Selective RF wireless control of integrated bulk-micromachined shape-memory-alloy actuators and its microfluidic application

This paper reports wireless microfluidic control enabled by selective operation of multiple bulk-micromachined shape-memory-alloy actuators using radiofrequency external magnetic fields. Each shape-memory-alloy actuator is driven by a wireless resonant heater, which generates heat only when the field frequency is tuned to the resonant frequency of the heater. Multiple actuators coupled with the heater circuits that are designed to have different resonant frequencies in a range of 135-295 MHz are selectively controlled by modulating the field frequency to the resonant frequencies of the corresponding heaters with a constant output power. A wireless microsyringe device that has three actuator-heater components and a flexible parylene reservoir is developed. The 5-µl reservoir is squeezed by the 5-mm-long cantilever-type SMA actuators to eject controlled amounts of liquid from the reservoir. Wireless modification of pH in liquid is demonstrated using the device loaded with acidic solution through the selective control of the three actuators based on the frequency modulation technique

Frequency-controlled wireless shape-memory-alloy microactuators integrated using an electroplating bonding process

This paper reports the wireless control of bulk-micromachined shape-memory-alloy actuators using external radiofrequency magnetic fields and its application to microgrippers. The frequency-sensitive wireless resonant heater to which the gripper actuator is bonded is activated only when the field frequency is tuned to the resonant frequency of the heater. A batch-compatible bonding technique based on photo-defined copper electroplating is developed to mechanically and thermally couple the gripper with the planar heater circuit fabricated using copper-clad polyimide film. The actuation range of 600 µm as the tip opening distance is obtained with normally closed 5-mm long grippers at a device temperature of 92 °C. The field frequency range to which the devices with 140-MHz resonant frequency respond is measured to be ~13 MHz about the resonant frequency. The manipulation of vertically aligned carbon-nanotube forests is experimentally demonstrated. Mechanical stress tests for the bond formed by the developed electroplating bonding method show a shear strength greater than 40 MPa

Socio-cultural Constraints and Women’s Decision-making Power Regarding Reproductive Behaviour

In a previous study [Ali, Siyal and Sultan (1995)], we observed a big gap between behaviour and desires. Only 35 percent women had the number of children that they had desired. Whereas, a very large number of women had more children than their stated ideal number of children. The same data set also showed that a majority of women (54 percent) either wanted to stop having children or wanted to wait at least two years before having another child [Ali and Rukanuddin (1992)]. In practice, all of these women were not protected; instead only 12 percent were practising contraception [Shah and Ali (1992)]. An argument was put forward that, had these women been empowered to decide about the number of children to be born, the scenario would have been different and small family size norms would have prevailed. However, the finding of that study revealed that generally, the women who were considered to be empowered were actually constrained to exercise fertility control behaviour. It was hypothesised that socio-cultural influences including those of husbands, in-laws and other family members impelled women to become incapacitated. In the present study, an effort has been made to investigate and identify factors that influence women’s decision making about reproductive behaviour. Furthermore, an attempt to measure the extent of these influences has been made.

Molecular mechanisms of malaria sporozoite motility and invasion of host cells

Malaria sporozoites have the unique capacity to invade two entirely different types of target cell in the mosquito vector and the vertebrate host during the course of the parasite’s life cycle. Although little is known about the specific interaction of the sporozoite with its target cells, two sporozoite proteins, circumsporozoite (CS) and thrombospondin-related adhesive protein (TRAP), have been shown to play important roles in the invasion of both cell types. CS protein is a multifunctional protein involved in sporogony, invasion of the salivary glands, the specific arrest of sporozoites in the liver sinusoid, gliding motility of the sporozoite, and hepatocyte recognition and entry. TRAP has been shown to be critical for sporozoite infection of the mosquito salivary glands and liver cells, and is essential for sporozoite gliding motility. This review will focus on the involvement of these molecules in sporozoite motility and the invasion of host cells

DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES: A CHALLENGE TO THE DECOLONIZATION OF KASHMIR

Decolonization of Kashmir is one of the oldest agenda at the United Nations. The world has witnessed a successful wave of decolonization in the second half of the 20th century. The spirit of decolonization was to transfer power to the indigenous population of a region by taking the doctrine of self-determination and political equality as its guiding principles. Recent unilateral acts by the BJP government to revoke the constitutional protection reserved for Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) are intended for relocating the populous boundaries through demographic changes. India drafted a project in 2015 aiming to build accommodations for thousands of Hindu residing in different parts of India in IOK. These demographic changes will harm the spirit of the right of self-determination – for any plebiscite being held in future – thereby leading Kashmir towards neo-colonialism. This paper highlights the politico-legal aspects of the concept of plebiscite, unveiled the neo-colonial ideology of the current Indian government and exposed the Indian mala fide intentions of demographic changes in the revocation of the special status of Indian Occupied Kashmir. These underlining realities will be discussed in an attempt to argue how current demographic changes have become the gravest challenge to the decolonization of Kashmir. Deliberate and illegal demographic changes in Kashmir, its impacts on the existing UN resolutions, perpetual increase in human rights violations and other possible challenges to the decolonization of Kashmir are the major areas that are addressed in this paper

Correlating Sentiment in Reddit’s Wallstreetbets with the Stock Market Using Machine Learning Techniques

The issue that this study addresses is to observe whether there exists a statistical relation between the stock market and Reddit’s wallstreetbets. Previous research mainly focused on the relation between the stock market and Twitter. To gather data for the study, comments were scrapped from the subreddit wallstreetbets for a period of four months, Jan 1, 2021, till April 30, 2021. Different sentiment classifiers were, then, applied on a sample of the data to observe the most accurate classifier for the study. The study concluded that the most accurate sentiment classifier was an SVM classifier trained on 80% of Reddit comments. However, when 10-k fold cross validation was preformed, we saw a drop in the accuracy of the SVM classifier, and a rise in the accuracy of the logistic regression classifier. Therefore, the logistic regression classifier with an accuracy of 72.82% was selected for the project. The logistic regression classifier was used to obtain a polarity time series for all the comments present in Reddit. Then, a Granger causality test was applied to the polarity time series and the AMC, GMC rate of return time series. The Granger test shows that sentiment in Reddit’s wallstreetbets appears to “Granger cause” GME and AMC rate of return at different time lags. Moreover, it appears that sentiment on Reddit had more of an impact on GME rate of return than it did with AMC

Keynote Address: "Challenges and Opportunities for Business in an Islamic Environment."

This presentation was the keynote address for the Business and Islam conference, held April 7-8, 2006 at the University of Kansas. The Business and Islam conference was sponsored by the University of Kansas (KU), the Kansas African Studies Center (KASC), the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and the KU Department of Economics.The Business and Islam conference was sponsored by the University of Kansas (KU), the Kansas African Studies Center (KASC) and the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and the KU Department of Economics