the influence of the growth orientation on film morphology and solar cell efficiency. Collectively, our work aids the development of more energy-efficient, powerful edge-computing sensor systems for upcoming applications of the IOT

    Digital agriculture: research, development and innovation in production chains.

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    Digital transformation in the field towards sustainable and smart agriculture. Digital agriculture: definitions and technologies. Agroenvironmental modeling and the digital transformation of agriculture. Geotechnologies in digital agriculture. Scientific computing in agriculture. Computer vision applied to agriculture. Technologies developed in precision agriculture. Information engineering: contributions to digital agriculture. DIPN: a dictionary of the internal proteins nanoenvironments and their potential for transformation into agricultural assets. Applications of bioinformatics in agriculture. Genomics applied to climate change: biotechnology for digital agriculture. Innovation ecosystem in agriculture: Embrapa?s evolution and contributions. The law related to the digitization of agriculture. Innovating communication in the age of digital agriculture. Driving forces for Brazilian agriculture in the next decade: implications for digital agriculture. Challenges, trends and opportunities in digital agriculture in Brazil.Translated by Beverly Victoria Young and Karl Stephan Mokross

    Ferrimagnetic rare-earth-transition-metal heterostructures: implications for future data storage, sensors, and unconventional computing

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    In this work, different ferrimagnetic rare-earth-transition-metal heterostructures are investigated. The findings provide implications for future data storage, sensor, and unconventional computing devices. In the first part, ferri- and ferromagnetic films are exchange-coupled and studied as potential composite media for magnetic recording technologies. For this, the underlying individual layers are examined, too. Within this study, the influence of Pd and Pt insertion layers in ferromagnetic Co/Ni multilayers is investigated. In these systems, the maximum effective magnetic anisotropy is more than doubled by the introduced insertion layers, while the initial saturation magnetization and Curie temperature are reduced. Further, amorphous Tb-FeCo alloys and multilayers are studied as the second building block of the desired composite medium. In particular, the structural and magnetic properties are analyzed upon post-annealing. At temperatures above 400 K, irreversible effects on the structural properties are found, which also influence the magnetic properties. It is shown that these changes in properties cannot be prevented by tuning the composition or by a multilayer structure of the film. However, key insights on the structural and magnetic properties upon annealing are provided for future high-temperature devices. Afterward, the exchange-coupled ferrimagnetic/ferromagnetic bilayer is studied. Measurements on the dependency on temperature, the ferrimagnetic composition, and the thickness of the ferromagnet are carried out. Two distinct magnetic reversal mechanisms are revealed. The reversal characteristics depend critically on the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer. The underlying microscopic origin is revealed by high-resolution magnetic force microscopy. Above a certain thickness of the ferromagnet, the switching process is driven by in-plane domain wall propagation. In contrast, thinner ferromagnetic layers exhibit a nucleation-dominated reversal due to grain-to-grain variations in magnetic anisotropy. Although the realization of an exchange-coupled composite medium for magnetic recording can not be achieved, insights for the future realization of sub micron high energy density permanent magnets and spintronic devices are gained. In the second part of this work, topologically protected spin structures, including skyrmions and antiskyrmions, are investigated in Fe/Gd-based multilayers. Particularly in coexisting phases, different topologically protected magnetic quasi-particles may show fascinating physics and potential for spintronic devices. While skyrmions are observed in a wide range of materials, until now, antiskyrmions have been exclusive to materials with D2d or S4 symmetry. In this work, first and second-order antiskyrmions are stabilized for the first time by magnetic dipole-dipole interaction. Using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy imaging, coexisting first- and second-order antiskyrmions, Bloch skyrmions, and type-2 bubbles are observed, and the range of material properties and magnetic fields where the different spin objects form and dissipate is determined. The discovered phase pocket of metastable antiskyrmions for low saturation magnetization and uniaxial magnetic anisotropy values is confirmed by micromagnetic simulations and represents a recipe, which has to be satisfied for the stabilization of antiskyrmions by dipole-dipole interaction in other material systems. Furthermore, the nucleation process of the spin objects and the influence of an in-plane magnetic field are studied. Additionally, post-deposition techniques are employed to locally change the anisotropy of the samples and influence the nucleation and stability range of the spin objects. The gained knowledge significantly simplifies future investigations of antiskyrmions. Moreover, the coexisting phases of different topologically protected spin objects and their controlled nucleation provide great potential for further studies on magnetic quasi-particle interactions, spin dynamics, as well as for possible future applications in spintronics, namely the racetrack memory, skyrmionic interconnections, skyrmion-based unconventional computing, and sensor devices

    Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

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    The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be a transformative experiment for gravitational wave astronomy, and, as such, it will offer unique opportunities to address many key astrophysical questions in a completely novel way. The synergy with ground-based and space-born instruments in the electromagnetic domain, by enabling multi-messenger observations, will add further to the discovery potential of LISA. The next decade is crucial to prepare the astrophysical community for LISA’s first observations. This review outlines the extensive landscape of astrophysical theory, numerical simulations, and astronomical observations that are instrumental for modeling and interpreting the upcoming LISA datastream. To this aim, the current knowledge in three main source classes for LISA is reviewed; ultra-compact stellar-mass binaries, massive black hole binaries, and extreme or interme-diate mass ratio inspirals. The relevant astrophysical processes and the established modeling techniques are summarized. Likewise, open issues and gaps in our understanding of these sources are highlighted, along with an indication of how LISA could help making progress in the different areas. New research avenues that LISA itself, or its joint exploitation with upcoming studies in the electromagnetic domain, will enable, are also illustrated. Improvements in modeling and analysis approaches, such as the combination of numerical simulations and modern data science techniques, are discussed. This review is intended to be a starting point for using LISA as a new discovery tool for understanding our Universe

    Hands-on Science. Celebrating Science and Science Education

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    The book herein aims to contribute to the improvement of Science Education in our schools and to an effective implementation of a sound widespread scientific literacy at all levels of society

    The universe without us: a history of the science and ethics of human extinction

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    This dissertation consists of two parts. Part I is an intellectual history of thinking about human extinction (mostly) within the Western tradition. When did our forebears first imagine humanity ceasing to exist? Have people always believed that human extinction is a real possibility, or were some convinced that this could never happen? How has our thinking about extinction evolved over time? Why do so many notable figures today believe that the probability of extinction this century is higher than ever before in our 300,000-year history on Earth? Exploring these questions takes readers from the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians, through the 18th-century Enlightenment, past scientific breakthroughs of the 19th century like thermodynamics and evolutionary theory, up to the Atomic Age, the rise of modern environmentalism in the 1970s, and contemporary fears about climate change, global pandemics, and artificial general intelligence (AGI). Part II is a history of Western thinking about the ethical and evaluative implications of human extinction. Would causing or allowing our extinction be morally right or wrong? Would our extinction be good or bad, better or worse compared to continuing to exist? For what reasons? Under which conditions? Do we have a moral obligation to create future people? Would past “progress” be rendered meaningless if humanity were to die out? Does the fact that we might be unique in the universe—the only “rational” and “moral” creatures—give us extra reason to ensure our survival? I place these questions under the umbrella of Existential Ethics, tracing the development of this field from the early 1700s through Mary Shelley’s 1826 novel The Last Man, the gloomy German pessimists of the latter 19th century, and post-World War II reflections on nuclear “omnicide,” up to current-day thinkers associated with “longtermism” and “antinatalism.” In the dissertation, I call the first history “History #1” and the second “History #2.” A main thesis of Part I is that Western thinking about human extinction can be segmented into five distinction periods, each of which corresponds to a unique “existential mood.” An existential mood arises from a particular set of answers to fundamental questions about the possibility, probability, etiology, and so on, of human extinction. I claim that the idea of human extinction first appeared among the ancient Greeks, but was eclipsed for roughly 1,500 years with the rise of Christianity. A central contention of Part II is that philosophers have thus far conflated six distinct types of “human extinction,” each of which has its own unique ethical and evaluative implications. I further contend that it is crucial to distinguish between the process or event of Going Extinct and the state or condition of Being Extinct, which one should see as orthogonal to the six types of extinction that I delineate. My aim with the second part of the book is to not only trace the history of Western thinking about the ethics of annihilation, but lay the theoretical groundwork for future research on the topic. I then outline my own views within “Existential Ethics,” which combine ideas and positions to yield a novel account of the conditions under which our extinction would be bad, and why there is a sense in which Being Extinct might be better than Being Extant, or continuing to exist

    Applications

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    Volume 3 describes how resource-aware machine learning methods and techniques are used to successfully solve real-world problems. The book provides numerous specific application examples: in health and medicine for risk modelling, diagnosis, and treatment selection for diseases in electronics, steel production and milling for quality control during manufacturing processes in traffic, logistics for smart cities and for mobile communications

    Cyber-Human Systems, Space Technologies, and Threats

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    CYBER-HUMAN SYSTEMS, SPACE TECHNOLOGIES, AND THREATS is our eighth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs / CUAS/ UUVs / SPACE. Other textbooks in our series are Space Systems Emerging Technologies and Operations; Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD); Disruptive Technologies with applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries; Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land; Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations; Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 2nd edition; and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the Cyber Domain Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 1st edition. Our previous seven titles have received considerable global recognition in the field. (Nichols & Carter, 2022) (Nichols, et al., 2021) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2019) (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2022)https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1052/thumbnail.jp
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