Improved flood mapping for efficient policy design by fusion of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Landsat-9 imagery to identify population and infrastructure exposed to floods

A reliable yet inexpensive tool for the estimation of flood water spread is conducive for efficient disaster management. The application of optical and SAR imagery in tandem provides a means of extended availability and enhanced reliability of flood mapping. We propose a methodology to merge these two types of imagery into a common data space and demonstrate its use in the identification of affected populations and infrastructure for the 2022 floods in Pakistan. The merging of optical and SAR data provides us with improved observations in cloud-prone regions; that is then used to gain additional insights into flood mapping applications. The use of open source datasets from WorldPop and OSM for population and roads respectively makes the exercise globally replicable. The integration of flood maps with spatial data on population and infrastructure facilitates informed policy design. We have shown that within the top five flood-affected districts in Sindh province, Pakistan, the affected population accounts for 31 %, while the length of affected roads measures 1410.25 km out of a total of 7537.96 km.Comment: IEEE IGARSS 202

Dielectric Breakdown in Chemical Vapor Deposited Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Insulating films are essential in multiple electronic devices because they can provide essential functionalities, such as capacitance effects and electrical fields. Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials have superb electronic, physical, chemical, thermal, and optical properties, and they can be effectively used to provide additional performances, such as flexibility and transparency. 2D layered insulators are called to be essential in future electronic devices, but their reliability, degradation kinetics, and dielectric breakdown (BD) process are still not understood. In this work, the dielectric breakdown process of multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is analyzed on the nanoscale and on the device level, and the experimental results are studied via theoretical models. It is found that under electrical stress, local charge accumulation and charge trapping/detrapping are the onset mechanisms for dielectric BD formation. By means of conductive atomic force microscopy, the BD event was triggered at several locations on the surface of different dielectrics (SiO2, HfO2, Al2O3, multilayer h-BN, and monolayer h-BN); BD-induced hillocks rapidly appeared on the surface of all of them when the BD was reached, except in monolayer h-BN. The high thermal conductivity of h-BN combined with the one-atom-thick nature are genuine factors contributing to heat dissipation at the BD spot, which avoids self-accelerated and thermally driven catastrophic BD. These results point to monolayer h-BN as a sublime dielectric in terms of reliability, which may have important implications in future digital electronic devices.Fil: Jiang, Lanlan. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Shi, Yuanyuan. Soochow University; China. University of Stanford; Estados UnidosFil: Hui, Fei. Soochow University; China. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Tang, Kechao. University of Stanford; Estados UnidosFil: Wu, Qian. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Pan, Chengbin. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Jing, Xu. Soochow University; China. University of Texas at Austin; Estados UnidosFil: Uppal, Hasan. University of Manchester; Reino UnidoFil: Palumbo, Félix Roberto Mario. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lu, Guangyuan. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de ChinaFil: Wu, Tianru. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de ChinaFil: Wang, Haomin. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de ChinaFil: Villena, Marco A.. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Xie, Xiaoming. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de China. ShanghaiTech University; ChinaFil: McIntyre, Paul C.. University of Stanford; Estados UnidosFil: Lanza, Mario. Soochow University; Chin

Phase 1 clinical study of an embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium patch in age-related macular degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) remains a major cause of blindness, with dysfunction and loss of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) central to disease progression. We engineered an RPE patch comprising a fully differentiated, human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived RPE monolayer on a coated, synthetic basement membrane. We delivered the patch, using a purpose-designed microsurgical tool, into the subretinal space of one eye in each of two patients with severe exudative AMD. Primary endpoints were incidence and severity of adverse events and proportion of subjects with improved best-corrected visual acuity of 15 letters or more. We report successful delivery and survival of the RPE patch by biomicroscopy and optical coherence tomography, and a visual acuity gain of 29 and 21 letters in the two patients, respectively, over 12 months. Only local immunosuppression was used long-term. We also present the preclinical surgical, cell safety and tumorigenicity studies leading to trial approval. This work supports the feasibility and safety of hESC-RPE patch transplantation as a regenerative strategy for AMD

An Investigation on Using Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) to Monitor the Removal of a Non-Newtonian Soil by Water from a Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) Circuit Containing Different Pipe Geometries

AbstractThis paper presents a feasibility study of employing electrical resistance tomography (ERT) technology for monitoring water based cleaning-in-place (CIP) processes. Specially designed 1.5″ transparent Perspex pipes of different geometries, fitted with multiple planes of inline ERT probes, were filled with a non-Newtonian shampoo product, and then cleaned by flushing fresh tap water through at different flow rates ranging from 4000 to 8000kg/h. The maximum pixel conductivity, defined as the maximum of the reconstructed 316 pixel conductivities in each ERT frame, was proved to be a sound and robust cleaning process monitoring indicator. The investigation demonstrated that the ERT technology is capable of shedding more detailed insights into the CIP process than any other monitoring technologies currently being employed

A real-time evaluation of energy management systems for smart hybrid home Microgrids

Real-time energy management within the concepts of home Microgrids (H-MG) systems is crucial for H-MG operational reliability and safe functionality, regardless of simultaneously emanated variations in generation and load demand transients. In this paper, an experimental design and validation of a real-time mutli-period artificial bee colony (MABC) topology type central energy management system (CEMS) for H-MGs in islanding mode is proposed to maximize operational efficiency and minimize operational cost of the H-MG with full degree of freedom in automatically adapt the management problem under variations in the generation and storage resources in real-time as well, suitable for different size and types of generation resources and storage devices with plug-and-play structure, is presented. A self-adapting CEMS offers a control box capability of adapting and optimally operating with any H-MGs structure and integrated types of generation and storage technologies, using a two-way communication between each asset, being a unique inherent feature. This CEMS framework utilizes feature like day-ahead scheduling (DAS) integrated with real-time scheduling (RTS) units, and local energy market (LEM) structure based on Single Side Auction (SSA) to regulate the price of energy in real-time. The proposed system operates based on the data parameterization such as: the available power from renewable energy resources, the amount of non-responsive load demand, and the wholesale offers from generation units and time-wise scheduling for a range of integrated generation and demand units. Experimental validation shows the effectiveness of our proposed EMS with minimum cost margins and plug-and-play capabilities for a H-MG in real-time islanding mode that can be envisioned for hybrid multi-functional smart grid supply chain energy systems with a revolutionary architectures. The better performance of the proposed algorithm is shown in comparison with the mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) algorithm, and its effectiveness is experimentally validated over a microgrid test bed. The obtained results show convergence speed increase and the remarkable improvement of efficiency and accuracy under different condition

Dynamic behavior of multi-carrier energy market in view of investment incentives

In this study, a dynamic two-level framework is proposed to model investment incentives in a multi-carrier energy market from a strategic company’s point of view. Capacity payment and firm contract are assumed as investment incentives to encourage the strategic producer to invest in generation units. In addition, financial incentives to invest in combined heat and power (CHP) include tax rebate and loans. Strategic company’s behavior is considered as a two-level model so that, in the first level, the objective function is to maximize the profit of the strategic producer by participating in an energy hub market. The strategic producer can invest in transmission lines, generation units, CHP, and gas furnace. In the second level, the aim is to maximize a multi-carrier energy social welfare encompassing heat, gas, and electric energy. In this model, units invested by rival companies are modeled using possible scenarios. Electric energy loads in this energy hub system are envisaged to be elastic, while heat loads are assumed to be inelastic to the market price. On the other hand, gas loads are indirectly elastic to the price. Besides, in the proposed framework, DC power flow and an exact gas flow model with the linearized Weymouth equation are used. The proposed model is implemented on two case studies including 6-bus system, and an energy hub system encompassing 24-bus IEEE RTS power system and 10-node natural gas system

Carbon nanotube micro-contactors on ohmic substrates for on-chip microelectromechanical probing applications at wafer level

CNTs can have the ability to act as compliant small-scale springs or as shock resistance micro-contactors. This work investigates the performance of vertically-aligned CNTs (VA-CNTs) as micro-contactors in electromechanical testing applications for testing at wafer-level chip-scale-packaging (WLCSP) and wafer-level-packaging (WLP). Fabricated on ohmic substrates, 500-μm-tall CNT-metal composite contact structures are electromechanically characterized. The probe design and architecture are scalable, allowing for the assembly of thousands of probes in short manufacturing times, with easy pitch control. We discuss the effects of the metallization morphology and thickness on the compliance and electromechanical response of the metal-CNT composite contacts. Pd-metallized CNT contactors show up to 25 μm of compliance, with contact resistance as low as 460 mΩ (3.6 kΩ/μm) and network resistivity of 1.8 × 10−5 Ω cm, after 2500 touchdowns, with 50 μm of over-travel; they form reproducible and repeatable contacts, with less than 5% contact resistance degradation. Failure mechanisms are studied in-situ and after cyclic testing and show that, for top-cap-and-side metallized contacts, the CNT-metal shell provides stiffness to the probe structure in the elastic region, whilst reducing the contact resistance. The stable low resistance achieved, the high repeatability and endurance of the manufactured probes make CNT micro-contacts a viable candidate for WLP and WLCSP testing

Thigh-length compression stockings and DVT after stroke

Controversy exists as to whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in patients with invasive bladder cancer, despite randomised controlled trials of more than 3000 patients. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of such treatment on survival in patients with this disease