Pilot-1: autonomous fixed-wing aircraft control system

In the past decade, the personal ownership of unmanned aerial vehicles has exploded in the US and around the world. The rapidly declining size and cost of integrated circuits, sensors and embedded micro-controllers has lead to a flourishing community of hobbyists designing flight controllers with levels of sophistication approaching those for government and military applications. The typical flight assisted controllers integrate data from the user\u27s control system and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in order to keep the craft level and on course. Deriving mostly from the radio controlled (RC) hobby industry, the flight control technologies for both rotary and fixed wing systems are generally community-built and open source. While this leads to rapid development and ease of modification, quality usually suffers. Because the community is not a community of professionals, best coding practices are often left behind, leading to unexpected failures. Such flight control systems are unsuitable for integration into US airspace due to their failure-prone nature and inability to mitigate the failure of flight control surfaces. Fixed wing systems can also be controlled without an onboard flight controller or autopilot, with a simple camera downlink and direct control surface control being sufficient for most firrst-person video (FPV) needs. This has left a hole in the market for such controllers, with all offerings lacking in professional features such as redundancy and failure mitigation. Our project suffered from many setbacks, including one team member becoming ill and another leaving the project halfway into development. We were also hampered by our choice to use the brand new STM32Cube Hardware Abstraction Layer (described in more detail in Chapter 9), as 3rd party support and example code was nonexistent or conflicting with official documentation. As such, we were required to greatly reduce the featureset of our system. To compensate for this, we implemented a basic software plugin system, where future developers can code their own flight modes and recompile the software without having to revisit the basic I/O required to setup and access the onboard sensors and actuators. Looking forward, we believe we have solved many of the issues involved with developing a flight controller on this powerful, next-gen platform. We have implemented basic IMU-based flight stabilization and control, and future developers can easily code in the more premium features, such as GPS and telemetry, on top of the existing foundation

Burst switched optical networks supporting legacy and future service types

Focusing on the principles and the paradigm of OBS an overview addressing expectable performance and application issues is presented. Proposals on OBS were published over a decade and the presented techniques spread into many directions. The paper comprises discussions of several challenges that OBS meets, in order to compile the big picture. The OBS principle is presented unrestricted to individual proposals and trends. Merits are openly discussed, considering basic teletraffic theory and common traffic characterisation. A more generic OBS paradigm than usual is impartially discussed and found capable to overcome shortcomings of recent proposals. In conclusion, an OBS that offers different connection types may support most client demands within a sole optical network layer

Do Z-Score and Current Ratio have Ability to Predict Bankruptcy?

Altman’s Z-score Model (1968) is the Strongest Predictor of the bankruptcy and after its development many studies have been conducted to assess the financial viability of the corporate sector by using this model. This study used Z-Score model and Current Ratio to measure the Financial Failure of 22 selected Textile Industries of Pakistan. Results showed that Z-Score and current ratio are the good tools to assess the financial health of the textile companies listed in KSE. This study also revealed that financial distressed companies are also present in textile sector. Keywords: Z-Score, Current ratio, Paired Sample T-Test, Financial Failur

Acute Limb Ischemia due to a Fractured Superficial Femoral Artery Stent

Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD) is a rapidly growing and recognized disease of the peripheral circulation. Its presentation can vary between asymptomatic state, exercise limiting limb pain, limb loss and even death. Advances have been achieved in the treatment of PVD specially in the field of interventional cardiovascular medicine. Different devices and techniques are used in the treatment of peripheral atherosclerotic disease, which has lowered the need for bypass surgery. Although invasive peripheral intervention has a low rate of complications, there are still well recognized acute and chronic complications that an operator should be aware of. We present an interesting case of acute limb ischemia due to Superficial Femoral Artery (SFA) stent fracture

Enzymatic and Chemical Syntheses of Vacor Analogs of Nicotinamide Riboside, NMN and NAD

It has recently been demonstrated that the rat poison vacor interferes with mammalian NAD metabolism, because it acts as a nicotinamide analog and is converted by enzymes of the NAD salvage pathway. Thereby, vacor is transformed into the NAD analog vacor adenine dinucleotide (VAD), a molecule that causes cell toxicity. Therefore, vacor may potentially be exploited to kill cancer cells. In this study, we have developed efficient enzymatic and chemical procedures to produce vacor analogs of NAD and nicotinamide riboside (NR). VAD was readily generated by a base-exchange reaction, replacing the nicotinamide moiety of NAD by vacor, catalyzed by Aplysia californica ADP ribosyl cyclase. Additionally, we present the chemical synthesis of the nucleoside version of vacor, vacor riboside (VR). Similar to the physiological NAD precursor, NR, VR was converted to the corresponding mononucleotide (VMN) by nicotinamide riboside kinases (NRKs). This conversion is quantitative and very efficient. Consequently, phosphorylation of VR by NRKs represents a valuable alternative to produce the vacor analog of NMN, compared to its generation from vacor by nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NamPT).publishedVersio

Quantification of hydraulic redistribution in maize roots using neutron radiography

Abstract Plants redistribute water from wet to dry soil layers through their roots, in the process called hydraulic redistribution. Although the relevance and occurrence of this process are well accepted, resolving the spatial distribution of hydraulic redistribution remains challenging. Here, we show how to use neutron radiography to quantify the rate of water efflux from the roots to the soil. Maize (Zea mays L.) plants were grown in a sandy substrate 40 cm deep. Deuterated water (D2O) was injected in the bottom wet compartment, and its transport through the roots to the top dry soil was imaged using neutron radiography. A diffusion–convection model was used to simulate the transport of D2O in soil and root and inversely estimate the convective fluxes. Overnight, D2O appeared in nodal and lateral roots in the top compartment. By inverse modeling, we estimated an efflux from lateral roots into the dry soil equal to jr = 2.35 × 10−7 cm−1. A significant fraction of the redistributed water flew toward the tips of nodal roots (3.85 × 10−8 cm3 s−1 per root) to sustain their growth. The efflux from nodal roots depended on the roots’ length and growth rate. In summary, neutron imaging was successfully used to quantify hydraulic redistribution. A numerical model was needed to differentiate the effects of diffusion and convection. The highly resolved images showed the spatial heterogeneity of hydraulic redistribution

Comparison of Caralluma tuberculata with Metformin for Anti-Diabetic Activity: An Animal Study

Background: Caralluma tuberculata, is a wild herb, which grows in the hills of Balochistan and has been known to have medicinal and nutritional properties since antiquity. This experimental research was designed to study the hypoglycemic properties of Caralluma tuberculata and to compare them with Metformin.Material and Methods: This was a laboratory-based animal experimental study. It was conducted in the Pharmacology laboratory of Khyber Medical University, Peshawar from February 2016 to August 2016. Two types of extracts of Caralluma tuberculata [crude extract and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) extract] were prepared and administered to normal and alloxan treated diabetic rabbits. To study anti-diabetic activity, eighty-four rabbits were divided into two main groups. Group I (Normal/Non-Diabetic Rabbits; n= 21) and Group II (Diabetic/Alloxanized Rabbits; n=63). Each group was further divided into sub-groups (7 rabbits in each). Effect of Caralluma tuberculata, Metformin and 2% gum tragacanth on blood glucose levels were checked at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 hours of drug administration. The extracts were given in capsule form and in cooking oil. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 16. For calculation and comparison of the hypoglycemic effects at various doses and different time intervals, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s post hoc test were applied.Results: The crude extract, 200mg/kg body weight of Caralluma tuberculata showed significant decrease (p<0.001) in mean blood glucose levels from 2-hour till12 hours. Whereas, highly significant reduction of blood glucose was seen from 2 hours after treatment till 24 hours, when carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) fraction of Caralluma (100mg/kg body weight) in capsule form was administered. Metformin 500mg/kg body weight was given to compare its effects with plant crude extract and it was found that metformin appeared to be less effective in comparison with Caralluma tuberculata.Conclusion: Caralluma tuberculata lowered the blood glucose level and turned out to be more significant in developing hypoglycemia when taken with cooking oil. More work is essential to provide stronger evidence for the use of this natural agent in the management of Diabetes Mellites

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGY INDONESIAN NATIONAL ARMY IN HIS ROLE ACCELERATE COVID-19 MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA

The involvement of the military in the global health crisis has started since the COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia, starting from the implementation of Large-Scale Social Restrictions to the implementation of the new normal adaptation phase, including the acceleration of vaccination. However, this involvement has its pros and cons. A number of parties regard it as something natural, while others criticize the urgency of involving the military. This study focuses on the political communication strategy of the roles of two defense institutions, namely the Indonesian National Army and the Ministry of Defense in dealing with COVID-19. The methodology used is a qualitative research design. Researchers used role theory, political communication concepts, national defense concepts, and pandemic handling concepts to analyze this study. The results of the study show that the TNI has a role in political PR in changing the good image of its institutions and is closely correlated in providing communication from the government, which is strategically in a number of fields such as health, security, and socio-economics in an effort to tackle COVID-19. The Ministry of Defense also plays a strategic role both internally and externally through collaboration with other ministries, domestic private companies, state-owned enterprises in the defense industry sector, and with other countries in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic