Detect-and-Avoid: Flight Test 6 Scripted Encounters Data Analysis

The Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) project conducted Flight Test 6 (FT6) in 2019. The ultimate goal of this flight test was to produce data to inform RTCA SC-228's Phase II Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for Detect and Avoid (DAA) and Low Size, Weight, and Power Sensors. This report documents the analysis of scripted encounters' data. Scripted encounters own were analyzed and categorized based on the outcome of alert, maneuver guidance, and effectiveness of pilots' maneuver in resolving conflicts. Results indicate that UAS pilots' decisions as well as intruder maneuvers are leading factors that contribute to ineffective DAA maneuvers. Results also show that adding buffers to the DAA's suggested minimum turn angle improves effectiveness of the DAA maneuvers

Using LC-MS with de novo software to fully characterize the multiple methylations of lysine residues in a recombinant fragment of an outer membrane protein from a virulent strain of Rickettsia prowazekii

The outer membrane protein B (OmpB) of the typhus group rickettsiae is an immunodominant antigen and has been shown to provide protection against typhus in animal models. Consequently, OmpB is currently being considered as a potential rickettsiae vaccine candidate to be used in humans. The OmpB from virulent strains are heavily methylated while the attenuated strains are hypomethylated. Western blot analysis of partially digested OmpB revealed that one of the reactive fragments was located at the N-terminus (fragment A, aa 33–272). Recently, we have over expressed, purified, and chemically methylated the recombinant fragment A from Rickettsia prowazekii (Ap). The methylated Ap was thoroughly characterized by LC/MS/MS on the ProteomeX workstation. The protein sequence of Ap with and without methylation was 87.7% and 100% identified, respectively. This high sequence coverage enabled us to determine the sites and extent of methylation on the lysine residues in Ap. All the lysine residues except the C-terminus lysine were either mono-, di- or tri-methylated. In addition, carbamylation on the N-terminus glycine was identified using a combination of denovo sequencing (DeNovoX) and the pattern recognition (SALSA) program with accurate mass measurement. We demonstrated that the use of peptide identification (SEQUEST) in combination with SALSA and denovo sequencing provided a useful means to characterize the sequence and posttranslational modifications of given proteins

Trends in Research about COVID-19 Vaccine Documented through Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis

Due to COVID-19, people’s lives have changed greatly. In accordance with former experience, an efficacious vaccine is the most effective way to curb the pandemic; thus, many researchers have published related publications in the short term. Hence, this study aims at using bibliometric analysis and visualization to document research trends regarding COVID-19 vaccines, and offer some directions and suggestions for future research. Initially, all eligible publications were downloaded from Web of Science on 1 January 2022. Subsequently, some publications published before December 2019 were removed since COVID-19 did not occur before that date. Finally, Microsoft Excel is used for bibliometric analysis to analyze publication date, author, affiliation, country, publication title, publisher, research area, document type, and language, and visualized software (VOSviewer) is used to visualize author, affiliation, country, and keywords. After analyzing a total of 17,392 publications, the results show that the overall research trend was upward. Moreover, the prominent authors, institutions, and countries inclined towards regional cooperation instead of international cooperation. Furthermore, the most popular research areas were immunology and medicine (general and internal). Ultimately, COVID-19, vaccine, and SARS-CoV-2 were the top 3 keywords. In conclusion, this study shows the approximate research trend for COVID-19 vaccine during the completely first two years of the pandemic. The research focuses moved from safety, effectiveness, and immunology at the early stage to the optimal allocation strategies for COVID-19 vaccine, and eventually to public attitudes and acceptance towards COVID-19 vaccination

Wide-Angle and Broadband Polarization Converter

Apparatus and methods for a polarization converter comprising a polarization beam splitter for receiving an input light beam and allows a transverse magnetic to pass through the polarization beam splitter and reflects a transverse electric wave and a diffraction grating having a reflectivity and polarization convertible grating for receiving the transverse electric wave reflects back a reflected transverse electric wave having a polarization rotation. The broadband wide-angle polarization beam splitter can be alternative optical elements such as a prism or an optical device having multi-layered films. The diffraction grating can be a diffraction grating having alternating parallel protrusions and recesses, metallic diffraction grating, metal-coated diffraction grating, metal-coated multi-layered diffraction grating, non-metallic reflective material surface grating, volume grating, a multi-layer grating, diffractive grating having sub-wavelength grating periods or diffractive grating h

Knowledge-Rich Approach to Automatic Grammatical Information Acquisition: Enriching Chinese Sketch Engine with a Lexical Grammar

PACLIC 20 / Wuhan, China / 1-3 November, 200

Knowledge-Rich Approach to Automatic Grammatical Information Acquisition: Enriching Chinese Sketch Engine with a Lexical Grammar

PACLIC 20 / Wuhan, China / 1-3 November, 200

Oromotor variability in children with mild spastic cerebral palsy: a kinematic study of speech motor control

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Treating motor speech dysfunction in children with CP requires an understanding of the mechanism underlying speech motor control. However, there is a lack of literature in quantitative measures of motor control, which may potentially characterize the nature of the speech impairments in these children. This study investigated speech motor control in children with cerebral palsy (CP) using kinematic analysis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We collected 10 children with mild spastic CP, aged 4.8 to 7.5 years, and 10 age-matched children with typical development (TD) from rehabilitation department at a tertiary hospital. All children underwent analysis of percentage of consonants correct (PCC) and kinematic analysis of speech tasks: poly-syllable (PS) and mono-syllable (MS) tasks using the Vicon Motion 370 system integrated with a digital camcorder. Kinematic parameters included spatiotemporal indexes (STIs), and average values and coefficients of variation (CVs) of utterance duration, peak oral opening displacement and velocity. An ANOVA was conducted to determine whether PCC and kinematic data significantly differed between groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CP group had relatively lower PCCs (80.0-99.0%) than TD group (<it>p </it>= 0.039). CP group had higher STIs in PS speech tasks, but not in MS tasks, than TD group did (<it>p </it>= 0.001). The CVs of utterance duration for MS and PS tasks of children with CP were at least three times as large as those of TD children (<it>p </it>< 0.01). However, average values of utterance duration, peak oral opening displacement and velocity and CVs of other kinematic data for both tasks did not significantly differ between two groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>High STI values and high variability on utterance durations in children with CP reflect deficits in relative spatial and/or especially temporal control for speech in the CP participants compared to the TD participants. Children with mild spastic CP may have more difficulty in processing increased articulatory demands and resulted in greater oromotor variability than normal children. The kinematic data such as STIs can be used as indices for detection of speech motor control impairments in children with mild CP and assessment of the effectiveness in the treatment.</p