Asynchronous Conditions Research Articles

Autonomous Battery Optimization by Deploying Distributed Experiments and Simulations

AbstractNon‐trivial relationships link individual materials properties to device‐level performance. Device optimization therefore calls for new automation approaches beyond the laboratory bench with tight integration of different research methods. This study demonstrates a Materials Acceleration Platform (MAP) in the field of battery research based on the problem‐agnostic Fast INtention‐Agnostic LEarning Server (FINALES) framework, which integrates simulations and physical experiments while leaving the active control of the hardware and software resources executing experiments or simulations with the partners running the respective units. This decentralization of control is a distinctive feature of MAPs using the FINALES framework. The connected capabilities entail the formulation and characterization of electrolytes, cell assembly and testing, early lifetime prediction, and ontology‐mapped data storage provided by institutions distributed across Europe. The infrastructure is used to optimize the ionic conductivity of electrolytes and the End Of Life (EOL) of lithium‐ion coin cells by varying the electrolyte formulation. Trends in ionic conductivity are rediscovered and the effect of the electrolyte formulation on the EOL is investigated. Further, the capability of this MAP to bridge diverse research modalities, scales, and institutions enabling system‐level investigations under asynchronous conditions while handling concurrent workflows on the material‐ and system‐level is shown, demonstrating true intention‐agnosticism.

Sense of embodiment with synchronized avatar during walking in mixed reality.

Gait guidance systems that synchronize the gait rhythm with an avatar in a mixed reality (MR) environment are attracting attention owing to their rehabilitation applications. More effective gait guidance can be achieved by changing body sensations for the sense of embodiment (SoE), which refers to the feeling of owning, controlling, and being inside a body in MR. This study investigated full-body synchronous motion between a human and a virtual avatar to enhance the SoE in walking with actual position changes in the real world. The full-body motion and gait rhythm were measured using body-worn inertial measurement units and a visual avatar was provided through a transparent head-mounted display. The results showed that the SoE of the participants was enhanced under higher synchronization conditions. In addition, questionnaire results showed that the SoE in the synchronous condition was significantly higher than that in the asynchronous condition, and the SoE in the self-avatar condition was significantly higher than that in the other-avatar condition. This indicates that a higher synchronization level with the appearance of an avatar leads to a stronger SoE in the human perception mechanism, which is important for potential application in medical or other fields.

Dynamic Characteristics Analysis of the DI-SO Cylindrical Spur Gear System Based on Meshing Conditions

The dual-input single-output (DI-SO) cylindrical spur gear system possesses advantages such as high load-carrying capacity, precise transmission, and low energy loss. It is increasingly becoming a core component of power transmission systems in maritime vessels, aerospace, marine engineering, and construction machinery. In practical operation, the stability of the DI-SO cylindrical spur gear system is influenced by complex excitations. These excitations lead to nonlinear vibration, meshing instability, and noise, which affect the performance and reliability of the entire equipment. Hence, the dynamic performance of the DI-SO cylindrical spur gear system is thoroughly investigated in this research. The impact of excitations and nonlinear factors on the dynamic characteristics was investigated comprehensively. A comparative analysis of the gear system was conducted by establishing a bending–torsional coupling vibration analysis model under synchronous and asynchronous meshing conditions. Nonlinear factors such as periodic time-varying meshing stiffness, meshing damping, friction coefficient, friction arms, load sharing ratio, comprehensive transmission error, and backlash were considered in the proposed model. Then, the effect laws of excitations and nonlinear factors such as meshing frequency, driving load fluctuation, backlash, and comprehensive transmission error were analyzed. The results indicate that the dynamic characteristics exhibited staged stable and unstable states under different meshing frequencies and meshing conditions. At the medium-frequency meshing stage (0.96 × 104~1.78 × 104 Hz), alternating phenomena of multi-periodic, quasi-periodic, and chaotic motion states were observed. Moreover, the root mean square value (RMS) of the dynamic transmission error (DTE) in the asynchronized gear system was generally higher than that in the synchronized gear system. It was found that selecting the appropriate meshing condition could effectively reduce the amplitude of the DTE. Additionally, the dynamic performance could be significantly improved by adjusting control parameters such as driving load fluctuation (0~179 N), backlash (0.8 × 10−4~0.9 × 10−4 m), and comprehensive transmission error (7.9 × 10−4~9.4 × 10−4 m). The research results provide a theoretical guidance for the design and optimization of the DI-SO cylindrical spur gear system.

Efficient analysis and evaluation method for overall lifting of large-span spatial grid structures

Large-span spatial grid structures are commonly employed on the roofs of various public buildings and are typically installed via an overall lifting method. However, the process of overall lifting cannot ensure complete synchronization, which may result in damage to the structure or the lifting equipment. It is imperative to ascertain the limit state of the structure under asynchronous conditions and to develop an accurate model for rapidly assessing the critical response during the lifting process. This paper introduces an efficient approach for evaluating and analyzing the overall lifting process of large-span spatial grid structures. The iterative limit boundary (ILB) method is proposed in this paper, which facilitates the rapid determination of the limit boundary and the limit state for a structure-equipment system with asynchronous lifting. Furthermore, the genetic algorithm is integrated into the ILB method to enhance its efficiency when dealing with numerous lifting points. An agent model capable of outputting key structural responses is developed for the rapid evaluation of those responses throughout the lifting process. Both a numerical example and an engineering example are provided to validate the proposed method. The computational results indicate that the method proposed achieves accurate results with a computational cost merely 3 % of that of the Monte Carlo simulation. Additionally, the agent model established within the limit boundary, operates at a speed 200 times faster than finite element analysis, thereby enabling precise and real-time critical response assessments.

Multisensory conflict affects body schema and reaching space

Multisensory integration plays a crucial role in building the sense of body ownership, i.e., the perceptual status of one’s body for which the body is perceived as belonging to oneself. Temporal and spatial mismatching of visual and tactile signals coming from one’s body can reduce ownership feelings towards the body and its parts, i.e., produce disownership feelings. Here, we investigated whether visuo–tactile conflict also affects the sensorimotor representation of the body in space (i.e., body schema) and the perception of the space around the body in terms of action potentiality (i.e., reaching space). In two experiments, body schema (Experiment 1) and reaching space (Experiment 2) were assessed before and after either synchronous or asynchronous visuo–tactile stimulation. Results showed that the asynchronous condition, provoking multisensory conflict, caused disownership over one’s hand and concurrently affected the body schema and the reaching space. These findings indicate that body schema and reaching space could be dynamically shaped by the multisensory regularities that build up the sense of body ownership.

Neural dynamics of delayed feedback in robot teleoperation: insights from fNIRS analysis.

As robot teleoperation increasingly becomes integral in executing tasks in distant, hazardous, or inaccessible environments, operational delays remain a significant obstacle. These delays, inherent in signal transmission and processing, adversely affect operator performance, particularly in tasks requiring precision and timeliness. While current research has made strides in mitigating these delays through advanced control strategies and training methods, a crucial gap persists in understanding the neurofunctional impacts of these delays and the efficacy of countermeasures from a cognitive perspective. This study addresses the gap by leveraging functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine the neurofunctional implications of simulated haptic feedback on cognitive activity and motor coordination under delayed conditions. In a human-subject experiment (N = 41), sensory feedback was manipulated to observe its influences on various brain regions of interest (ROIs) during teleoperation tasks. The fNIRS data provided a detailed assessment of cerebral activity, particularly in ROIs implicated in time perception and the execution of precise movements. Our results reveal that the anchoring condition, which provided immediate simulated haptic feedback with a delayed visual cue, significantly optimized neural functions related to time perception and motor coordination. This condition also improved motor performance compared to the asynchronous condition, where visual and haptic feedback were misaligned. These findings provide empirical evidence about the neurofunctional basis of the enhanced motor performance with simulated synthetic force feedback in the presence of teleoperation delays. The study highlights the potential for immediate haptic feedback to mitigate the adverse effects of operational delays, thereby improving the efficacy of teleoperation in critical applications.

Design and Implementation of Verilog Based High Speed Low Power UART

The most crucial component of serial communication is a microcircuit called a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART). Receive-transmitter asynchronous technology is known as UART, and it is widely used for device-to-device communication protocols. Using asynchronous serial communication at a speed that can be adjusted. A hardware communication technique called UART Asynchronous conditions occur when the output of the transmitting device and the receiving end are not in sync with a clock. In UART, receiving a signal is known as RxD, and transmitting a signal is known as TxD. In comparison to the existing conventional UART design, we were able to reduce delay by 29% and power usage by 33% using our approach. The effectiveness of the novel UART design is noticed with the reduction in delay and power consumption. Synthesis and simulation are done in Xilinx ISE and Modelsim and Verilog HDL is used to implement a unique UART design.

Order Effects on the Rubber Hand Illusion Expectancy: A Replication and Extension of Lush (2020)

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is an illusion where the synchronized stroking of a rubber hand, placed in front of a participant, along with their concealed real hand results in a sense of ownership over the rubber hand. The questionnaire used to subjectively measure the RHI incorporated control and illusion statements to address demand characteristics. However, Lush (2020) demonstrated participants expected the illusion upon viewing a video of the RHI procedure despite the absence of tactile stimuli, indicating a lack of control over demand characteristics. In our study, Experiment 1, conducted with a Japanese sample (n = 27), was a preliminary direct replication of Lush (2020). Experiment 2, involving a larger sample (n = 185), also directly replicated Lush’s study and further investigated the influence of condition order on expectancies for the RHI. In both experiments, participants showed stronger agreement with the illusion statement expectancies in the synchronous condition compared to the asynchronous condition. However, this difference was not observed in the control statement expectancies, thereby replicating the outcomes of the original study. In Experiment 2, the group exposed to the asynchronous condition first showed stronger agreement with the illusion statement expectancies in that condition than those exposed to the synchronous condition first. As the RHI has been defined as the difference in direct and indirect measures between synchronous and asynchronous conditions, our results suggest that the methods in the RHI paradigm insufficiently control demand characteristics and order effects; thus, findings based on these methods are confounded by these effects.

Comparison of Concurrent and Asynchronous Running Kinematics and Kinetics From Marker-Based and Markerless Motion Capture Under Varying Clothing Conditions.

As markerless motion capture is increasingly used to measure 3-dimensional human pose, it is important to understand how markerless results can be interpreted alongside historical marker-based data and how they are impacted by clothing. We compared concurrent running kinematics and kinetics between marker-based and markerless motion capture, and between 2 markerless clothing conditions. Thirty adults ran on an instrumented treadmill wearing motion capture clothing while concurrent marker-based and markerless data were recorded, and ran a second time wearing athletic clothing (shorts and t-shirt) while markerless data were recorded. Differences calculated between the concurrent signals from both systems, and also between each participant's mean signals from both asynchronous clothing conditions were summarized across all participants using root mean square differences. Most kinematic and kinetic signals were visually consistent between systems and markerless clothing conditions. Between systems, joint center positions differed by 3cm or less, sagittal plane joint angles differed by 5° or less, and frontal and transverse plane angles differed by 5° to 10°. Joint moments differed by 0.3N·m/kg or less between systems. Differences were sensitive to segment coordinate system definitions, highlighting the effects of these definitions when comparing against historical data or other motion capture modalities.

Examining situational interest and its relationship with self-efficacy in asynchronous and synchronous video lectures

Recently, the number of online courses provided for university students around the world has increased substantially. Instruction is delivered most commonly through either asynchronous video lectures (pre-recorded videos with no real-time communication) or synchronous video lectures (live-streamed videos with real-time communication). From a learning perspective, it is important to capture the interest of learners based on specific situational aspects of both asynchronous and synchronous video lectures, and situational interest of learners may vary depending on the overall intrinsic qualities of each modality. Additionally, there may be variations in regards to the way in which self-efficacy interacts with situational interest depending on which modality is used. This study examines survey responses of university students (n = 93) in South Korea to determine if students perceive differences in situational interest between two different conditions: asynchronous video lectures and synchronous video lectures. Additionally, the difference between situational interest levels of learners with low self-efficacy and learners with high self-efficacy within each condition was examined. The main results showed no overall difference in situational interest between the two conditions and no difference in situational interest between learners with low self-efficacy and learners with high self-efficacy in the synchronous video lecture condition. However, there was a significant difference in situational interest found between learners with low self-efficacy and learners with high self-efficacy in the asynchronous video lecture condition. Results are explained through the differing effects of self-efficacy on situational interest based on the amount of autonomy provided in online learning environments.

Neural correlates of audiovisual narrative speech perception in children and adults on the autism spectrum: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Autistic individuals show substantially reduced benefit from observing visual articulations during audiovisual speech perception, a multisensory integration deficit that is particularly relevant to social communication. This has mostly been studied using simple syllabic or word-level stimuli and it remains unclear how altered lower-level multisensory integration translates to the processing of more complex natural multisensory stimulus environments in autism. Here, functional neuroimaging was used to examine neural correlates of audiovisual gain (AV-gain) in 41 autistic individuals to those of 41 age-matched non-autistic controls when presented with a complex audiovisual narrative. Participants were presented with continuous narration of a story in auditory-alone, visual-alone, and both synchronous and asynchronous audiovisual speech conditions. We hypothesized that previously identified differences in audiovisual speech processing in autism would be characterized by activation differences in brain regions well known to be associated with audiovisual enhancement in neurotypicals. However, our results did not provide evidence for altered processing of auditory alone, visual alone, audiovisual conditions or AV- gain in regions associated with the respective task when comparing activation patterns between groups. Instead, we found that autistic individuals responded with higher activations in mostly frontal regions where the activation to the experimental conditions was below baseline (de-activations) in the control group. These frontal effects were observed in both unisensory and audiovisual conditions, suggesting that these altered activations were not specific to multisensory processing but reflective of more general mechanisms such as an altered disengagement of Default Mode Network processes during the observation of the language stimulus across conditions.

Chronotype and emotion processing: a pilot study testing timing of online cognitive bias modification training

BackgroundCircadian rhythms influence cognitive performance which peaks in the morning for early chronotypes and evening for late chronotypes. It is unknown whether cognitive interventions are susceptible to such synchrony effects...

Validating cyclic plasticity material model for three materials subjected to asynchronous axial-torsion conditions

In the present work, a cyclic plasticity model based on Ohno-Wang kinematic hardening rule and Tanaka non-proportionality parameter, is proposed to simulate the cyclic stress strain response of three materials. The proposed model has been validated with respect to reported test results on two grades of steel (SA 333 Gr. 6 and E355) and one grade of austenitic stainless steel (X5CrNi18-10) under asynchronous axial-torsion loading conditions with a wide range of frequency ratios. The proposed model resulted in a comparable assessment of axial and shear stress–strain response with respect to the test loops for all three materials.

Asynchrony and promotive interaction in online cooperative learning

The positive effects of cooperative learning are well-documented in face-to-face environments, but its efficacy in asynchronous online environments remains unclear. Recent experimental research suggests that in comparing face-to-face and synchronous versions of cooperative learning, motivation, achievement, and cooperative perceptions, all decrease under asynchronous online conditions, which raises questions about how and why this occurs. The purpose of this study was to clarify this issue by testing whether asynchrony promotive interaction and moderates the association between cooperative goals and cooperative outcomes, using a repeated-measures experimental–control design. Results indicate that asynchrony affects promotive interaction in a way that disrupts the processes that occur in cooperative learning. Notably, the academic support component of promotive interaction was more susceptible to the effects of asynchrony, as it decreased among asynchronous students over time, particularly among those reporting above-average levels of cooperation, belonging, and positive emotion.

Heterogeneous Collaborative Learning for Personalized Healthcare Analytics Via Messenger Distillation.

The Healthcare Internet-of-Things (IoT) framework aims to provide personalized medical services with edge devices. Due to the inevitable data sparsity on an individual device, cross-device collaboration is introduced to enhance the power of distributed artificial intelligence. Conventional collaborative learning protocols (e.g., sharing model parameters or gradients) strictly require the homogeneity of all participant models. However, real-life end devices have various hardware configurations (e.g., compute resources), leading to heterogeneous on-device models with different architectures. Moreover, clients (i.e., end devices) may participate in the collaborative learning process at different times. In this paper, we propose a Similarity-Quality-based Messenger Distillation (SQMD) framework for heterogeneous asynchronous on-device healthcare analytics. By introducing a preloaded reference dataset, SQMD enables all participant devices to distill knowledge from peers via messengers (i.e., the soft labels of the reference dataset generated by clients) without assuming the same model architecture. Furthermore, the messengers also carry important auxiliary information to calculate the similarity between clients and evaluate the quality of each client model, based on which the central server creates and maintains a dynamic collaboration graph (communication graph) to improve the personalization and reliability of SQMD under asynchronous conditions. Extensive experiments on three real-life datasets show that SQMD achieves superior performance.

The role of bodily self-consciousness in episodic memory of naturalistic events: an immersive virtual reality study

Recent studies suggest that the human body plays a critical role in episodic memory. Still, the precise relationship between bodily self-consciousness (BSC) and memory formation of specific events, especially in real-life contexts, remains a topic of ongoing research. The present study investigated the relationship between BSC and episodic memory (EM) using immersive virtual reality (VR) technology. Participants were immersed in an urban environment with naturalistic events, while their visuomotor feedback was manipulated in three within-subjects conditions: Synchronous, Asynchronous, and No-body. Our results show that asynchronous visuomotor feedback and not seeing one’s body, compared to synchronous feedback, decrease the sense of self-identification, self-location and agency, and sense of presence. Moreover, navigating in the Asynchronous condition had a detrimental impact on incidental event memory, perceptual details, contextual association, subjective sense of remembering, and memory consolidation. In contrast, participants in the No-Body condition were only impaired in egocentric spatial memory and the sense of remembering at ten-day delay. We discuss these findings in relation to the role of bodily self-representation in space during event memory encoding. This study sheds light on the complex interplay between BSC, sense of presence, and episodic memory processes, and strengthens the potential of embodiment and VR technology in studying and enhancing human cognition.

Intersensory redundancy impedes face recognition in 12-month-old infants.

This study examined the role of intersensory redundancy on 12-month-old infants' attention to and processing of face stimuli. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, 72 12-month-olds were tested using an online platform called Lookit. Infants were familiarized with two videos of an actor reciting a children's story presented simultaneously. A soundtrack either matched one of the videos (experimental condition) or neither of the videos (control condition). Visual-paired comparison (VPC) trials were completed to measure looking preferences for the faces presented synchronously and asynchronously during familiarization and for novel faces. Neither group displayed looking preferences during the VPC trials. It is possible that the complexity of the familiarization phase made the modality-specific face properties (i.e., facial characteristics and configuration) difficult to process. In Experiment 2, 56 12-month-old infants were familiarized with the video of only one actor presented either synchronously or asynchronously with the soundtrack. Following familiarization, participants completed a VPC procedure including the familiar face and a novel face. Results from Experiment 2 showed that infants in the synchronous condition paid more attention during familiarization than infants in the asynchronous condition. Infants in the asynchronous condition demonstrated recognition of the familiar face. These findings suggest that the competing face stimuli in the Experiment 1 were too complex for the facial characteristics to be processed. The procedure in Experiment 2 led to increased processing of the face in the asynchronous presentation. These results indicate that intersensory redundancy in the presentation of synchronous audiovisual faces is very salient, discouraging the processing of modality-specific visual properties. This research contributes to the understanding of face processing in multimodal contexts, which have been understudied, although a great deal of naturalistic face exposure occurs multimodally.

Correlations between within-subject variability of pain intensity reports and rubber hand illusion proprioceptive drift

IntroductionConsistent with the Bayesian brain hypothesis, the within-subject variability of pain intensity reports as captured with the Focused Analgesia Selection Test (FAST) might be a surrogate measure of the certainty in ascending noxious signals. The outcomes of a non-pain-related task, the rubber hand illusion, were hypothesized to reflect the same construct. This study aimed to explore whether within-subject differences in variability of pain intensity reports and the outcomes of the rubber hand illusion might be related. MethodsNonclinical participants underwent the classic rubber hand illusion under synchronous (experimental) and asynchronous (control) conditions. Two outcomes were assessed: proprioceptive drift and feeling of ownership. Thereafter, participants underwent the FAST to assess the within-subject variability of pain reports in response to heat stimuli. Intraclass correlation (ICC) and the correlation coefficient (R2) were the main outcomes. Spearman’s correlations were used to assess associations between the outcomes of the 2 tasks. ResultsThirty-six volunteers completed the study. Both FAST outcomes—ICC (Spearman’s r = 0.355, p = 0.033) and R2 (Spearman’s r = 0.349, p = 0.037)—were positively correlated with proprioceptive drift in the synchronous but not asynchronous conditions (p > 0.05). The subjective feeling of ownership and FAST outcomes did not correlate (p > 0.05). ConclusionsThe associations between the 2 tasks’ outcomes imply that both tasks at least partly assess similar constructs. Current knowledge suggests that this construct represents the person’s certainty in perceiving ascending sensory signals, or, in Bayesian terminology, the certainty of the likelihood.

A Comparison of Cognitive and Social Presence in Online Graduate Courses: Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Modalities

Over the last decade, online courses have continued to expand, and students in higher education are being offered increased access to technology and communication tools in online learning programs. This action research study analyzed the impact of two distinct types of online course instruction (100% asynchronous and weekly online synchronous meetings) on learning outcomes, including cognitive and social presence, knowledge gained, and student perceptions. Study participants consisted of graduate students enrolled in online sections of a course on program evaluation. Four sections of the course were available: two included a synchronous meeting using web-conferencing, and two used an asynchronous format. A quasi-experimental design was used and included a pre-post test knowledge assessment, a modified version of the Community of Inquiry questionnaire (CoI), and end-of-course student evaluations. The mean ratings of the CoI in this study ranged from 3.75–4.60 out of 5. There was a significant difference in the cognitive presence scores for synchronous (M=4.26, SD=.529 asynchronous (M=4.47, SD=.454) conditions; t(97)=-2.07, p =.041. Our results suggest when students learn in an asynchronous format, they have a higher cognitive presence. The average scores on the knowledge pre-test were the same for both sections but post-test scores were slightly higher in the asynchronous section. Instructor ratings were high for all courses. These findings may offer valuable implications to higher education programs that have recently transitioned to online teaching modalities.

Food Allocation under Asynchronous Hatching Conditions of Great Tits (Parus major).

The brood reduction hypothesis, which explains asynchronous hatching in birds, as an adaptation that enables selective survival of older nestlings when availability of food is unpredictable. This study was conducted in order to determine whether the brood reduction hypothesis can explain asynchronous hatching in passerines. Infrared cameras were installed inside nest boxes where great tits (Parus major) were attempting to reproduce in order to determine whether the parents practiced selective feeding of older nestlings. According to the results of the study, no significant difference was observed between the hatching order and the average number of feedings per nestling. In addition, when examining the distribution of food according to hatching order over time, every 30 min, beginning at 9 a.m., selective distribution of food to older nestlings was not observed. In conclusion, use of the brood reduction hypothesis, which supports selective provision of beneficial feeding of older and larger nestlings, to explain the asynchronous hatching of passerines is problematic, thus conduct of future studies focusing on other hypotheses in order to explain the asynchronous hatching of this passerine bird will be necessary.