Innovative Experiments Research Articles

Innovative multi-dimensional learning algorithm and experiment design for human-robot cooperation

This paper proposed a learning algorithm for human-robot skill transfer based on dynamic movement primitive. Through the establishment of Transmission Control Protocol communication, the position trajectory and force characteristic of the human demonstrator while demonstrating the robot were recorded as the training data of the dynamic movement primitive model. The demonstrated skill/motion reproduction and generalization were successfully achieved through adjusting the parameters of the dynamic movement primitive model. The impedance control system investigated in this paper improved the compliance of the robot trajectory reproduction and skill generalization, and improved the robustness of robot control system in different environments. In addition, for the problem of inverse solution of redundant robots, this paper improved the dimension of constraint equations in the inverse solution of robots by training multiple dynamic movement primitive models, which guaranteed the constraints of inverse solutions of redundant robots. The proposed algorithm had been validated on a simulated robot platform using MATLAB and a ROKAE xMate robot platform, respectively.

Авторское ювелирное искусство Италии в контексте художественных экспериментов Падуанской школы

The article is devoted to the study of the formation and development of designer jewelry art in Italy in the second half of the XX-XXI centuries. In this context, special attention is paid to the activities of the famous Padua Jewelry School at the Institute of Arts after Pietro Selvatico. It had a powerful influence on the formation of a new visual language in modern European jewelry. From the perspective of the issues under study, the article examines the activities of the key figures of the artists – the founders of the Padua School – Mario Pinton, Francesco Pavan, Giampaolo Babetto, who laid the stylistic foundations of the Padua School, the influence on their work of the rich traditions of Italian jewelry, innovative experiments with form, design, materials and technologies. The article also analyzes the activities of their followers, who continued and developed the artistic searches of their teachers.

Innovative Experiment and Course Transformation Practice of Visible-Light-Mediated Photocatalytic Synthesis of Isoquinolinone

Innovative Experiment and Course Transformation Practice of Visible-Light-Mediated Photocatalytic Synthesis of Isoquinolinone

The role of autonomous experimentation in biomedical sciences and health innovation: Challenges and opportunities in emerging economies

The role of autonomous experimentation in biomedical sciences and health innovation: Challenges and opportunities in emerging economies

Rethinking the Role of Issue-Voting in Referenda: Conjoint and Vote Choice Analyses of Preferences for Constitutional Change in Chile

What determines the vote in referenda: issue-preferences or second-order considerations? Scholars suggest issue-voting is stronger in salient elections. Based on survey data collected during Chile's constitutional referendum, the article challenges this argument. An innovative conjoint experiment allows us to estimate if different elements of the constitution sunk the proposal. Coupled with vote choice models, results indicate that second-order considerations played a more important role than the literature predicts. We argue this is because studies mostly study referenda on European integration in parliamentary systems. Unlike European integration, the constitutional proposal was not a cross-cutting "issue," but one tied to the incumbent. Presidentialism exacerbated government/opposition dynamics, such that the incumbent's popularity significantly affected vote choice. We discuss why this is similar to what transpired in other Latin American countries and draw lessons for participatory democracy.

Offshore wind power: from fixed to floating

Wind power is expected to make the biggest contribution to renewable energy deployment targets for 2030 and beyond. Installed wind power capacity in the European Union is around 236 GW (end 2021); with 207 GW of onshore wind and 28 GW of offshore wind, it covers 15% of electricity demand (8% in France). The most promising scenarios aim to achieve a total capacity of 60 to 80 GW of installed offshore wind power by 2030, including 6 to 12 GW of floating offshore wind power. This article provides some background on offshore wind energy. The advantages of floating wind power, the associated obstacles and innovative hybrid experimentation systems are briefly outlined.

Optimization and Practice of the practical teaching system of the Digital Electronic Technology

In view of the issues in the practical teaching of the Digital Electronic Technology, which include outdated practical teaching content, insufficient innovation and comprehensiveness, redundant teaching methods, and a single assessment model, this paper proposes an optimized design for practical teaching content, teaching methods, and assessment mechanisms. The proposed plan adopts a deep integration of theory and practice, flexible expansion based on needs, a combination of multiple teaching models, and a comprehensive assessment mechanism. It adds design experiments and innovative research experiments to enhance the comprehensiveness and innovation of the practical teaching content. Various educational concepts and methods are integrated to form an optimized teaching method that combines multiple models. A comprehensive assessment mechanism is also designed. Through the optimized design of practical teaching courses for the Big Data Engineering, significant teaching achievements have been achieved. The proposed optimized practical teaching plan can effectively address the issues in practical teaching and better cultivate students’ overall quality and innovative spirit.

Comprehensive Innovation Experiment: Preparation and Characterization of Carbon-based Perovskite Solar Cells

Comprehensive Innovation Experiment: Preparation and Characterization of Carbon-based Perovskite Solar Cells

Monitoring Alzheimer’s disease via ultraweak photon emission

In an innovative experiment, we detected ultraweak photon emission (UPE) from the hippocampus of male rat brains and found significant correlations between Alzheimer's disease (AD), memory decline, oxidative stress, and UPE intensity. These findings may open up novel methods for screening, detecting, diagnosing, and classifying neurodegenerative diseases, particularly AD. The study suggests that UPE from the brain's neural tissue can serve as a valuable indicator. It also proposes the development of a minimally invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) photonic chip for monitoring and diagnosing AD, offering high spatiotemporal resolution of brain activity. The study used a rodent model of sporadic AD, demonstrating that STZ-induced sAD resulted in increased hippocampal UPE, which was associated with oxidative stress. Treatment with donepezil reduced UPE and improved oxidative stress. These findings support the potential utility of UPE as a screening and diagnostic tool for AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Exploration and practice of innovative teaching of molecular biology experiment course under the context of new agricultural science

The development of new agricultural science is a new idea and a new measure that aims to deepen the reform of higher education in agriculture and forestry for the development of new agriculture, new countryside, new farmers and new ecosystem. It is therefore essential for the current undergraduate experimental teaching reform to timely introduce new technologies and new methods used in the development of agriculture and forestry industry into the experimental course teaching, and promote the integration of professional education with innovation and entrepreneurship education, according to the requirements of the new agricultural science. In view of this, the exploration and practice of molecular biology experiment course was carried out from the perspective of experimental projects, teaching modes and evaluation methods, according to the teaching requirements and characteristics of molecular biology experiment and teachers' scientific research achievements. The results showed that this reform greatly improved the students' comprehensive quality and innovation ability and may facilitate the innovation experiment teaching of other courses.

Conversion of Natural Biowaste into Energy Storage Materials and Estimation of Discharge Capacity through Transfer Learning in Li-Ion Batteries.

To simultaneously reduce the cost of environmental treatment of discarded food waste and the cost of energy storage materials, research on biowaste conversion into energy materials is ongoing. This work employs a solid-state thermally assisted synthesis method, transforming natural eggshell membranes (NEM) into nitrogen-doped carbon. The resulting NEM-coated LFP (NEM@LFP) exhibits enhanced electrical and ionic conductivity that can promote the mobility of electrons and Li-ions on the surface of LFP. To identify the optimal synthesis temperature, the synthesis temperature is set to 600, 700, and 800 °C. The NEM@LFP synthesized at 700 °C (NEM 700@LFP) contains the most pyrrolic nitrogen and has the highest ionic and electrical conductivity. When compared to bare LFP, the specific discharge capacity of the material is increased by approximately 16.6% at a current rate of 0.1 C for 50 cycles. In addition, we introduce innovative data-driven experiments to observe trends and estimate the discharge capacity under various temperatures and cycles. These data-driven results corroborate and support our experimental analysis, highlighting the accuracy of our approach. Our work not only contributes to reducing environmental waste but also advances the development of efficient and eco-friendly energy storage materials.

System confluence and the reinvention of automobility.

The aim of the paper is to provide a longitudinal account of the emergence and stabilization of the automobility system and to assess the contemporary state of the system in the early stages of an ongoing sustainability transition. The production, use, and disposal of cars, in a pervasive global automobility system, are examined to reveal and explain the growing sustainability significance of overlaps with other systems. System-to-system confluence to varying degrees is ongoing with electricity, housing, aerospace, and information, software, and communications systems. The interfaces between multiple systems are evidenced by contestation for legitimacy via technological innovation and organizational experimentation. The result is uncertainty among key actors and stakeholders, institutional reforms, diverse corporate strategies, and emergent societal practices and behaviors. The paper thereby provides a contextualized account of the tension between barriers to change that may preserve the coherence of the automobility system and differential boundary effects arising from the impact of other production-consumption systems that may result in regime fragmentation. Confluence with other systems may resolve some sustainability contradictions but will also create new ones. Appeal to sustainability science will be key to evaluating how far existing sustainability problems will be resolved, and how far new ones will emerge in the automobility transition.

Rethinking coagulation: from enzymatic cascade and cell-based reactions to a convergent model involving innate immune activation

AbstractAdvancements in the conceptual thinking of hemostasis and thrombosis have been catalyzed by major developments within health research over several decades. The cascade model of coagulation was first described in the 1960s, when biochemistry gained prominence through innovative experimentation and technical developments. This was followed by the cell-based model, which integrated cellular coordination to the enzymology of clot formation and was conceptualized during the growth period in cell biology at the turn of the millennium. Each step forward has heralded a revolution in clinical therapeutics, both in procoagulant and anticoagulant treatments to improve patient care. In current times, the COVID-19 pandemic may also prove to be a catalyst: thrombotic challenges including the mixed responses to anticoagulant treatment and the vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia have exposed limitations in our preexisting concepts while simultaneously demanding novel therapeutic approaches. It is increasingly clear that innate immune activation as part of the host response to injury is not separate but integrated into adaptive clot formation. Our review summarizes current understanding of the major molecules facilitating such a cross talk between immunity, inflammation and coagulation. We demonstrate how such effects can be layered upon the cascade and cell-based models to evolve conceptual understanding of the physiology of immunohemostasis and the pathology of immunothrombosis.

Why do mothers stay? Challenging attitudes in decision making about children at risk because of domestic violence

BackgroundThis article reports findings from research commenced in 2019. Stage one assessed the attitudes and beliefs of child protection practitioners towards domestic violence. Stage two considered the impact of combining Structured Decision Making (SDM - the standard assessment approach) with Response Based Practice (RBP - a contemporary approach to understanding violence), on child protection decisions. ObjectiveTo improve the child protection response to children who experience domestic violence. This article reports on stage three; considering the impact of practitioner attitudes and beliefs on child protection decisions and whether the combined assessment approach (SDM + RBP) moderated the impact of practitioner attitudes and beliefs. Participants and setting1041 child protection practitioners participated in the research while attending one of 17 practice conferences across New South Wales, Australia. MethodsAn innovative video vignette experiment with a between-subjects design was used, relying on professional actors to play the roles of practitioner and mother of the children reported. Participants watched a video interview of a safety assessment and completed a survey. ResultsPractitioner attitudes and beliefs were not significantly correlated with assessments about the children's safety; but attitudes did impact decisions about the likelihood of the children being brought into care. Attitudes and beliefs moderated the impact of misinformed attitudes, to some extent. ConclusionsThe research confirms the value of the combined SDM + RBP approach to guide practitioners to a more holistic understanding of domestic violence. It also confirms that assessment approaches are only ever as good as the beliefs and attitudes of the people who apply them.

C4 maize and sorghum are more sensitive to rapid dehydration than C3 wheat and sunflower.

The high productive potential, heat resilience, and greater water use efficiency of C4 over C3 plants attract considerable interest in the face of global warming and increasing population, but C4 plants are often sensitive to dehydration, questioning the feasibility of their wider adoption. To resolve the primary effect of dehydration from slower from secondary leaf responses originating within leaves to combat stress, we conducted an innovative dehydration experiment. Four crops grown in hydroponics were forced to a rapid yet controlled decrease in leaf water potential by progressively raising roots of out of the solution while measuring leaf gas exchange. We show that, under rapid dehydration, assimilation decreased more steeply in C4 maize and sorghum than in C3 wheat and sunflower. This reduction was due to a rise of nonstomatal limitation at triple the rate in maize and sorghum than in wheat and sunflower. Rapid reductions in assimilation were previously measured in numerous C4 species across both laboratory and natural conditions. Hence, we deduce that high sensitivity to rapid dehydration might stem from the disturbance of an intrinsic aspect of C4 bicellular photosynthesis. We posit that an obstruction to metabolite transport between mesophyll and bundle sheath cells could be the cause.

Optically detected magnetic resonance with an open source platform

Localized electronic spins in solid-state environments form versatile and robust platforms for quantum sensing, metrology and quantum information processing. With optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR), it is possible to prepare and readout highly coherent spin systems, up to room temperature, with orders of magnitude enhanced sensitivities and spatial resolutions compared to induction-based techniques, allowing for single spin manipulations. While ODMR was first observed in organic molecules, many other systems have since then been identified. Among them is the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, which is used both as a nanoscale quantum sensor for external fields and as a spin qubit. Other systems permitting ODMR are rare earth ions used as quantum memories and many other color centers trapped in bulk or 2-dimensional host materials. In order to allow the broadest possible community of researchers and engineers to investigate and develop novel ODMR-based materials and applications, we review here the setting up of ODMR experiments using commercially available hardware. We also present in detail the dedicated collaborative open-source interface named Qudi and describe the features we added to speed-up data acquisition, relax instrument requirements and extend its applicability to ensemble measurements. Covering both hardware and software development, this article aims to overview the setting of ODMR experiments and provide an efficient, portable and collaborative interface to implement innovative experiments to optimize the development time of ODMR experiments for scientists of any backgrounds.

Low-field, not low quality: 1D simplification, selective detection, and heteronuclear 2D experiments for improving low-field NMR spectroscopy of environmental and biological samples.

Understanding environmental change is challenging and requires molecular-level tools to explain the physicochemical phenomena behind complex processes. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a key tool that provides information on both molecular structures and interactions but is underutilized in environmental research because standard "high-field" NMR is financially and physically inaccessible for many and can be overwhelming to those outside of disciplines that routinely use NMR. "Low-field" NMR is an accessible alternative but has reduced sensitivity and increased spectral overlap, which is especially problematic for natural, heterogeneous samples. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate and apply innovative experiments that could minimize these challenges and improve low-field NMR analysis of environmental and biological samples. Spectral simplification (JRES, PSYCHE, singlet-only, multiple quantum filters), selective detection (GEMSTONE, DREAMTIME), and heteronuclear (reverse and CH3/CH2/CH-only HSQCs) NMR experiments are tested on samples of increasing complexity (amino acids, spruce resin, and intact water fleas) at-high field (500 MHz) and at low-field (80 MHz). A novel experiment called Doubly Selective HSQC is also introduced, wherein 1H signals are selectively detected based on the 1H and 13C chemical shifts of 1H-13C J-coupled pairs. The most promising approaches identified are the selective techniques (namely for monitoring), and the reverse and CH3-only HSQCs. Findings ultimately demonstrate that low-field NMR holds great potential for biological and environmental research. The multitude of NMR experiments available makes NMR tailorable to nearly any research need, and low-field NMR is therefore anticipated to become a valuable and widely used analytical tool moving forward.

The International Space Station (ISS) Contest as STEM Educational Project

In the years 2015–2018, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Italian Ministry of Defense proposed the joint initiative "Space for Your Future. The ISS: Innovatio, Scientia, Sapientia" in partnership with the Italian Space Agency. It was a competition addressed to secondary school students and aimed at developing innovative experiments to be conducted on the International Space Station, whose acronym (ISS) is the same of the Latin words "Innovatio, Scientia, Sapientia". Regardless of the odds of winning, "Space for Your Future" became a successful STEM educational project implemented in numerous schools. We illustrate how that Astronomy contest fostered a valid constructivist learning, a fruitful participatory science, and vast scientific research. We discuss, in particular, the activities of two teams of pupils from the Scientific High School "Giovanni Battista Grassi" in Latina (seat of the Planetarium "Livio Gratton") who participated within the thematic area No. 3 "Test the Sciences in Space". They all worked on chemical tests, suitable for the ISS microgravity, under the tutoring of Francesco Giuliano (Province Manager of the IYA 2009 and the IYC 2011 in Latina). The key reference is a talk given in the 104th annual congress of the Italian Physical Society at the University of Calabria (September 17–21, 2018) together with an invited lecture held in the 13th European Researchers’ Night by Frascati Scienza (September 28, 2018). Keywords: science contest, ISS, secondary school, educational project, TRL, STEM, constructivism, PBL, PrBL, learning by Doing, IBSE, citizen science, ESD, EDP.

EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICES BY PRINTMAKERS IN THE WORLD OF PRINTMAKING

Printmaking (Chhapa Kala) has evolved beyond paper-based prints and has encompassed a broader spectrum of artistic expressions. The world of printmaking witnesses the innovative experiments of numerous artists today, each contributing their unique endeavors. Printmakers are no longer confined by strict rules and are embracing a more versatile and expressive form of printmaking. Today's printmakers are taking a step forward and are diligently working in the realm of printmaking, progressing beyond the confines of traditional printmaking. Printmakers are exploring different mediums with enthusiasm, uncovering new possibilities, and pushing the boundaries of what printmaking can achieve. The traditional distinctions between established, conventional, and unconventional printmaking are being blurred, allowing for a more dynamic and liberated interpretation of the art form. In actuality, the term 'printmaking' itself is undergoing a redefinition, with new rules being formulated. It appears that, in today's artistic landscape, there is a growing recognition of the need to reconsider established norms and rules in printmaking. Research in this context has been extensively conducted, analyzing the various aspects and techniques involved. This study delves into the realm of Chhapa Kala, exploring its widespread influence and its integration into the broader world of art."

Boosting buildings energy efficiency: The impact of social norms and motivational feedback

As most countries strive to go carbon neutral by 2050, promoting energy efficiency in buildings is a critical step toward achieving this objective. Here, we propose an innovative lab experiment with a large sample of 306 participants to evaluate the role of informational instruments in shaping individuals' preferences for energy efficiency. To analyze the data, we use a rigorous empirical approach consisting of probit regression and propensity score matching. Our findings suggest that motivational feedback positively and significantly affects energy efficiency preference. We also find that older people are relatively less likely to prefer energy efficiency, as are those who contribute less to an environmental association and those who are more risk-taking and impatient. With lower significance, we also observe that households more confident in government policies' efficiency are more inclined to opt for energy efficiency. Additionally, our study makes a methodological contribution by demonstrating the usefulness of probit regression and propensity score matching in analyzing complex data and determining a causal relationship pertaining to energy-related behavior. Our results have important implications for policymakers and practitioners seeking to promote sustainable building practices and reduce energy consumption in the residential sector.