An Investigation into the Suitability of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria as Models for Martian Forward Contamination

The NASA Planetary Protection policy requires interplanetary space missions do not compromise the target body for a current or future scientific investigation and do not pose an unacceptable risk to Earth, including biologic materials. Robotic missions to Mars pose a risk to planetary protection in the forms of forward and reverse contamination. To reduce these risks, a firm understanding of microbial response to Mars conditions is required. Sulfate-reducing bacteria are prime candidates for potential forward contamination on Mars. Understanding the potential for forward-contamination of sulfate-reducers on Mars calls for the characterization of sulfate-reducers under Mars atmosphere, temperature, and sulfate-brines. This study investigated the response of several sulfate-reducing bacteria, including spore formers and psychrophiles. The psychrophile Desulfotalea psychrophila was found to inconsistently survive positive control lab conditions, attributed to an issue shipping pure cultures. Desulfotomaculum arcticum, a spore-forming mesophilic sulfate-reducer, and Desulfuromusa ferrireducens, an iron and sulfate-reducer, were metabolically active under positive control lab conditions with complex and minimal growth medium. A wastewater treatment sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) isolate was subjected to sulfate + growth-medium solutions of varied concentrations (0.44 & 0.55% wt. SO42-). The wastewater SRB displayed higher cellular light-absorbance levels at delayed rates in 0.55% sulfate solutions, suggesting a greater total culture reproduction, but with increased lag time. Additional SRB were isolated from marine sediments, subjected to a shock pressure of 8.73 GPa, and returned to ideal conditions. The sulfate-concentration patterns in the impacted SRB culture suggests a destruction of culture occurred somewhere during the preparation process. The response of SRB in this investigation to Ca and Na sulfate-brines suggests that Martian sulfate deposits offer a viable energy sink to terrestrial microorganisms, and the studied SRB are capable of replication at reduced water-activity. Further investigation (i.e. sulfate cations and concentrations, temperature, pressure, etc.) may identify Martian locations at risk to forward contamination

Effect of Tilt Sensor versus Heel Loading on Neuroprosthesis Stimulation Reliability and Timing for Individuals Post-Stroke during Level and Non- Level Treadmill Walking

Study background: Non-level walking may adversely affect stimulation of neuroprostheses as initial programming is performed during level walking. The objectives of this study were to assess stimulation reliability of tilt and heel sensor-based neuroprosthesis stimulation during level and non-level walking, examine stimulation initiation and termination timing during level and non-level walking, and determine whether heel or tilt sensor-based stimulation control is more robust for non-level ambulation. Methods: Eight post-stroke individuals with drop foot who were able to actively ambulate within the community were selected for participation. Each subject acclimated to the neuroprosthesis and walked on a treadmill randomly positioned in inclined, level and declined orientations. The primary measures of interest were stimulation reliability and timing. Results: Statistically significant differences in tilt, but not heel, sensor-based stimulation reliability were observed between level and non-level walking trials. Tilt sensor-based stimulation initiation occurred significantly closer to swing as the treadmill processed from declined to inclined orientations. No statistically significant differences in stimulation reliability or timing were observed between theoretical heel versus clinical tilt sensor-based stimulation control. Discussion and conclusions: Tilt sensor-based stimulation reliability may be adversely affected by non-level walking. Differences in stimulation initiation timing with tilt sensor-based control during non-level walking may be advantageous as stimulation initiation closer to swing during inclined ambulation may allow for greater ankle plantar flexion to assist with forward progression. Despite a lack of significant differences in stimulation reliability or timing between sensors, theoretical heel sensor-based stimulation control exhibited more consistent stimulation timing with less variability than for tilt sensor-based stimulation during non-level ambulation

A Rehabilitation Engineering Course for Biomedical Engineers

This paper describes an upper division elective course in rehabilitation engineering that addresses prosthetics and orthotics, wheelchair design, seating and positioning, and automobile modifications for individuals with disabilities. Faculty lectures are enhanced by guest lectures and class field trips. Guest lecturers include a prosthetist and a lower extremity amputee client, an engineer/prosthetist specializing in the upper extremity, and a rehabilitation engineer. The lower extremity prosthetist and his client present a case study for prosthetic prescription, fabrication, fitting, alignment, and evaluation. The engineer/prosthetist contrasts body-powered versus externally powered upper extremity prostheses and associated design, fitting, and functional considerations; he also discusses myoelectric signal conditioning, signal processing, and associated control strategies for upper extremity prosthetic control. Finally, the rehabilitation engineer presents case studies related to assessment and prescription of mobility aids, environmental control systems, and children\u27s toys. The course also includes visits to a local prosthetic and orthotic facility to observe typical fabrication, fitting, and alignment procedures and a driver rehabilitation program for exposure to driver assessment, training, and common vehicle modifications. These applications of biomedical engineering to persons with disabilities have been well received by the students and have furthered interdisciplinary design and research projects

Nonlinear Elastic Material Property Estimation of Lower Extremity Residual Limb Tissues

The interface stresses between the residual limb and prosthetic socket have been studied to investigate prosthetic fit. Finite-element models of the residual limb-prosthetic socket interface facilitate investigation of the mechanical interface and may serve as a potential tool for future prosthetic socket design. However, the success of such residual limb models to date has been limited, in large part due to inadequate material formulations used to approximate the mechanical behavior of residual limb soft tissues. Nonlinear finite-element analysis was used to simulate force-displacement data obtained during in vivo rate-controlled (1, 5, and 10 mm/s) cyclic indentation of the residual limb soft tissues of seven individuals with transtibial amputation. The finite-element models facilitated determination of an appropriate set of nonlinear elastic material coefficients for bulk soft tissue at discrete clinically relevant test locations. Axisymmetric finite-element models of the residual limb bulk soft tissue in the vicinity of the test location, the socket wall and the indentor tip were developed incorporating contact analysis, large displacement, and large strain, and the James-Green-Simpson nonlinear elastic material formulation. Model dimensions were based on medical imaging studies of the residual limbs. The material coefficients were selected such that the normalized sum of square error (NSSE) between the experimental and finite-element model indentor tip reaction force was minimized. A total of 95% of the experimental data were simulated using the James-Green-Simpson material formulation with an NSSE less than 5%. The respective James-Green-Simpson material coefficients varied with subject, test location, and indentation rate. Therefore, these coefficients cannot be readily extrapolated to other sites or individuals, or to the same site and individual some time after testing

Quantum Phase Transitions in Bosonic Heteronuclear Pairing Hamiltonians

We explore the phase diagram of two-component bosons with Feshbach resonant pairing interactions in an optical lattice. It has been shown in previous work to exhibit a rich variety of phases and phase transitions, including a paradigmatic Ising quantum phase transition within the second Mott lobe. We discuss the evolution of the phase diagram with system parameters and relate this to the predictions of Landau theory. We extend our exact diagonalization studies of the one-dimensional bosonic Hamiltonian and confirm additional Ising critical exponents for the longitudinal and transverse magnetic susceptibilities within the second Mott lobe. The numerical results for the ground state energy and transverse magnetization are in good agreement with exact solutions of the Ising model in the thermodynamic limit. We also provide details of the low-energy spectrum, as well as density fluctuations and superfluid fractions in the grand canonical ensemble.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Feshbach Resonance in Optical Lattices and the Quantum Ising Model

Motivated by experiments on heteronuclear Feshbach resonances in Bose mixtures, we investigate s-wave pairing of two species of bosons in an optical lattice. The zero temperature phase diagram supports a rich array of superfluid and Mott phases and a network of quantum critical points. This topology reveals an underlying structure that is succinctly captured by a two-component Landau theory. Within the second Mott lobe we establish a quantum phase transition described by the paradigmatic longitudinal and transverse field Ising model. This is confirmed by exact diagonalization of the 1D bosonic Hamiltonian. We also find this transition in the homonuclear case.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Assessing the Potential of Classical Q-learning in General Game Playing

After the recent groundbreaking results of AlphaGo and AlphaZero, we have seen strong interests in deep reinforcement learning and artificial general intelligence (AGI) in game playing. However, deep learning is resource-intensive and the theory is not yet well developed. For small games, simple classical table-based Q-learning might still be the algorithm of choice. General Game Playing (GGP) provides a good testbed for reinforcement learning to research AGI. Q-learning is one of the canonical reinforcement learning methods, and has been used by (Banerjee $\&$ Stone, IJCAI 2007) in GGP. In this paper we implement Q-learning in GGP for three small-board games (Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect Four, Hex)\footnote{source code: https://github.com/wh1992v/ggp-rl}, to allow comparison to Banerjee et al.. We find that Q-learning converges to a high win rate in GGP. For the $\epsilon$-greedy strategy, we propose a first enhancement, the dynamic $\epsilon$ algorithm. In addition, inspired by (Gelly $\&$ Silver, ICML 2007) we combine online search (Monte Carlo Search) to enhance offline learning, and propose QM-learning for GGP. Both enhancements improve the performance of classical Q-learning. In this work, GGP allows us to show, if augmented by appropriate enhancements, that classical table-based Q-learning can perform well in small games.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1802.0594

Hi-Val: Iterative Learning of Hierarchical Value Functions for Policy Generation

Task decomposition is effective in manifold applications where the global complexity of a problem makes planning and decision-making too demanding. This is true, for example, in high-dimensional robotics domains, where (1) unpredictabilities and modeling limitations typically prevent the manual specification of robust behaviors, and (2) learning an action policy is challenging due to the curse of dimensionality. In this work, we borrow the concept of Hierarchical Task Networks (HTNs) to decompose the learning procedure, and we exploit Upper Confidence Tree (UCT) search to introduce HOP, a novel iterative algorithm for hierarchical optimistic planning with learned value functions. To obtain better generalization and generate policies, HOP simultaneously learns and uses action values. These are used to formalize constraints within the search space and to reduce the dimensionality of the problem. We evaluate our algorithm both on a fetching task using a simulated 7-DOF KUKA light weight arm and, on a pick and delivery task with a Pioneer robot

Evaluation of thermally stable phosphor screens for application in laser diode excited high brightness white light modules

A study on the preparation of thermally stable phosphor targets based on yttrium aluminum garnet doped with cerium (YAG:Ce) when excited by a high power laser diode is described. The luminous flux, chromaticity and radial spectral flux of the targets along with their thermal stability have been determined when exposed to laser powers of up to 5000 mW. This report presents successful high brightness light sources with adjustable emission properties achieved by utilizing thermally stable phosphor targets excited by high power laser diodes.Brunel University London, No. EP/K504208/