User-Centered Intelligent Interface of Vending Machines Modeling

Convenience and speed of service makes vending machines popular world-wide.However, the development and use of vending machines in China have not kept pace with global markets. In this paper, in order to determine the key design factors, interface elements and parameters which affect the convenience of user-machine interaction, the author analyzes the interaction problems in current vending machine design and finds out that unreasonable design results from machine-centered logic design. Then, with user-centered design principles, a new user-centered intelligent interaction model of vending machines is developed.The result of the test shows that the user-centered interface system can effectively reduce the operational time and decrease the mistake type and mistake rate. The process followed in the present study can also serve as a general framework for the analysis and development of UCD interfaces for other self-service systems

Algorithms and Software Tools for Extracting Coastal Morphological Information from Airborne LiDAR Data

With the ever increasing population and economic activities in coastal areas, coastal hazards have become a major concern for coastal management. The fundamental requirement of coastal planning and management is the scientific knowledge about coastal forms and processes. This research aims at developing algorithms for automatically extracting coastal morphological information from LiDAR data. The primary methods developed by this research include automated algorithms for beach profile feature extraction and change analysis, and an object-based approach for spatial pattern analysis of coastal morphologic and volumetric change. Automated algorithms are developed for cross-shore profile feature extraction and change analysis. Important features of the beach profile such as dune crest, dune toe, and beach berm crest are extracted automatically by using a scale-space approach and by incorporating contextual information. The attributes of important feature points and segments are derived to characterize the morphologic properties of each beach profile. Beach profiles from different time periods can be compared for morphologic and volumetric change analysis. An object-oriented approach for volumetric change analysis is developed to identify and delineate individual elevation change patches as discrete objects. A set of two-dimensional and three-dimensional attributes are derived to characterize the objects, which includes planimetric attributes, shape attributes, surface attributes, volumetric attributes, and summary attributes. Both algorithms are implemented as ArcGIS extension modules to perform the feature extraction and attribute derivation for coastal morphological change analysis. To demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of algorithms, the cross-shore profile change analysis method and software tool are applied to a case study area located at southern Monterey Bay, California, and the coastal morphology change analysis method and software tool are applied to a case study area located on Assateague Island, Maryland. The automated algorithms facilitate the efficient beach profile feature analysis over large geographical area and support the analysis of the spatial variations of beach profile changes along the shoreline. The explicit object representation of elevation change patches makes it easy to localize erosion hot spots, to classify the elevation changes caused by various mechanisms, and to analyze spatial pattern of morphologic and volumetric changes

Absolute frequency measurements with a robust, transportable ^{40}Ca^{+} optical clock

We constructed a transportable 40Ca+ optical clock (with an estimated minimum systematic shift uncertainty of 1.3*10^(-17) and a stability of 5*10^(-15)/sqrt{tau} ) that can operate outside the laboratory. We transported it from the Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan to the National Institute of Metrology, Beijing. The absolute frequency of the 729 nm clock transition was measured for up to 35 days by tracing its frequency to the second of International System of Units. Some improvements were implemented in the measurement process, such as the increased effective up-time of 91.3 % of the 40Ca+ optical clock over a 35-day-period, the reduced statistical uncertainty of the comparison between the optical clock and hydrogen maser, and the use of longer measurement times to reduce the uncertainty of the frequency traceability link. The absolute frequency measurement of the 40Ca+ optical clock yielded a value of 411042129776400.26 (13) Hz with an uncertainty of 3.2*10^(-16), which is reduced by a factor of 1.7 compared with our previous results. As a result of the increase in the operating rate of the optical clock, the accuracy of 35 days of absolute frequency measurement can be comparable to the best results of different institutions in the world based on different optical frequency measurements.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Proteogenomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma

We undertook a comprehensive proteogenomic characterization of 95 prospectively collected endometrial carcinomas, comprising 83 endometrioid and 12 serous tumors. This analysis revealed possible new consequences of perturbations to the p53 and Wnt/β-catenin pathways, identified a potential role for circRNAs in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and provided new information about proteomic markers of clinical and genomic tumor subgroups, including relationships to known druggable pathways. An extensive genome-wide acetylation survey yielded insights into regulatory mechanisms linking Wnt signaling and histone acetylation. We also characterized aspects of the tumor immune landscape, including immunogenic alterations, neoantigens, common cancer/testis antigens, and the immune microenvironment, all of which can inform immunotherapy decisions. Collectively, our multi-omic analyses provide a valuable resource for researchers and clinicians, identify new molecular associations of potential mechanistic significance in the development of endometrial cancers, and suggest novel approaches for identifying potential therapeutic targets

Autonomous motion and control of lower limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot

Introduction: The lower limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot should perform gait planning based on the patient’s motor intention and training status and provide multimodal and robust control schemes in the control strategy to enhance patient participation.Methods: This paper proposes an adaptive particle swarm optimization admittance control algorithm (APSOAC), which adaptively optimizes the weights and learning factors of the PSO algorithm to avoid the problem of particle swarm falling into local optimal points. The proposed improved adaptive particle swarm algorithm adjusts the stiffness and damping parameters of the admittance control online to reduce the interaction force between the patient and the robot and adaptively plans the patient’s desired gait profile. In addition, this study proposes a dual RBF neural network adaptive sliding mode controller (DRNNASMC) to track the gait profile, compensate for frictional forces and external perturbations generated in the human-robot interaction using the RBF network, calculate the required moments for each joint motor based on the lower limb exoskeleton dynamics model, and perform stability analysis based on the Lyapunov theory.Results and discussion: Finally, the efficiency of the APSOAC and DRNNASMC algorithms is demonstrated by active and passive walking experiments with three healthy subjects, respectively

Pathogenic Germline Variants in 10,389 Adult Cancers

We conducted the largest investigation of predisposition variants in cancer to date, discovering 853 pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in 8% of 10,389 cases from 33 cancer types. Twenty-one genes showed single or cross-cancer associations, including novel associations of SDHA in melanoma and PALB2 in stomach adenocarcinoma. The 659 predisposition variants and 18 additional large deletions in tumor suppressors, including ATM, BRCA1, and NF1, showed low gene expression and frequent (43%) loss of heterozygosity or biallelic two-hit events. We also discovered 33 such variants in oncogenes, including missenses in MET, RET, and PTPN11 associated with high gene expression. We nominated 47 additional predisposition variants from prioritized VUSs supported by multiple evidences involving case-control frequency, loss of heterozygosity, expression effect, and co-localization with mutations and modified residues. Our integrative approach links rare predisposition variants to functional consequences, informing future guidelines of variant classification and germline genetic testing in cancer. A pan-cancer analysis identifies hundreds of predisposing germline variants

NANOPARTICLE ASSEMBLIES AT LIQUID INTERFACES AS REVEALED BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

The overarching goal of this work is to obtain a fundamental understanding of the two-dimensional (2D) ordering and dynamics of nanoparticles (NPs) as their packing density approaches jamming. To pursue this goal, an in-situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique was developed, that without damaging the specimen, can track NPs at the single particle level on the surface of an ionic liquid (IL). In addition, a novel sample stage that changes the NP-occupied surface area in a controlled manner was fabricated, facilitating systematic variation of the density of NP assemblies. First, we characterized by SEM the pair interaction potential between PEG-coated silica NPs at IL interfaces. The effects of particle diameter and grafted polymer length on the potential were examined. For a short PEG ligand, a weak, long-range attraction was found, explained by ligand-induced NP menisci that create capillary interactions. However, due to the attraction’s weakness, the overall potential is close to a hard sphere interaction, indicating that the chosen NP-IL pairing comprises a model system to study 2D particle packing structure and dynamics. A SEM liquid cell was designed and fabricated to control the NP areal density, enabling visualization of NP packing in situ under 2D compression and expansion. Upon a slow compression, dense but not jammed NPs of a single size rearranged into more ordered structures with increased crystalline grain sizes. Fast compression of jammed NP layers created wrinkles and buckles. The packing of jammed bidisperse NPs was systematically studied under analogous conditions. Their packing was characterized by two metrics, local orientational and positional order parameters, Ψ6 and T*, respectively. By plotting Ψ6 against T*, a correlation between local orientational and translational order was observed. Statistical local demixing suggested the importance of depletion interactions even in mixtures of NPs with almost equal sizes. Lastly, by the new in-situ SEM imaging method made feasible by IL nonvolatility, we observed electron beam-induced disaggregation of insulating (silica) NPs and attraction/aggregation of metallic (gold) NPs

Spatiotemporal Analysis of AIDS Incidence and Its Influencing Factors on the Chinese Mainland, 2005–2017

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has become one of the most severe public health issues and nowadays around 38 million people are living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being is one of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Here, we used the Markov chain matrix and geospatial clustering to comprehensively quantify the trends of the AIDS epidemic at the provincial administrate level in the mainland of China from 2005 to 2017. The Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model was further adopted to explore four groups of potential influencing factors (i.e., economy, traffic and transportation, medical care, and education) of the AIDS incidence rate in 2017 and their spatially distributed patterns. Results showed that the AIDS prevalence in southeastern China had been dominant and become prevalent in the past decade. The AIDS intensity level had been increasing between 2008 and 2011 but been gradually decreasing afterward. The analysis of the Markov chain matrix indicated that the AIDS epidemic has been generally in control on the Chinese mainland. The economic development was closely related to the rate of AIDS incidence on the Chinese mainland. The GWR result further suggested that medical care and the education effects on AIDS incidence rate can vary with different regions, but significant conclusions cannot be directly demonstrated. Our findings contribute an analytical framework of understanding AIDS epidemic trends and spatial variability of potential underlying factors throughout a complex extent to customize scientific prevention

How Do State-Owned and Private-Owned CVC Differ in Nurturing Innovation in China?

We investigate how state-owned corporate venture capital differs from privately owned corporate venture capital in fostering innovation among startups. Based on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies and the startups in their portfolios that they invested in between 2009 and 2018, we find that startups backed by state-owned corporate venture capital are less innovative than startups backed by privately owned corporate venture capital. Using a two-stage least-squares analysis yields the same results. Further, we find evidence consistent with two potential mechanisms: Investors of state-owned corporate venture capital provide weaker technical support and are less tolerant of failure. These results have important implications for stakeholders, management, and policy makers who care about incentivizing young and rapidly growing companies to innovate more effectively

Effects of oxygen-containing functional groups on carbon materials in supercapacitors: A review

Carbon materials play an indispensable role in supercapacitor devices. However, carbon materials based on the electric double-layer energy storage mechanisms limit the energy density improvement of supercapacitors. The introduction of additional redox pseudocapacitance through oxygen-containing functional groups is a novel strategy to improve the specific capacity of carbon materials. Whereas the influence mechanism of oxygen-containing functional groups on carbon-based electrode materials needs to be explored in-depth. Here, we summarize the types, introductions and characterization methods of oxygen-containing functional groups in carbon materials, and emphatically explain the effect of oxygen-containing functional groups on the structure and physico-chemical properties of carbon-based electrode materials for supercapacitors at the mechanism level, which has not been reported in previous reviews. Different types or content differences of oxygen-containing functional groups can cause changes in the polarity, surface energy, adsorption energy, impedance, energy bands and other aspects of carbon materials, and even lead to defects affecting the structure and physicochemical properties. The mutual constraint relationship between high specific capacity and excellent conductivity caused by the content of oxygen-containing functional groups is also pointed out. Carbon materials with rich oxygen are expected to be developed in lithium/sodium-ion batteries, fuel cells, electrocatalysis, sensor devices, biomedicine and other fields