A lot like the other: Parents’ consumer responses to brand-modified product placements in children’s programming

This research examined whether parents can recognize modified brands in children’s programming, and whether program educational value and active mediation intention would moderate perceptions of modified brand references. An experiment was conducted with 109 parents of child(ren) between 3-6 years old. Participants watched clips that systematically varied in brand reference type (i.e., actual v. modified brands) in product placements and program educational value. Results indicated modified brands were as recognizable as actual brands. Product placements in high educational value programs were less recognizable but generated more positive attitudes toward the brand than product placements in low educational value programs. The active mediation intention level moderated recognition and purchase intention of brands referenced in children’s programming, and the negative perceptions of product placements were most salient when actual brands were used in low educational value programs. The practical implications for advertising and media practitioners were discussed

Embedding Security into Ferroelectric FET Array via In-Situ Memory Operation

Non-volatile memories (NVMs) have the potential to reshape next-generation memory systems because of their promising properties of near-zero leakage power consumption, high density and non-volatility. However, NVMs also face critical security threats that exploit the non-volatile property. Compared to volatile memory, the capability of retaining data even after power down makes NVM more vulnerable. Existing solutions to address the security issues of NVMs are mainly based on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which incurs significant performance and power overhead. In this paper, we propose a lightweight memory encryption/decryption scheme by exploiting in-situ memory operations with negligible overhead. To validate the feasibility of the encryption/decryption scheme, device-level and array-level experiments are performed using ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET) as an example NVM without loss of generality. Besides, a comprehensive evaluation is performed on a 128x128 FeFET AND-type memory array in terms of area, latency, power and throughput. Compared with the AES-based scheme, our scheme shows around 22.6x/14.1x increase in encryption/decryption throughput with negligible power penalty. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of our scheme over the AES-based scheme when deploying different neural network workloads. Our scheme yields significant latency reduction by 90% on average for encryption and decryption processes

A Ferroelectric Compute-in-Memory Annealer for Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Computationally hard combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) are ubiquitous in many applications, including logistical planning, resource allocation, chip design, drug explorations, and more. Due to their critical significance and the inability of conventional hardware in efficiently handling scaled COPs, there is a growing interest in developing computing hardware tailored specifically for COPs, including digital annealers, dynamical Ising machines, and quantum/photonic systems. However, significant hurdles still remain, such as the memory access issue, the system scalability and restricted applicability to certain types of COPs, and VLSI-incompatibility, respectively. Here, a ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET) based compute-in-memory (CiM) annealer is proposed. After converting COPs into quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) formulations, a hardware-algorithm co-design is conducted, yielding an energy-efficient, versatile, and scalable hardware for COPs. To accelerate the core vector-matrix-vector (VMV) multiplication of QUBO formulations, a FeFET based CiM array is exploited, which can accelerate the intended operation in-situ due to its unique three-terminal structure. In particular, a lossless compression technique is proposed to prune typically sparse QUBO matrix to reduce hardware cost. Furthermore, a multi-epoch simulated annealing (MESA) algorithm is proposed to replace conventional simulated annealing for its faster convergence and better solution quality. The effectiveness of the proposed techniques is validated through the utilization of developed chip prototypes for successfully solving graph coloring problem, indicating great promise of FeFET CiM annealer in solving general COPs.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figure

FECTS: A Facial Emotion Cognition and Training System for Chinese Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Traditional training methods such as card teaching, assistive technologies (e.g., augmented reality/virtual reality games and smartphone apps), DVDs, human-computer interactions, and human-robot interactions are widely applied in autistic rehabilitation training in recent years. In this article, we propose a novel framework for human-computer/robot interaction and introduce a preliminary intervention study for improving the emotion recognition of Chinese children with an autism spectrum disorder. The core of the framework is the Facial Emotion Cognition and Training System (FECTS, including six tasks to train children with ASD to match, infer, and imitate the facial expressions of happiness, sadness, fear, and anger) based on Simon Baron-Cohen's E-S (empathizing-systemizing) theory. Our system may be implemented on PCs, smartphones, mobile devices such as PADs, and robots. The training record (e.g., a tracked record of emotion imitation) of the Chinese autistic children interacting with the device implemented using our FECTS will be uploaded and stored in the database of a cloud-based evaluation system. Therapists and parents can access the analysis of the emotion learning progress of these autistic children using the cloud-based evaluation system. Deep-learning algorithms of facial expressions recognition and attention analysis will be deployed in the back end (e.g., devices such as a PC, a robotic system, or a cloud system) implementing our FECTS, which can perform real-time tracking of the imitation quality and attention of the autistic children during the expression imitation phase. In this preliminary clinical study, a total of 10 Chinese autistic children aged 3-8 are recruited, and each of them received a single 20-minute training session every day for four consecutive days. Our preliminary results validated the feasibility of the developed FECTS and the effectiveness of our algorithms based on Chinese children with an autism spectrum disorder. To verify that our FECTS can be further adapted to children from other countries, children with different cultural/sociological/linguistic contexts should be recruited in future studies

Improving Pesticide Uptake Modeling into Potatoes: Considering Tuber Growth Dynamics

To explore pesticide uptake from soil into a growing potato, a moving-boundary dynamic model is proposed on the basis of the radical diffusion process of a chemical to a sphere

CD301b+ Macrophages as Potential Target to Improve Orthodontic Treatment under Mild Inflammation

Due to improvements of quality of life and the demand for aesthetics, more and more people are choosing orthodontic treatments, resulting in a surge in adult orthodontic patients in recent years. However, a large amount of clinical evidence shows that many orthodontic patients have mild periodontitis in the periodontal tissues, which affects the efficacy of the orthodontic treatment or aggravates the periodontal condition. Therefore, it is important to identify the key factors that affect orthodontic treatments in this inflammatory environment. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of macrophages in orthodontic treatments under inflammatory environments. By analyzing the functional groups of macrophages in the orthodontic rat model of periodontitis, we found that macrophages with high expression levels of CD301b could improve the periodontal microenvironment and improve the efficiency of the orthodontic tooth movement. CD301b+ macrophages transplanted into the model can promote osteogenesis around orthodontic moving teeth, improve bone remodeling during orthodontic treatment, and accelerate orthodontic tooth movement. Considered together, these results suggest that CD301b+ macrophages may play an active role in orthodontic treatments in inflammatory environments and may serve as potential regulatory targets

A Specific Sliding Mode Control for Autopilot Design of Bank-to-Turn Missiles

This paper studies the BTT missile's sliding mode flight controller. Firstly, the control model is established according to dynamic inverse method and the general dynamic equation of the missile flying in the atmosphere. Then, the sliding mode controller is designed and it adopts the time-varying sliding mode surface, the self-defined reaching law and the adaptive control parameters. Finally, three sets of simulation are carried out to prove the flight controller designed in this paper for BTT missile can follow the guidance instructions and meet operational needs