Different Kinds Of Environments Research Articles

Probabilistic Higher-Order Velocity Obstacle for Dynamic Collision Avoidance in Uncertain Environments

Autonomous systems like unmanned aircraft systems are touted as front-runners in terms of efficiency and agility in challenging operations like emergency response. The ability of autonomous agents in such systems to avoid collisions with dynamic obstacles while navigating through an obstacle-cluttered environment is critical for success in any mission. In addition to that, further challenges are posed by environments with uncertainties in obstacles’ motion, sensing, and occluded regions. To this end, a higher-order velocity obstacle–based novel motion planner is presented in this paper in a probabilistic setup for smooth, collision-free navigation of the agent with acceleration constraints in uncertain, unstructured environments with an element of anticipation for the future environment. The effectiveness of the developed algorithm for safe, collision-free, and smooth navigation of the agent is investigated in simulation studies in two different kinds of environments, one with known trajectories of obstacles and the other with unknown maneuvering trajectories of obstacles. Extensive simulation studies are performed in the presence of dynamic obstacles to elucidate the performance of the proposed algorithm on four crucial parameters—mission time, computational time, minimum obstacle distance, and an overall control effort under varied obstacle densities. With satisfactory performance in all these aspects, the developed algorithm possesses strong potential for real-time implementation.

Multimodal Motion Control of Soft Ferrofluid Robot With Environment and Task Adaptability

Soft microrobotics has recently been an active field that advances new microrobot design, adaptive motion, and biomedical applications. In this work, we study the ferrofluid robot (FR), which has soft nature and exhibits paramagnetism. Currently, motion of the FR is usually realized by magnetic force, and the task execution requires relatively complex systems for simultaneous field and gradient control. To enable the FR with more motion modes for environment and task adaptability, we program three dynamic field forms and realize three corresponding torque-actuated motion modes: <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Rolling</i> , <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Wobbling</i> , and <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Oscillating</i> . Together with the force-based <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Dragging</i> mode, we provide a complete motion control scheme for the FR. As this scheme only requires 3-D dynamic fields or gradients for actuation, the complexity of the magnetic actuation system is reduced. We formulate the motion and deformation actuation principles of the FR, and the four motion modes are demonstrated and characterized. With the implementation of automated tracking and control algorithms, controllability of the new torque-based modes is testified. We then fabricate different kinds of environments and cargoes to validate the environment and task adaptability of the FR by using the proposed scheme. Especially, we implement the scheme on a self-constructed system consisting of three mobile coils, and experiments realize the long-distance navigation of the FR via <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Rolling</i> or <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Dragging</i> modes. The ultrasound-guided navigation in a 3-D tissue-mimicking endovascular environment shows the potential for delivery applications.

The politics of knowledge in South African universities: Students’ perspectives

Knowledge-making in South African universities is set up and framed in particular ways, with a Euro-centric bias. We argue that many of the contributions that African first year entering students could make to this process of knowledge-making are dis-abled, leading to alienation. In this article, we argue for a different perspective and approach to teaching and learning in the humanities. Former Extended Studies students from a South African university have worked collaboratively in a knowledge-making project, and using data generated from this, suggest different kinds of environments and strategies for more inclusive teaching and learning. Using an African feminist theoretical and methodological lens, we consider alternative ways of knowing, and recognition that supports powerful senses of belonging and agency, using examples from student experiences of an Extended Studies humanities programme. We contrast this with how humanities programmes are experienced by some first-year students at the university, sometimes with tragic consequences. Finally, we recommend pedagogic, curricula and extra-curricular changes that can be made, to realise the possibilities of decolonised knowledge-making that is more relevant and inclusive. The authors believe that the ideas around decolonising knowledge that are explored here are more broadly applicable and necessary.Contribution: The article contributes to the conversation on decolonising the humanities curriculum, by including students’ experiences, concerns, and suggestions.

Assessment of Genotype × Environment Interaction and Phenotypic Stability in Single Cross Hybrids Subjected to Drought Stress in Maize (Zea mays L.)

Maize production and productivity are hampered by global climate change. The primary concern of crop breeders always have been about high and stable yields. The genotype × environment interaction alters the relative grain yield of genotypes in different environments and makes it difficult to select superior genotypes. Therefore the Eberhart and Russell model for genotype × environment interaction analysis was taken up in the present study for the prediction of performances and phenotypic stability of the single cross hybrids synthesized by crossing 15 inbreds with 3 testers in Line × Tester mating design. All the 18 parents, 45 F1s and 3 checks were evaluated for fifteen quantitative and qualitative traits over three different environments viz., optimal environment, drought stress environment at tasseling stage, and drought stress environment at grain filling stage, during spring 2021, in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The ANOVA on the basis of pooled data unraveled significance of mean sum of squares due to genotypes and due to genotype × environment interaction which affirms existence of variability and interplay between genotypes and their environments. Out of 45, 39 hybrids expressed non-significant deviation from regression (S2 di) unveiling their higher predictability over changing environments for grain yield per plant. The hybrid L15×T2 had higher mean value than population mean along with regression coefficient equivalent to unity (bi=1) hence was recognized as highly stable and superior for grain yield per plant, and suitable for cultivation in different kinds of environments. Among other hybrids, L6×T2, L14×T2, L1×T3, L8×T1, L10×T1, L14×T1, L15×T1, L12×T2, L4×T3, L15×T3 were noted stable in performance over the environments for flowering traits. While L10×T2, L2×T2, L15×T2, L11×T1, L3×T2 and L5×T2 were recognized stable in performance for higher yield and its component traits over the environments.

The danger of bilingual–monolingual comparisons in applied psycholinguistic research

AbstractThe pervasive monolingual bias present within many societies threatens the well-being of bilingual children and their families. Unfortunately, such bias is present in much psycholinguistic research as well. Bilingual–monolingual comparisons with methodological approaches upholding monolingual norms are not equitable to bilinguals. We do not need such comparisons to learn more about bilingual use and processing. Instead, psycholinguistic research investigating the impact of different kinds of environments for language learning, use, and processing within bilingual populations can be transformative. Applied psycholinguistic research with an increased focus on investigating all the languages bilingual children and their families need for day-to-day communication, and on the factors supporting their learning and use, can help inform educators, policy makers, and language and speech professionals. This will hopefully contribute to the well-being of the people we study.

Bodies of knowledge: historians, health and education

ABSTRACT There are multiple vantage points from which historians have observed the ways in which both diseased and healthy bodies (as well as their constituent parts) have served as tools of knowledge generation, instruction and coercion in the hands of medical practitioners. From spaces of formal, specialist education such as the medical school to more informal environments and modes of learning, there is a seemingly never-ending array of environments, actors and materials to consider when trying to construct a representative survey of the two fields. Focusing primarily on the British case, this article takes a selective view of the different kinds of environments, actors and approaches historians have used to understand pedagogies of health and medicine in the modern period before suggesting new avenues of potential inquiry.

Is the judgment bias test a good tool to assess the quality of horse management?

Animal welfare should include the possibility of animals experiencing positive emotions. Emotions influence the cognitive process, and judgment bias tests (JBTs) are employed in different species, to assess the optimistic or pessimistic expectation of an individual and its affective state. Only recently the JBTs have been applied to horses. This research aims to investigate the relationship between a spatial JBT and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) chronic and acute activation in forty-one animals hosted in different kinds of environments: traditional stables (TS), natural boarding (NB), and ethological stable (ES). Fecal (FC) and horsehair (HC) cortisol concentrations were quantified for each subject through Radio-Immuno-Assay (RIA). Body condition score (BCS), as an indirect index of animal motivation towards food, and personality traits were measured to explore their possible influence on JBT results. Horses had to distinguish a positive position (P), where a bucket full of food was positioned, from a negative one (N), with an empty bucket. Then, 3 intermediate positions (Near Negative-NN, Near positive-NP, and Medium-M) with an empty bucket were presented to the subject one at a time. Only 20 subjects out of 41 completed the JBT and were included in the statistical analysis, and both BCS and P position, whether at the right or the left of the subject, seems to have influenced the inclusion rate. Only the ES group registered a significantly lower score in NN, suggesting a more optimistic affective state, whereas NB and TS did not significantly differ in their responses. Despite this, horses from NB recorded higher FC concentration than TS subjects during all the phases of the test, but lower HC levels, which could suggest a generally lower level of chronic stress but its interpretation presents several confounding factors. These results put into question whether JBT is indeed a good test to monitor the quality of the management, as it does not seem to reflect the chronic physiological state of the animals and could be influenced by a state of acute stress, caused by the test procedure. Due to these confounding factors, this procedure should be accompanied by other indicators. Finally, to include more animals and exclude possible biases, the structure of the JBT and the employment of food as a reward should be evaluated considering the peculiarities of the species and individual motivations.

Designing for serendipity: a means or an end?

PurposeThis article aims to gain a better understanding of the reasons why serendipity is designed for in different kinds of environments. Understanding these design intents sheds light on the value such designs bring to designers, in contrast to the users of the environment. In this way, the article seeks to contribute to the literature on cultivating serendipity from a designers’ point of view.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive review of the literature discussing designing for serendipity was conducted to elicit the different motivations to design for serendipity. Based on these findings and a thorough analysis, a typology of design intents for serendipity is presented.FindingsThe article puts forward four intents to design for serendipity: serendipity as an ideal, common good, mediator and feature. It also highlights that the current academic discourse puts a strong emphasis on two of them. It is argued that this academic abstraction could be problematic for how we deal with designs for serendipity, both in theory and practice.Originality/valueThe novelty of this article is that it addresses the question of why to design for serendipity from a designer’s point of view. By introducing the notion of directionality it opens up the opportunity to discuss serendipity from multiple perspectives, which contributes to gaining a firmer understanding of serendipity. It allows to more explicitly formulate the different functions of a design for serendipity and thereby expands our knowledge on the value of designing for serendipity. At the same time, it sheds light on the potential threats to designing for serendipity.

Detection of Individual Trees in UAV LiDAR Point Clouds Using a Deep Learning Framework Based on Multichannel Representation

Individual tree detection is critical for forest investigation and monitoring. Several existing methods have difficulties to detect trees in complex forest environments due to insufficiently mining descriptive features. This study proposes a deep learning (DL) framework based on a designed multichannel information complementarity representation for detecting trees in complex forest using UAV laser scanning point clouds. The proposed method consists of two main stages: ground filtering and tree detection. In the first stage, a modified graph convolution network with a local topological information layer is designed to separate the ground points. Unlike most existing parametric methods, our ground filtering method avoids the optimal parameters selection to adapt to different kinds of environments. For tree detection, a top-down slice (TDS) module is first designed to mine the vertical structure information in a top-down way. Then, a special multichannel representation (MCR) is developed to preserve different distribution patterns of points from complementary perspectives. Finally, a multibranch network (MBNet) is proposed for individual tree detection by fusing multichannel features, which can provide discriminative information for MBNet to detect trees more accurately. MBNet was evaluated on seven forest areas [UAV light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data with the mean size of 14 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$000~\text {m}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and point density of 250 points/ <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text {m}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ]. Experimental results showed that the proposed framework achieves excellent performance. Our method obtains promising performance with a mean recall of 89.23% and a mean F1-score of 87.04%.

A geomorphological model of susceptibility to the effect of human interventions for environmental licensing determination (SHIELD)

Almost every country requires some form of environmental licensing prior to the inception of development projects that may affect the integrity of the environment and its social context. We developed a new conceptual and methodological model to instruct the assessment of the potential impacts posed by proposed projects. Susceptibility to Human Interventions for Environmental Licensing Determination (SHIELD) includes a novel geomorphological interpretation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It considers the impact of human interventions on geomorphological processes and landscape functioning in the context of the entire ecosystem, going further than the classical concept of vulnerability. Estimated susceptibility of the site informs the screening stage, allowing local conditions to help define the criteria used in the process. Similarly, the level of detail of the environmental baseline is scoped by considering the degree of disturbance of natural processes posed by human intervention. Testing this geomorphological susceptibility model on different kinds of environments would allow shifting the environmental licensing practices from the prevailing anthropocentric and static conception of the environment towards an Ecosystem Approach. SHIELD addresses the need to improve the screening and scoping stages that form the basis of the rest of any EIA. SHIELD introduces several innovations to EIA including the incorporation of fuzzy logic, a preassembled database of contributions form experts, and a shifting of emphasis from the type of proposed intervention to the type of environment and its relative susceptibility.

Accelerated aging tests to selective solar absorber coatings for low temperature applications

The need of a higher role of solar energy within the energy mix in the coming decades obliges the collectors to increase their performance and reliability. It is demanded that the solar absorbers, as the key component of solar thermal collectors, should be low cost with high efficiency for extended lifetimes under different kinds of environments. Commercially, there are presently two main types of solutions as selective solar absorbers coatings for low temperature applications: coatings obtained by physical vapour deposition (PVD) and by paint coatings (PC). These coatings present different physical and chemical characteristics. Therefore, it is important to know how these commercial coatings degrade over time in different environments.

COVID-DeepPredictor: Recurrent Neural Network to Predict SARS-CoV-2 and Other Pathogenic Viruses.

The COVID-19 disease for Novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has turned out to be a global pandemic. The high transmission rate of this pathogenic virus demands an early prediction and proper identification for the subsequent treatment. However, polymorphic nature of this virus allows it to adapt and sustain in different kinds of environment which makes it difficult to predict. On the other hand, there are other pathogens like SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, Ebola, Dengue, and Influenza as well, so that a predictor is highly required to distinguish them with the use of their genomic information. To mitigate this problem, in this work COVID-DeepPredictor is proposed on the framework of deep learning to identify an unknown sequence of these pathogens. COVID-DeepPredictor uses Long Short Term Memory as Recurrent Neural Network for the underlying prediction with an alignment-free technique. In this regard, k-mer technique is applied to create Bag-of-Descriptors (BoDs) in order to generate Bag-of-Unique-Descriptors (BoUDs) as vocabulary and subsequently embedded representation is prepared for the given virus sequences. This predictor is not only validated for the dataset using -fold cross-validation but also for unseen test datasets of SARS-CoV-2 sequences and sequences from other viruses as well. To verify the efficacy of COVID-DeepPredictor, it has been compared with other state-of-the-art prediction techniques based on Linear Discriminant Analysis, Random Forests, and Gradient Boosting Method. COVID-DeepPredictor achieves 100% prediction accuracy on validation dataset while on test datasets, the accuracy ranges from 99.51 to 99.94%. It shows superior results over other prediction techniques as well. In addition to this, accuracy and runtime of COVID-DeepPredictor are considered simultaneously to determine the value of k in k-mer, a comparative study among k values in k-mer, Bag-of-Descriptors (BoDs), and Bag-of-Unique-Descriptors (BoUDs) and a comparison between COVID-DeepPredictor and Nucleotide BLAST have also been performed. The code, training, and test datasets used for COVID-DeepPredictor are available at http://www.nitttrkol.ac.in/indrajit/projects/COVID-DeepPredictor/.

A Survey on Environment Monitoring using Sensor Networks

Environment monitoring is one of the most important application of Robotic Sensor Network (RSN) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Monitoring of various factors is required for different kinds of environments. These networks have a capability of measuring different parameters such as temperature, humidity and air quality. They also process, transmit, analyze and upload the data over the internet for future use and study. It can automate the system be giving commands based on the data measured for any system to get actuated. Monitoring such parameters using sensor networks helps the humans to avoid entering hazardous areas and can help the farmers to measure required parameters on the field from a remote location. A study and comparison of applications of RSN and WSN in different environments is presented in this review paper which can help make the life of such people easy.

Development and Religious Social Ethtics of the Major World Religions

Development, in human history, has been driven by various factors. Some of these have sheer human ingenuity and pressure to survive through the demands of different kinds of environment and circumstance. In any case, there have been certain values that have constantly informed human activity and strides. Such values have included social ethics of the major world religions.In this article, we have focused on how the values of social ethics of the world’s major religions inform development in so far as they exert control on human conduct, and which, in turn, either propel or hinder the agenda of development. On this basis, we have ultimately argued that development of countries and societies are interlocked with social ethics of these religious values. As such, these values should always be given a voice in deliberations regarding policymaking and politics surrounding the subject of development of countries and societies. Keywords: Religion, Development, Policymaking, Social, Ethics, Values DOI: 10.7176/JPID/57-04 Publication date: December 31 st 2020

The policy process model and the systems model in monarchy: The case of the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia

Abstract By taking two monarchy countries as examples, this paper discusses the differences and similarities of the policy process model and the systems model. The difference has first been discussed. Policies in the United Kingdom can be applied to the policy process model, due to the fact that step-by-step policymaking procedures can be observed during the policymaking process in the United Kingdom. The case shows that policies made by countries with democracy can also be analyzed by using the policy process model. On the contrary, policies in Saudi Arabia can be studied by using the systems model, due to the fact that unclear policymaking procedures can be witnessed in Saudi Arabia. This paper also discusses two similarities between the two models. They both emphasize on “policy cycle”, as well as influenced by different kinds of environment. While social policy is always influenced by political ideology and system, and can be studied by different models, this paper concludes that the policymaking process is, all in all, a cycle and can be influenced by different environmental factors, no matter what political system a country has.

Studies of rice Hd1 haplotypes worldwide reveal adaptation of flowering time to different environments.

Rice domestication/adaptation is a good model for studies of the development and spread of this important crop. Mutations that caused morphological and physiological change, followed by human selection/expansion, finally led to the improvement of phenotypes suitable for different kinds of environments. We used the sequence information for Heading date 1 (Hd1) gene to reveal the association between sequence changes and flowering phenotypes of rice in different regions. Seven loss-of-function hd1 haplotypes had been reported. By data-mining the genome sequencing information in the public domain, we discovered 3 other types. These loss-of-function allele haplotypes are present in subtropical and tropical regions, which indicates human selection. Some of these haplotypes are present locally. However, types 7 and 13 are present in more than one-third of the world's rice accessions, including landraces and modern varieties. In the present study, phylogenetic, allele network and selection pressure analyses revealed that these two haplotypes might have occurred early in Southeastern Asia and then were introgressed in many local landraces in nearby regions. We also demonstrate that these haplotypes are present in weedy rice populations, which again indicates that these alleles were present in rice cultivation for long time. In comparing the wild rice sequence information, these loss-of-function haplotypes occurred in agro but were not from wild rice.

Monocular Visual SLAM Based on a Cooperative UAV-Target System.

To obtain autonomy in applications that involve Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), the capacity of self-location and perception of the operational environment is a fundamental requirement. To this effect, GPS represents the typical solution for determining the position of a UAV operating in outdoor and open environments. On the other hand, GPS cannot be a reliable solution for a different kind of environments like cluttered and indoor ones. In this scenario, a good alternative is represented by the monocular SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) methods. A monocular SLAM system allows a UAV to operate in a priori unknown environment using an onboard camera to simultaneously build a map of its surroundings while at the same time locates itself respect to this map. So, given the problem of an aerial robot that must follow a free-moving cooperative target in a GPS denied environment, this work presents a monocular-based SLAM approach for cooperative UAV–Target systems that addresses the state estimation problem of (i) the UAV position and velocity, (ii) the target position and velocity, (iii) the landmarks positions (map). The proposed monocular SLAM system incorporates altitude measurements obtained from an altimeter. In this case, an observability analysis is carried out to show that the observability properties of the system are improved by incorporating altitude measurements. Furthermore, a novel technique to estimate the approximate depth of the new visual landmarks is proposed, which takes advantage of the cooperative target. Additionally, a control system is proposed for maintaining a stable flight formation of the UAV with respect to the target. In this case, the stability of control laws is proved using the Lyapunov theory. The experimental results obtained from real data as well as the results obtained from computer simulations show that the proposed scheme can provide good performance.

Reporte de vigilancia tecnológica en sistemas de iluminación

Las actividades antropogénicas, naturales y una era industrial altamente acelerada han conllevado a una gran concentración de gases de efecto invernadero en la atmósfera, incidiendo directamente en el proceso que se conoce como cambio climático. El sector encargado de la generación de energía está altamente involucrado en estos cambios, y es por esta razón que debe tomar cartas en el asunto, impulsando el desarrollo de tecnologías amigables que preserven el medio ambiente, diseñando dispositivos más eficientes, tanto en la generación como en la transmisión y el consumo final, de tal manera que se pueda garantizar un sostenibilidad económica y ambiental. En este documento se hace una exploración de las tecnologías utilizadas para generar la iluminación artificial utilizada en diferentes tipos de ambientes, y se realiza una clasificación de los sistemas de iluminación basada en la tecnología de la fabricación de la fuente emisora de luz; además, se recopilan datos de consumo energético y ciclo de vida en algunas luminarias. Desde el punto de vista normativo, se hace una recopilación de información acerca de la legislación colombiana para el sector de iluminación, listando algunas leyes y decretos dispuestos por para su obligatorio cumplimiento, las cuales propenden por el cuidado de la vida humana, vegetal y animal, y en general de los equipos y dispositivos utilizados en los sistemas de energía.

Influence of input noises on the mean-square performance of the normalized subband adaptive filter algorithm

The normalized subband adaptive filter (NSAF) algorithm has gained a large amount of attention owning to its fast convergence rate for correlated inputs. However, the convergence analysis of the NSAF algorithm has not been researched extensively, especially in the presence of noisy inputs which is frequently encountered in the applications of system identification and channel estimation. In this paper, we perform the performance analysis of the NSAF algorithm under noisy inputs. According to several reasonable assumptions and approximations, the expressions of the transient-state and steady-state mean-square deviation (MSD) are derived. Simulations under different kinds of environments confirm the accuracy of our theoretical expressions.

Efficient production of fatty acid methyl esters by a wastewater-isolated microalgae-yeast co-culture.

Improving the competitiveness of biodiesel production by microalgae cultures requires the application of several strategies to obtain a high content of lipids, rapid biomass growth and a capacity to adapt to different kinds of environment, with the aim of using non-renewable nutrient sources. Therefore, the use of an individual indigenous microalgae strain or a consortium from natural or anthropogenic sites is now considered an alternative for biofuel production. This study examined the temporal behaviour of secondary metabolites produced by a native microalgae and yeast consortium isolated from wastewater, which was characterized by a genetic identification method based on the MiSeq system. The predominant species in the consortium was Scenedesmus obliquus, representing 68% of the organisms. In addition, the consortium contained a number of yeast species, including Candida pimensis (43%), Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii (23%), Diaporthe aspalathi/Diaporthe meridionalis (25%) and Hericium americanum (3%). This indigenous co-culture of microalgae and yeast showed biomass productivity of 0.06gl-1day-1, with a content of 30% (w/w) carbohydrates, 4% (w/w) proteins and 55% (w/w) lipids. Transesterification of the extracted lipids produced fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), which were analysed by gas chromatography (GC). The FAMEs included methyl pentadecanoate (1.90%), cis-10-pentanedecanoic acid methyl ester (1.36%), methyl palmitate (2.64%), methyl palmitoleate (21.36%), methyl oleate (64.95%), methyl linolenate (3.83%) and methyl linolelaidate (3.95%). This composition was relevant for biodiesel production based on the co-culture of indigenous microalgae and yeast consortia.