Natural Patterns Research Articles

Optimization of landscape pattern in China Luojiang Xiaoxi basin based on landscape ecological risk assessment

Multi-source ecological risks have induced many ecological pollution problems that cannot be ignored and seriously threaten regional ecological security. Constructing and optimizing the landscape pattern is beneficial to improve watershed ecosystem services. In this study, an innovative method is proposed to construct and optimize the landscape pattern, which takes Luojiang-Small Creek watershed as an example. 10-meter high-precision raster elements are selected as the basic unit for landscape ecological risk evaluation, and 20 evaluation factors are selected from three dimensions of “natural environment-human society-landscape pattern” to establish the evaluation index system. The spatial principal component-redundancy analysis (SPCA-RDA) was used to comprehensively evaluate the landscape ecological risk in 2019, and the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR) and gravity model were used to optimize the landscape pattern of the watershed. The results show (1) Human social and landscape pattern factors have a more significant influence on the integrated ecological risk, while natural factors, except for soil type and vegetation cover, have a weaker influence on the integrated ecological risk. (2) The overall landscape ecological risk is low, and the area of the mild landscape ecological risk zone is 259.89 km2, accounting for 81.68 % of the study area. According to the MCR model and gravity model, forest land with an area larger than 1 km2 and water bodies and grassland with an area larger than 0.01 km2 were identified as ecological source sites. (3) 17 potential ecological corridors were constructed, including 4 road-type corridors, 9 green belt-type corridors and 4 river-type corridors, with a total length of 68.72 km, and 22 potential ecological nodes were identified, including 8 A-type ecological nodes and 14 B-type ecological nodes. A comprehensive three-dimensional spatial ecological network of “ecological nodes-ecological corridors-ecological zones” was constructed, and the optimization effect of the landscape pattern in the study area was evaluated, and it was found that the optimized landscape pattern had significantly improved in terms of connectivity. The results of the study provide ecological protection and planning guidance for future risk prevention and control and landscape pattern optimization of the area with watershed as a unit.

As If

Regardless of any human pretense to foresight or omniscience, we are stuck with thereality that for now the future is, and remains, an open-ended question. In pursuing theissue of humankind’s preoccupation with its mastery and the ensuing contests over itscharacter, this essay begins with a tracing of future-oriented thinking’s development and thevarious manners of foresight which result, considering the future’s indeterminacy in light ofthe fundamental human impulse to plan around its projected, imaginary image. It will brieflychart the evolution of foresight as a means by which humans plan for—and in effectcreate—their futures. From early conceptions of the not-yet as a phenomena observable inthe rhythms and patterns of nature, to the later methodological rigours of modern foresightpractice, it centres the foundational concept of the ‘image of the future’ (as what is “seen” byforesight) and it’s mythopoetic function in bringing the future under a measure of humancontrol, providing placeholder knowledge and the certainty necessary to the carrying out ofactions calculated to either increase or decrease the likelihood of any particular imagesactualization. Foresight is presented as a defining characteristic of modern capitalistdynamics, operating in its most common institutional form as a means for extending thereach of presently powerful political and economic actors into the future, generating thefictional expectations that underlie the complimentary practices of speculative investmentand risk securitization. Following this, the essay turns to alternative formations which queer futurityand foresight, productively exploiting the fact that the images generated by foresight andspeculation, regardless of the power of their authors, are necessarily fictional. Relishing in(rather than retreating from) the future’s indeterminacy, queer futures proliferate possibility,disrupt reproduction, and instrumentalize desire in the performance of emancipatory futuresthrough their rhetorical and material instantiation in the present. As a counterpoint to thecapitalist and queer future imaginaries discussed, the paper closes on a consideration ofindigenous anti-futurisms which regard the imaginaries at the heart of foresight andpretensions of humankind’s command of the future as necessarily apocalyptic, thereforeincorporating foresight only insofar as it articulates the anticipation of a decline and eventualcollapse of ‘the future’ as such.

Combinatorial characterizations and impossibilities for higher-order homophily.

Homophily is the seemingly ubiquitous tendency for people to connect and interact with other individuals who are similar to them. This is a well-documented principle and is fundamental for how society organizes. Although many social interactions occur in groups, homophily has traditionally been measured using a graph model, which only accounts for pairwise interactions involving two individuals. Here, we develop a framework using hypergraphs to quantify homophily from group interactions. This reveals natural patterns of group homophily that appear with gender in scientific collaboration and political affiliation in legislative bill cosponsorship and also reveals distinctive gender distributions in group photographs, all of which cannot be fully captured by pairwise measures. At the same time, we show that seemingly natural ways to define group homophily are combinatorially impossible. This reveals important pitfalls to avoid when defining and interpreting notions of group homophily, as higher-order homophily patterns are governed by combinatorial constraints that are independent of human behavior but are easily overlooked.

Aedes albopictus host odor preference does not drive observed variation in feeding patterns across field populations

Laboratory and field-based studies of the invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus demonstrate its competency to transmit over twenty different pathogens linked to a broad range of vertebrate hosts. The vectorial capacity of Ae. albopictus to transmit these pathogens remains unclear, partly due to knowledge gaps regarding its feeding behavior. Blood meal analyses from field-captured specimens have shown vastly different feeding patterns, with a wide range of anthropophagy (human feeding) and host diversity. To address this knowledge gap, we asked whether differences in innate host preference may drive observed variation in Ae. albopictus feeding patterns in nature. Low generation colonies (F2–F4) were established with field-collected mosquitoes from three populations with high reported anthropophagy (Thailand, Cameroon, and Florida, USA) and three populations in the United States with low reported anthropophagy (New York, Maryland, and Virginia). The preference of these Ae. albopictus colonies for human versus non-human animal odor was assessed in a dual-port olfactometer along with control Ae. aegypti colonies already known to show divergent behavior in this assay. All Ae. albopictus colonies were less likely (p < 0.05) to choose the human-baited port than the anthropophilic Ae. aegypti control, instead behaving similarly to zoophilic Ae. aegypti. Our results suggest that variation in reported Ae. albopictus feeding patterns are not driven by differences in innate host preference, but may result from differences in host availability. This work is the first to compare Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti host preference directly and provides insight into differential vectorial capacity and human feeding risk.

Promoting traditional ikat textiles: ethnographic perspectives on indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage preservation and ethnic identity

Purpose This study aims to explore how indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage preservation and ethnic identity influence the production of traditional ikat textiles in northeast Thailand. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research method used an ethnographic perspective with a realistic design. Purposive sampling was used to conduct 30 in-depth ethnographic interviews with members of Phu Thai ikat textile groups in Kalasin province. Interview transcripts were studied using thick descriptive analysis (themes, categorisation, coding and keywords). Findings The ethnographic study shows that natural dyeing, traditional crafts, materials, designs and patterns are used in Phu Thai ikat textile weaving. The results reveal that indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage preservation and ethnic identity are relevant to traditional ikat textiles. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study uniquely focuses on a deeper theoretical understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage preservation, to sustain traditional ikat textiles.

Revisiting the Effect of Rib Roughness on the Performance of Solar Air Heater

The energy collected from various renewable resources, such as sunlight, geothermal warmth, wind, and water, is referred to as renewable power. The sun is the ultimate source of vitality. Solar radiation vitality can be utilized in many functions, such as heating buildings and dusty foliage crops, dying chicken, wood taste, and treating modern elements. All the energy patterns in nature asking them are the origin of the sun. The solar air heater (SAH) is very common along with commonly applied sun-oriented heating apparatus. Perhaps, SAH is utilized for a wide range of applications, from residential to commercial. Improving the SAH efficiency is done by applying rib elements on the bottom side of the roughness element ribs, grooves, fins, baffles, twisted tapes, deflectors, etc., and improved Thermo-hydraulic performance (THP). Various investigators have prepared several practices in their research work to obtain a greater transfer of thermal energy between these solar collector heaters by applying various rib elements to the absorbent surface. The objective of that study is obliged to describe and conclude tests on the impact of modest rib element height and face projection upon absorber plate along duct surface as artificial rib elements of different shapes on heat transfer along friction factor. The research on artificially roughened SAH ducting is thoroughly analyzed in this paper. The purpose of this paper is to summarize several studies on the thermal and hydraulic performance of synthetically roughened SAH ducting. For the analyzed range of parameters, it was discovered that the usage of arc-shaped-shaped rib geometry and metal grit ribs has the maximum THP parameters in comparison to often roughness geometry. For the tested range of parameters, the use of broken arc ribs has the highest Nu compared to the plain arc-shaped rib roughness. Arc configuration of roughness element exhibits fewer ranges pressure diminishes than the V form design because the produced secondary flow has a curved structure and is rougher.

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

Reviewed by: The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak Zeynep Z. Atayurt-Fenge ELIF SHAFAK The Island of Missing Trees New York. Bloomsbury. 2021. 368 pages. SHORTLISTED FOR THE Women's Prize for Fiction 2022, Elif Shafak's thirteenth novel, The Island of Missing Trees, revisits Shafak's much-frequented topics of identity, memory, and gender. Divided into six parts and preceded by a prologue, the novel features a multilayered and polyphonic narrative, stylistically reminiscent of her previous novels, including 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World (2019). Within this subtly knitted narrative structure, Shafak portrays different ways of life, expressed through the stories of various life-forms and connected to each other under the common denominator of grief—namely, grief for the loss of home, lover, and grief for the loss of biodiversity. Yet the novel is also about a sense of longing for wholeness, oneness, and harmony, not only between people but also between all elements of the wider ecosystem. Foregrounding the notion of relationality, The Island of Missing Trees interweaves the Anthropocene with the ecological system, creating a narrative that promotes a holistic vision of posthumanism while situating human suffering side by side with the distress experienced by the ecosystem due to the atrocities visited upon it by the human world. To this end, she presents a mythical arboreal point of view, rendering the theme of ecological consciousness as a stylized expression that lays emphasis on the notion of multiplicity. And around this ecological consciousness, Shafak interlaces the themes of love, [End Page 76] hate, and death through a double narrative structure that alternates between 1974 and the 2010s, and geographically between Cyprus and London, bridged at the center by the narrative of a conscious, speaking fig tree. The historical vein of the narrative deals with the period before and after the partition of Cyprus and its damaging effects on people and the landscape. While depicting this political and military crisis, Shafak avoids giving precedence to any particular group by referring to the inhabitants of the island only as "islanders." Thus, the impartial tone prompts an empathetic insight toward a harmonious coexistence, not only among the members of different ethnic groups but also between the human and the nonhuman world. This stance is infused into the contemporary narrative, which is set in north London a few days before Christmas. The festive mood of the holiday season is overshadowed by the prospect of a cyclone and also a familial trauma involving a teenage schoolgirl, Ada (whose name means island in Turkish), her Turkish Cypriot archaeologist mother, Defne (a Turkish name with Greek origin, meaning laurel tree), and her Greek Cypriot ecologist and botanist father named Kostas, working on the role of fig trees in restoring biodiversity. Within this multilayered structure, the narrative discloses the troubling experience of each character with the theme of loss—respectively, loss of a mother, loss of a spouse, loss of roots, and loss of natural habitat. Through Shafak's incisive storytelling, these stories of the human and the nonhuman world grow into each other and create a saga on whose surface various forms of sorrow are inscribed. The reciprocity between the human and the nonhuman world is further made evident in the way the novel structurally alludes to the botanical process of burying and unburying a tree, a beautifully constructed symbolic trope that both warns against digging up the past in an antagonistic fashion—thus unearthing conflicts—and proposes reconciliation and reconnection with one's roots no matter how tangled they are. In this regard, the novel points to the impact of revelations on personal as well as social levels, and through these revelations it is not the feeling of anger that is communicated but understanding of grief, an emotional state described in the novel as "a language" that is universal. Although this language might seem relevant only to human beings at first sight, Shafak makes it equally pertinent to the nonhuman world in her narrative, offering an aestheticized construction of the ecosystem by drawing attention to the ornate patterns in nature, including the behaviors of flies, mosquitos, ants, bees, and butterflies. Accordingly, she constructs a fig tree as a major...

Place Identity translating into Culture: the town of Rajapur in the cultural region of Konkan

This paper deals in defining the place identity of cultural town of Rajapur, located in the Konkan region. Rajapur is the valley situated at the confluence of the 'Arjuna' and ‘Godi’ river. Artistic temples, attractive mosques, Peshwa period structures at Jawahar Chowk and Varchi Peth are all adorning the town. The settlements of Rajapur that are the subject of this study have historical and cultural values with structures of regional culture, natural patterns, and traditions. Today, some parts of these settlements are totally neglected due to changing lifestyles, socio-economic conditions, and approaches towards rural areas. Paradoxically, Konkan is known for the coast and is the main magnet for a day’s tourist destination. The heritage is losing its identity due to unsustainable tourism, development pressure, social, economic and political issues. However, Rajapur consists rich history, cultural background, traditional housing, geology, and other factors that make it an important town in South Konkan.

"BIFloraExplorer": A Taxonomic, Genetic, and Ecological Data Resource for the Vascular Plants of Britain and Ireland.

The vascular flora of Britain and Ireland is a historically well-documented and clearly delimited study system that offers itself to large-scale analyses of ecology and species assemblages. However, such analyses require clean, curated, and taxonomically resolved data, which are often unavailable. In this chapter, we describe how to access and use a key data resource that combines a taxonomically stable species list with genetic data (genome size, chromosome counts, and DNA barcode information), ecological information (such as life-form, realized niche description, and geographic origin) and distribution records. The data resource enables and encourages the study of natural ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes within the vascular flora of Britain and Ireland.

A New Compound-limbs Paradigm: Integrating upper-limb swing improves lower-limb stepping intention decoding from EEG.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems based on spontaneous electroencephalography (EEG) hold the promise to implement human voluntary control of lower-extremity powered exoskeletons. However, current EEG-BCI paradigms do not consider the cooperation of upper and lower limbs during walking, which is inconsistent with natural human stepping patterns. To deal with this problem, this study proposed a stepping-matched human EEG-BCI paradigm that involved actions of both unilateral lower and contralateral upper limbs (also referred to as compound-limbs movement). Experiments were conducted in motor execution (ME) and motor imagery (MI) conditions to validate the feasibility. Common spatial pattern (CSP) proposed subject-specific CSP (SSCSP), and filter-bank CSP (FBCSP) methods were applied for feature extraction, respectively. The best average classification results based on SSCSP indicated that the accuracies of compound-limbs paradigms in ME and MI conditions achieved 89.02% ± 12.84% and 73.70% ± 12.47%, respectively. Although they were 2.03% and 5.68% lower than those of the single-upper-limb mode that does not match human stepping patterns, they were 24.30% and 11.02% higher than those of the single-lower-limb mode. These findings indicated that the proposed compound-limbs EEG-BCI paradigm is feasible for decoding human stepping intention and thus provides a potential way for natural human control of walking assistance devices.

喀斯特地区碳储量对土地利用模式的响应——以南北盘江流域为例

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 喀斯特地区碳储量对土地利用模式的响应——以南北盘江流域为例 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202208192384 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 贵州省基础研究(自然科学)项目(黔科合基础-ZK[2022]一般 302);贵州省基础研究(自然科学)项目(黔科合基础[20201Y154]);国家自然科学基金(41661088);贵州省自然资源厅项目-贵州省不动产经济运行评审体系建设项目(HXDZB-022) Responses of carbon storage to land use pattern in karst area: A case study of Nanbei Panjiang River Basin Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:喀斯特地区生态系统脆弱,对气候变化响应敏感,空间异质性强,碳汇潜力大。喀斯特生态治理对土地利用格局的改变,会导致生态系统碳储量的显著变化,对陆地生态系统碳循环和区域生态安全具有深远影响。以喀斯特典型区南北盘江流域为例,运用InVEST模型和热点分析评估流域2000-2020年土地利用变化对碳储量时空分布的影响,根据碳储量集聚特征使用FLUS-Markov模型分区预测生态系统碳储量对不同土地利用模式的响应。结果表明:(1)2000-2020年,研究区土地利用类型由高碳密度的地类转为较低碳密度的地类,致使生态系统碳储量呈减少趋势,累计损失90.36×105t C。(2)2000-2020年碳储量在空间上呈现"西低东高"的格局。热点区集中分布在东部和东南部,冷点区主要分布在西部和西南部,弱显著区大多在北部。(3)各热点分区在不同模式下固碳能力差异显著。热点区在不同模式下的平均碳密度均大于155.40t/hm2,显著高于2020年南北盘江流域的平均碳密度143.59t/hm2,整体固碳功能突出;弱显著区的碳汇能力与研究区平均水平相近,自然发展模式(NDP)和经济建设模式(ECP)下碳储量损失较少;冷点区在NDP、ECP下碳储量损失剧烈,但在生态保护模式(EPP)下碳汇增加速率为1.38×105t/a,明显高于弱显著区(0.30×105t/a),碳汇潜力较大。总体上,EPP影响下的土地利用格局固碳能力优于NDP和ECP。该研究可为喀斯特地区土地利用格局优化和生态系统管理提供科学依据。 Abstract:As we all know, karst areas have fragile ecosystems with strongly spatial heterogeneity and large carbon sink potential, which is sensitive to climate change. The change of land use pattern caused by karst ecological governance will lead to significant changes in ecosystem carbon storage, which has far-reaching impacts on the carbon cycle of the terrestrial ecosystem and regional ecological security. Take the Nanbei Panjiang River Basin in the typical karst area as an example, the InVEST model and hotspot analysis were used to assess the impacts of land use change on the spatial and temporal distribution of carbon stocks in the Nanbei Panjiang River Basin from 2000 to 2020. At the same time, the FLUS-Markov model was used to predict the changes of ecosystem carbon storages under different land use patterns, according to the characteristics of carbon storage agglomeration. Research results showed that: (1) from 2000 to 2020, the land use type in the study area has changed from high carbon density to low carbon density, resulting in a cumulative loss of 90.36×105 t in ecosystem carbon storage. (2) Carbon storage presented a spatial pattern of "low in west and high in east" area. Hot spots were concentrated in the east and southeast study area, while cold spots were mainly distributed in the west and southwest and weak significant areas were mostly in the north area. (3) Under different patterns, the carbon fixation capacities of each hot spots were significantly different. The average carbon density of hot spots was more than 155.40 t/hm2, which was obviously higher than the average carbon density of Nanbei Panjiang River Basin (143.59 t/hm2) in 2020. At the same time, the carbon sink capacity of the weakly significant area was close to the average level of the study area, and the carbon storage loss was less under Natural Development Pattern (NDP) and Economic Development Pattern (ECP). On the one hand, the carbon storage loss was severe in cold spot area under NDP and ECP, on the other hand the carbon sink increase rate was 1.38×105 t/a under Ecological Protection Pattern (EPP), which was significantly higher than the weakly significant area (0.30×105 t/a). In general, it means that the carbon fixation capacity of land use pattern under the influence of EPP is better than that of NDP and ECP. This study can provide some scientific basis for the optimization of land use pattern and ecosystem management in karst areas. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

An Optimised Defensive Technique to Recognize Adversarial Iris Images Using Curvelet Transform

Deep Learning is one of the most popular computer science techniques, with applications in natural language processing, image processing, pattern identification, and various other fields. Despite the success of these deep learning algorithms in multiple scenarios, such as spam detection, malware detection, object detection and tracking, face recognition, and automatic driving, these algorithms and their associated training data are rather vulnerable to numerous security threats. These threats ultimately result in significant performance degradation. Moreover, the supervised based learning models are affected by manipulated data known as adversarial examples, which are images with a particular level of noise that is invisible to humans. Adversarial inputs are introduced to purposefully confuse a neural network, restricting its use in sensitive application areas such as biometrics applications. In this paper, an optimized defending approach is proposed to recognize the adversarial iris examples efficiently. The Curvelet Transform Denoising method is used in this defense strategy, which examines every sub-band of the adversarial images and reproduces the image that has been changed by the attacker. The salient iris features are retrieved from the reconstructed iris image by using a pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network model (VGG 16) followed by Multiclass classification. The classification is performed by using Support Vector Machine (SVM) which uses Particle Swarm Optimization method (PSO-SVM). The proposed system is tested when classifying the adversarial iris images affected by various adversarial attacks such as FGSM, iGSM, and Deepfool methods. An experimental result on benchmark iris dataset, namely IITD, produces excellent outcomes with the highest accuracy of 95.8% on average.

A low-power ankle-foot prosthesis for push-off enhancement.

Passive ankle-foot prostheses are light-weighted and reliable, but they cannot generate net positive power, which is essential in restoring the natural gait pattern of amputees. Recent robotic prostheses addressed the problem by actively controlling the storage and release of energy generated during the stance phase through the mechanical deformation of elastic elements housed in the device. This study proposes an innovative low-power active prosthetic module that fits on off-the-shelf passive ankle-foot energy-storage-and-release (ESAR) prostheses. The module is placed parallel to the ESAR foot, actively augmenting the energy stored in the foot and controlling the energy return for an enhanced push-off. The parallel elastic actuation takes advantage of the amputee's natural loading action on the foot's elastic structure, retaining its deformation. The actuation unit is designed to additionally deform the foot and command the return of the total stored energy. The control strategy of the prosthesis adapts to changes in the user's cadence and loading conditions to return the energy at a desired stride phase. An early verification on two transtibial amputees during treadmill walking showed that the proposed mechanism could increase the subjects' dorsiflexion peak of 15.2% and 41.6% for subjects 1 and 2, respectively, and the cadence of about 2%. Moreover, an increase of 26% and 45% was observed in the energy return for subjects 1 and 2, respectively.

A satellite-based burned area dataset for the northern boreal region from 1982 to 2020

Background Fires in the boreal forest occur with natural frequencies and patterns. Burned area (BA) is an essential variable in assessing the impact of climate change in boreal regions.Aims Spatial wildfire occurrence data since the 1950s are available for North America. However, there are no reliable data for Eurasia, mainly for Siberia, during the 1980s and 1990s.Methods A Bayesian-network algorithm was applied to the Long-Term Data Record (LTDR) Version 5 to generate a BA DataSet (BA-LTDR-DS) for the Boreal region from 1982 to 2020, validated using official reference data and compared with the MODIS MCD64A1 product.Key results A high correlation (>93%) with all the reference BA datasets was found. BA-LTDR-DS data grouped by decades estimated a linear increase in BA of 4.47 million ha/decade. This trend provides evidence of how global warming affects fire activity in these boreal forests.Conclusions BA-LTDR-DS constitutes a unique data source for the pre-MODIS era, and becomes a reliable source when other products with higher spatial/spectral resolution are not available.Implications The BA-LTDR-DS dataset constitutes the longest time series developed for the boreal region at this spatial resolution. BA-LTDR-DS could be used as input in global climate models, helping improve wildfire prediction capabilities and understand the interactions between fire, climate and vegetation dynamics.

Ecological Implications of Dam and Barrage Construction in the Indian Himalayan Region: A Comprehensive Assessment

Dams and barrages are vital infrastructure for human needs such as hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, and water storage, but their construction has significant negative impacts on the biodiversity and riverine ecosystem of aquatic species. The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is known for its unique ecological and environmental significance. However, the construction of dams and barrages in this region has raised concerns regarding their ecological consequences. This paper aims to assess the ecological impacts of dam and barrage construction in the IHR. The construction of dams and barrages in the IHR has resulted in significant alterations to the natural flow patterns of rivers, leading to changes in hydrology, sediment transport, and water availability. These alterations have had profound effects on the aquatic ecosystems, affecting fish populations, riverine habitats, and biodiversity. Furthermore, the fragmentation of rivers caused by dam construction has disrupted migratory patterns of several species, thereby impacting their breeding and survival. This paper provides an overview of the ecological consequences of dam and barrage construction in the Indian Himalayan Region, highlighting the need for sustainable and environmentally sensitive approaches to infrastructure development in this ecologically fragile region. By considering the ecological implications and adopting appropriate mitigation measures, it is possible to strike a balance between meeting the energy and water demands of the region while safeguarding its unique and diverse ecosystems.

Graceful User Following for Mobile Balance Assistive Robot in Daily Activities Assistance

Numerous diseases and aging can cause degeneration of people's balance ability resulting in limited mobility and even high risks of fall. Robotic technologies can provide more intensive rehabilitation exercises or be used as assistive devices to compensate for balance ability. However, With the new healthcare paradigm shifting from hospital care to home care, there is a gap in robotic systems that can provide care at home. This paper introduces Mobile Robotic Balance Assistant (MRBA), a compact and cost-effective balance assistive robot that can provide both rehabilitation training and activities of daily living (ADLs) assistance at home. A three degrees of freedom (3-DoF) robotic arm was designed to mimic the therapist arm function to provide balance assistance to the user. To minimize the interference to users’ natural pelvis movements and gait patterns, the robot must have a Human-Robot Interface(HRI) that can detect user intention accurately and follow the user's movement smoothly and timely. Thus, a graceful user following control rule was proposed. The overall control architecture consists of two parts: an observer for human inputs estimation and an LQR-based controller with disturbance rejection. The proposed controller is validated in high-fidelity simulation with actual human trajectories, and the results successfully show the effectiveness of the method in different walking modes.

Importance of circadian rhythms in dairy nutrition

Biological rhythms are repeating patterns that are driven by time-keeping mechanisms within the animal and are adaptive as they coordinate physiology and metabolism with the external environment. The dairy cow has a well recognised natural daily pattern of feed intake and milk synthesis, but regulation of these rhythms has not been well described in the literature or well considered in current dairy management. Recent discoveries have clearly described circadian time-keeping mechanisms in peripheral tissues that are responsive to the timing of food availability. Some management strategies on dairy farms may desynchronise the interactions between central and mammary circadian timekeepers, resulting in reduced milk yield and efficiency. Feeding a total mixed ration is commonly assumed to create constant ruminal conditions, but the large variation in the rate of feed intake across the day causes large fluctuations in rumen fermentation and absorbed nutrients. Milk composition also differs across the day due to both dynamics in nutrient absorption and biological regulation attempting to match milk yield and composition with calf requirements across the day. Recent work has shown that milk synthesis varies over the day and is modified by the timing of feed intake and nutrient absorption. These rhythms have also been shown to be affected by the timing of feed delivery. We expect that maximal milk yield and efficiency are achieved when we have more consistent rumen fermentation and match the timing of nutrient absorption and mammary capacity for milk synthesis. Managing feeding times provides the opportunity to modify feed intake across the day, but behavioural responses are complex. Appreciating the impact of circadian rhythms provides the foundation to develop nutrition and management strategies considering circadian dynamics of intake and milk synthesis and provides opportunities for new gains in cow efficiency, welfare, and health.

Use of Fluorescent Chemical Probes in the Study of Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) Trafficking.

Fluorescent chemical probes are used nowadays as a chemical resource to study the physiology and pharmacology of several important endogenous receptors. Different fluorescent groups have been coupled with known ligands of these receptors, allowing the visualization of their localization and trafficking. One of the most important molecular players of innate immunity and inflammation are the Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs). These Pattern-Recognition Receptors (PRR) have as natural ligands microbial-derived pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and also endogenous molecules called danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). These ligands activate TLRs to start a response that will determine the host's protection and overall cell survival but can also lead to chronic inflammation and autoimmune syndromes. TLRs action is tightly related to their subcellular localization and trafficking. Understanding this trafficking phenomenon can enlighten critical molecularpathways that might allow to decipher the causes of different diseases. In this chapter, the study of function, localization and trafficking of TLRs through the use of chemical probes will be discussed. Furthermore, an example protocol of the use of fluorescent chemical probes to study TLR4 trafficking using high-content analysis will be described.

HYBRID ALGORITHM FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF FRACTAL DESIGNS AND IMAGES

The fractal patterns are recursive patterns and are self-similar in nature. The fractal geometry provides better understanding of natural patterns as compared to the Euclidean geometry. The fractal designs have been used extensively in the fields of applied sciences due to the systematic methods used for their generation. These methods provide benchmarks to analyze the roughness, narrow/broad vision of the objects. In the fields of architecture and design, computational methods for fractal generation can prove to be more reliable tools. The fractal patterns can be simulated and the architecture can be modeled, with several options, before implementing it practically. During this research, this strategy is opted to design novel fractal tile designs. Several designs are selected from a series of simulations, based on the final visionary evaluation, according to the requirement of the walls of different zones in modern buildings. Four fractal patterns are simulated with several orientations and final designs are documented with corresponding geometrical evaluation.

Analysis of changes in moisture transport parameters in soils under waterlogged conditions

The article considers changes in natural patterns of moisture transport parameters under waterlogging and lowering of groundwater table, in conditions of filtration-anisotropic strata. The nature of anisotropy characteristic of river sediments (alluvial, pluvial, deltaic and their combinations) is the most widespread in the surface zone of the earth’s crust. Impact factors: external and artificial, in the process of waterlogging and drainage, affect both positively and negatively the thickness of the active zone, capacity and water permeability values. The research method is based on the generalization of different approaches, causes and factors of moisture movement and on the results of field experiments to determine the nature to reveal the essence of “gravity moisture discharge”. In more exact statement the problem of stationary filtration is solved by Laplace equation. The state of moisture in the aeration zone has been studied: unsteady, transient and gravitational. By investigating the nature of this process, it is established that the evaporation process takes place not from the surface of groundwater table, but from aeration zone located between air (above ground surface) and water space (lower boundary of aeration zone).