Physical Architecture Research Articles

Application of systems engineering to design the architecture of an enterprise of wind turbines inspection

The use of systems engineering techniques is presented in this work to design the architecture of an enterprise of wind turbines inspection. The motivation for this research is the possibility to acquire detailed data in order to make one improved technical and financial feasibility analysis. This way, it is considered that there will be lower risks and higher return of investment. The use of systems engineering included the problem definition, requirements specification, requirements validation, and definition of physical and logical architecture descriptions. All this information offered more data to perform more detailed calculus of investment needed to create this enterprise, and the price of the offered service.

Review of physical implementation architecture in compressive spectral imaging system

The predecessor of China Optics was China Optics and Applied Optics Digest, which was founded in 1985. At that time, it was the only retrieval journal in the field of optics in China. At the end of 2008, China Optics and Applied Optics Digest was renamed

MarsSim: A high-fidelity physical and visual simulation for Mars rovers

Simulation has deeply infiltrated into the development and validation of planetary rover technologies concerning mobility and autonomy, by providing large amounts of data in a variety of conditions and environments, as well as high-fidelity prototypes. Prevalent approaches for rover simulation focus either on physical behaviors or visual scenarios. In this paper, we present a simulator named MarsSim developed upon ROS/Gazebo platform that supports both physical and visual realistic simulations. The interaction between the wheel and the rough deformable terrain is modeled with improved contact solutions, and the model is integrated into a refined physical simulation architecture as an independent terramechanics plugin. Using multi-scale planetary data and representation models, Martian scenarios are constructed, considering characteristics in terms of the surface, rock and atmosphere. Compared with experiments, the terramechanics plugin shows great modelling accuracy in fitting interactive force/torque and slip-sinkage phenomenon. The simulation of traverses with a six- wheeled planetary rover on Martian landscape are demonstrated with near-photoreal images, coupled with physical-realistic locomotive data under different terrains.

SHOX whole gene duplications are over-represented in SHOX haploinsufficiency phenotype cohorts.

Transcription of SHOX is dependent upon the interaction of the gene with a complex array of flanking regulatory elements. Duplications that contain flanking regulatory elements but not the SHOX gene have been reported in individuals with SHOX haploinsufficiency syndromes, suggesting that alterations to the physical organisation or genomic architecture may affect SHOX transcription. Individuals with tall stature and an additional X or Y chromosome have an extra copy of both the SHOX gene and the entire SHOX regulatory region, so all three copies of SHOX can be expressed fully. However, for a duplication of the SHOX gene that does not include all of the flanking regulatory elements, the potential effect on SHOX expression is difficult to predict. We present nine unpublished individuals with a SHOX whole gene duplication in whom the duplication contains variable amounts of the SHOX regulatory region, and we review 29 similar cases from the literature where phenotypic data were clearly stated. While tall stature was present in a proportion of these cases, we present evidence that SHOX whole gene duplications can also result in a phenotype more typically associated with SHOX haploinsufficiency and are significantly over-represented in Leri-Weill Dyschondrosteosis and idiopathic short stature probands compared to population controls. Although similar-looking duplications do not always produce a consistent phenotype, there may be potential genotype-phenotype correlations regarding the duplication size, regulatory element content and the breakpoint proximity to the SHOX gene. Although ClinGen (clinicalgenome.org) do not currently consider SHOX whole gene duplications to be clinically significant, the ClinGen triplosensitivity score does not take into account the context of the duplication, and more is now known about SHOX duplications and the role of flanking elements in SHOX regulation. The evidence presented here suggest that these duplications should not be discounted without considering the extent of the duplication and the patient phenotype, and should be included on diagnostic laboratory reports as variants of uncertain significance. Given the uncertain pathogenicity of these duplications, any reports should encourage the exclusion of all other causes of short stature where possible.

Correct-by-Construction Approach for Formal Verification of IoT Architecture

Nowadays, The Internet of Things(IoT) has shown an increased interest in the academic literature, while its implementations became involved in almost every aspect of life in modern society. IoT is the integration of virtual and physical things through distributed services to collect and share data among themselves. The number of architecture approaches designed to aid IoT has increased significantly recently. As a result of different IoT architecture approaches, in this paper, we proposed a novel correct-by-construction formal approach based on an Event-B method to describe the physical architecture of IoT layers. This formal approach inspects four layers: the physical layer, the gateway layer, the middleware layer, respectively the application layer. An Electrocardiogram (ECG) IoT system is applied in our model as a case study. Finally, we proved and validated the correctness of our formal model by using proof obligations and the model checking tool called Rodin.

Polarization-perceptual anisotropic two-dimensional ReS2 neuro-transistor with reconfigurable neuromorphic vision.

Polarization is a common and unique phenomenon in nature, which reveals more camouflage features of objects. However, current polarization-perceptual devices based on conventional physical architectures face enormous challenges for high-performance computation due to the traditional von Neumann bottleneck. In this work, a novel polarization-perceptual neuro-transistor with reconfigurable anisotropic vision is proposed based on a two-dimensional ReS2 phototransistor. The device exhibits excellent photodetection ability and superior polarization sensitivity due to its direct band gap semiconductor property and strong anisotropic crystal structure, respectively. The fascinating polarization-sensitive neuromorphic behavior, such as polarization memory consolidation and reconfigurable visual imaging, are successfully realized. In particular, the regulated polarization responsivity and dichroic ratio are successfully emulated through our artificial compound eyes. More importantly, two intriguing polarization-perceptual applications for polarized navigation with reconfigurable adaptive learning abilities and three-dimensional visual polarization imaging are also experimentally demonstrated. The proposed device may provide a promising opportunity for future polarization perception systems in intelligent humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles.

How to Build the “Optical Inverse” of a Multimode Fibre

When light propagates through multimode optical fibres (MMFs), the spatial information it carries is scrambled. Wavefront shaping reverses this scrambling, typically one spatial mode at a time—enabling deployment of MMFs as ultrathin microendoscopes. Here, we go beyond sequential wavefront shaping by showing how to simultaneously unscramble all spatial modes emerging from an MMF in parallel. We introduce a passive multiple-scattering element—crafted through the process of inverse design—that is complementary to an MMF and undoes its optical effects. This “optical inverter” makes possible single-shot widefield imaging and super-resolution imaging through MMFs. Our design consists of a cascade of diffractive elements, and can be understood from the perspective of both multi-plane light conversion, and as a physically inspired diffractive neural network. This physical architecture outperforms state-of-the-art electronic neural networks tasked with unscrambling light, as it preserves the phase and coherence information of optical signals flowing through it. We show, in numerical simulations, how to efficiently sort and tune the relative phase of up to ~ 400 step-index fibre modes, reforming incoherent images of scenes at arbitrary distances from the fibre facet. Our optical inverter can dynamically adapt to see through experimentally realistic flexible fibres—made possible by moulding optical memory effects into its design. The scheme is based on current fabrication technology so could be realised in the near future. Beyond imaging, these concepts open up a range of new avenues for optical multiplexing, communications, and computation in the realms of classical and quantum photonics.

Efficacy of Short Simulation Videos on Feedback for Smart Hospital Environments

This project is focused on developing smart health infrastructure with simulations of a smart hospital physical environment. The focus of the project is exclusively on “the physical architecture of a smart hospital”. The project is driven by the motivation to develop preliminary amateur simulations of smart environments for a hospital setting that could potentially help planners develop an understanding of how to develop the current infrastructure. Today's world is rapidly evolving and with expanding research on smart city digital environments, but smartification of physical hospital infrastructure is significant and part of the entire development of a smart environment in hospitals or in any smart environment. Further, such implementation is extremely important in small towns and in less developed economies. As the population grows or the need for more specialized treatment rises, the demand for medical services is increasing rapidly. The goal of this study is to develop quick simulated environment landscapes towards making a few productive suggestions that could potentially lead to developing a smart environment in a specific Aizu-area hospital (as a case study). In this context, the physical architecture of the selected zones in Takeda hospital will be further investigated. The focus of the project is not architecture or smart interior designing, but the efficacy of quick video simulations in generating basic ideas and collecting quick feedback, and thus, ability to use the software called Google Sketch-up productively and use it to run basic usability studies to explore how citizens react to such video simulations, and what they think to be lacking in such quick simulation videos. In other words, the idea is to learn the impact of video simulations as stimuli in helping citizens to generate more ideas about their needs in a hospital environment, and then communicate the same with architects and/or city planners as the next step.

Communication Technologies for Smart Grid: A Comprehensive Survey.

With the ongoing trends in the energy sector such as vehicular electrification and renewable energy, the Smart Grid (SG) is clearly playing a more and more important role in the electric power system industry. One essential feature of the SG is the information flow over high-speed, reliable, and secure data communication networks in order to manage the complex power systems effectively and intelligently. SGs utilize bidirectional communication to function whereas traditional power grids mainly only use one-way communication. The communication requirements and suitable techniques differ depending on the specific environment and scenario. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive and up-to-date survey on the communication technologies used in the SG, including the communication requirements, physical layer technologies, network architectures, and research challenges. This survey aims to help the readers identify the potential research problems in the continued research on the topic of SG communications.

Study on pore size distributions of microporous polymer membranes having different physical architecture using capillary flow porometry

Capillary flow porometry (CFP) is an emerging technique to measure the most constricted part of the through pores in membranes. In our previous work, the technique was successfully tested for track-etch membranes, which are model membranes with straight cylindrical pores. In this work, this technique has been used to measure the mean pore size, smallest pore size, and bubble point pore size for commercially available microporous membranes such as poly(propylene), poly(ethersulfone), poly(tetrafluoroethylene), and poly(vinylidene fluoride). The scanning electron microscopy images revealed that these membranes have different microporous architecture with no well-defined pores in these membranes. The study is important because the pore architecture in these membranes is not straight and cylindrical, as assumed by CFP. Also, the influence of different parameters such as the shape factor, wetting liquid, and tortuosity on the performance of capillary flow porometer has been studied. It is seen that it is important to incorporate shape factor for CFP measurements of membranes with such pore architecture for obtaining the reliable results. The studies with different wetting liquids (Porefil, dodecane, and 1-decanol) show that for the membranes studied, dodecane can serve as a wetting liquid to obtain information about membrane pore sizes, without much effect on the results. The technique has been applied to measure the pore size distribution of highly cross-linked poly(vinylbenzylchloride) pore-filled membranes synthesized in our laboratory.

Lyophilised Platelet-Rich Fibrin: Physical and Biological Characterisation.

Background: Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) has gained popularity in craniofacial surgery, as it provides an excellent reservoir of autologous growth factors (GFs) that are essential for bone regeneration. However, the low elastic modulus, short-term clinical application, poor storage potential and limitations in emergency therapy use restrict its more widespread clinical application. This study fabricates lyophilised PRF (Ly-PRF), evaluates its physical and biological properties, and explores its application for craniofacial tissue engineering purposes. Material and methods: A lyophilisation method was applied, and the outcome was evaluated and compared with traditionally prepared PRF. We investigated how lyophilisation affected PRF’s physical characteristics and biological properties by determining: (1) the physical and morphological architecture of Ly-PRF using SEM, and (2) the kinetic release of PDGF-AB using ELISA. Results: Ly-PRF exhibited a dense and homogeneous interconnected 3D fibrin network. Moreover, clusters of morphologically consistent cells of platelets and leukocytes were apparent within Ly-PRF, along with evidence of PDGF-AB release in accordance with previously reports. Conclusions: The protocol established in this study for Ly-PRF preparation demonstrated versatility, and provides a biomaterial with growth factor release for potential use as a craniofacial bioscaffold.

Construction and Application of an Intelligent Response System for COVID-19 Voice Consultation in China: A Retrospective Study

Background: The outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to tremendous individuals visit medical institutions for healthcare services. Public gatherings and close contact in clinics and emergency departments may increase the exposure and cross-infection of COVID-19.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to develop and deploy an intelligent response system for COVID-19 voice consultation, to provide suggestions of response measures based on actual information of users, and screen COVID-19 suspected cases.Methods: Based on the requirements analysis of business, user, and function, the physical architecture, system architecture, and core algorithms are designed and implemented. The system operation process is designed according to guidance documents of the National Health Commission and the actual experience of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Both qualitative (system construction) and quantitative (system application) data from the real-world healthcare service of the system were retrospectively collected and analyzed.Results: The system realizes the functions, such as remote deployment and operations, fast operation procedure adjustment, and multi-dimensional statistical report capability. The performance of the machine-learning model used to develop the system is better than others, with the lowest Character Error Rate (CER) 8.13%. As of September 24, 2020, the system has received 12,264 times incoming calls and provided a total of 11,788 COVID-19-related consultation services for the public. Approximately 85.2% of the users are from Henan Province and followed by Beijing (2.5%). Of all the incoming calls, China Mobile contributes the largest proportion (66%), while China Unicom and China Telecom are accounted for 23% and 11%. For the time that users access the system, there is a peak period in the morning (08:00–10:00) and afternoon (14:00–16:00), respectively.Conclusions: The intelligent response system has achieved appreciable practical implementation effects. Our findings reveal that the provision of inquiry services through an intelligent voice consultation system may play a role in optimizing the allocation of healthcare resources, improving the efficiency of medical services, saving medical expenses, and protecting vulnerable groups.

Characterization and Tomography of a Hidden Qubit

In circuit-based quantum computing, the available gate set typically consists of single-qubit gates acting on each individual qubit and at least one entangling gate between pairs of qubits. In certain physical architectures, however, some qubits may be 'hidden' and lacking direct addressability through dedicated control and readout lines, for instance because of limited on-chip routing capabilities, or because the number of control lines becomes a limiting factor for many-qubit systems. In this case, no single-qubit operations can be applied to the hidden qubits and their state cannot be measured directly. Instead, they may be controlled and read out only via single-qubit operations on connected 'control' qubits and a suitable set of two-qubit gates. We first discuss the impact of such restricted control capabilities on the quantum volume of specific qubit coupling networks. We then experimentally demonstrate full control and measurement capabilities in a superconducting two-qubit device with local single-qubit control and iSWAP and controlled-phase two-qubit interactions enabled by a tunable coupler. We further introduce an iterative tune-up process required to completely characterize the gate set used for quantum process tomography and evaluate the resulting gate fidelities.

Development and Characterization of Gelatin-Norbornene Bioink to Understand the Interplay between Physical Architecture and Micro-Capillary Formation in Biofabricated Vascularized Constructs.

The principle challenge for engineering viable, cell-laden hydrogel constructs of clinically-relevant size, is rapid vascularization, in order to moderate the finite capacity of passive nutrient diffusion. A multiscale vascular approach, with large open channels and bulk microcapillaries may be an admissible approach to accelerate this process, promoting overall pre-vascularization for long-term viability of constructs. However, the limited availability of bioinks that possess suitable characteristics that support both fabrication of complex architectures and formation of microcapillaries, remains a barrier to advancement in this space. In this study, gelatin-norbornene (Gel-NOR) is investigated as a vascular bioink with tailorable physico-mechanical properties, which promoted the self-assembly of human stromal and endothelial cells into microcapillaries, as well as being compatible with extrusion and lithography-based biofabrication modalities. Gel-NOR constructs containing self-assembled microcapillaries are successfully biofabricated with varying physical architecture (fiber diameter, spacing, and orientation). Both channel sizes and cell types affect the overall structural changes of the printed constructs, where cross-signaling between both human stromal and endothelial cells may be responsible for the reduction in open channel lumen observed over time. Overall, this work highlights an exciting three-way interplay between bioink formulation, construct design, and cell-mediated response that can be exploited towards engineering vascular tissues.

Compact Charge-Controlled Memristance Simulator with Electronic/Resistive Tunability

The work endeavors to realize a single Voltage Differencing Current Conveyor (VDCC)-based current-controlled memristor emulator with charge-dependent linear memristance function. Such current-controlled memristors closely model the current ([Formula: see text])–voltage ([Formula: see text]) relationship of the popular TiO2-based physical memristor architecture constructed by Hewlett–Packard (HP). The presented emulator circuit comprises only two grounded passive elements and two external MOS transistors along with a VDCC active element and provides the facility of electronic/resistive tunability. It is found through the detailed literature survey that the presented circuit is the most compact design to realize a charge-controlled memristance simulator as compared to any previously reported structure. The designed configuration has been verified through presented simulation results generated using PSPICE based on 0.18[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m CMOS technology. It has also been validated through relaxation and chaotic oscillators developed using the proposed VDCC-based memristor emulator and output waveforms have been shown. Furthermore, the discussed memristor emulator has been implemented and verified through commercial ICs, AD844 and LM13700.

Dependability and Security Quantification of an Internet of Medical Things Infrastructure Based on Cloud-Fog-Edge Continuum for Healthcare Monitoring Using Hierarchical Models

Rising aggressive virus pandemics urge to conduct studies on dependability and security of modern computing systems to secure autonomous and continuous operations of healthcare systems. In that regard, we propose to quantify dependability and security measures of an Internet-of-Medical Things (IoMT) infrastructure relied on an integrated physical architecture of cloud/fog/edge (CFE) computing paradigms in this article. We propose a reliability/availability quantification methodology for the IoMT infrastructure using a hierarchical model of three levels: 1) fault tree (FT) of overall IoMT infrastructure consisting of CFE member systems; 2) FT of subsystems within CFE member systems; and 3) continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) models of components/devices in the subsystems. We incorporate a number of failure modes for the underlying subsystems, including Mandel-bug related failures and non-Mandel bugs related failure, as well as failures due to cyber-security attacks on software subsystems. Five case-studies of configuration alternation and four operational scenarios of the IoMT infrastructure are considered to comprehend the dependability characteristics of the IoMT physical infrastructure. The metrics of interest include reliability over time, steady state availability (SSA), sensitivity of SSA wrt. selected mean time to failure—equivalent (MTTFeq) and mean time to recovery—equivalent (MTTReq), and sensitivity of SSA wrt. frequencies of cyber-security attacks on software subsystems. The analysis results help comprehend operational behaviors and properties of a typical IoMT infrastructure. The findings of this study can improve the design and implementation of real-world IoMT infrastructures consisting of cloud, fog, and edge computing paradigms.

Integrating vulnerability analysis into the early stage distributed naval ship system design process

Vulnerability reduction measures are taken during the early stage distributed ship system design process to ensure the availability of the required systems in a damaged state. Traditionally these vulnerability reduction measures are based on design rules or best practices resulting from past experiences. Therefore, the measures are not per definition applicable for future warships, as both the system concepts and operational environment changes. Recently developed vulnerability assessment methods are able to determine the vulnerability of a design early in the design process. With the integration of these methods in the early stage design process, the results of the analysis can be used to generate less vulnerable distributed ship system designs. This paper proposes an integral and holistic approach to optimisation of the design variables and distributed networks as these are becoming increasingly interdependent. The result of this approach is a model which generates distributed ship system designs consisting of component positions, a topology and routed connections based on a pre-defined system configuration and constraining physical architecture. Five testcases were conducted using this model, showing the necessity of the integral and holistic approach as the extent to which the contemporary design rules are implemented depends on the network complexity and operational environment.

Quantum Radar with Vortex Microwave Photons

Quantum Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) indicates that each Electro-Magnetic (EM) photon of an EM wave carries OAM. In the microwave band, such an EM wave photon is called a vortex microwave photon. Physical properties distinguish between EM waves with vortex and plane wave photons. When illuminating a traditional stealthy target composed of absorbing materials, a vortex microwave photon can achieve higher echo power, thereby improving the Radar Cross Section (RCS), the corresponding receiving signal power, and detection probability. Hence, the vortex microwave photon shows promise in antistealth technology. In this paper, a vortex microwave quantum radar based on the OAM quantum state is proposed. Its basic physical architecture and corresponding mathematical model are given, and the high echo power characteristics of the vortex microwave photon are analyzed using Quantum Electro-Dynamics (QED). The correctness of the theoretical calculation was experimentally verified with an approximate 9 dB improvement in echo power. Moreover, the simulations are performed to clarify the improvement in radar performance, including the receiving power and detection probability, illustrating the capability of the vortex microwave photon when applied to antistealth radar.

Matrix dependent spatial distributions of in situ formed rhodium nanostructures in ion-exchange membranes

Rhodium nanomaterials (Rh NPs) are important heterogeneous catalysts in many organic reactions. Therefore, Rh NPs were synthesized in the commercially available cation-exchange membranes (Nafion-117 and Selemion-CMV) and anion-exchange membrane (Selemion-AMV) using sodium borohydride or formamide as the reductants. These membranes have different physical and chemical architectures. The Rh NPs were prepared by loading Rh3+ cations in the cation-exchange membranes and RhCl63− anions in the anion-exchange membrane followed by the reduction with either BH4− ions at room temperature or formamide at 65 °C. The size and spatial distributions of the Rh NPs across the thickness of the membrane were studied by the high resolution transmission electron microscopy of the thin-sliced samples. It was observed that the fractal aggregates of Rh NPs were formed by reduction with BH4− ions in all three membrane hosts. However, larger nanostructures such as rods and cubes were formed during formamide reduction of Rh3+-loaded Nafion-117. Contrary to this, uniformly distributed smaller spherical Rh NPs were observed in the Selemion-CMV by the formamide reduction. The formation and distribution of different shaped Rh nanostructures were attributed to three processes, (i) atomic diffusion-driven Ostwald ripening to form the particles, (ii) migration of the particles leading to collision and coalescence, and (iii) reshaping of the particle’s assemblies. These processes were highly dependent on the supply of in situ reduced precursor atoms and local physical conditions of the membrane matrix. The redox catalytic activities of Rh NPs in Selemion-AMV and Nafion-117 were studied using the model redox reactions involving BH4− ions reduction of p-nitrophenol and methylene blue, respectively. This study suggested that the Rh NPs were accessible to the reactants in the membrane matrix and exhibited a reasonably good catalytic efficacy of Rh NPs in the model catalyzed redox reactions.

Holistic Simulation Approach for Optimal Operation of Smart Integrated Energy Systems under Consideration of Resilience, Economics and Sustainability

The intermittent energy supply from distributed resources and the coupling of different energy and application sectors play an important role for future energy systems. Novel operational concepts require the use of widespread and reliable Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This paper presents the approach of a research project that focuses on the development of an innovative operational concept for a Smart Integrated Energy System (SIES), which consists of a physical architecture, ICT and energy management strategies. The cellular approach provides the architecture of the physical system in combination with Transactive Control (TC) as the system’s energy management framework. Independent dynamic models for each component, the physical and digital system, operational management and market are suggested and combined in a newly introduced co-simulation platform to create a holistic model of the integrated energy system. To verify the effectiveness of the operational concept, energy system scenarios are derived and evaluation criteria are suggested which can be employed to evaluate the future system operations.