Instant Response Research Articles

A Serverless-Based, On-the-Fly Computing Framework for Remote Sensing Image Collection

The rapid growth of remote sensing data calls for the construction of new computational models for algorithmic exploration, which requires on-demand execution, instant response, and multitenancy. We call this model on-the-fly computing, which could reduce the complexity of cloud programming for remote sensing data analysis and benefit from efficient multiplexing. As an advancement of cloud computing, serverless computing makes it possible to realize the on-the-fly computational model. In the study, the concise definition of an on-the-fly computing model for remote sensing data analysis and the corresponding software architecture based on the serverless computing commodities are presented. The proof-of-concept experiments have suggested that the on-the-fly computing model for remote sensing data analysis can be efficiently implemented as a serverless software. The response time is mainly related to the tile reading operation and data structure conversion. In the case of high concurrency, the system can scale to hundreds of instances in seconds.

RT-RCG: Neural Network and Accelerator Search Towards Effective and Real-time ECG Reconstruction from Intracardiac Electrograms.

There exists a gap in terms of the signals provided by pacemakers (i.e., intracardiac electrogram (EGM)) and the signals doctors use (i.e., 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG)) to diagnose abnormal rhythms. Therefore, the former, even if remotely transmitted, are not sufficient for doctors to provide a precise diagnosis, let alone make a timely intervention. To close this gap and make a heuristic step towards real-time critical intervention in instant response to irregular and infrequent ventricular rhythms, we propose a new framework dubbed RT-RCG to automatically search for (1) efficient Deep Neural Network (DNN) structures and then (2) corresponding accelerators, to enable Real-Time and high-quality Reconstruction of ECG signals from EGM signals. Specifically, RT-RCG proposes a new DNN search space tailored for ECG reconstruction from EGM signals, and incorporates a differentiable acceleration search (DAS) engine to efficiently navigate over the large and discrete accelerator design space to generate optimized accelerators. Extensive experiments and ablation studies under various settings consistently validate the effectiveness of our RT-RCG. To the best of our knowledge, RT-RCG is the first to leverage neural architecture search (NAS) to simultaneously tackle both reconstruction efficacy and efficiency.

Tunable Graphene/Nitrocellulose Temperature Alarm Sensors.

Tunable temperature alarm sensors were prepared using multilayer graphene and nitrocellulose (NC) to reliably monitor early high temperature risks. The graphene/NC alarm sensor keeps in a state of electrical insulation, however, turns electrically conductive at high temperatures, such as encountering a flame attack. Its response time is limited to only a few seconds because of a quick chemical reaction of NC. The 90% graphene/NC (wt % ratio 1:9) composite alarm sensor stably remains insulated at an ambient temperature of 200 °C, resulting in a satisfactory responsive temperature (232 °C), instant response time (4.4 s), and sustained working time in the flame below the ignition temperature of most combustibles. Furthermore, the response temperature and time of the alarm sensor can be tuned by graphene/NC ratios to reduce the fire risk of various combustible materials in different fire-prone scenarios and thus has promising applications in both indoor and outdoor environments. The sensor has also proven to work in the form of paint, wallpaper, and other composites due to its superior flame retardancy property, as well as under extreme conditions (i.e., underwater and vacuum).

March 28, 2021

The first time I met Nawal—at least I think it was the first time—was at a women’s studies conference here in the United States sometime in the early 1980s. All I remember about that conference today was a conversation between Nawal and the woman who had invited her there, a conversation that, for some reason, I was party to. In the course of it, Nawal’s host—I’ll call her Ms. A.—was telling Nawal that she was not to speak about such and such issues. Nawal’s instant response was astonished outrage. “You’re telling me, Nawal El Saadawi,” she said, “what I can and cannot speak about?” This, obviously, was absurd, given that Nawal was famous for having gone to prison for saying and writing exactly what she thought. I joined her in her protest and Ms. A. soon backed down.The author of more than forty books, Nawal was a dynamo of intellectual and imaginative creativity, forever generating new ideas, new books, new novels, new forms of writing. She was an innovator as a writer, too, and had the gift, among other things, of being able to write—often compellingly, even mesmerizingly—in both her fiction and her nonfiction.In addition, she continually challenged not only patriarchy but all systems of power and oppression, wherever she saw them. Her primary targets were often, at least through the first decades of her career, the cultural practices and beliefs of Egypt, the Arab world, and Islam. More recently she was often also incisively critical of problems elsewhere, and her work consequently is of relevance well beyond the region from which she hailed. It would be a mistake to ghettoize her as relevant only to Islam and the Arab world.Nawal was a force of nature, a global figure and global thinker. Her thought and body of work, consistently critical of systems of power, raise questions about many aspects of our lives and world today, in whatever culture or country we find ourselves.Am I therefore also saying that I always agreed with Nawal about everything, or even that one should always agree with her about everything? Of course not. In fact, one doesn’t typically agree or disagree with forces of nature—the wind, the sea, or people of the extraordinary vision, creativity, and imagination of Nawal El Saadawi.My sense of loss at this moment, with Nawal’s living presence and living voice now gone from this world, is acute and personal. We’ve been colleagues and fellow workers in relation to women in Islam, as well as warm and cordial friends, over these many decades. I will miss her voice, and miss learning from her typically insightful perspectives on whatever is going on in our world. It was a great honor and privilege to have known her, as well as a wonderful gift and a pleasure.

Switch of Bacteria Community Under Oxygen Depletion in Sediment of Bohai Sea

Regular oxygen depletion is occurring every summer in the depression area of the Bohai Sea. The community structure and potential functions of microbes in expanding marine hypoxic area are of great importance due to their roles in biogeochemical cycling. In this study, the diversity and distribution of bacteria based on 16S rRNA gene in sediment along an inshore-offshore transect across the oxygen-depletion area in the Bohai Sea was investigated in June, July and August of 2018 by employing high-throughput sequencing. Results revealed that the bacteria community was dominated by Proteobacteria (42.67%), Actinobacteria (14.13%), Chloroflexi (13.02%), Acidobacteria (8.01%), and Bacteroidetes (6.30%). During oxygen depletion, the bacteria community from inshore site A3 subjected to dramatic variation from June to August, but the composition tended to be stable in sites from the depression area along the transect. Distinct switch of bacteria from aerobic to anaerobic group was observed when the DO concentration <4.2 mg/L, typically represented by dominance of Anaerolineaceae in August sample. Further, KEGG prediction by PICRUSt confirmed the variations by showing significant difference in functional pathways, especially the nitrogen metabolisms, before and after DO depletion (p < 0.05). These variations could be influenced by depth, NO2– concentration and DO availability based on RDA analysis. The details in diversity and composition of bacteria under continually observation provide insights into both instant and long-term response of bacteria community to oxygen depletion, and the distinct functional switch under this process expands our knowledge on the metabolic character of bacteria in worldwide hypoxia areas.

A novel aggregation-induced emission fluorescent probe to visualize peroxynitrite levels during Golgi stress

Peroxynitrite (ONOO-), an endogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS), can cause a variety of diseases in organisms at high levels. Golgi oxidative stress produces a large number of ROS, and the quantitative detection of various ROS is of great significance to study Golgi oxidative stress. Therefore, accurate detection of ONOO- level in Golgi is important to reveal the mechanism of ONOO- in living organisms. Here, we developed a Golgi-targeted aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorescent probe Gol-ONOO- to detect ONOO- in cells. The probe Gol-ONOO- has the advantages of instant response to ONOO-, high selectivity, low detection limit (250 nM) and large Stoke's shift (180 nm). Most importantly, the probe Gol-ONOO- monitored the increase of ONOO- level caused by monensin-induced oxidative stress in the Golgi apparatus, and it was the first time to realize ONOO- imaging in the Golgi apparatus.

Mission planning of safe approach and emergency evacuation to large slow-rotating space debris

• A dynamic safety corridor approach strategy is developed with approach window and straight path. • The safe approach trajectory is planned to optimize transfer time and fuel consumption. • An emergency evacuation strategy is designed and the safety velocity is analyzed. • Motion precision and convergence time are ensured based on coupling control of orbit and attitude. The on-orbit service technology is expected to play an important role in space debris removal missions. In order to capture and remove space debris objects, servicing satellites need to have the ability of mission planning, to quickly approach space debris objects in limited time, to avoid possible collisions and other safety issues, and to have the ability of emergency suspension and evacuation in the event of sudden accidents. The mission planning of safe approach and emergency evacuation to large slow-rotating space debris is studied in this paper. Firstly, the relative orbit and attitude dynamics model of servicing satellite and space debris object is established. Then, a dynamic safety corridor approach strategy is proposed according to the motion characteristics of large slow-rotating space debris and the optimal safe approach trajectory is planned based on particle swarm algorithm. For the purpose of instant response to the possible accidents during the approach, an emergency evacuation strategy is proposed, while the safety velocity and the emergency evacuation time are analyzed. The relative orbit and attitude coupled control method is designed based on global terminal sliding mode control. The stability of this control method is proved by Lyapunov argument as well as the error convergence time is analyzed. Finally, the effectiveness of the mission planning and control method is verified by numerical simulations. The results of this paper can provide a preliminary technical exploration for the approach and capture strategy of large slow-rotating space debris.

Radiant Conditioning Retrofitting for Residential Buildings

In order to achieve Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, a majority of the existing residential building stock in Australia will require retrofitting in favour of energy-efficient solutions. This paper considers retrofitting for conditioning to be one of the most straightforward and offers the greatest potential to deliver significant comfort and energy-saving results. Radiant conditioning systems are not new, yet some game-changing innovations have taken place over the last decade that may require an entire paradigm shift in the manner we condition our buildings. The reiteration of the principle ‘thermally active systems’ suggests that our buildings need to accommodate these systems into the fabric of building components. However, extremely few products and/or innovative solutions for doing such seem to be provided by the industry. We seem incompetent with solutions that are not costing the Earth, insulating, lightweight, and offering an instant response time to conditioning. We still have the concept embedded in our minds that radiative systems consist of heavy ‘combat’ construction with time lags of a day or two and that they are very costly to implement, especially if we are to retrofit a project. The purpose of this paper is to rectify and change our understanding of radiant systems, namely through a review of the existing technology and its recent advancements. It intends to introduce the fact that radiant systems can become highly reactive, responsive, and thermally dynamic conditioning systems. Lightweight radiant systems can be 40% more energy-efficient than common air conditioners and can respond in less than 15 min rather than in the hours required of heavy radiant systems. Thus, an insulated, lightweight radiant system is ideal for retrofitting residential buildings. Furthermore, this paper supports and introduces various systems suited to retrofitting a residential building with hydronic radiant systems.

Climate event classification based on historical meteorological records and its presentation on a Spatio-Temporal research platform

Abstract Climate change has become a serious issue, and tracing climate events from historical records could be a solution to find a way to deal with it. This study conducted two experiments for classifying metrological text data—one unsupervised method for exploring a solution in the lack of labeled data and another supervised method for achieving high-performance classification. Both experiments took the meteorological text records as material in the early Qing Dynasty (1644 C.E. to 1795 C.E.) from the REACHES database. We also integrated the classification results to develop a Spatio-Temporal research platform with an instant response front-end interface to help humanity researchers access and analyze data according to the three dimensions of time, area, and event categories. With our Spatio-Temporal research platform, we had the ability with ease to analyze the meteorological records during 1650 C.E. to 1700 C.E., the late stage of the Little Ice Age, to investigate the phenomenon of climate change in the Qing Dynasty of China. We will continue to expand the capacity of the database and establish a mature Spatio-Temporal research platform in the future.

Luminescent β-diketonate coordinated europium(III) sensor for rapid and sensitive detection of Bacillus Anthracis biomarker

The hazardous B. Anthracis are harmful pathogens causes anthrax could be potentially used as biothreat agents or bioweapons and have severe consequences to public health. These bacterial endospores contain dipicolinic acid (DPA) as calcium dipicolinate (CaDPA) as a primary cell wall constituent (1 M, 1015 molecules/spore). The anthrax attacks in USA by shipping spores in postal mails have triggered the hunt for a simple, rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of Bacillus Anthracis spores. Therefore, a fast and sensitive sensing platform for anthrax spores is critical to contain such biothreats and outbreaks of infection. Herein, we intend to develop a sensitive and selective optical detection strategy for anthrax spore biomarker based on DPA-sensitized lanthanide luminescence. The anionic hard DPA2− strongly binds with hard Ln3+ forming thermodynamically stable complex and sensitizing unique LnIII time-resolved luminescence originated from f-f transitions with a high S/N ratio. Here, we employed and repurposed a simple luminescent EuIII complex: [Eu(TTA)3(H2O)2] (1) (TTA: 3-thenoyltrifluoroacetonate) for the detection of the DPA2− biomarker. Complex 1, when titrated with DPA, displayed instant Switch-ON optical response by 10-fold enhancement in the time-resolved luminescence (TRL) intensity of the 5D0→7F2 transition, which is sensitive to the changes in the symmetry of the EuIII primary coordination sphere. Upon binding with DPA, we also observed shifting of the excitation wavelength (λex) from ∼345 nm to 275 nm in the presence of ∼3.0 mol equivalent of dipicolinic acid. After stoichiometric reaction with DPA, the resulting complex has a long-lived, highly stable excited state of the EuIII ion with a lifetime of 2100 μs in solution compared to only 260 μs for the original probe. We proposed possible displacement of the TTA− and H2O from the primary coordination sphere of the EuIII ion by potent chelating antenna ligand DPA2−. This reaction results in the formation of nine-coordinated [Eu(DPA)3]3- complex in solution confirmed by ESI-MS analysis. The luminescence response of the complex 1 is found highly selective for DPA in the presence of various interfering carboxylic acids and quantitatively able to detect up to 1.20 μM.

Enhancing digital literacy with an intelligent conversational agent for senior citizens in Thailand.

Intelligent conversational agents have been implemented as virtual assistants in mobile applications to facilitate, engage, and interact with users for optimal learning experiences. With 24/7 availability, providing instant and consistent responses, chatbots, as a type of intelligent conversational agent, will help benefit the learning communication, makes the entire learning experience more engaging for the learners. They have also been successfully used by the elderly to encourage behavioral change for their intended purpose. This study investigated baseline data on the use of digital platforms of senior citizens in Bangkok Metropolitan and the six regions of Thailand and developed a chatbot from the derived data. The chatbot contained learning media and service function, served as a platform to enhance digital literacy for the senior citizens in Thailand. The study was conducted in 3 phases, the baseline survey on the use of digital platforms of the senior citizens in Thailand, the development of the chatbot and learning media, and the pre-experimental expert validation. The samples were 422 senior citizens. The data were collected by questionnaires, focused group discussion, and interviews with experts, and analyzed by percentage, mean, standard deviation, and content analysis. Results were incorporated in the design and development of the chatbot innovation following the software development life cycle (SDLC) framework. Expert feedback revealed that this chatbot innovation was easy to access, convenient to request for operations, artistically appealing, and comprehensive in content and functionality for enhancing digital literacy skills, which are to access, analyze, evaluate, participate, and act. In the next research sequence, this innovation will subsequently be experimented with more senior citizens to prepare and improve their digital competence to consequently equip them with the necessary capacities to keep up with Thailand’s transition towards a full-blown aging society.

Real time sensor for Fe3+, Al3+, Cu2+ & PPi through quadruple mechanistic pathways using a novel dipodal quinoline-based molecular probe

A quinoline-based small molecular probe, H2L was designed, synthesized and characterized by different spectroscopic methods. It was utilized as a multi-responsive probe for the detection of Fe3+, Al3+, Cu2+ and PPi. It showed very selective instant turn-on fluorimetric response towards Fe3+and Al3+ with a detection limit in nanomolar range. Solutions of H2L containing Fe3+ or Al3+ could sequentially sense PPi by a turn-off mechanism. Also, H2L could determine the presence of Cu2+ very selectively among a series of other metal ions by a sharp change in colour. Detection of Cu2+ through colorimetry was further investigated by systematic UV–Vis studies and the potential of H2L to act as a potential colorimetric sensor for Cu2+ was suitably established. Filter-paper strip experiments were conducted to demonstrate the practical utility of the proposed sensor. Potential applications of H2L as a sensor for pH in the acidic range has also been explored.

Turning the world on its head: The virus that disrupted “business as usual”

Turning the world on its head: The virus that disrupted “business as usual”

Bilingual AI-Driven Chatbot for Academic Advising

Conversational technologies are revolutionizing how organizations communicate with people, thereby raising quick responses and constant availability expectations. Students often have queries about the institutional and academic policies and procedures, academic progression, activities, and more in an academic environment. In reality, the student services team and the academic advisors are overwhelmed with several queries that they cannot provide instant responses to, resulting in dissatisfaction with services. Our study leverages Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language processing technologies to build a bilingual chatbot that interacts with students in the English and Arabic languages. The conversational agent is built in Python and designed for students to support advising-related queries. We use a purpose-built domain-specific corpus consisting of the common questions advisors receive from students and their responses as the chatbots knowledge base. The chatbot engine determines the user intent by processing the input and retrieves the most appropriate response that matches the intent with an accuracy of 80% in English and 75% in Arabic. We also evaluated the chatbot interface by conducting field experiments with students to test the accuracy of the chatbot with real-time input and test the application interface.

Transnational crime: features and basic models

The study found that the features of modern transnational organized crime are: rapid adaptation to realities, instant response to changes and transformations in life and economy, the ability to improve and adjust the methods and tools used in activities; coordination; rationality; thoughtfulness and systematic actions; systematization; the desire to minimize potential risks and get the most profit and maximum profits. Such models of transnational organized crime as: corporate, trade unions, partnerships, ethnic, network are considered. Modern transnational criminal groups, regardless of model, have been shown to be “well-concealed, well-off criminal communities with a well-defined internal structure, distribution of spheres of influence and functions, and extensive interregional or international ties. It is emphasized that now transnational crime is turning into cybercrime. This is made possible by the fact that it is easier to hide criminal activity on the Internet, anonymity is ensured, and it is possible to act uncontrollably, which, in turn, guarantees security for criminal activity

The Design and Application of a Chatbot in Clinical Nursing Education

The vigorous development of information and communication technology has enabled great progress in the application of mobile learning in clinical nursing education. Mobile learning allows students to use the internet and mobile devices to access convenient, immediate learning anytime and anywhere to achieve ubiquitous learning. Smartphones have become indispensable communication tools in our daily life. Smartphones equipped with chatbots may be used as mobile learning tools that are free of time and space limitations and promote instant responses and humanized interactions. These applications may help meet the preferences of a new generation of nurses. In this article, the concepts of mobile learning are introduced, the advantages and limitations of educational chatbots are discussed, suggestions for the application of chatbots in education are provided, and the author`s teaching plan for creating a chatbot via the LINE app is shared. Using chatbots allows nursing educators to integrate technology into clinical teaching, develop multiple innovative teaching materials, and create a fun environment to promote professional learning and facilitate self-growth in nursing staff.

Induction of Immune Tolerance in Islet Transplantation Using Apoptotic Donor Leukocytes.

Allogeneic islet transplantation has become an effective treatment option for severe Type 1 diabetes with intractable impaired awareness due to hypoglycemic events. Although current immunosuppressive protocols effectively prevent the acute rejection associated with initial T cell activation in recipients, chronic rejection has remained an obstacle for achieving long-term allogeneic islet engraftment. The development of donor-specific immune tolerance to the allograft is the ultimate goal given its potential ability to overcome chronic rejection and disregard the need for maintenance immunosuppression, which may be toxic to islet grafts. Recently, a breakthrough in tolerance induction during allogeneic islet transplantation using apoptotic donor lymphocytes (ADLs) in a non-human primate model had been reported. Several studies have suggested that the clonal depletion, anergy, and expansion of the antigen-specific regulatory immune network are the mechanisms for donor-specific tolerance with ADLs, which act synergistically to induce robust transplant tolerance. This achievement represents a huge step forward toward the clinical application of immune tolerance induction. We herein summarize the reported operational induction therapies in islet transplantation using the ADLs. Moreover, a few obstacles for the engraftment of transplanted islets, such as islet immunogenicity and instant blood-mediated response, which need to be resolved in the future, are also discussed.

Metamodeling of the Energy Consumption of Buildings with Daylight Harvesting – Application of Artificial Neural Networks Sensitive to Orientation

Daylight harvesting is a well-known strategy to address building energy efficiency. However, few simplified tools can evaluate its dual impact on lighting and air conditioning energy consumption. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been used as metamodels to predict energy consumption with high precision, few input parameters and instant response. However, this approach still lacks the potential to estimate consumption when there is daylight harvesting, at the ambient level, where the effect of orientation can be noted. This study investigates this potential, in order to evaluate the applicability of ANNs as a tool to aid the architectonic design. The ANNs were approached as metamodels trained based on EnergyPlus thermo-energetic simulations. The network configuration focused on determining its simplest feasible form. The input parameters adopted as the main variables of the building envelope were as follows: orientation, window-to-wall ratio and visible transmission. The effects of the encoding of orientation as a network input parameter, the number of examples of each variable for network training and changing the parameters used for the training were evaluated. The networks predicted the individualized consumption according to the end use with errors below 5%, indicating their potential to be applied as a simplified tool to support the design process, considering the elementary variables of the building envelope. The discussion of results focused on guidelines and challenges to achieve this purpose when contemplating the broadening of the metamodel scope.

Highly efficient visible-light-driven Cu2O@CdSe micromotors adsorbent

Micro/nanomotors have attracted extensive attentions in aquatic environmental remediation, but the random motion and uncontrollability restricts the precise location and timely adjustment in micro-environmental remediation, such as in microchannels and microwells. Herein, we demonstrated visible-light-driven cadmium sulfide quantum dots doped cuprous oxide (Cu2O@CdSe) micromotors adsorbent with excellent removability to cationic dye, in along with effective motion regulation. The Cu2O@CdSe micromotors adsorbent with type II heterostructure was fabricated by simple in-situ deposition and exhibited outstanding motion controllability and instant response under visible light illumination. The existence of a staggered gap between Cu2O and CdSe formed a heterojunction, effectively inhibiting recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and improving photocatalytic activity of Cu2O@CdSe micromotors. Negative phototactic self-propulsion with maximum speed to ∼42.3 μm/s was achieved in biological environments because of the formation of the asymmetric chemical concentration gradient around the motors. Additionally, by modulating the direction and on/off state of asymmetric light field, it is capable of steering motor moving with multiple controllable modes, such as horizontal, vertical, stop/go and patterned propulsion, which will facilitate the on-demand orientation once in the complex microchannel. Furthermore, the capability of Cu2O@CdSe micromotors adsorbent is confirmed with a rapid adsorption rate of 96% on methyl blue after 10 min. Additionally, the stability of micromotors is evaluated. Although with inevitable oxidation or photocorrosion for all Cu2O micromotor, the strong adsorption ability is promised with 5 times recycling in low concentration of dye solution. Such attractive micromachines with boosted motility and lower production cost hold a considerable promise for a complex environmental remediation.

Modulating Drought Stress Response of Maize by a Synthetic Bacterial Community.

Plant perception and responses to environmental stresses are known to encompass a complex set of mechanisms in which the microbiome is involved. Knowledge about plant physiological responses is therefore critical for understanding the contribution of the microbiome to plant resilience. However, as plant growth is a dynamic process, a major hurdle is to find appropriate tools to effectively measure temporal variations of different plant physiological parameters. Here, we used a non-invasive real-time phenotyping platform in a one-to-one (plant–sensors) set up to investigate the impact of a synthetic community (SynCom) harboring plant-beneficial bacteria on the physiology and response of three commercial maize hybrids to drought stress (DS). SynCom inoculation significantly reduced yield loss and modulated vital physiological traits. SynCom-inoculated plants displayed lower leaf temperature, reduced turgor loss under severe DS and a faster recovery upon rehydration, likely as a result of sap flow modulation and better water usage. Microbiome profiling revealed that SynCom bacterial members were able to robustly colonize mature plants and recruit soil/seed-borne beneficial microbes. The high-resolution temporal data allowed us to record instant plant responses to daily environmental fluctuations, thus revealing the impact of the microbiome in modulating maize physiology, resilience to drought, and crop productivity.