In-house Developed Tool Research Articles

An up-to-date perspective of levelized cost of hydrogen for PV-based grid-connected power-to-hydrogen plants across all Italy

Green hydrogen holds potential for decarbonizing the energy sector, but high production costs are a major barrier. This study provides a comprehensive techno-economic-financial-environmental analysis of PV-based grid-connected hydrogen production plants, targeting hard-to-abate industries having constant hydrogen demand across all Italy. Using real hourly data, the Multi Energy System Simulator (MESS), an in-house developed rule-based tool, was employed and integrated with Genetic Algorithm for optimal plant sizing. The aim is to minimize the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) while complying with regulatory frameworks for green hydrogen incentives access. Key findings show that hydrogen storage is more advantageous than battery storage for supply-side flexibility, and the optimal PV-to-electrolyzer size ratio ranges from 1.8 in Southern Italy to 2.1 in Northern Italy, with hydrogen tank designed for daily storage. Considering photovoltaic, electrolyzer and battery aging models grid dependence increases by 60 % when comparing the first and worst year of operation and leads to a 7 % increase in LCOH. Transitioning from the strictest (hourly) to the least stringent (annual) temporal correlation increases certified green hydrogen by 22 %, while LCOH decreases by only 3 %, suggesting that the environmental benefits of stringent temporal requirements outweigh their moderate economic drawbacks. These findings underscore the need for additional national-level incentives to allow the deployment of this technology and achieving cost parity with grey hydrogen.

Comparative effectiveness of digital variance and subtraction angiography in lower limb angiography: A Monte Carlo modelling approach

ObjectiveBy modelling patient exposures of interventional procedures, this study compares the reduction of radiation detriment between Digital Variance Angiography (DVA) and Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA). MethodsThe paper presents a retrospective risk assessment using an in-house developed tool on 107 patient exposures from a clinical trial of DVA used to diagnose peripheral arterial disease (PAD). DICOM exposure parameters were used to initiate the PENELOPE (PENetration and Energy LOss of Positrons and Electrons) Monte Carlo simulation, radiation quality and quantity, and irradiation geometry. The effective dose and the lifetime attributable risk (LAR) for cancer incidence and mortality are calculated based on the International Commission on Radiation Protection’s (ICRP) 103 recommendations and the Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionising Radiations’ latest (BEIR VII) report, respectively. ResultsThe study found that procedures conducted using DVA significantly reduce the radiation exposure of patients, compared to DSA. The collective effective dose for the DVA group was 58% lower than that for the DSA group. Correspondingly, the LAR of different organs showed a substantial decrease for cancer incidence (25–75%) and mortality (51–84%). ConclusionDVA demonstrates a considerable reduction in physical dosimetric quantities and consequently effective dose and cancer risk, suggesting its potential as a safer alternative to DSA in interventional radiology. The use of DVA supports the optimisation of patient radiation protection and aligns with the principles of ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable).

Population based audit of heart radiation doses in 6925 high-risk breast cancer patients from the Danish breast cancer group RT Nation study

Background and purposeIn this study, we conducted a population-based retrospective audit of heart doses for high-risk breast cancer (BC) over a nine-year period in patients treated with adjuvant CT-based radiotherapy in a comprehensive and homogenized national BC cohort. Additionally, this serves as a demonstration of performing large scale audits with consistent delineations created by an auto-segmentation tool. Materials and methodsHigh-risk BC patients treated with adjuvant radiotherapy in the period 2008–2016 from all seven radiotherapy centres in Denmark were included. A homogenized cohort was created using an inhouse developed auto-segmentation tool. The homogenized cohort volume and planned doses (mean heart dose (MHD), V20Gy and V40Gy) were evaluated. Volumes and dose metrics were compared for clinical and homogenized heart volumes. ResultsAmong 6925 patients, 5589(81 %) had a clinical heart delineation. The median delineated heart volume increased from 531.9 ml (2008) to 638.5 ml (2016) (p < 0.01). The median MHD for the homogenized cohort was 1.58 Gy (2008–2016) with an overall decreasing trend, 2.14 Gy in left- and 1.08 Gy in right-sided patients. The median MHD in the clinically delineated hearts was 0.01 Gy lower than the planned median MHD in the homogenized cohort. ConclusionDuring 2008–2016 the planned heart dose has been low across the population. A volume increase was observed in the clinically delineated hearts, however the median MHD in the homogenized cohort was low, with 1.58 Gy. The study demonstrated the possibilities for full population-based and consistent dose audit by using auto-segmentation tools.

ImmCellTyper facilitates systematic mass cytometry data analysis for deep immune profiling.

Mass cytometry is a cutting-edge high-dimensional technology for profiling marker expression at the single-cell level, advancing clinical research in immune monitoring. Nevertheless, the vast data generated by cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) poses a significant analytical challenge. To address this, we describe ImmCellTyper (https://github.com/JingAnyaSun/ImmCellTyper), a novel toolkit for CyTOF data analysis. This framework incorporates BinaryClust, an in-house developed semi-supervised clustering tool that automatically identifies main cell types. BinaryClust outperforms existing clustering tools in accuracy and speed, as shown in benchmarks with two datasets of approximately 4 million cells, matching the precision of manual gating by human experts. Furthermore, ImmCellTyper offers various visualisation and analytical tools, spanning from quality control to differential analysis, tailored to users' specific needs for a comprehensive CyTOF data analysis solution. The workflow includes five key steps: (1) batch effect evaluation and correction, (2) data quality control and pre-processing, (3) main cell lineage characterisation and quantification, (4) in-depth investigation of specific cell types; and (5) differential analysis of cell abundance and functional marker expression across study groups. Overall, ImmCellTyper combines expert biological knowledge in a semi-supervised approach to accurately deconvolute well-defined main cell lineages, while maintaining the potential of unsupervised methods to discover novel cell subsets, thus facilitating high-dimensional immune profiling.

A Qualitative Comparison of Dimensional Deviation of Laser Powder Bed Fusion Processed Multi Morphology Lattice Structures Based on Thermomechanical Simulations

Multi morphology lattices are composite lattice structures formed by different types of lattice structures in different configurations based on engineering application needs. These types of lattices can be manufactured with additive manufacturing modalities, specifically laser powder bed fusion process. However, due to the high cost and time spent on manufacturing these components, it is necessary to predict the properties of manufactured parts before build with numerical methods. This study focused on prediction of dimensional deviation of laser powder bed fusion produced multi morphology lattice structures composed of Schoen Gyroid, Schwarz Diamond, Schwarz Primitive, Schoen FRD and Neovius topologies via thermomechanical simulations qualitatively. Since the comparisons were made based on numerical study results, only qualitative assessments were performed. Lattices were generated by using a novel, in-house developed tool. Among multi morphology lattices investigated in the present study, Schoen FRD topology at the center and Schwarz Primitive topology at the outer region showed the lowest deviations and Schoen FRD topology at the center and Schwarz Diamond topology at the outer region showed the highest deviations. It was also shown that adding Schoen FRD or Schwarz Primitive topologies at the outer region reduces the max. deviations, and Schoen Gyroid or Schwarz Diamond topologies increases the max. deviations.

Lower dose radiotherapy did not alter cardiac function and was not pro-arrhythmic: results of the small prospective HALO trial

Abstract Background Stereotactic arrhythmia radiotherapy (STAR) is a highly promising bail-out treatment for patients with therapy-refractory ventricular tachycardia (VT). Despite precise, noninvasive targeting of the pro-arrhythmic area, surrounding healthy cardiac tissue inadvertently receives low-dose radiation. There is a historical notion that collateral cardiac damage from radiation of extra-cardiac structures can cause heart failure and arrhythmias. In the HALO trial, where non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) received relatively low-dose radiotherapy to the heart, detailed cardiac safety after radiotherapy was therefore evaluated. Objective The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate cardiac function after collateral radiotherapy on the heart in patients with NSCLC treated with SABR. Methods The HALO trial was a prospective observational trial evaluating cardiac adverse effects in patients treated with SABR for early stage NSCLC. Patients with a tumour within 3cm of the pericardium were eligible to participate. The mean radiotherapy dose per segment was calculated by semi-automated angulation and segmentation using an in-house developed tool. The heart was segmented according to the AHA 17-segment model. Patients underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) pre-treatment, 3 and 12 months after treatment. CMR strain-analysis was conducted by two independent observers using cvi42 software. Longitudinal, radial and circumferential strain were measured both globally and segmentally and evaluated for dose-dependent effects. Results Ten patients were included in this study. Two patients dropped out before first follow-up and were not included in this analysis. Median age was 66 years (range 58-81) and four were male (50%). Median distance between the tumour and pericardium was 0.46cm (range 0.00-2.80). Patients were treated with 8 fractions of 7.0-7.5 Gy (n=6), 5 fractions of 11.0 Gy (n=1) or 3 fractions of 18.0 Gy (n=1). Median global cardiac radiotherapy dose was 6.7 Gy (range 0.1-17.9). Pre-treatment, median left ventricular ejection fraction as measured on CMR was 65% (range 40-75), global longitudinal strain was -15% (-20 - -9), global circumferential strain was -17% (-26 - -9) and global radial strain was 28% (11-60). These did not significantly change comparing 3 months and 12 months after treatment with pre-treatment. As can be appreciated from Table 1, there were no dose-dependent effects on segmental longitudinal, radial and circumferential strain both 3 months or 12 months after SABR. There were no ventricular arrhythmias observed during follow-up. Conclusion In this small study, collateral radiotherapy in patients with NSCLC treated with SABR did not significantly alter cardiac function as measured on CMR, and no relevant pro-arrhythmic effects were observed during short term follow-up. Extending the research into a larger dataset is warranted.

Extrusion-based additive manufacturing of aluminium-filled ethylene vinyl acetate for electrically conductive 3D part printing

Addition of carbon-based fillers to enhance electrical conductivity is quite popular but addition of metal fillers is still a challenge due to oxidation and unavailability of metal nano-powders. In this paper, fabrication of flexible electrically conductive parts is proposed using aluminium metal powder as filler material. Aluminium metal powder is mixed with ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) by chemical mixing process. Cyclohexane is used as a mixing medium in which EVA is dissolved and aluminium powder is added by weight. An in-house developed material extrusion tool mounted on CNC milling machine is used for printing of flexible electrically conductive samples. Pellet-based extrusion process is used for printing flexible parts as conventional filament-based 3D is not suitable due to buckling. Composite with filler loading in 5%, 10%, 20% and 30% were made and samples were printed. Investigations were made on printability of composite and its electrical conductivity. The aluminium fillers presence and dispersion in polymer were ensured. The samples were printed in temperature range of 130–140 °C through 0.4 mm diameter nozzle. It was found that the resistivity drops by around 60% on varying the filler concentration from 20% to 30%; 81.6 kΩ is the lowest resistance observed with 30% filler concentration. A simulation study on thermal behaviour of material extrusion tool has been done and is validated practically. The application of flexible electrically conductive parts lies in fabrication of various electronic devices like antenna, display boards, solar panels, and wearable health monitoring devices.

Energy analysis and environmental impact assessment for self-sufficient non-interconnected islands: The case of Nisyros island

The European continent is surrounded by islands, which even though geographically and socially diverse, share common energy burdens regarding heavy fossil fuels reliance. More specifically, the non-interconnected islands (NII) encounter unique challenges in the decarbonization processes, rendering them particularly vulnerable to the impacts of such transitions. Numerous studies have been conducted to address such emerging issues. However, a research gap exists, as most of the proposed RES-related grid interventions neglect actual historical data in favor of a more theoretical, but possibly misleading, approach. In addition, potential grid stability concerns arising from high levels of RES penetration remain unaddressed. To this end, the objective of the present study focuses on addressing mainly electrical grid stability and resiliency considerations (e.g. imbalances, frequency fluctuations, voltage unbalance rate, for the case of energy islands, as in the case of the NII Greek island of Nisyros). Two sustainable scenarios including novel technologies (e.g. flywheel instead of conventional BESS, a hybrid transformer, vehicle-to-grid chargers) are examined from an energetic and environmental perspective, for short- (2030) and mid-term (2050) implementation horizons, reaching electrical and energy self-sufficiency targets up to 50% and 95%, respectively. For the energy analysis, capacity-investment optimization problems, power flow simulations and specialized transient simulations were conducted, while for the environmental impact assessment a novel in-house developed tool was utilized. As a result, the proposed interventions can result in significant fossil fuel cost savings of about 88%, reduced CO2 emissions up to 38% and overall remarkable financial and environmental benefits. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that a NII can realistically abolish thermal energy to a bare minimum and enhance its self-sufficiency by harnessing local renewable energy potential, while at the same time ensuring grid stability.

Validation of an in-house developed therapeutic dosimetric software tool for the treatment of 177Lutetium-DOTATATE peptide receptor radionuclide therapy

BackgroundComputer software for absorbed dose quantification has been used widely in nuclear medicine. Different software tools have been written to improve the dose assessment, especially in therapeutic nuclear medicine. Some software tools focusing on computational phantom models from the international commission of radiation protection and units (ICRP) whilst others on Monte Carlo simulated models. While many studies have investigated therapeutic nuclear medicine dosimetry. The authors have noticed that very few papers compare the therapeutic software tools to each other, hence a doctor of philosophy study was embarked on. The aim of our study was therefore to validate our in-house developed software tool Masterdose using the commercial software OLINDA/EXM 1.0 that was available in our department.MethodsMethodology was based on clinical patient data treated for neuroendocrine tumours with 177Lutetium (Lu)-DOTATATE at a South African hospital. All patients underwent the same SPECT acquisition protocol and were corrected for scatter, partial volume, collimator-detector response, gamma camera calibration and attenuation. Correction factors were applied to images to convert counts to activity. The first cycle of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) for 11 single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) patients were compared on the Masterdose and OLINDA/EXM 1.0 software tools at 1, 24, 72 and 168 h. Cumulated activity and the absorbed dose were compared for the two software tools. The absorbed dose difference was then compared using statistical Bland-Altman analysis.ResultsMasterdose and OLINDA/EXM 1.0 had different peptide receptor radionuclide therapy methodologies. This led to different results obtained for the software tools. Cumulated activities of Masterdose and DTK was 10.5% and 10.9% for the kidneys and tumours respectively. On average tumour absorbed doses were nine-times that of the kidneys. Bland–Altman analysis show a non-systematic difference between the two software.ConclusionOn average the relative percentage difference between the cumulated activities and absorbed dose of the two software were 10.7%.

The Use of VSR as an In-house Professional Development Tool for Joint Reflection in a Primary School in the Western-Cape, South Africa

Joint reflection amongst teachers is a valuable way to learn from colleagues. The study explored the joint reflection by a primary school mathematics subject team where video-stimulated recall was used as a reflective tool. The research question that guided the study was: what is the influence of joint reflection on the professional development of a mathematics subject team, using video-stimulated recall as a reflective tool? The study leaned on teacher collaboration as a learning context for teachers and used the community of practice as a theoretical framework. The qualitative study used joint video-reflective sessions as data collection instruments where a mathematics subject team of six primary school teachers participated. Lessons of two teachers were video-recorded and played to the subject team and they then jointly reflected on the lessons. The themes that emerged from the data included initial discomfort to share their views about another colleagues’ lesson; learner involvement in lessons; strengthening mathematics concepts; and learning from each other. The study found that colleagues learned from each other, that better ways of doing were suggested and that the analysis of the video was like a two-edged sword where those who presented the lesson learned as well as those who watched the lessons.

Predicting multi-component, high-temperature metallic glasses by coupling empirical models, CALPHAD, and a genetic algorithm

Metallic glasses (MGs) are an emerging class of materials possessing multiple desirable properties including high strength, hardness, and corrosion resistance when compared to their crystalline counterparts. However, most previously studied MGs are not useful in high temperature environments because they undergo the glass transition phenomenon and crystallize below the melting point. In addition, bulk MGs are typically found in multi-component systems, meaning that searching compositional space with a reasonable resolution using computational or experimental methods can be costly. In this study, an in-house developed genetic algorithm-based tool was used to locate alloy compositions with high glass forming ability (GFA) and high-temperature stability in the Ta–Ni–Co–(B) and Ta–Ni–Co–Nb alloy systems. GFA was predicted using an empirical predictive parameter known as P HSS. High-temperature stability was predicted using the CALPHAD method to calculate liquidus temperature. Justification for the use of P HSS to predict GFA of high-temperature MGs, as well as the use of liquidus temperature as a predictor of general high-temperature stability, is given in the form of a meta-analysis of previously reported MG compositions. The predictions made using this algorithm were analyzed and are presented herein. While high-temperature stability was the property of interest for this research, this framework could be used in the future to locate alloys with other application-specific material properties. This genetic algorithm-based tool enables the coupling of empirical parameters and CALPHAD to efficiently search multi-component space to locate glass-forming alloys with desirable properties.

6-Plex mdSUGAR Isobaric-Labeling Guide Fingerprint Embedding for Glycomics Analysis.

Glycans are vital biomolecules with diverse functions in biological processes. Mass spectrometry (MS) has become the most widely employed technology for glycomics studies. However, in the traditional data-dependent acquisition mode, only a subset of the abundant ions during MS1 scans are isolated and fragmented in subsequent MS2 events, which reduces reproducibility and prevents the measurement of low-abundance glycan species. Here, we reported a new method termed 6-plex mdSUGAR isobaric-labeling guide fingerprint embedding (MAGNI), to achieve multiplexed, quantitative, and targeted glycan analysis. The glycan peak signature was embedded by a triplicate-labeling strategy with a 6-plex mdSUGAR tag, and using ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometers, the low-abundance glycans that carry the mass fingerprints can be recognized on the MS1 spectra through an in-house developed software tool, MAGNIFinder. These embedded unique fingerprints can guide the selection and fragmentation of targeted precursor ions and further provide rich information on glycan structures. Quantitative analysis of two standard glycoproteins demonstrated the accuracy and precision of MAGNI. Using this approach, we identified 304 N-glycans in two ovarian cancer cell lines. Among them, 65 unique N-glycans were found differentially expressed, which indicates a distinct glycosylation pattern for each cell line. Remarkably, 31 N-glycans can be quantified in only 1 × 103 cells, demonstrating the high sensitivity of our method. Taken together, our MAGNI method offers a useful tool for low-abundance N-glycan characterization and is capable of determining small quantitative differences in N-glycan profiling. Therefore, it will be beneficial to the field of glycobiology and will expand our understanding of glycosylation.

Combined Joule-Humphrey-Recuperator Cycle: Performance and Parametric Analysis Evaluation Toward More Efficient Air Transportation

Abstract A three-stream combined Joule-Humphrey cycle that employs a heat recovery stream to function as a recuperator is presented. Based on an in-house developed thermodynamic performance tool, the operation of a modified dual-shaft turbofan engine is proposed. The engine core is modified by adding an intercooler and a reheating chamber to approach isothermal compression and expansion processes. A fraction of the primary flow is introduced into a reheat chamber that uses rotating detonation combustion (RDC) technology. The outflow of the RDC is then merged with the rest of the nucleus current before being discharged to the next turbine stage. The overall system behavior is captured by means of a nonlinear mathematical model featuring eight decision variables, including mass flow rates and compression ratios. A parametric analysis identifies the operational and performance envelope of the proposed engine concept. Ultimately, the model is endowed with an objective function, which includes global efficiency and thrust looking for an operation regime that boosts the thermodynamic performance. A generalized reduced gradient based algorithm is used to solve the nonlinear model, where each iteration solves a linearly constrained subproblem to generate a search direction. The performance and operational envelope presented here could be used as guidance for others considering the implementation of any of the discussed Joule cycle modifications or assessing the cost-effective balance of their use.

Pre-compensation of Friction for CNC Machine Tools through Constructing a Nonlinear Model Predictive Scheme

Nonlinear friction is a dominant factor affecting the control accuracy of CNC machine tools. This paper proposes a friction pre-compensation method for CNC machine tools through constructing a nonlinear model predictive scheme. The nonlinear friction-induced tracking error is firstly modeled and then utilized to establish the nonlinear model predictive scheme, which is subsequently used to optimize the compensation signal by treating the friction-induced tracking error as the optimization objective. During the optimization procedure, the derivative of compensation signal is constrained to avoid vibration of machine tools. In contrast to other existing approaches, the proposed method only needs the parameters of Stribeck friction model and an additional tuning parameter, while finely identifying the parameters related to the pre-sliding phenomenon is not required. As a result, it greatly facilitates the practical applicability. Both air cutting and real cutting experiments conducted on an in-house developed open-architecture CNC machine tool prove that the proposed method can reduce the tracking errors by more than 56%, and reduce the contour errors by more than 50%.

Effect of cell size and wall thickness on the compression performance of triply periodic minimal surface based AlSi10Mg lattice structures

Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) are mathematical surfaces with zero mean curvature and are spatially invariant. Recently, these surfaces are investigated for potential application in the manufacturing of cellular materials or lattice structures for a variety of purposes. However, designing such structures is a difficult task as the dedicated design platforms impose higher costs. Therefore, in this study, lattice structures have been designed using an in-house developed opensource tool for different cell sizes and cell wall thicknesses. The lattice structures have been additively manufactured through laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) and their design compliance and manufacturing defects have been investigated through optical micrography and SEM. The lattice structures have been subjected to quasistatic uniaxial compression test in as-manufactured and heat-treated conditions and the resulting compressive stress-strain curves have been analyzed in detail to draw a relationship between the two varying quantities and the mechanical properties of the lattice structure. The results show that there has been small but visible differences between the as-designed and as-manufactured lattice structures. The mechanical properties of lattice structures deteriorated with increasing cell size at constant wall thickness and improved with increasing cell wall thickness at constant unit cell size. The heat treatment procedures homogenized and increased plastic deformation while decreasing the strength and modulus values. Overall the study outlined a significant effect of cell geometry, size, and cell wall thickness on the mechanical properties of the TPMS lattice structures.

Isocitrate dehydrogenase wt and IDHmut adult-type diffuse gliomas display distinct alterations in ribosome biogenesis and 2'O-methylation of ribosomal RNA.

High-grade adult-type diffuse gliomas (HGGs) constitute a heterogeneous group of aggressive tumors that are mostly incurable. Recent advances highlighting the contribution of ribosomes to cancer development have offered new clinical perspectives. Here, we uncovered that isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)wt and IDHmut HGGs display distinct alterations of ribosome biology, in terms of rRNA epitranscriptomics and ribosome biogenesis, which could constitute novel hallmarks that can be exploited for the management of these pathologies. We analyzed (1) the ribosomal RNA 2'O-ribose methylation (rRNA 2'Ome) using RiboMethSeq and in-house developed bioinformatics tools (https://github.com/RibosomeCRCL/ribomethseq-nfandrRMSAnalyzer) on 3 independent cohorts compiling 71 HGGs (IDHwt n = 30, IDHmut n = 41) and 9 non-neoplastic samples, (2) the expression of ribosome biogenesis factors using medium throughput RT-qPCR as a readout of ribosome biogenesis, and (3) the sensitivity of 5 HGG cell lines to RNA Pol I inhibitors (CX5461, BMH-21). Unsupervised analysis demonstrated that HGGs could be distinguished based on their rRNA 2'Ome epitranscriptomic profile, with IDHwt glioblastomas displaying the most significant alterations of rRNA 2'Ome at specific sites. In contrast, IDHmut HGGs are largely characterized by an overexpression of ribosome biogenesis factors compared to non-neoplastic tissues or IDHwt glioblastomas. Finally, IDHmut HGG-derived spheroids display higher cytotoxicity to CX5461 than IDHwt glioblastoma, while all HGG spheroids display a similar cytotoxicity to BMH-21. In HGGs, IDH mutational status is associated with specific alterations of the ribosome biology and with distinct sensitivities to RNA Pol I inhibitors.

Enabling oxygen-controlled microfluidic cultures for spatiotemporal microbial single-cell analysis.

Microfluidic cultivation devices that facilitate O2 control enable unique studies of the complex interplay between environmental O2 availability and microbial physiology at the single-cell level. Therefore, microbial single-cell analysis based on time-lapse microscopy is typically used to resolve microbial behavior at the single-cell level with spatiotemporal resolution. Time-lapse imaging then provides large image-data stacks that can be efficiently analyzed by deep learning analysis techniques, providing new insights into microbiology. This knowledge gain justifies the additional and often laborious microfluidic experiments. Obviously, the integration of on-chip O2 measurement and control during the already complex microfluidic cultivation, and the development of image analysis tools, can be a challenging endeavor. A comprehensive experimental approach to allow spatiotemporal single-cell analysis of living microorganisms under controlled O2 availability is presented here. To this end, a gas-permeable polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic cultivation chip and a low-cost 3D-printed mini-incubator were successfully used to control O2 availability inside microfluidic growth chambers during time-lapse microscopy. Dissolved O2 was monitored by imaging the fluorescence lifetime of the O2-sensitive dye RTDP using FLIM microscopy. The acquired image-data stacks from biological experiments containing phase contrast and fluorescence intensity data were analyzed using in-house developed and open-source image-analysis tools. The resulting oxygen concentration could be dynamically controlled between 0% and 100%. The system was experimentally tested by culturing and analyzing an E. coli strain expressing green fluorescent protein as an indirect intracellular oxygen indicator. The presented system allows for innovative microbiological research on microorganisms and microbial ecology with single-cell resolution.

Machine learning assisted nonlinear deflection analysis of agglomerated carbon nanotube core smart sandwich plate with three-phase magneto-electro-elastic skin

This research focuses on evaluating the combined effects of the interphase of the three-phase magneto-electro-elastic (TPMEE) composites and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) agglomeration on the nonlinear deflection of the multifunctional sandwich plate, using an artificial neural network (ANN) assisted finite-element (FE) approach. The data points collected from the in-house developed FE computational tool are used to train the ANN model. To this end, a backpropagation-based Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm is used. The core of the plate is made of agglomerated CNTs, and the facesheets are made of TPMEE composites. Two different agglomeration states, partial and complete, are considered for evaluation. Also, three variations of CNTs arrangement are assumed. On the other hand, the interphase effects are incorporated through its volume fractions and compositions. The plate kinematics is based on the higher-order shear deformation theory, and the nonlinearity is assumed to follow von Karman's strain-displacement relation. The equations of motion are derived using the total potential energy principle. Finally, the direct iterative method is used to arrive at the solutions. The numerical examples are also provided to understand the influence of coupling fields associated with the parameters, such as agglomeration, interphase volume fraction, interphase compositions and CNTs arrangement.

Design of artificial neural network hardware accelerator

We present a design of the scalable processor capable of providing an artificial neural network (ANN) functionality and in-house developed tools for automatic conversion of an ANN model designed with the TensorFlow library into an HDL code. The hardware is described in SystemVerilog and the synthesized module of the processor can perform calculations of a neural network with the speed exceeding 100 MHz. Our in-house designed software tool for ANN conversion supports translation of an arbitrary multilayer perceptron neural network into a state machine module, which performs necessary calculations. It is also dynamically reconfigurable so that the ANN operating on the hardware can be changed after it is deployed as an ASIC. The project aims the in-pixel implementation towards an X-ray photon energy estimation. The energy estimation shall be delivered with accuracy that exceeds the accuracy of an ADC converter that feeds the ANN with data.

장애인 평생교육기관의 프로그램 평가 현황 및 개선 요구 분석

In order to find out the evaluation status and improvement needs of lifelong education programs for persons with disabilities in lifelong education institutions for persons with disabilities in Korea, this study conducted a survey targeting officials of lifelong education institutions for persons with disabilities in Korea, who operated lifelong education programs for them in the institutions and analyzed the experiences and needs of the officials regarding the program evaluation. A total of 142 people, involved in lifelong educational institutions for persons with disabilities, participated in this study, and it consisted of 53 people working in lifelong education institutions and 89 people working in welfare institutions for persons with disabilities. The main findings of the survey conducted on them are as follows. First, the officials of lifelong education institutions for persons with disabilities conducted program evaluation mainly for the purpose of finding out the satisfaction level of learners. Accordingly, the program satisfaction evaluation method was used the most, and the respondents responded that the program evaluation was performed using an in-house developed evaluation tool at the affiliated institution and used as data for internal reporting of the institution. Secondly, the officials of lifelong education institutions for persons with disabilities recognized that the lack of evaluation-related capacity of the institutions was the most urgent need for improvement, and demanded the development of standardized evaluation tools. In addition, based on the above research results, the development of standardized evaluation tools on lifelong education program for persons with disabilities, the operation of training for education officials to strengthen their professionalism, and the establishment of a system for sharing program evaluation results were discussed regarding the development of lifelong education program evaluation for persons with disabilities.