Deployment Of Such Devices Research Articles

Electromyogram-Based Lip-Reading via Unobtrusive Dry Electrodes and Machine Learning Methods.

Lip-reading provides an effective speech communication interface for people with voice disorders and for intuitive human-machine interactions. Existing systems are generally challenged by bulkiness, obtrusiveness, and poor robustness against environmental interferences. The lack of a truly natural and unobtrusive system for converting lip movements to speech precludes the continuous use and wide-scale deployment of such devices. Here, the design of a hardware-software architecture to capture, analyze, and interpret lip movements associated with either normal or silent speech is presented. The system can recognize different and similar visemes. It is robust in a noisy or dark environment. Self-adhesive, skin-conformable, and semi-transparent dry electrodes are developed to track high-fidelity speech-relevant electromyogram signals without impeding daily activities. The resulting skin-like sensors can form seamless contact with the curvilinear and dynamic surfaces of the skin, which is crucial for a high signal-to-noise ratio and minimal interference. Machine learning algorithms are employed to decode electromyogram signals and convert them to spoken words. Finally, the applications of the developed lip-reading system in augmented reality and medical service are demonstrated, which illustrate the great potential in immersive interaction and healthcare applications.

Toward a Unified TreeTalker Data Curation Process

The Internet of Things (IoT) development is revolutionizing environmental monitoring and research in macroecology. This technology allows for the deployment of sizeable diffuse sensing networks capable of continuous monitoring. Because of this property, the data collected from IoT networks can provide a testbed for scientific hypotheses across large spatial and temporal scales. Nevertheless, data curation is a necessary step to make large and heterogeneous datasets exploitable for synthesis analyses. This process includes data retrieval, quality assurance, standardized formatting, storage, and documentation. TreeTalkers are an excellent example of IoT applied to ecology. These are smart devices for synchronously measuring trees’ physiological and environmental parameters. A set of devices can be organized in a mesh and permit data collection from a single tree to plot or transect scale. The deployment of such devices over large-scale networks needs a standardized approach for data curation. For this reason, we developed a unified processing workflow according to the user manual. In this paper, we first introduce the concept of a unified TreeTalker data curation process. The idea was formalized into an R-package, and it is freely available as open software. Secondly, we present the different functions available in “ttalkR”, and, lastly, we illustrate the application with a demonstration dataset. With such a unified processing approach, we propose a necessary data curation step to establish a new environmental cyberinfrastructure and allow for synthesis activities across environmental monitoring networks. Our data curation concept is the first step for supporting the TreeTalker data life cycle by improving accessibility and thus creating unprecedented opportunities for TreeTalker-based macroecological analyses.

Microfluidics Technology in SARS-CoV-2 Diagnosis and Beyond: A Systematic Review.

With the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic, new technologies are being implemented for more rapid, scalable, and sensitive diagnostics. The implementation of microfluidic techniques and their amalgamation with different detection techniques has led to innovative diagnostics kits to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, antigens, and nucleic acids. In this review, we explore the different microfluidic-based diagnostics kits and how their amalgamation with the various detection techniques has spearheaded their availability throughout the world. Three other online databases, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, were referred for articles. One thousand one hundred sixty-four articles were determined with the search algorithm of microfluidics followed by diagnostics and SARS-CoV-2. We found that most of the materials used to produce microfluidics devices were the polymer materials such as PDMS, PMMA, and others. Centrifugal force is the most commonly used fluid manipulation technique, followed by electrochemical pumping, capillary action, and isotachophoresis. The implementation of the detection technique varied. In the case of antibody detection, spectrometer-based detection was most common, followed by fluorescence-based as well as colorimetry-based. In contrast, antigen detection implemented electrochemical-based detection followed by fluorescence-based detection, and spectrometer-based detection were most common. Finally, nucleic acid detection exclusively implements fluorescence-based detection with a few colorimetry-based detections. It has been further observed that the sensitivity and specificity of most devices varied with implementing the detection-based technique alongside the fluid manipulation technique. Most microfluidics devices are simple and incorporate the detection-based system within the device. This simplifies the deployment of such devices in a wide range of environments. They can play a significant role in increasing the rate of infection detection and facilitating better health services.

Enterprise Security for the Internet of Things (IoT): Lightweight Bootstrapping with EAP-NOOB.

The emergence of radio technologies, such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth Mesh, has transformed simple physical devices into smart objects that can understand and react to their environment. Devices, such as light bulbs, door locks, and window blinds, can now be connected to, and remotely controlled from, the Internet. Given the resource-constrained nature of many of these devices, they have typically relied on the use of universal global shared secrets for the initial bootstrapping and commissioning phase. Such a scheme has obvious security weaknesses and it also creates undesirable walled-gardens where devices of one ecosystem do not inter-operate with the other. In this paper, we investigate whether the standard Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) framework can be used for secure bootstrapping of resource-constrained devices. EAP naturally provides the benefits of per-device individual credentials, straightforward revocation, and isolation of devices. In particular, we look at the Nimble out-of-band authentication for EAP (EAP-NOOB) as a candidate EAP authentication method. EAP-NOOB greatly simplifies deployment of such devices as it does not require them to be pre-provisioned with credentials of any sort. Based on our implementation experience on off-the-shelf hardware, we demonstrate that lightweight EAP-NOOB is indeed a way forward to securely bootstrap such devices.

Internet-scale Insecurity of Consumer Internet of Things

The number of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices actively communicating across the Internet is continually increasing, as these devices are deployed across a variety of sectors, constantly transferring private data across the Internet. Due to the extensive deployment of such devices, the continuous discovery and persistence of IoT-centric vulnerabilities in protocols, applications, hardware, and the improper management of such IoT devices has resulted in the rampant, uncontrolled spread of malware threatening consumer IoT devices. To this end, this work adopts a novel, macroscopic methodology for fingerprinting Internet-scale compromised IoT devices, revealing crucial cyber threat intelligence on the insecurity of consumer IoT devices. By developing data-driven techniques rooted in machine learning methods and analyzing 3.6 TB of network traffic data, we discover 855,916 compromised IP addresses, with 310,164 fingerprinted as IoT. Further analysis reveals China and Brazil to be hosting the most significant population of compromised IoT devices (100,000 and 55,000, respectively). Additionally, we provide a longitudinal analysis on data from one year ago against this work, revealing the evolving trends of IoT exploitation, such as the increased number of vendors targeted by malware, rising from 50 to 131. Moreover, countries such as China (420% increased infected IoT count) and Indonesia (177% increased infected IoT count) have seen notably high increases in infection rates. Last, we compare our geographic results against Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) ratings, verifying that countries with high GCI ratings, such as the Netherlands and Germany, had relatively low infection rates. However, upon further inspection, we find that the GCI rate does not accurately represent the consumer IoT market, with countries such as China and Russia being rated with “high” CGI scores, yet hosting a large population of infected consumer IoT devices.

It's in the bag: mobile containers in human evolution and child development.

Mobile containers are a keystone human innovation. Ethnographic data indicate that all human groups use containers such as bags, quivers and baskets, ensuring that individuals have important resources at the ready and are prepared for opportunities and threats before they materialize. Although there is speculation surrounding the invention of carrying devices, the current hard archaeological evidence only reaches back some 100,000 years. The dearth of ancient evidence may reflect not only taphonomic processes, but also a lack of attention to these devices. To begin investigating the origins of carrying devices we focus on exploring the basic cognitive processes involved in mobile container use and report an initial study on young children's understanding and deployment of such devices. We gave 3- to 7-year-old children (N = 106) the opportunity to spontaneously identify and use a basket to increase their own carrying capacity and thereby obtain more resources in the future. Performance improved linearly with age, as did the likelihood of recognizing that adults use mobile carrying devices to increase carrying capacity. We argue that the evolutionary and developmental origins of mobile containers reflect foundational cognitive processes that enable humans to think about their own limits and compensate for them.

Internet of Things in Smart City Environments

With the advent of smart devices, a huge paradigm shift is observed in the way the users define service quality. Further, these devices or Internet of Things (IoT) devices as they are generally addressed, have acted as catalyst for comfort and connectivity and are building blocks of Smart City environment. With limited thought related to security is involved during the deployment of such devices, they offer a dangerous environment of opportunity to the attackers from the internet; which not only jeopardize network security, bus also the privacy of the users. Hence, it is of utmost importance to address the security concerns in smart city environment. This paper attempts to study the current IoT technologies deployed in a smart-city environment along with its vulnerabilities and possible solutions to improve IoT security. An approach is made to study the various vulnerabilities available with the IoT devices deployed in the smart city setup, various motivation of an attacker and the analyse some of the recent attacks witnessed by IoT devices. A few possible solutions for mitigation are suggested in this paper. The findings of the paper can be implemented in any network of IoT devices.

Future of IOT: Design and deployment challenges

The article touches upon the various design considerations for IoT devices, and discusses the various challenges faced in the design and deployment of such devices.

A fog-driven dynamic resource allocation technique in ultra dense femtocell networks

The highly dense small cell structure filled with large number of Femtocell Base Stations (FBSs) is expected to address the increasing data demand of end users in current and upcoming generation of wireless networks. However, the large and random deployment of such devices incur severe interference which leads to significant performance degradation. To overcome this issue in the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)-based femtocell networks, we propose a hierarchical technique consisting of a dynamic distributed clustering and a fog-driven resource allocation to optimize the total throughput of the network while mitigating the interference. Our fully distributed clustering method is designed so that FBSs adaptively form clusters with dynamic size based on the current status of the network and end users. Moreover, we put forward a policy-aware resource allocation method to address the intra and inter-cluster interference, which are two potential types of interference in clustering-based resource allocation techniques. Since our technique carefully considers users' demands in cluster formation, there is always sufficient resources for end users in each cluster, so that each cluster head can find a resource allocation solution, by which no intra-cluster interference occurs. Besides, we employ local fog servers situated in the proximity of clusters for monitoring and assigning a set of policies to CHs for resource allocation, by which the number of inter-cluster interference can be significantly reduced. The extensive simulation results demonstrate that our proposed hierarchical technique significantly improves total throughout, interference, user satisfaction, and fairness compared to other proposed techniques in dense and ultra-dense femtocell networks.

An update on the use of an arterial closure device following femoral arterial puncture in children.

The use of arterial closure devices in achieving femoral hemostasis has been well documented in adults but insufficiently studied in the pediatric population. An earlier study from our institution of 40 Angio-Seal devices in 38 patients concluded that the arterial closure device is safe in children with only a single minor complication. Ongoing experience with this device at our institution, however, suggests a higher rate of complication. To retrospectively evaluate the safety and efficacy of the Angio-Seal in a pediatric population. A retrospective analysis reviewed all cases in which the Angio-Seal was deployed from June 2011 to September 2017. Peri-procedural documentation was reviewed for pre-procedure labs, clinical effectiveness in achieving hemostasis and complications related to the use of this device. Logistic regression analysis was also used to evaluate the relationship between patient demographic, vessel size and indication for angiography, and the presence or absence of complications. During the study period, 48 additional Angio-Seal devices were deployed in 41 consecutive patients. Five patients were excluded for being older than 18years. The mean age of the patients was 13.3years (range: 4-18years) with 18 patients female. The mean common femoral artery diameter was 5.98mm in short axis diameter (range: 4-9mm). Complications were present in 6/43 cases (14%) including 3 minor and 3 major complications that included additional procedures. No significant relationship was identified between vessel size, age and the indication for angiography, and the rate of complication on logistic regression analysis. While percutaneous arterial closure devices can be efficacious for achieving hemostasis, our experience demonstrates a higher rate of complications in children, contrary to a previous report. The deployment of such devices should be performed with prejudice in this population.

Experiencias en la aplicación de Tabletas en Secundaria

El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en presentar una serie de experiencias sobre el uso de dispositivos “tablet” (tabletas) en el ámbito de la Enseñanza Secundaria. Este tipo de dispositivos vienen utilizándose en diversos centros educativos repartidos por el estado español, principalmente en Educación Primaria, y pese a su potencial innovador y las ventajas tecnológicas que aportan, también aparecen dificultades cuando se busca una implantación efectiva de los mismos. Por un lado, en el trabajo se plantean ciertas cuestiones sobre el aprovechamiento didáctico de estos dispositivos y las necesidades o requisitos que ello implica. Por otra parte, se trata de extraer una serie de recomendaciones/guías para una aplicación efectiva de este tipo de dispositivos. Para ello, se cuenta con la experiencia de un centro educativo a lo largo de varios cursos en la aplicación de tales tecnologías. A partir de dicha experiencia se analizan los resultados obtenidos y se pretende dar una nueva perspectiva en el uso didáctico de las tabletas.

Numerical and experimental study of the interaction between two marine current turbines

The understanding of interaction effects between marine energy converters represents the next step in the research process that should eventually lead to the deployment of such devices. Although some a priori considerations have been suggested recently, very few real condition studies have been carried out concerning this issue.Trials were run on 1/30th scale models of three-bladed marine current turbine prototypes in a flume tank. The present work focuses on the case where a turbine is placed at different locations in the wake of a first one. The interaction effects in terms of performance and wake of the second turbine are examined and compared to the results obtained on the case of one single turbine. Besides, a three-dimensional software, based on a vortex method is currently being developed, and will be used in the near future to model more complex layouts.The experimental study shows that the second turbine is deeply affected by the presence of an upstream device and that a compromise between individual device performance and inter-device spacing is necessary. Numerical results show good agreement with the experiment and are promising for the future modelling of turbine farms.

Year-long deployments of small geolocators increase corticosterone levels in murres

Geolocators provide information on the year-round movements of birds. The effect of the year-round deployment of such devices has, however, largely been examined via measures that are relatively insensitive to small changes in nutritional condition, such as return body mass, return rate and reproductive success. To address this issue, we equipped 34 common murres Uria aalge and 35 thick-billed murres U. lomvia at 6 colonies in the eastern Canadian Arctic and sub- Arctic with geolocators for 1 yr and measured baseline corticosterone levels (4 colonies) and body mass (6 colonies) upon device retrieval. Across all colonies, birds equipped with geolocators averaged higher levels of corticosterone and lower body mass than controls, although there were substantial differences among colonies. De spite effects of the devices on corticosterone and body mass, survival (90%) in equipped birds was no different than in control birds at the one colony where long-term resighting data were available, and chick feeding rates were also similar between equipped and un - equipped birds. We suggest that even very small devices can cause chronic stress when applied over long periods, at least for a diving bird with a very high wing loading, but effects on birds in the present study were not sufficiently pronounced to influence adult survival or chick provisioning rates.

Estimation of explosive charge mass used for explosions on concrete surface for the forensic purpose

The method of choice used by most terrorists for achieving political goals remains the utilization of explosive devices and there is always visible evidence at a crime scene after the deployment of such devices. Given favorable circumstances, forensic analysis can determine the cause of the explosion - the type of the explosive device, the means of detonation, the type and mass of the explosive charge that has been used and perhaps provide information to lead to the identity of the individual who may have constructed or deployed the explosive device, etc. Evidence of an explosion may take the form of a crater or other damage which may provide some information facilitating and estimating the mass of explosive material used. This paper reports the findings obtained by performing experimental explosions of known charges on a concrete surface, in order to establish the correlation between the charge weight and the effects of the explosion. Known masses of explosives were fired and the dimensions of craters made by explosions were measured. Five empirical equations for estimation of the explosive charge mass from crater dimensions were used.

A Novel Turbomachinery Air-Brake Concept for Quiet Aircraft

A novel air-brake concept for next-generation, low-noise civil aircraft is introduced. Deployment of such devices in clean airframe configuration can potentially reduce aircraft source noise and noise propagation to the ground. The generation of swirling outflow from a duct, such as an aircraft engine, is demonstrated to have high drag and low noise. The simplest configuration is a ram pressure-driven duct with stationary swirl vanes, a so-called swirl tube. A detailed aerodynamic design is performed using first principles based modeling and high-fidelity numerical simulations. The swirl-drag-noise relationship is quantified through scale-model aerodynamic and aeroacoustic wind tunnel tests. The maximum measured stable flow drag coefficient is 0.83 at exit swirl angles close to 50 deg. The acoustic signature, extrapolated to full-scale, is found to be well below the background noise of a well-populated area. Vortex breakdown is found to be the aerodynamically and acoustically limiting phenomenon, generating a white-noise signature that is about 15 dB louder than a stable swirling flow.

Energy and Performance Optimization of Demand Paging With OneNAND Flash

New fusion memory devices consisting of multiple heterogeneous memory components in a single die or package offer efficient ways to optimize embedded systems in terms of energy, performance, and cost. Samsung Electronics recently announced the OneNAND fusion memory, in which a NAND flash array is integrated with dual SRAM buffers to provide a nor-type I/O interface. OneNAND has the low cost and large capacity of a NAND flash but also permits eXecution-in-Place (XIP) like a nor flash. The deployment of such devices requires careful system-level resource management because of their impact on energy consumption and performance, and existing memory optimization techniques, such as the demand paging used with NAND flash, may no longer be appropriate for systems with a fusion memory. We introduce a new online demand paging scheme that fully exploits the XIP capability of OneNAND flash by classifying pages as load preferred (residing in the on-chip SRAM) and XIP preferred (accessed directly from the OneNAND flash and discarded after use). This achieves, on average, a 26% reduction in energy consumption and a 19% increase in performance, compared with conventional NAND flash demand paging.

Near Earth Object Orbit Modification Using Gravitational Coupling

It has been well documented that the population of near Earth objects (NEO) poses a terrestrial impact hazard [1-4]. Although current efforts are focused on detecting and cataloging such objects, various schemes for hazard mitigation have been proposed and investigated in some detail [5-15]. Nuclear devices appear attractive for deflecting potentially hazardous NEOs [5], although serious political issues arise concerning the deployment of such devices in space [11]. To overcome such difficulties, a range of nonnuclear options have been proposed. Concepts include focusing solar radiation onto the target asteroid with a large collector and smaller steerable secondary mirror to generate a hot jet of exhaust gas [6,7] or coating the asteroid to alter its albedo, and hence modify the Yarkovsky induced acceleration [8]. Somewhat more conventional approaches center on the use of kinetic energy impacts from either prograde [12,13] or retrograde orbits [9,10], or the use of continuous low thrust to increase the predicted Earth miss distance of the NEO using large solar or nuclear electric vehicles.

An evaluation of a lane support system for bus rapid transit on narrow shoulders and the relation to bus driver mental workload

The use of dedicated bus shoulders is a key method for implementing bus rapid transit (BRT) in areas that do not have the space for additional infrastructure. However, the narrow width of the bus shoulder and the need to anticipate traffic hazards in the adjacent lane can both be significant stressors for bus drivers. Bus driver mental workload and stress in response to these conditions should be a significant concern both for operational safety and driver health. This pilot study evaluated the potential stressors of traffic density and shoulder width in the context of an express BRT service in a large US metropolitan area. In addition, the study considered the potential role of a prototype lane support system (LSS) to support vehicle control within the narrow shoulder boundaries. Ten experienced bus drivers drove an actual route with an instrumented bus equipped with and without LSS. Self-reported effort was recorded along with performance measures of speed and position control relevant to mobility and safety objectives. Bus drivers did note stressors in the BRT environment and the prototype LSS. However, the use of the shoulder during high-density traffic conditions did improve mobility. Moreover, the LSS did enhance safety on the shoulder when there was high-density traffic in the adjacent lane. However, there was no evidence that the LSS reduced bus driver workload while operating in the narrow shoulder. Future research should consider the impact of BRT operations and support systems on bus driver mental workload and stress, and support the deployment of such devices for bus operations on shoulders during high traffic volumes.