Design Of Applications Research Articles

Electric energy output characteristics of polyvinylidene fluoride piezoelectric transducer under pulse stress: A simplified model

Because of its excellent performance, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) transducers are commonly used to convert pulse kinetic energy into electrical energy. To quantify the relationship between the transducer's input pulse stress and output electrical energy, this study established a voltage output model by simplifying the pulse stress into a triangular pulse. Then, the model's reliability was verified through three experiments, and the causes of model deviations were determined. Subsequently, the influence of the transducer (area A and piezoelectric constant K), pulse stress (pulse rise time t1 and loading rate F1), and circuit (load resistance Rm and PVDF capacitance CP) on energy conversion were analyzed with the model. Results show A, K, and F1 are directly proportional to the maximum output voltage Vmax. As Rm increases, Vmax increases and gradually approaches the limit value, AKF1t1/CP. When the peak stress remains constant, the influence of t1 on Vmax is opposite to that of Rm. When CP is larger than t1/10Rm, reducing CP leads to Vmax increases, and the increasing rate is maximized as CP approaches t1/2Rm. This study clarifies the influence of key parameters in the harvester on its energy output characteristics, which is helpful for its optimizing design in different applications.

Integration Strategies of Ideological and Political Education in University Mechanical Engineering Courses

This study aims to explore effective ways to integrate ideological and political education into university mechanical engineering courses to cultivate well-rounded engineering talents with both technical skills and moral integrity. By analyzing the core concepts of ideological and political education and the characteristics of mechanical engineering education, specific integration strategies are proposed. These include the optimization and design of course content, innovation and application of teaching methods, and the development and training of faculty. The effectiveness of these strategies is also evaluated. The research results indicate that the organic integration of ideological and political education can significantly enhance students' moral qualities and professional skills, promoting their overall development.

Efficiency of Robust Observer Design in Power-Assisted Wheelchair Applications

Efficiency of Robust Observer Design in Power-Assisted Wheelchair Applications

Light It Up: Boarding for Automated Low-Capacity Shuttles through Ambient Visual Cues

Once public transport is fully automated, human operators will no longer be needed for tasks like manoeuvring, paying, and boarding. Interfaces must evolve to cover the entire interaction chain from booking to boarding. We present a user-centred design of a mobile-based booking application and an LED-based boarding interface for automated shuttles. Our approach included comprehensive requirements and feasibility analyses to ensure technical viability and user satisfaction. Laboratory study results highlight the advantages and challenges of the boarding interface, underscoring the importance of early user requirements and feasibility assessments in designing automated shuttle systems.

A Model-Driven Framework for Composition-Based Quantum Circuit Design

Quantum programming languages support the design of quantum applications. However, to create such programs, one needs to understand the fundamental characteristics of quantum computing and quantum information theory. Furthermore, quantum algorithms frequently make use of abstract operations with a hidden low-level realization (e.g., Quantum Fourier Transform). Thus, turning from elementary quantum operations to a higher-level view of quantum circuit design not only reduces the development effort but also lowers the entry barriers for non-quantum computing experts. To this end, this paper proposes a modeling language and design framework for quantum circuits. This allows the definition of composite operators to advocate a higher-level quantum algorithm design, together with automated code generation for the circuit execution. To demonstrate the benefits of the proposed approach, coined Composition-Based Quantum Circuit Designer , we applied it for realizing the Quantum Counting algorithm and the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm. Our evaluation results show that, compared to an existing state-of-the-art editor, the proposed approach allows for the realization of both quantum algorithms on a high level with a substantially reduced development effort. In particular, the proposed approach shows constant scaling when increasing the size of the investigated quantum circuits and a lower change criticality when evolving existing quantum circuits.

Bus Route Sketching: A Multimetric Analysis from the User’s and Operator’s Perspectives

The purpose of this study is to develop an optimal bus route search algorithm that considers both the user’s and supplier’s perspectives. The process of providing bus route service involves route network design, route allocation, and operation and management in sequence. Among these, establishing the optimal rationality for route network design in practical applications is challenging, and route modifications often occur during the operation process. To minimize these practical difficulties, this study proposes the Bus Route Sketch (BRS) methodology. This methodology, designed for network-level optimization, distinguishes itself from existing bus route setting methodologies by minimizing travel costs while taking user needs into account. This study yielded positive results, with the evaluation score improving from 8.83 to 9.50 from the supplier’s perspective and from 7.13 to 9.89 from the user’s perspective. This BRS methodology, developed to suit both route planning and operation processes, is expected to be utilized in the practical evaluation, adjustment, and design of bus routes.

Design and Development of an Interactive Assessment Application for the Observation of Heart Failure Self-Health Management.

Heart disease can lead to physical disability and mortality, ranking second among the top 10 causes of death according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. This study aims to examine the impact of the interactive assessment application on patients' public health knowledge. In this study, a single-group pretest and posttest experimental design was adopted. Thirty-six hospitalized patients diagnosed with heart failure participated in the pretest and posttest assessments. The findings demonstrate that the developed application led to an increase in the number of recorded physiological measurements, effectively enabling patients to manage their blood pressure. The heart failure self-management application was observed to improve patients' understanding and awareness of heart failure disease, improving their self-management skills.

Revisiting design principles and guidelines for online makerspace services and programming in public libraries

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to revisit previous design principles and guidelines for online makerspaces in public libraries (Kim et al., 2020) and expand the design principles with more updated implications and examples from the literature published during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe authors reviewed recently published papers about online transitions of makerspaces, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, summarized their implications and deduced applicable design principles and guidelines.FindingsThis paper proposes updated design principles and guidelines based on four key areas: Program and service design; Tools and materials; Facilitation; and Logistic support. These updated design principles considered a wider range of patrons that public library makerspaces may serve, the digital divide issues and logistic concerns that should be addressed beyond the scope of a single makerspace.Originality/valueThis paper compiles various lessons learned and strategies regarding online makerspaces and maker programming for public libraries and provides helpful design principles and guidelines for the continued use of online components for makerspace services and programs.

Designing and prototyping extensions to the Message Passing Interface in MPICH

As HPC system architectures and the applications running on them continue to evolve, the MPI standard itself must evolve. The trend in current and future HPC systems toward powerful nodes with multiple CPU cores and multiple GPU accelerators makes efficient support for hybrid programming critical for applications to achieve high performance. However, the support for hybrid programming in the MPI standard has not kept up with recent trends. The MPICH implementation of MPI provides a platform for implementing and experimenting with new proposals and extensions to fill this gap and to gain valuable experience and feedback before the MPI Forum can consider them for standardization. In this work, we detail six extensions implemented in MPICH to increase MPI interoperability with other runtimes, with a specific focus on heterogeneous architectures. First, the extension to MPI generalized requests lets applications integrate asynchronous tasks into MPI’s progress engine. Second, the iovec extension to datatypes lets applications use MPI datatypes as a general-purpose data layout API beyond just MPI communications. Third, a new MPI object, MPIX_Stream, can be used by applications to identify execution contexts beyond MPI processes, including threads and GPU streams. MPIX stream communicators can be created to make existing MPI functions thread-aware and GPU-aware, thus providing applications with explicit ways to achieve higher performance. Fourth, MPIX Streams are extended to support the enqueue semantics for offloading MPI communications onto a GPU stream context. Fifth, thread communicators allow MPI communicators to be constructed with individual threads, thus providing a new level of interoperability between MPI and on-node runtimes such as OpenMP. Lastly, we present an extension to invoke MPI progress, which lets users spawn progress threads with fine-grained control to adapt the communication performance to their application designs. We describe the design and implementation of these extensions, provide usage examples, and highlight their expected benefits with performance results.

Recent Review on Biological Barriers and Host-Material Interfaces in Precision Drug Delivery: Advancement in Biomaterial Engineering for Better Treatment Therapies.

Preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that precision therapy has a broad variety of treatment applications, making it an interesting research topic with exciting potential in numerous sectors. However, major obstacles, such as inefficient and unsafe delivery systems and severe side effects, have impeded the widespread use of precision medicine. The purpose of drug delivery systems (DDSs) is to regulate the time and place of drug release and action. They aid in enhancing the equilibrium between medicinal efficacy on target and hazardous side effects off target. One promising approach is biomaterial-assisted biotherapy, which takes advantage of biomaterials' special capabilities, such as high biocompatibility and bioactive characteristics. When administered via different routes, drug molecules deal with biological barriers; DDSs help them overcome these hurdles. With their adaptable features and ample packing capacity, biomaterial-based delivery systems allow for the targeted, localised, and prolonged release of medications. Additionally, they are being investigated more and more for the purpose of controlling the interface between the host tissue and implanted biomedical materials. This review discusses innovative nanoparticle designs for precision and non-personalised applications to improve precision therapies. We prioritised nanoparticle design trends that address heterogeneous delivery barriers, because we believe intelligent nanoparticle design can improve patient outcomes by enabling precision designs and improving general delivery efficacy. We additionally reviewed the most recent literature on biomaterials used in biotherapy and vaccine development, covering drug delivery, stem cell therapy, gene therapy, and other similar fields; we have also addressed the difficulties and future potential of biomaterial-assisted biotherapies.

Impact of Strontium, Magnesium, and Zinc Ions on the In Vitro Osteogenesis of Maxillary Sinus Membrane Stem Cells.

Human Maxillary Sinus Membrane Stem Cells (hMSMSCs) contribute significantly to bone formation following maxillary sinus floor augmentation (MSFA). The biological behavior of mesenchymal stem cells is notably influenced by varying concentrations of magnesium (Mg2+), strontium (Sr2+), and zinc (Zn2+) ions; however, their specific effects on hMSMSCs have not been comprehensively studied. We isolated hMSMSCs and identified their mesenchymal stem cell characteristics by flow cytometry and multilineage differentiation experiments. Subsequently, the hMSMSCs were cultured in media containing different concentrations of these metal ions. The proliferation and viability of hMSMSCs were assessed using CCK-8 and Calcein AM/PI staining. After osteogenic induction, cells were evaluated for alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, ALP staining, and Alizarin Red staining. Additionally, qRT-PCR was used to detect differences in osteogenic gene expression, and immunofluorescence staining was used to observe variations in OCN protein levels. The results indicated that 1 mM Mg2+, 0.01 mM Sr2+, and 0.001 mM Zn2+ significantly improved the proliferation and activity of hMSMSCs. These concentrations also notably enhanced ALP secretion, increased bone-related gene expression, and augmented osteocalcin expression and formation of extracellular calcium nodules, thereby improving osteogenic differentiation. However, higher concentrations of Mg2+, Sr2+, and Zn2+ decreased cell viability and osteogenic differentiation. Mg2+, Sr2+, and Zn2+ promote osteogenic differentiation and proliferation of hMSMSCs in a concentration-dependent manner, indicating that the type and concentration of ions in the extracellular environment can significantly alter hMSMSCs behavior, which is a crucial consideration for material design in maxillary sinus elevation applications.

Design of Thermoresponsive Genetic Controls with Minimal Heat-Shock Response.

As temperature serves as a versatile input signal, thermoresponsive genetic controls have gained significant interest for recombinant protein production and metabolic engineering applications. The conventional thermoresponsive systems normally require the continuous exposure of heat stimuli to trigger the prolonged expression of targeted genes, and the accompanied heat-shock response is detrimental to the bioproduction process. In this study, we present the design of thermoresponsive quorum-sensing (ThermoQS) circuits to make Escherichia coli record transient heat stimuli. By conversion of the heat input into the accumulation of quorum-sensing molecules such as acyl-homoserine lactone derived from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, sustained gene expressions were achieved by a minimal heat stimulus. Moreover, we also demonstrated that we reprogrammed the E. coli Lac operon to make it respond to heat stimuli with an impressive signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 15.3. Taken together, we envision that the ThermoQS systems reported in this study are expected to remarkably diminish both design and experimental expenditures for future metabolic engineering applications.

The Evaluation Purposes Visualization

Background: The article outlines the development of a visualization that aimed to represent the purpose of different evaluation theories. This visualization used a stream/river metaphor to show the evolution of different purposes (e.g. utilization, knowledge generation, accountability) of evaluation, and also highlighted the historical context that had influenced their development. The visualization shows that the end goal of all these evaluation approaches (i.e. the ocean in which the rivers flow towards) is societal improvement. Purpose: The article highlights the lessons learned and influences that led to the development of an evaluation theory categorization system. We hope that this would serve as an example (and maybe inspiration) for future efforts that aim to understand how evaluation theories have evolved and developed. Setting: Not applicable Intervention: Not applicable Research Design: Not applicable Data Collection and Analysis: Not applicable Findings: Not applicable Keywords: Evaluation theory, information visualization, evaluation historical context, organizing framework, theory development.

The Application and Optimization Design of Management Information Systems in the Field of Higher Education in China

Digital transformation has made management information systems (MIS) increasingly vital in education. This paper examines the current application and optimization of MIS in higher education in China. Information technology has enhanced educational management efficiency and decision-making through MIS. However, Chinese universities face the problems of data silos, incomplete functionality, and low user satisfaction. This study, through literature review and field investigation, analyzes the application of MIS in universities domestically and internationally, identifies issues in Chinese universities, and proposes optimization solutions. The focus is on enhancing MIS in Chinese universities with modern technologies like artificial intelligence to improve management efficiency and service quality.

Application Design and Analysis of Network Data Mining in Microsystemic Software

Application Design and Analysis of Network Data Mining in Microsystemic Software

Decision-making model in digital commerce: electronic trust-based purchasing intention through online food delivery applications (OFDAs)

PurposeThis research aimed to raise awareness about the need for safety measures and features of online food delivery applications (OFDAs) to build electronic trust (e-trust) with augmented purchase intention among customers. Moreover, this study explores the attributes of electronic commerce (e-commerce) and how e-trust influences the purchasing intention of consumers while ordering food through OFDAs including fear of contagious diseases. Determinants of e-commerce in the digital era profoundly impact the performance of enterprises.Design/methodology/approachData from 493 food consumers collected from Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Pakistan, who were regular users of OFDAs. To scrutinize the dataset, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the construct validity in this research study. Structural equation modeling (SEM), which is facilitated by Smart-PLS, was employed to examine the direct, moderation and mediation effects of the proposed model.FindingsResults revealed the positive and significant impact of the e-trust on the purchase intention. Additionally, e-trust acted as a mediating factor in the connection between electronic security (e-security), electronic privacy (e-privacy), usability, electronic payment (e-payment), electronic innovativeness (e-innovativeness) and the buyer's purchase intention. Furthermore, the fear of contagious viruses negatively moderated the e-trust and purchase intention that weakened buying behavior.Originality/valueThis research is primarily centered on enhancing the comprehension regarding safety orientation within the context of an evolving restaurant industry. The findings of this study hold substantial contributions for academics, web developers, application designers, OFDAs, restaurants and other businesses since they indicate the attractiveness of OFDAs in generating feelings of pleasure and boosting users' intentions to keep using the application.

Technology-enhanced environmental learning: A practical guide to educational areas for urban educators

Abstract Mobile applications are utilized by urban educators as a means to encourage environmentally friendly behaviours among city dwellers. To enhance their effectiveness, they should meet the needs of their potential users. This qualitative survey research studied urban population of the Tricity metropolitan area intended identify the perspective of residents regarding the areas that require intervention. It focuses in the potential of mobile applications in promoting pro-environmental education, particularly in areas deemed sensitive by city residents and city users. The research framework is founded on action research. The data collection technique used a survey conducted through a research panel among 821 residents and users of the Tricity metropolitan area. The data was analysed by looking at the relevance of urban challenges and related areas of support. The results of the research were that 12 areas of city functioning perceived as needing improvement were identified and emotionally relevant among the 13 indicators analysed. In conclusion, 12 educational areas of city functioning were identified as relevant for the design of mobile applications related to environmental education. The results may also serve as a basis for developing instructional environmental education for urban educators to support local policies to address the climate crisis and encourage pro-environmental behaviour among urban residents.

Computational Fluid Dynamics, Transport, and Chemical Kinetics-Based Monolith Catalyst Dimensioning Methodology for Cost-Effective Performance

The newly developed computational fluid dynamics, transport, and chemical kinetics-based monolith catalyst dimensioning methodology consists of the following steps: (i) initial calculations, which generate some of the data, e.g., average inlet fluid velocity used in the (ii) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling, which uses the laminar flow interface and the transport of diluted species interface while the user has to provide the kinetics of the reactions; (iii) the model order reduction uses a modified version of the plug flow reactor model and the linear pressure variation model; and (iv) the dimensioning optimization algorithm extracts the optimal monolith catalyst’s channel geometry, which satisfies the user’s performance constraints and reduces material consumption. Therefore, the methodology enables chemical engineers to quickly and efficiently design and dimension monolith catalysts for many different applications in an environmentally friendly way, which enables them to reduce both the material and operating costs while maintaining sufficient catalyst performance and, therefore, achieve its cost-effective performance.

A unified model of tensile and creep deformation for use in niobium alloy materials selection and design for high-temperature applications

There is renewed interest in refractory alloys that possess higher service temperatures than incumbent Ni-based superalloys (e.g., ⪆1100 °C). This study provides a review of the high-temperature constitutive responses of Nb-alloys measured over a wide range of temperatures (≈860 °C < T < ≈1760 °C) and strain rates (≈10–9 s-1< ε˙ < ≈10–1 s-1). Nevertheless, the extant data is sparse and informed materials selection decisions require constitutive expressions to interpolate and reliably extrapolate. The Larson-Miller parameter approach to describe creep-life provides a conservative estimate of material response at the highest temperatures and lowest strain rates, whereas the Sellars-Tegart model describes both steady-state creep and high-temperature tensile test data with a single, universal equation. A minimum flow stress based on the combination of these two models is proposed for design considerations to address the overprediction of strength that can arise from applying one or the other independently. This effort highlights the fact that refractory alloys exhibit strain rate sensitive flow strengths in the temperature range of interest for applications. The roles of alloying, thermomechanical processing, and impurity levels are discussed, and highlight the fact that these advanced Nb-alloys evidence Class 1 (Class A) solute drag controlled creep behavior, except the carbide precipitation strengthened alloy, D-43. In addition, the high-temperature strengths are confirmed to be strongly correlated with alloy melting point.

Augmented Reality for Supporting Student’s Engagement in Mathematics Education: A Systematic Literature Review

Augmented reality (AR) has gained considerable attention in academic research as a primary instructional tool to enhance learning across various educational levels, including mathematics education. AR enables the overlaying of three-dimensional images onto real-world environments within an academic setting. While AR has demonstrated its potential to improve learning outcomes in academic contexts, there is a need for a comprehensive review to identify, assess, and summarize empirical findings related to student engagement, particularly in mathematics education. Consequently, a systematic review was conducted to examine the uses of AR in student engagement in mathematics education. A thorough electronic search was performed on the Scopus database to retrieve pertinent journal articles. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18 studies were selected for analysis. The results reveal that AR can facilitate student engagement in three key aspects: interactive, collaborative, and immersive experiences. Although AR offers several advantages for promoting student engagement in mathematics education, its practical implementation in educational settings requires careful consideration of AR application and content design and close collaboration between educators and technology. Furthermore, the successful integration of AR technology relies on the well-planned implementation of learning programs that effectively incorporate AR elements for mathematics education.