A Study on Radiant Heat Application to the Curing Process for Improvement of Free-form Concrete Panel Productivity

As free-form panel production takes a long time, it extends the construction period and increases construction expenses. This study suggests a method to apply radiant heat to concrete for the purpose of shortening the curing and removal process in free-form panel production. The optimal temperature and time for removal are determined based on the results of constant temperature/humidity curing experiments and quartz tube heater curing experiments. Through an experiment in various time settings, the general time of FCP (Free-form Concrete Panel) production is measured to examine whether the productivity is enhanced. It is expected that findings of this study contribute to shortening the construction period and reducing construction expenses as well as future studies on the FCP manufacturing equipment

Pharmacogenomic profiling reveals molecular features of chemotherapy resistance in IDH wild-type primary glioblastoma

Background Although temozolomide (TMZ) has been used as a standard adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent for primary glioblastoma (GBM), treating isocitrate dehydrogenase wild-type (IDH-wt) cases remains challenging due to intrinsic and acquired drug resistance. Therefore, elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of TMZ resistance is critical for its precision application. Methods We stratified 69 primary IDH-wt GBM patients into TMZ-resistant (n = 29) and sensitive (n = 40) groups, using TMZ screening of the corresponding patient-derived glioma stem-like cells (GSCs). Genomic and transcriptomic features were then examined to identify TMZ-associated molecular alterations. Subsequently, we developed a machine learning (ML) model to predict TMZ response from combined signatures. Moreover, TMZ response in multisector samples (52 tumor sectors from 18 cases) was evaluated to validate findings and investigate the impact of intra-tumoral heterogeneity on TMZ efficacy. Results In vitro TMZ sensitivity of patient-derived GSCs classified patients into groups with different survival outcomes (P = 1.12e−4 for progression-free survival (PFS) and 3.63e−4 for overall survival (OS)). Moreover, we found that elevated gene expression of EGR4, PAPPA, LRRC3, and ANXA3 was associated to intrinsic TMZ resistance. In addition, other features such as 5-aminolevulinic acid negative, mesenchymal/proneural expression subtypes, and hypermutation phenomena were prone to promote TMZ resistance. In contrast, concurrent copy-number-alteration in PTEN, EGFR, and CDKN2A/B was more frequent in TMZ-sensitive samples (Fishers exact P = 0.0102), subsequently consolidated by multi-sector sequencing analyses. Integrating all features, we trained a ML tool to segregate TMZ-resistant and sensitive groups. Notably, our method segregated IDH-wt GBM patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) into two groups with divergent survival outcomes (P = 4.58e−4 for PFS and 3.66e−4 for OS). Furthermore, we showed a highly heterogeneous TMZ-response pattern within each GBM patient usingin vitro TMZ screening and genomic characterization of multisector GSCs. Lastly, the prediction model that evaluates the TMZ efficacy for primary IDH-wt GBMs was developed into a webserver for public usage (http://www.wang-lab-hkust.com:3838/TMZEP) Conclusions We identified molecular characteristics associated to TMZ sensitivity, and illustrate the potential clinical value of a ML model trained from pharmacogenomic profiling of patient-derived GSC against IDH-wt GBMs

Optical and Acoustic Sensor-Based 3D Ball Motion Estimation for Ball Sport Simulators †

Estimation of the motion of ball-shaped objects is essential for the operation of ball sport simulators. In this paper, we propose an estimation system for 3D ball motion, including speed and angle of projection, by using acoustic vector and infrared (IR) scanning sensors. Our system is comprised of three steps to estimate a ball motion: sound-based ball firing detection, sound source localization, and IR scanning for motion analysis. First, an impulsive sound classification based on the mel-frequency cepstrum and feed-forward neural network is introduced to detect the ball launch sound. An impulsive sound source localization using a 2D microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microphones and delay-and-sum beamforming is presented to estimate the firing position. The time and position of a ball in 3D space is determined from a high-speed infrared scanning method. Our experimental results demonstrate that the estimation of ball motion based on sound allows a wider activity area than similar camera-based methods. Thus, it can be practically applied to various simulations in sports such as soccer and baseball

Quantitative NMR as a Versatile Tool for the Reference Material Preparation

The assessment of primary calibrator purity is critical for establishing traceability to the International System of Units (SI). Recently, quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) has been used as a purity determination method for reference material development, and many related measurement techniques have been designed to acquire accurate and reliable results. This review introduces the recent advances in these techniques (including multidimensional methods), focusing on the application of qNMR to reference material preparation

A Study on Radiant Heat Application to the Curing Process for Improvement of Free-form Concrete Panel Productivity

As free-form panel production takes a long time, it extends the construction period and increases construction expenses. This study suggests a method to apply radiant heat to concrete for the purpose of shortening the curing and removal process in free-form panel production. The optimal temperature and time for removal are determined based on the results of constant temperature/humidity curing experiments and quartz tube heater curing experiments. Through an experiment in various time settings, the general time of FCP (Free-form Concrete Panel) production is measured to examine whether the productivity is enhanced. It is expected that findings of this study contribute to shortening the construction period and reducing construction expenses as well as future studies on the FCP manufacturing equipment

Brain to Music: Musical Representation from Stress-Induced EEG

The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic is making the social problem of stress-induced depression even more serious. This so-called the Coronavirus Blues has been bringing high level of stress to many people and in turn they are suffering worse and worse changes in their daily lives. This study is designed to resolve these social problems. It aims to represent stress states musically by use of stress-induced EEG features known to be highly correlated to stress, and also attempts to intuitively show whether stress is relieved by scent therapy through changes in musical expression of brain signals. The theta/alpha enhancement protocol is utilized to generate music from stress-evoked EEG features. Four subjects (19∼24 age, all right-handed) participated in the experiment. Their stress levels measured by the cognitive stress scale-14(PSS-14) before and after the experiment. While measuring their EEG data in stress or non-stress condition, music is generated in line with their stress states. The results showed that music changed from slow tempo and calm mood toward faster and louder, while the brain state transits from normal to stress by stimulation inducing stress and subject becomes deeper in stress. During aromatherapy in stress condition, there was no noticeable change in music as compared with stress condition. Nevertheless, all participants show lower stress scores after aromatherapy and two subjects has gained higher theta/alpha ratio during aromatherapy. This is because aromatherapy for stress alleviation is considered to be highly inter-subjective variable or some specific subjects are still exposed to stress in spite of sufficient scent to them. Thus, we expect that sometime after stress condition, aromatherapy could mitigate stress and music could be returned to normal state. © 2021 IEEE

Dual Responsive Dependent Background Color Based on Thermochromic 1D Photonic Crystal Multilayer Films

In this paper, we present dual responsive one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal (PC) multilayer films that utilize a high-humidity environment and temperature. Dual responsive 1D PC multilayer films are fabricated on precoated thermochromic film by sequential alternate layer deposition of photo-crosslinkable poly(2-vinylnaphthalene-co-benzophenone acrylate) (P(2VN-co-BPA)) as a high refractive index polymer, and poly(4-vinylpyrollidone-co-benzophenone acrylate) P(4VP-co-BPA) as a low refractive index polymer. The thermochromic film shows a vivid color transition from black to white at 28 °C. Three different colors of thermochromic 1D PC multilayer films are prepared by thickness modulation of P(4VP-co-BPA) layers, and the films on a black background exhibit visible spectrum color only in a high-humidity environment (over 90% relative humidity (RH)). For the three films placed on a hands display, three different composite colors are synthesized by the reflection of light, including yellow, magenta, and cyan, due to the changing of backgrounds from black to white with temperature. Additionally, the films show remarkable color transitions with reliable reversibility. The films can be applied as anti-counterfeiting labels and can be used for smart decoration films. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of dual response colorimetric films that change color in various ways depending on temperature and humidity changes, and we believe that it can be applied to various applications

Screen-Based Sports Simulation Using Acoustic Source Localization

In this paper, we introduce a novel acoustic source localization in a three-dimensional (3D) space, based on a direction estimation technique. Assuming an acoustic source at a distance from adjacent microphones, its waves spread in a planar form called a planar wavefront. In our system, the directions and steering angles between the acoustic source and the microphone array are estimated based on a planar wavefront model using a delay and sum beamforming (DSBF) system and an array of two-dimensional (2D) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microphones. The proposed system is designed with parallel processing hardware for real-time performance and implemented using a cost-effective field programmable gate array (FPGA) and a micro control unit (MCU). As shown in the experimental results, the localization errors of the proposed system were less than 3 cm when an impulsive acoustic source was generated over 1 m away from the microphone array, which is comparable to a position-based system with reduced computational complexity. On the basis of the high accuracy and real-time performance of localizing an impulsive acoustic source, such as striking a ball, the proposed system can be applied to screen-based sports simulation

A Chip Antenna for Bluetooth Earphones with Cross-Head Interference Tested from Received-Signal Sensing

In this paper, a novel chip antenna and its function in wireless connectivity are presented for Bluetooth (BLT) earphones. The chip antenna is a metamaterial so compact (<λ/8), as the size of 4.9 × 13.0 × 2.0 mm3, that when it is mounted on the realistic PCB, it can be held in the enclosure of the BLT earphone. This setting does not degrade the resonance (S11 < −10 dB) of the proposed antenna. As two earphones in a pair are demanded to communicate with each other, one shares an RF signal with the other and they take turns as the master and slave. The received signal sensing is conducted with the latest model of human head-ear-phantom located between the earphones to mimic the real use-case and cross-head interference. Electromagnetic simulation of the antenna is done and verified by fabrication and measurement. Particularly, received-signal strength indications between the proposed antennas in the earphones are experimentally obtained as −67.5 dBm and −70 dBm without and with the head-ear-phantom, respectively, much greater than −120 dBm, the limit of detection, and implying acceptable connectivity and invulnerability over cross-head-interference problems