Mobile Instrument Research Articles

Route planning for capacity restricted agents over railway network, without disrupting train schedules

Deploying mobile instrumentation for railway track inspection is a routing and scheduling problem, that can be benefited from plans which don’t disrupt regular train schedules. In this work, we avoid disrupting train schedules by modeling unavailability of railway tracks, thereby improving reliability without sacrificing on costs. The approach involves a novel mathematical formulation for C apacitated A rc R outing P roblem with T emporal restrictions due to arc U navailabilities (CARP-TU). In addition, we discuss the challenges in CARP-TU w.r.t sibling problems, and propose a suitable column generation algorithm for improving upper and lower bounds. The proposed algorithm is validated over few benchmark datasets, and then two variants of the proposed algorithm are compared to analyse the bound improvements w.r.t problem size.

Implementation of Value Added Tax in Nepal

In the empirical study, the analysis has been done about VAT on the basis of information collected from experts, tax officials, businessmen and consumers. The tool basically used is questionnaire. The questions were asked to 60 different individuals related to this field. Empirical as well as theoretical analysis showed that VAT is superior to other types of Sales tax. Not only that, most of the respondents have also viewed in VAT as best instrument for research mobilization, bright future and discouraging illegal business. Similarly, most of the respondents (Tax Experts & Officials), argued that billing problem, open boarder, administrative incapability as hunting problem. They also discussed about legal provisions, choice between single or multi rated VAT, behavior of tax personnel, rate of VAT, need of public awareness programs etc.

Mobile and high-spectral-resolution Fabry–Pérot interferometer spectrographs for atmospheric remote sensing

Abstract. Grating spectrographs (GS) are presently widely in use for atmospheric trace gas remote sensing in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible spectral range (e.g. differential optical absorption spectroscopy, DOAS). For typical DOAS applications, GSs have a spectral resolution of about 0.5 nm, corresponding to a resolving power R (ratio of operating wavelength to spectral resolution) of approximately 1000. This is sufficient to quantify the vibro-electronic spectral structure of the absorption of many trace gases with good accuracy and further allows for mobile (i.e. compact and stable) instrumentation. However, a much higher resolving power (R≈105, i.e. a spectral resolution of about the width of an individual rotational absorption line) would facilitate the measurement of further trace gases (e.g. OH radicals), significantly reduce cross interferences due to other absorption and scattering processes, and provide enhanced sensitivity. Despite these major advantages, only very few atmospheric studies with high-resolution GSs are reported, mostly because increasing the resolving power of a GS leads to largely reduced light throughput and mobility. However, for many environmental studies, light throughput and mobility of measurement equipment are central limiting factors, for instance when absorption spectroscopy is applied to quantify reactive trace gases in remote areas (e.g. volcanoes) or from airborne or space-borne platforms. For more than a century, Fabry–Pérot interferometers (FPIs) have been successfully used for high-resolution spectroscopy in many scientific fields where they are known for their superior light throughput. However, except for a few studies, FPIs have hardly received any attention in atmospheric trace gas remote sensing, despite their advantages. We propose different high-resolution FPI spectrograph implementations and compare their light throughput and mobility to GSs with the same resolving power. We find that nowadays mobile high-resolution FPI spectrographs can have a more than 2 orders of magnitude higher light throughput than their immobile high-resolution GS counterparts. Compared with moderate-resolution GSs (as routinely used for DOAS), an FPI spectrograph reaches a 250 times higher spectral resolution while the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is reduced by only a factor of 10. Using a first compact prototype of a high-resolution FPI spectrograph (R≈148 000, <8 L, <5 kg), we demonstrate that these expectations are realistic. Using mobile and high-resolution FPI spectrographs could have a large impact on atmospheric near-UV to near-infrared (NIR) remote sensing. Applications include the enhancement of the sensitivity and selectivity of absorption measurements of many atmospheric trace gases and their isotopologues, the direct quantification of OH radicals in the troposphere, high-resolution O2 measurements for radiative transfer and aerosol studies, and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence quantification using Fraunhofer lines.

Reliable compositional analysis of airborne particulate matter beyond the quantification limits of total reflection X-ray fluorescence

Knowledge on the temporal and size distribution of particulate matter (PM) in air as well as on its elemental composition is a key information for source appointment, for the investigation of their influence on environmental processes and for providing reliable data for climate models. While cascade impactors allow for time- and size-resolved collection of airborne PM, total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) allows for element-sensitive investigation of minute sample amounts thanks to its detection sensitivity. But during quantification by means of TXRF it is crucial to be aware of the linear calibration limits of TXRF in order to identify situations where collection times or pollution levels in the different size partitions were exceedingly long or high. Indeed, TXRF can only be reliably used when the amount of matter collected on the top of the substrate is sufficiently small. By means of grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence (GIXRF), where the excitation conditions are varied in a controlled and reliable manner and include also the TXRF regime, a self consistent quantification of elemental mass depositions can be performed in order to validate or falsify TXRF quantification results. For low mass depositions an agreement within a few percent for the different excitation conditions was found, while for increasing amounts of material relative errors of up to a factor of 4 were found for TXRF as compared to GIXRF. Thus, TXRF cannot be applied to all samples regardless of their coverage and threshold values for the validity of quantification results need to be determined. As a flexible solution, GIXRF allows extending the dynamic range of reliably quantifiable mass depositions beyond the linear regime of TXRF, an important advantage when variable amounts of airborne PM need to be quantified as in the case of collection with cascade impactors. The presented more reliable quantification approach can be transferred to mobile tabletop instrumentation as well. This aspect is highly relevant for air quality monitoring in terms of supporting the introduction of appropriate legislation and measures for health and climate protection as well as for supporting their enforcement.

The Technology Transfer from Europe to China in the 17th-18th Centuries: Non-Invasive On-Site XRF and Raman Analyses of Chinese Qing Dynasty Enameled Masterpieces Made Using European Ingredients/Recipes.

Two masterpieces of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912 CE), one in gilded brass (incense burner) decorated with cloisonné enamels stylistically attributed to the end of the Kangxi Emperor’s reign, the other in gold (ewer offered by Napoleon III to the Empress as a birthday present), decorated with both cloisonné and painted enamels bearing the mark of the Qianlong Emperor, were non-invasively studied by optical microscopy, Raman microspectroscopy and X-ray microfluorescence spectroscopy (point measurements and mapping) implemented on-site with mobile instruments. The elemental compositions of the metal substrates and enamels are compared. XRF point measurements and mappings support the identification of the coloring phases and elements obtained by Raman microspectroscopy. Attention was paid to the white (opacifier), blue, yellow, green, and red areas. The demonstration of arsenic-based phases (e.g., lead arsenate apatite) in the blue areas of the ewer, free of manganese, proves the use of cobalt imported from Europe. The high level of potassium confirms the use of smalt as the cobalt source. On the other hand, the significant manganese level indicates the use of Asian cobalt ores for the enamels of the incense burner. The very limited use of the lead pyrochlore pigment (European Naples yellow recipes) in the yellow and soft green cloisonné enamels of the Kangxi incense burner, as well as the use of traditional Chinese recipes for other colors (white, turquoise, dark green, red), reinforces the pioneering character of this object in technical terms at the 17th–18th century turn. The low level of lead in the cloisonné enamels of the incense burner may also be related to the use of European recipes. On the contrary, the Qianlong ewer displays all the enameling techniques imported from Europe to obtain a painted decoration of exceptional quality with the use of complex lead pyrochlore pigments, with or without addition of zinc, as well as cassiterite opacifier.

MODERN TECHNOLOGIES OF MOBILE MARKETING

The article studies the main technologies and trends of mobile marketing, including the spread of chatbots; social media and mobile commerce; targeting; voice search; analytics based on artificial intelligence. According to marketing research, it is estimated that almost 40% of Internet users in the world prefer to interact with chatbots. The more companies and consumers use chatbots, the greater is the demand for better chatbot designs, which makes it easier for companies to implement them in their business. As customers spend more and more time on their mobile devices and often choose social networks, the trend of mobile commerce towards social media commerce is quite logical, allowing you to buy goods/services directly on social networks. Using targeting in the companies’ marketing activities will allow all internet users to select the target audience according to certain criteria and promote relevant products/ services. Sending them special offers in the place and at the time when they are most relevant, will increase sales, customer loyalty and brand awareness. Marketing managers use targeting to reach their target audience based on their current location to show ads in real time. Marketing research shows that voice search on mobile devices today is used by 27% of the global audience, 51% use voice search to find information about the product they are interested in. It is predicted that voice search marketing will continue to be relevant and in demand. Artificial intelligence has become an advanced technology of mobile marketing allowing to analyse consumer behavior and search algorithms, social media and blogs. AI helps companies determine how consumers find goods and services, provides target audience recommendations on products/services, communicates with consumers, creates content, reduces staff costs. For large manufacturers artificial intelligence has become an important mean of maintaining and expanding the customer base. Marketing automation increases search efficiency, helps to determine the success of marketing campaigns, allowing you to target the audience in a quicker and more efficient manner, as well as offer interesting content, reduce costs, save time. Authors emphasized that mobile devices are now the main omnichannel marketing tool, and the effective use of mobile marketing instruments by companies will allow them to adjust marketing activities quickly.

Additional Cover

The cover image is based on the Special Issue – Research Article The enamels of the first (soft-paste) European blue-and-white porcelains: Rouen, Saint-Cloud and Paris factories: Complementarity of Raman and X-ray fluorescence analyses with mobile instruments to identify the cobalt ore by Philippe Colomban et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/jrs.6111.

Validation of The Mobile Training Management to Improve The Quality Results Training

The success of the training can be seen from how the activation process takes place. One of them is by designing an innovative training model. This research aims to analyze results validation of the mobile training management model. This research uses descriptive quantitative analysis in determining the level of validation of research instruments. This research method uses descriptive quantitative research to assess the level of validation of the research instrument. The sample of this research is the participants of basic level seafaring training at the Surabaya Shipping Polytechnic, the Director of the Surabaya Shipping Polytechnic, and local government employees related to mobile training activities. The research was analyzed based on results validation of the training and education management experts. The results reserach show that the mobile training model instrument is declared valid. Results of expert assessment from training management and managing education are categorized as good. This shows that the mobile training development model in improving the quality of education and training is worthy of further research.

Wireless Backpack System for Detection of Radioactive Cesium on Contaminated Soil Using Portable Plastic Scintillator with Efficient Readout Device

The miniaturization and usability of radiation detectors make it increasingly possible to use mobile instruments to detect and monitor gamma radiations. Here, a Bluetooth-based mobile detection system for integrated interaction in a backpack was designed and implemented to smart equipment for the detection of radioactive cesium on contaminated soil. The radiation measurement system was demonstrated in the form of a backpack using a quantum dot (QD)-loaded plastic scintillator manufactured and prepared directly in this study, and it can be measured by a person in the wireless framework of integrated interaction. The QD-loaded plastic scintillator was measured after setting the distance from the contaminated soil to 20, 50, and 100 mm. As a result, the detection efficiency of the commercial plastic scintillator (EJ-200) was calculated to be 11.81% and that of the QD-loaded plastic scintillator was 15.22%, which proved the higher detection efficiency performance than the commercial plastic scintillator. The measurement result was transmitted to a personal computer using Bluetooth as a portable system. In the future, this wireless system design could be expanded as a wireless communication system equipped with a global positioning system to detect and measure radioactively contaminated environments.

Differential mobility spectrometry improves uranium isotope ratio measurements on an ion trap mass spectrometer

The characterization of uranium and other radionuclides is important to programs in nuclear forensics. Commonly, isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) is employed as a laboratory-based system for quantification of isotope ratios (IR) to shed light on the degree of processing. Transporting nuclear material from the field to the laboratory is problematic while laborious sample processing and long analysis times make IRMS less amenable to real-time measurement. Because size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements make conventional IRMS difficult to implement for on-site applications, it is attractive to develop IR analysis on an ion trap mass spectrometer which is amenable to field portability. A hindrance to in situ analysis includesmatrix interferences which are best handled by some separation method. Notably, ion mobility instruments have been commonly demonstrated in field use, and, in particular, differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) is a promising companion separation technique to ion traps. DMS enables tunable filtration prior to ion trap MS analysis, removing chemical interferences to address the heterogeneous nature of radionuclides and fission products. DMS may be particularly useful for removing molecular isobaric interferences and, as such, pairing DMS with ion trap MS has potential for fieldable IR analysis. Herein, DMS was coupled to a linear ion trap (LIT) for pre-filtration of uranyl ion (UO2+) from chemical background produced from nano electrospray ionization. Subsequently, isotopic analysis was conducted on the uranyl ion. The 235U/238U ratio measured with the DMS-MS system showed improved signal-to-background, compared to MS alone. Pairing DMS to LITMS improves the accuracy of the MS, while precision of the MS appears to be limited by the precision of the LIT. After DMS filtration, the isotope ratio measurement of 235U/238U decreased from 0.00913 to 0.00713, with the standardized uncertainty improving from 26.58% to 7.21%. Such results indicate that DMS may generally impart greater confidence of nuclear IRMS measurements.

Taqi Erāni, Bizhan Jazani, and a Marxian Framework for the Critique of Religion in Twentieth Century Iranian Political Thought

This article examines the development of a Marxian frame for the critique of religion in twentieth century Iranian political thought by Taqi Erāni and Bizhan Jazani. It argues that, following Marx, Erāni and Jazani understand religion to be a superstructural relic from an earlier stage of human development which will gradually and inevitably withdraw from collective human life as a consequence of the material dialectics of history. It further shows that Erāni and Jazani consider religion to be instrumental in sustaining relations of oppression, and they view with skepticism attempts to reform religion or to use religious faith as an instrument for mass mobilization in revolutionary struggles.

Potential of social networks’ use in the protest movements

This article studies the problem of social networks use as a platform for political mobilization of society’s protest potential. Social networks are tools for spreading information. The aim of the article is to study the role of exposure and perspectives of social networks’ usage in the formation and implementation of the protest potential in the society. Disclosed technological aspects, forms and methods of social networks’ use as a means of formation and implementation of public protest potential. This article addressed practical experience of public’s political mobilization in Ukraine and the Middle East. Actualized the tendency to use social networks as a medium of dissent formation and processes control instrument of political mobilization of the society. It was shown the basic directions of social networks’ usage to achieve policy objectives (the promotion of political projects, work with target audiences) through the activation of dissent. It was determined that the use of social networks for political mobilization of society allows you to do it quickly enough, given existing precedents in other countries, factors and opportunities, ways to influence audience’s opinion in the organization and carrying out protest campaigns, aligned at the main protest target audience of social networks – the young and the middle class.

THE ANALYSIS ON FACTORS INFLUENCING THE USE OF MOBILE PAYMENT SYSTEM AMONG GENERATION Z IN BEKASI CITY

The topic of the factors that influence the usage of Mobile Payments is not to be overlooked, given the rise in the use of Mobile Payments in recent years. The goal of this study is to identify the factors that have a major impact on users' use of mobile payment instruments. The study was carried out with the help of an online survey questionnaire, which was distributed to 414 people. The impact of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, trust, and perceived security on the behavioral intention of mobile payment usage was investigated in this study. This study used a quantitative approach, with Generation Z as the unit of analysis, and the respondents from Bekasi as the target population. Two of the criteria have a significant relationship with the behavioral intention to use the mobile payment instrument, according to the research. Based on the result of this study, it can be seen that perceived security has the most influence on the behavioral intention to use mobile payment, followed by social influence.

Ethical challenges of researching emergent socio-material-technological phenomena: insights from an interdisciplinary mixed-methods project using mobile eye-tracking

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss research ethics in mixed-methods research (MMR) and MMR development with a focus on ethical challenges that stem from working with technical instruments such as mobile eye-trackers.Design/methodology/approachThe case of an interdisciplinary mixed-methods development study that aimed at researching the impacts of emerging mobile augmented-reality technologies on the perception of public places serves as an example to discuss research-ethical challenges regarding (1) the practical implementation of the study, (2) data processing and management and (3) societal implications of developing instruments to track and understand human practices.FindingsThis study reports challenges and experiences in ethical decision-making in the practical implementation of the study regarding the relationship to research subjects, the use of mobile research instruments in public places and the interdisciplinary cooperation among research team members. Further, this paper expounds on ethical challenges and recommendations in data processing and management and with a view to societal implications of method development and the aspirations of transdisciplinarity. This study concludes that institutionalized ethics need to become more flexible, while applied ethics and reflection must make their entry into university curricula across disciplines.Originality/valueComplex interdisciplinary mobile and mixed-methods projects that involve sensors and instruments such as mobile eye-trackers are on the rise. However, there is a significant lack of engagement with practical research ethical challenges, practices and requirements in both mixed-methods and method-development literature. By taking a context- and process-oriented perspective focusing on doing ethics, the paper contributes a concrete empirical case to these underdeveloped fields.

Engaging students in creative music making with musical instrument application in an online flipped classroom.

In K-12 schools, classes are forced to transform online due to the class suspension amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators began to design alternative ways to conduct some meaningful learning activities for their students. However, not all subject disciplines could be easily transformed online, especially for those requiring much social interaction and creation processes. In this article, we explore the learning processes through learning Shubailan, a form of music folk-talk-singing, with a mobile instrument application called muyu in an online flipped classroom among 122 secondary school students in Hong Kong. The opportunities can encourage students to learn music theories and instruments about Shubailan, and create a Shubailan piece through 6-lesson music learning. To gain more online face-to-face time for collaboration, flipping the online classroom is adopted in this study to engage students in lesson preparations via preassigned recorded videos and collaborative activities during face-to-face online lessons. In this study, a mixed research method was employed with the use of a learning satisfaction survey, teachers’ observations and semi-structured interviews. We found that this strategy could effectively motivate students to learn music and improve their music knowledge in Shubailan. This article presents evidence of implementing the online flipped classroom approach to enhance students’ satisfaction and knowledge acquisition throughout Shubailan music making processes, and offers recommendations for online music educators. Results provide a set of innovative pedagogical approaches to teach music in an online alternative mode during the difficult times.

In situ Raman spectroscopy for cultural heritage studies

AbstractRaman spectroscopy is considered as one of the most appreciated analytical techniques in the cultural heritage research field, thanks to some of its favourable characteristics such as the relatively quick time of analysis, identification of both inorganic and organic molecules. The necessity of conducting the research non‐destructively on‐site and directly on the artefact brought the technique out of the laboratory. Since 2004, when the first non‐commercial mobile Raman instrument for in situ applications on cultural heritage objects was realized, years of continuous technical and instrumental developments have passed. Today, on‐site Raman spectroscopy is considered as a cornerstone technique for the documentation of materials of works of art and the assessment of their conservation state without jeopardizing the integrity of the artefact. This paper reviews some of the breakthroughs of Raman analysis of cultural heritage objects, conducted on field (museum environment, outdoors and archaeological complexes).

Near real-time single-beat myocardial infarction detection from single-lead electrocardiogram using Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network

This study proposes a novel Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM) architecture for the diagnosis of myocardial infarctions from individual heartbeats of single-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs). The proposed model is trained using an unbiased patient split approach and validated using 10-fold cross-validation over 148 myocardial infarction and 52 Healthy Control patients from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt diagnostic ECG Database to generate an inter-patient classifier. We further demonstrate why special care must be taken when generating the training and testing datasets by exploring the effects of various data-split techniques that could mask the occurrence of overfitting and produce misleadingly high testing metrics of the model's performance. A thorough assessment of these results is provided using several standard metrics for different data split methods to show their tendency to overfitting, data leakage, and bias introduced from previously seen heart beats during the training phase. The design achieves near real-time diagnosis of 40 ms while providing an accuracy of 89.56% (with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) of ±2.79%), recall/sensitivity of 91.88% (±3.13% 95%CI), and a specificity of 80.81% (±9.62% 95%CI). The fast processing makes the model readily deployable on currently existing mobile devices and testing instruments. The achieved performance makes the proposed method a new research direction for attaining real-time and unbiased diagnosis. While, the modular architectural design of the LSTM network structure, which is amenable for the inclusion of other ECG leads, could serve as a platform for early detection of myocardial infarction and for the planning of early treatment(s).

“Golpe, não!”: Twenty-First-Century Brazilian Songs of Protest

Brazilian Popular Music has long energized public debate on a variety of issues in Brazilian society. From Geraldo Vandré’s “Pra não dizer que não falei das flores” (1968) to Anitta’s “Vai, malandra” (2017), Brazilian Popular Music has sparked conversations and reflections about democracy, gender and race relations, poverty, migration, and much more. In this article, I analyze how recent Brazilian Popular Music was used as an instrument of mobilization around the defense of democracy in the context of the political turmoil the country has experienced since the beginning of President Dilma Rousseff’s second term. I contend that the songs in question—songs of protest—illustrate how Brazilian Popular Music as a discourse continues to have the constitutive proprieties that characterized it in the second half of the twentieth century. In other words, these songs serve as a compass for ways of living and behaving in current Brazilian society.

An integrated assessment of the impacts of PM2.5 and black carbon particles on the air quality of a large Brazilian city

Data on airborne fine particle (PM2.5) emissions and concentrations in cities are valuable for traffic and air quality managers, urban planners, health practitioners, researchers, and ultimately for legislators and decision makers. Emissions and ambient concentrations of PM2.5 and black carbon (BC) were assessed in the city of Curitiba, southern Brazil. The methodology combined a month-long monitoring campaign with both fixed and mobile instruments, development of emission inventories, and dispersion model simulations on different scales. The mean urban background PM2.5 concentrations during the campaign were 7.3 μg m−3 in Curitiba city center, but three- to fourfold higher (25.3 μg m-3) in a residential area on the city’s outskirts, indicating the presence of local sources, possibly linked to biomass combustion. BC concentrations seemed to be more uniformly distributed over the city, with mean urban background concentrations around 2 μg m−3, half of which due to local traffic emissions. Higher mean BC concentrations (3–5 μg m-3) were found along busy roads. The dispersion modeling also showed high PM2.5 and BC concentrations along the heavily transited ring road. However, the lack of in situ data over these peripheral areas prevented the verification of the model output. The vehicular emission factors for PM2.5 and BC from the literature were found not to be suitable for Curitiba’s fleet and needed to be adjusted. The integrated approach of this study can be implemented in other cities, as long as an open data policy and a close cooperation among regional, municipal authorities and academia can be achieved.

Accessibility by proximity: Addressing the lack of interactive accessibility instruments for active mobility

The rise of concepts such as the 15-minute-city represents the growing importance of accessibility by active mobility. In order to promote accessibility, accessibility instruments are developed that have substantial potential to assist practitioners in decision making processes. Therefore, this research starts with an up-to-date overview on the suitability of accessibility instruments when planning for active mobility. It was found that accessibility instruments were significantly further developed in the last few years and there is a rising number of tools that contain novel features. However, it was identified that there is a clear lack of tools specifically designed for modeling active mobility that are open source, include interactive scenario building, and can easily be transferred to new study areas.Therefore, an interactive accessibility instrument named GOAT (Geo Open Accessibility Tool) was developed, which is open source, transferable, and has an easy-to-use web interface. This instrument has been developed following an iterative software development process in close cooperation with practitioners from three municipalities in the region of Munich, Germany. The practitioners tested the tool independently in numerous workshops in order to provide feedback, which was integrated into the development. Furthermore, the tool was tested and transferred to more than 20 German municipalities, the City of Bogotá (Colombia) and Matosinhos (Portugal). First results show that the collaborative and open development process produced a user-centric solution, which bears the high potential to make planning for active mobility more effective and efficient.