Temperature based rapid SAW humidity sensor

This paper investigates the effect of temperature on the sensitivity of a thin-film Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) based SAW humidity sensor. A PVA coated 433.92 MHz SAW resonator-based humidity sensor was fabricated and tested with different levels of humidity (0.5 to 95% RH) at different operating temperatures (10°C to 70°C). The sensor response was recorded through in-house developed data acquisition software and it was observed that PVA thin film coated SAW sensor shows the maximum sensitivity for trace level moisture detection at a lower temperature (≤10 °C). The sensor sensitivity has been recorded >400Hz/% RH for trace level detection (0.5–30% RH). It has been observed that sensor sensitivity deteriorates when temperature increased to 40 °C from 10 °C. The sensor has a fast response (~1s) and recovery time (<3s) for trace level humidity detection. The proposed sensor can be used in many applications, including fabrication of electronic devices, IC fabrication, pharmaceutical, textile industries, food processing, semiconductor device fabrication, and packaging

Modelling Functional Behavior of Event-based Systems: A Practical Knowledge-based Approach

AbstractFunctional behavior is considered to be the most basic, yet a critical notion in order to determine the characteristics of a system. However, how to reason about the functional behavior of a system in a systematic manner, is mostly limited by our cognitive processing abilities. While the UML-based behavior models can support a visual conceptualization of the functional behavior, they lack the rigorous, machine-processable reasoning capabilities. In this paper, we present a practical, knowledge-based approach to model the functional behavior that incorporates the notions of Commonsense Reasoning and Functional Reasoning over its core defining aspects. We demonstrate our approach with a detailed example, along with a set of use case scenarios. The main motivation behind this work was to develop a rigorous, logic-based approach to verify the levels of functional consistencies between cross-platform event-based systems. The focus of this paper, however, is to present the representational facility that can be utilized for the consistency validation system. While we provide a brief overview of the consistency validation system in this paper, a separate article will be dedicated for the comprehensive overview of the validation system itself

Peripheral fundus findings in X-linked retinoschisis

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Vitreous haemorrhage (VH) and retinal detachment (RD) cause a precipitous decline in vision in a subset of patients with X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS), an otherwise a slowly progressive condition. This study aims to report the frequency of macular and peripheral retinal findings in a large cohort of patients with XLRS and to determine whether peripheral retinal findings are associated with VH and RD. METHODS: A retrospective observational case series was performed in 65 patients with XLRS with a pathogenic variant in retinoschisin 1. Chart review included examination notes, fundus photographs and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Fisher exact tests and univariable logistic regression analysis were used to determine the association between peripheral retinal findings (including retinoschisis, metallic sheen, vascular sheathing, pigmentary changes, white spiculations and vitreous veils) and complications (including VH and RD). RESULTS: Seven eyes (8%) showed normal macular structure on OCT. Peripheral retinoschisis was significantly associated with both VH and RD. Out of 10 eyes with complications, 9 (90%) had peripheral retinoschisis, compared with 33 out of 116 eyes (28%) without complications (p=0.0014). In addition, each additional peripheral finding increased the odds of RD by a factor of 4.06 (95% CI 1.58 to 10.39, p=0.028). There were no complications in the 28 eyes with a normal periphery (p=0.84) or in the 35 eyes with metallic sheen (p=0.42). CONCLUSION: The data suggest that patients with peripheral retinoschisis are at increased risk for VH and RD. Furthermore, patients with additional peripheral retinal findings together with peripheral schisis may carry additional risk for RD

Towards Extended Bit Tracking for Scalable and Robust RFID Tag Identification Systems

The surge in demand for Internet of Things (IoT) systems and applications has motivated a paradigm shift in the development of viable radio frequency identification technology (RFID)-based solutions for ubiquitous real-Time monitoring and tracking. Bit tracking-based anti-collision algorithms have attracted considerable attention, recently, due to its positive impact on decreasing the identification time. We aim to extend bit tracking to work effectively over erroneous channels and scalable multi RFID readers systems. Towards this objective, we extend the bit tracking technique along two dimensions. First, we introduce and evaluate a type of bit errors that appears only in bit tracking-based anti-collision algorithms called false collided bit error in single reader RFID systems. A false collided bit error occurs when a reader perceives a bit sent by tag as an erroneous bit due to channel imperfection and not because of a physical collision. This phenomenon results in a significant increase in the identification delay. We introduce a novel, zero overhead algorithm called false collided bit error selective recovery tackling the error. There is a repetition gain in bit tracking-based anti-collision algorithms due to their nature, which can be utilized to detect and correct false collided bit errors without adding extra coding bits. Second, we extend bit tracking to 'error-free' scalable mutli-reader systems, while leaving the study of multi-readers tag identification over imperfect channels for future work. We propose the multi-reader RFID tag identification using bit tracking (MRTI-BT) algorithm which allows concurrent tag identification, by neighboring RFID readers, as opposed to time-consuming scheduling. MRTI-BT identifies tags exclusive to different RFIDs, concurrently. The concept of bit tracking and the proposed parallel identification property are leveraged to reduce the identification time compared to the state-of-The-Art. 2013 IEEE.This work was supported by the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation) through NPRP under Grant 7-684-1-127. The work of A. Fahim and T. ElBatt was supported by the Vodafone Egypt Foundation.Scopu

Genetic testing for inherited retinal degenerations: Triumphs and tribulations

Inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) are a genotypically and phenotypically diverse group of conditions. Great strides have been made toward identifying the genetic basis for these conditions over the last 30 years—more than 270 different genes involved in syndromic and nonsyndromic forms of retinal dystrophies have now been identified. The identification of these genes and the improvement of clinical laboratory techniques have led to the identification of the genetic basis of disease in 56–76% of patients with IRDs through next generation sequencing and copy number variant analysis. Genetic testing is an essential part of clinical care for patients affected with IRDs and is required to confirm the diagnosis, understand the inheritance of the condition, and determine eligibility for gene‐specific treatments or clinical trials. Despite the success achieved in determining the genetic cause of these conditions, several challenges remain, which must be considered when providing genetic testing and genetic counseling to patients. For this reason, an integrated team of ophthalmic and genetic clinicians who are familiar with these challenges is necessary to provide optimal comprehensive care to these patients.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162692/2/ajmgc31835.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162692/1/ajmgc31835_am.pd

Context Mining of Sedentary Behavior for Promoting Self-Awareness Using Smartphone

Sedentary behaviour is increasing due to societal changes and is related to prolonged periods of sitting. There is sufficient evidence proving that sedentary behaviour has a negative impact on people’s health and wellness. This paper presents our research findings on how to mine the temporal contexts of sedentary behaviour by utilizing the on-board sensors of a smartphone. We use the accelerometer sensor of the smartphone to recognize user situations (i.e., still or active). If our model confirms that the user context is still, then there is a high probability of being sedentary. Then, we process the environmental sound to recognize the micro-context, such as working on a computer or watching television during leisure time. Our goal is to reduce sedentary behaviour by suggesting preventive interventions to take short breaks during prolonged sitting to be more active. We achieve this goal by providing the visualization to the user, who wants to monitor his/her sedentary behaviour to reduce unhealthy routines for self-management purposes. The main contribution of this paper is two-fold: (i) an initial implementation of the proposed framework supporting real-time context identification; (ii) testing and evaluation of the framework, which suggest that our application is capable of substantially reducing sedentary behaviour and assisting users to be active

Interdisciplinary perspectives on the development, integration and application of cognitive ontologies

We discuss recent progress in the development of cognitive ontologies and summarize three challenges in the coordinated development and application of these resources. Challenge 1 is to adopt a standardized definition for cognitive processes. We describe three possibilities and recommend one that is consistent with the standard view in cognitive and biomedical sciences. Challenge 2 is harmonization. Gaps and conflicts in representation must be resolved so that these resources can be combined for mark-up and interpretation of multi-modal data. Finally, Challenge 3 is to test the utility of these resources for large-scale annotation of data, search and query, and knowledge discovery and integration. As term definitions are tested and revised, harmonization should enable coordinated updates across ontologies. However, the true test of these definitions will be in their community-wide adoption which will test whether they support valid inferences about psychological and neuroscientific data

Field Programmable Gate Array based Readout for Surface Acoustic Wave Portable Gas Detector

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) is one of the most promising technology in the field of gas sensing at low concentrations. Field deployable portable SAW detectors are, however, prone to noise, there by limiting the detection at low concentrations. To meet the current requirements of gas detection at low concentrations, the readout methodology needs to be based on minimal hardware and better noise management. In this paper we describe a readout scheme for portable SAW gas detectors incorporating a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The developed readout system includes a modified reciprocal frequency counter for differential SAW sensor, median noise filtering and moving averages smoothing for noise management, peak detection and interfacing with external display, all implemented in FPGA. The developed readout was tested against VOCs using a lab developed vapour generator and the results have been presented in the paper. The readout system is compact, low power consuming and expandable through software thus ideal for portable handheld applications

Effect of female sex hormones, thyroxine and vitamin B12 on embryonic mortality in rats

This bulletin is a report of cooperative research under Project 223, 'Physiology of Reproduction, ' Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Project 222, 'Swine Improvement, ' Department of Animal Husbandry--P. [3].Digitized 2007 AES.Includes bibliographical references (pages 33-34)