Real Test Research Articles

Impact of traffic signs on driving speed at mountain highway tunnel entrances − The role of low-volume intermittent information

Driver’s perception of speed is the basis of driving safety, and installing speed limit signs at tunnel entrances is an intuitive means of controlling a driver’s driving speed. Therefore, tunnel entrance signs should be set up effectively to ensure each signage can fulfil its intended effect. Quantifying the information volume conveyed by traffic signs, discovering the impact of different information volumes on driving speeds, and understanding the effects of typical signs are the prerequisites for the effective use of signage. This study collected the speed variations of 40 drivers driving at nine mountainous highway tunnels with different entrance traffic signs through a naturalistic driving real vehicle test. The effect of low-volume intermittent information at tunnel entrances is identified in terms of the black hole effect on drivers (BHD), white hole effect on drivers (WHD), velocity fluctuation trend (VFT), and effect of speed limit signs (ELS). The study’s results confirm that the effect of speed limit signage with traffic sign information volume (TSIV) in the range of 8.904 to 33.318 bit is significant. In comparison, the sign will lose its effectiveness in guiding drivers to control their speed when TSIV is greater than 58.641 bits. Using low-volume information speed limit signs or tunnel warning signs repeated twice before entering a tunnel can alert drivers and regulate their driving speeds. The speed limit sign (sign ①) for each type of vehicle is set individually, and the combined speed limit and no lane change sign (sign ②) used in two stacks have a strong speed control effect. Moreover, the sign ②, when used alone, has the best timeliness; the effective distance of speed control can reach 1522 m; using it before short tunnels or long tunnels less than 1500 m can achieve better effectiveness.

An inline point-tracking approach for the real-time monitoring of the free-form bending process

In order to make free-form bending a process of choice for the manufacturing of structural components, a robust strategy for process monitoring is required. Although the technology is particularly suitable for the production of bending components with variable and complex geometry, fluctuations in the process conditions, as well as in the quality of the semi-finished products can results in geometrical deviations from the target geometry. Currently, the quality assessment of the bent components can be done only offline by random sampling, with a considerable time and cost effort. In this contribution, a real-time process monitoring is realised and applied to free-form bending for the first time. First of all, an inline strategy based on single-point tracking for the assessment of the geometry is investigated through an extensive numerical sensitivity analysis. Successively, the method is implemented experimentally and validated with real tests. Finally, a small-batch series of deviating components is produced, and the developed strategy is adopted to perform a real-time process monitoring. The study highlights the potential of an inline measurement strategy for the process monitoring in free-form bending, and its advantages compared to the current offline methods.

Energy-saving drive control strategy for electric tractors based on terrain parameter identification

Emissions from agricultural production already have a significant impact on the global environment. New energy, zero-emission electric tractors have great potential for application. How to further reduce energy consumption under the premise of ensuring operational stability is an urgent problem to be solved to realize the broad application of electric tractors. For this purpose, this paper proposed an energy-saving drive control strategy for electric tractors based on terrain parameter identification. At first, the longitudinal dynamics model and load transfer model of the electric tractor were established by considering the terrain information of the area to be operated. Mathematical principles for adjusting wheel slip to reduce energy consumption in electric tractors are presented. Then, a wheel longitudinal force estimation algorithm was designed based on the principle of sliding-mode observer and dynamics compensation. To achieve energy-saving drives for electric tractors, a particle filter based on a wheel-soil model was designed to identify terrain parameters in real time and calculate the optimal slip to control the torque of the drive motor. Lastly, the strategy is validated by hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation tests and real-vehicle tests. HIL tests show that this strategy results in a 25.35% increase in operational speed stability and a 6.79% reduction in operational energy consumption compared to the conventional drive control strategy. The real vehicle test shows a 45.09% increase in operating speed stability and a 9.51% reduction in total energy consumption of the proposed method. The proposed drive control strategy reduces operational energy consumption and operational costs on the premise of ensuring the stability of operational speed, which is conducive to the implementation of cleaner production.

Synthetic Data Generation in Hematology - Paving the Way for OMOP and FHIR Integration.

This study advances the utility of synthetic study data in hematology, particularly for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), by facilitating its integration into healthcare systems and research platforms through standardization into the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) formats. In our previous work, we addressed the need for high-quality patient data and used CTAB-GAN+ and Normalizing Flow (NFlow) to synthesize data from 1606 patients across four multicenter AML clinical trials. We published the generated synthetic cohorts, that accurately replicate the distributions of key demographic, laboratory, molecular, and cytogenetic variables, alongside patient outcomes, demonstrating high fidelity and usability. The conversion to the OMOP format opens avenues for comparative observational multi-center research by enabling seamless combination with related OMOP datasets, thereby broadening the scope of AML research. Similarly, standardization into FHIR facilitates further developments of applications, e.g. via the SMART-on-FHIR platform, offering realistic test data. This effort aims to foster a more collaborative research environment and facilitate the development of innovative tools and applications in AML care and research.

Multi agent collaborative search algorithm with adaptive weights

AbstractThis paper presents a new version of Multi Agent Collaborative Search (MACS) with Adaptive Weights (named MACS‐AW). MACS is a multi‐agent memetic scheme for multi‐objective optimization originally developed to mix local and population‐based search. MACS was proven to perform well on a number of test cases but had three limitations: (i) the amount of computational resources allocated to each agent was not proportional to the difficulty of the sub‐problem the agent had to solve; (ii) the population‐based search (called social actions in the following) was using only one differential evolution (DE) operator with fixed parameters; (iii) the descent directions were not adapted during convergence, leading to a loss of diversity. In this paper, we propose an improved version of MACS, that implements: (i) a new utility function to better manage computational resources; (ii) new social actions with multiple adaptive DE operators; (iii) an automatic adaptation of the descent directions with an innovative trigger to initiate adaptation. First, MACS‐AW is compared against some state‐of‐art algorithms and its predecessor MACS2.1 on some standard benchmarks. Then, MACS‐AW is applied to the solution of two real‐life optimization problems and compared against MACS2.1. It will be shown that MACS‐AW produces competitive results on most test cases analysed in this paper. On the standard benchmark test set, MACS‐AW outperforms all other algorithms in 11 out of 30 cases and comes second in other 8 cases. On the two real engineering test set, MACS‐AW and its predecessor obtain same results.

Substitution of Desiccated Coconut on The Physicochemical and Organoleptics of Crispy Cookies

Research on coconut flour and desiccated coconut substitution cookies has been conducted by several researchers, but variations of desiccated coconut crispy cookies have not been widely developed. The nutritional content of desiccated coconut can be used as a source of fiber when substituted in crispy cookies products. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of desiccated coconut substitution in making crispy cookies on physicochemical and organoleptic characteristics, and obtain the best desiccated coconut substitution. This study used a Complete Randomized Design (RAL) with one factor, namely the ratio of the percentage of desiccated coconut and wheat flour with 6 treatment levels (0:100), (25:75), (50:50), (75:25), (85:15), and (100:0) with 3 repeats. The data obtained were analyzed using the ANOVA test (α=5%). If the effect is significant (Sig < 0.05), then proceed with the Honest Real Difference Test (BNJ) with a test level of 5%. Analysis of sensory characteristics data using the Kruskal Wallis test. The best treatment is tested using an effectiveness index test. This study obtained the best sensory and physicochemical characteristics of desiccated coconut crispy cookies in treatment (25%: 75%). The physicochemical characteristics produced are crude fiber content of 2.73%, fat content of 30.43%, ash content of 1.52%, water content of 16.86%, carbohydrate content of 51.11%, and protein content of 0.08%. The resulting sensory characteristics are taste 4.36 (prefer), aroma 4.13 (prefer), color 3.97 (like), and texture 4.26 (prefer).

Diagnostic evaluation of Tru-Nat MTB/Rif test in comparison with microscopy for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis at tertiary care hospital of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

This study evaluated the efficacy of the TrueLab™ Real Time mini-PCR system in providing rapid and accurate diagnostic results for tuberculosis (TB) detection in India. The goal is to improve case detection and accelerate treatment in settings with limited resources. This prospective study was conducted by the Department of Microbiology on 120 patients, age ranging from >=15 years with at least two clinical symptoms of pulmonary TB. Molbio and Universal Cartridge Based Sample Prep were the 2 methods used for processing sputum samples. The diagnosis was based on the MTB Real Time PCR test, which has a detection limit of 100 CFU/mL. Patients under 15 years, samples lacking clinical background, saliva specimens or extra-pulmonary TB cases were excluded from the study. A total of 44.17% samples were positive for TB with maximum positivity in the age group 31-45 years. Positivity rate was found to be higher in females. In 4.17% of cases there was rifampicin resistance, which was significantly high in previously treated cases. Comparison of Truenat with Ziehl-Neelsen and fluorescent method revealed that it was more sensitive and less time consuming. Truenat MTB/RIF is a sensitive detection system for TB with rapid results, which serves as an important tool in the early management of tuberculosis patients and drug-resistant-TB cases.

A hybrid intrusion detection approach based on message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) protocol in industrial internet of things

AbstractThe number of attacks against Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices has increased over the past years, particularly on widely used communication protocols like Message Queuing Telemetry Transfer (MQTT). The fast increase in IIoT applications brings both critical challenges and technical gaps in cybersecurity. On the other hand, traditional cyber‐attack detection approaches scrap to address and support the run‐time responsibilities of IIoT environments. This study presents a hybrid Genetic Algorithm and Random Forest (GA_RF) method for detecting cyber‐attacks in Industrial Control Machines (ICS) that use MQTT protocol in the IIoT environment. This architecture integrates ICS with edge devices and cloud servers, using a GA_RF algorithm to detect anomalies in data collected by sensors. Normal data is processed locally and then sent to the cloud for storage and return, ensuring continuous monitoring and security. Also, the MQTT‐IOT‐IDS2020 dataset as a real test case was applied for prediction of the proposed GA_RF method with compare to some other powerful machine and deep learning models. The experimental results show that the proposed GA_RF method has an optimum accuracy of 99.87%–100% for detecting cyber‐attacks. This hybrid algorithm also achieved 0–0.0015 in Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and 100% in Precision, Recall, and F‐score factors. This result led to the proposed architecture, which connects the ICS to a server while running GA_RF on the IIoT environment. In conclusion, this study indicates the effectiveness of GA_RF and aims to improve security by using the MQTT protocol in IIoT.

Naphthalimide Based Fluorophore for the Detection of Hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

The naphthalimide molecule (NAP) was successfully synthesized and characterized by spectroscopy techniques. The NAP probe was exposed to a solvatochromic and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) probe using UV-visible and PL spectroscopy. In this case, the increased polarity of the solvent shows that it is red-shifted. The probe emission, a sky blue to yellow-green color at hexane to DCM, exhibited an excellent quantum yield. Meanwhile, the high-polar solvents of DMF and DMSO had poor quantum yields. This probe NAP showed the aggregation-induced emission property dramatically enhanced the emissions (at 540nm) from fw = 80-90%. NAP was conducted with two polar solvent vapors in hexane and chloroform to investigate VOCs in a further solid-state study. A real-life test paper kit NAP probe was prepared and investigated VOCs detection against hexane and chloroform. When exposed to hexane vapors, the NAP probe test kit showed sky blue emission under UV light, which returned to greenish emission upon exposure to chloroform. Therefore, the results show that this NAP probe can be used for gas leak detection applications.

Prototype Implementation of a Digitizer for Earthquake Monitoring System.

A digitizer is considered one of the fundamental components of an earthquake monitoring system. In this paper, we design and implement a high accuracy seismic digitizer. The implemented digitizer consists of several blocks, i.e., the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), GPS receiver, and microprocessor. Three finite impulse response (FIR) filters are used to decimate the sampling rate of the input seismic data according to user needs. A graphical user interface (GUI) has been designed for enabling the user to monitor the seismic waveform in real time, and process and adjust the parameters of the acquisition unit. The system casing is designed to resist harsh conditions of the environment. The prototype can represent the three component sensors data in the standard MiniSEED format. The digitizer stream seismic data from the remote station to the main center is based on TCP/IP connection. This protocol ensures data transmission without any losses as long as the data still exist in the ring buffer. The prototype was calibrated by real field testing. The prototype digitizer is integrated with the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN), where a commercial instrument is already installed. Case studies shows that, for the same event, the prototype station improves the solution of the ENSN by giving accurate timing and seismic event parameters. Field test results shows that the event arrival time and the amplitude are approximately the same between the prototype digitizer and the calibrated digitizer. Furthermore, the frequency contents are similar between the two digitizers. Therefore, the prototype digitizer captures the main seismic parameters accurately, irrespective of noise existence.

Discontinuous Galerkin approximations of the heterodimer model for protein–protein interaction

Mathematical models of protein–protein dynamics, such as the heterodimer model, play a crucial role in understanding many physical phenomena, e.g., the progression of some neurodegenerative diseases. This model is a system of two semilinear parabolic partial differential equations describing the evolution and mutual interaction of biological species. This article presents and analyzes a high-order discretization method for the numerical approximation of the heterodimer model capable of handling complex geometries. In particular, the proposed numerical scheme couples a Discontinuous Galerkin method on polygonal/polyhedral grids for space discretization, with a θ-method for time integration. This work presents novelties and progress with respect to the mathematical literature, as stability and a-priori error analysis for the heterodimer model are carried out for the first time. Several numerical tests are performed, which demonstrate the theoretical convergence rates, and show good performances of the method in approximating traveling wave solutions as well as its flexibility in handling complex geometries. Finally, the proposed scheme is tested in a practical test case stemming from neuroscience applications, namely the simulation of the spread of α-synuclein in a realistic test case of Parkinson’s disease in a two-dimensional sagittal brain section geometry reconstructed from medical images.

Multi-sensor fusion for robust indoor localization of industrial UAVs using particle filter

Abstract Robotic platforms including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) require an accurate and reliable source of position information, especially in indoor environments where GNSS cannot be used. This is typically accomplished by using multiple independent position sensors. This paper presents a UAV position estimation mechanism based on a particle filter, that combines information from visual odometry cameras and visual detection of fiducial markers. The article proposes very compact, lightweight and robust method for indoor localization, that can run with high frequency on the UAV’s onboard computer. The filter is implemented such that it can seamlessly handle sensor failures and disconnections. Moreover, the filter can be extended to include inputs from additional sensors. The implemented approach is validated on data from real-life UAV test flights, where average position error under 0.4 m was achieved.

Tight integration of real-time GNSS PPP and INS: Ionosphere-free combined vs uncombined models

The GNSS Precise Point Positioning (PPP) model is usually established in either an ionospheric-free (IF) combined form or an uncombined (UC) form. These formulations can be equivalent in theory but their applications in practice could still perform differently when integrated with external sensors. In this study, we compared the positioning performance of the two PPP models tightly coupled with the Inertial Navigation System (INS) using a high-grade inertial measurement unit (IMU) in real vehicle navigation tests. The ambiguity resolution (AR) was also exploited in the two PPP models after applying the observable specific biases (OSB) to the GNSS raw code and phase measurements. According to the results, under good satellite observability the UC PPP/INS tightly-coupled integration (TCI) significantly outperforms the IF PPP/INS TCI. The UC TCI model with AR could achieve a positioning accuracy of 4.6 and 3.0 cm in the horizontal and vertical directions, which are improved by 37 % and 63 % respectively relative to the IF TCI model. However, in the case of frequent GNSS signal interruptions or poor satellite observation condition, the IF TCI model shows a superior reliability than the UC TCI. Nevertheless, when the ionospheric parameters are properly constrained in the UC TCI model, substantial improvements in terms of convergence and accuracy are obtained. The UC PPP augmented with external precise ionospheric information would greatly increase the cost, and users may select the appropriate PPP model with INS TCI in real applications in accordance with the demanded accuracy level and measuring conditions.

Enhancement of unbalanced robot performance using fuzzy sliding mode control

An unbalanced robot faces difficulties in balancing its tilt to an upright position due to its intrinsic instability. Simulation, implementation in real time and performance testing of a fuzzy sliding mode controller for an unbalanced robot are the targets of this research. PID, sliding mode control and fuzzy logic control are designed to compare the proposed controller in both real time and simulation to achieve the robot's balancing. The main development of this technology is to combine the advantages of fuzzy logic and sliding mode in one model, directly controlling the tilt angle to track the desired point and maintain good control of the motor. All controllers have been compared using computational time and integral measures. The proposed controller has been tested under the effect of an external disturbance in real time and on a MATLAB Simulink. The FSMC controller's performance has given better results in speed response and integral measures.

Adaptive terminal sliding combined super twisting control design and flight tests for automatic carrier landing system

Considering the challenges posed by external disturbances on carrier-based aircraft landing control, higher demands are required for the precision and convergence of the carrier landing control system. First, this paper proposes an Adaptive Terminal Sliding Combined Super Twisting Control (ATS-STC) method to address the issues of low precision, slow convergence, and poor disturbance rejection capability resulting from external disturbances, such as carrier air-wake and deck motion. By introducing a nonlinear term into the sliding surface and employing an integral approach, the proposed ATS-STC method can ensure finite-time convergence and mitigate the chattering problem. An adaptive law is also utilized to estimate the external disturbances, thereby enhancing the anti-disturbance performance. Then, the stability and convergence time analysis of the designed controller are conducted. Based on the proposed method, an Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS) is developed to perform the carrier landing control task. Furthermore, a multi-dimensional validation is carried out. For the numerical simulation test, the Terminal Sliding Mode Control (TSMC) method and Proportion Integration Differentiation (PID) method are introduced as comparison, the quantitative assessment results show that the tracking error of TSMC and PID can reach 1.5 times and 2 times that of the proposed method. Finally, the Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) test and real flight test are conducted. All the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed control method is more effective and precise.

A novel detection method for warhead fragment targets in optical images under dynamic strong interference environments

A measurement system for the scattering characteristics of warhead fragments based on high-speed imaging systems offers advantages such as simple deployment, flexible maneuverability, and high spatiotemporal resolution, enabling the acquisition of full-process data of the fragment scattering process. However, mismatches between camera frame rates and target velocities can lead to long motion blur tails of high-speed fragment targets, resulting in low signal-to-noise ratios and rendering conventional detection algorithms ineffective in dynamic strong interference testing environments. In this study, we propose a detection framework centered on dynamic strong interference disturbance signal separation and suppression. We introduce a mixture Gaussian model constrained under a joint spatial-temporal-transform domain Dirichlet process, combined with total variation regularization to achieve disturbance signal suppression. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed disturbance suppression method can be integrated with certain conventional motion target detection tasks, enabling adaptation to real-world data to a certain extent. Moreover, we provide a specific implementation of this process, which achieves a detection rate close to 100% with an approximate 0% false alarm rate in multiple sets of real target field test data. This research effectively advances the development of the field of damage parameter testing.

Consistency and repeatability verification for vehicle in the loop test platform based on digital twin of proving ground

Abstract A high-confidence vehicle-in-the-loop test method based on the digital twin of proving ground (DTPG-VIL) is proposed for the test of autonomous driving vehicles. The overall architectural design of the DTPG-VIL and the corresponding components are introduced, with a focus on describing the scene simulation system based on the digital twin of the proving ground. A King Long intelligent driving sightseeing bus for test verification is introduced, and its positioning performance is verified by the high-definition positioning base station and GPS/INS combined navigation system to verify the accuracy of its positioning precision and meet the requirements of the digital twin test so that the DTPG-VIL can obtain more information from the bus. Taking the automatic emergency avoidance function as an example, the method, process, and experimental results of the control test between the DTPG-VIL test and the real vehicle test in a proving ground are designed. Through the correlation coefficient analysis and transient response analysis, consistency and repeatability comparisons are carried out to verify the high confidence of the digital twin test.

Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients Harboring ROS1 Rearrangement: Real World Testing Practices, Characteristics and Treatment Patterns (ROS1REAL Study).

ROS1 rearrangements are considered rare in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This retrospective real-world study aimed to evaluate first-line treatment with crizotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) standard of care vs. new generation ROS1 anti-cancer agents. Forty-nine ROS1-expressing NSCLC patients, diagnosed with advanced metastatic disease, were included. Molecular profiling using either FISH/CISH or NGS was performed on tissue samples. Twenty-eight patients were treated with crizotinib, while fourteen patients were administered newer drugs (entrectinib, repotrectinib) and seven patients received platinum-doublet chemotherapy in a first-line setting. Overall response rate and disease control rate for the crizotinib and entrectinb/repotrectinib cohort were 68% and 82% vs. 86% and 93%, respectively. Median progression free survival was 1.6 years (95% CI 1.15-2.215) for the crizotinib treatment vs. 2.35 years for the entrectinib/repotrectinib cohort (95% CI 1.19-3.52). Central nervous system progression was noted in 20% and 25% of the crizotinib and entrectinib/repotrectinib cohorts, respectively. This multi-center study presents real-world treatment patterns of ROS1 NSCLC population, indicating that crizotinib exhibited comparable results to entrectinib/repotrectinib in a first-line setting, although both response rate and survival was numerically longer with treatment with newer agents.

Critical Notes - A USEFUL, HAPPY BENTHAM: WHO SAVED HIM FROM MILL? WHEN FREEDOM IS MORE THAN JUST A MATTER OF TASTE

When it comes to Bentham, both pro- and anti-utilitarianists are profoundly challenged by the hedonist inheritance that has been deeply criticized, undermined, and somewhat overshadowed by the Millian perspective, which confined the presuppositions of a higher and clearer moral purism within the logical framework of satisfaction and happiness. Since the real test of Bentham’s philosophy lies in the requirements of asceticism, which are, at least at first glance, incompatible with hedonism, the major difficulty seems to be that of using both his moral writings and aesthetic considerations on pleasure and taste to face such a challenge. Would a Romantic Bentham still be valuable for the legacy of modern political philosophy? To what extent might literary figures rely on Bentham to save and protect free speech, and how much do theologians find the Benthamite perspectives on sympathies and antipathies, love and hate, acceptable? Should anyone save Bentham from being just an architect of the panopticon, by refashioning his philosophy as a pragmatic, more human, or even more altruistic utilitarianism than that of Mill, which invariably conquered the liberals? Could we defy reality for a moment, projecting a possible world in which a visit to a museum with Bentham would convince us that there is no such thing as good or bad taste, only a higher or lower amount of pleasure that we feel contemplating art and consuming culture? Finally, who could imagine Bentham happy?

Automobile exhaust flexible thermoelectric harvester enabled by liquid metal-based heatsink

The softening thermoelectric generator based on a deformable heatsink is expected to facilitate achieving remarkable temperature differences and thermal harvesting capabilities while alleviating exhaust back pressure and engine operating perturbations. However, the available soft polymer materials with poor thermal characteristics face challenges in realizing efficient heat transfer. Herein, we reported a highly integrated automobile exhaust flexible thermoelectric generator (IAE-FTEG) enabled by a liquid metal (LM)-based stretchable heatsink for cylindrical thermal sources to achieve efficiently harnessing waste heat energy and continuously powering multiple vehicle-mounted sensors. IAE-FTEG exhibits excellent flexibility (the bending radius at the apex of 0.57 cm) and outstanding heat transfer capability by introducing the porous sandwich-based soft electrode films and LM-based thermal interface material, achieving an output power enhancement of 25.7 %. The flexible heatsink is prepared by embedding LM droplets and copper particles into the elastic matrix forming solid–liquid multiphase composites, which obtain considerable thermal conductivity (2.40 W/mK@200 % stretching deformation) and excellent geometric conformity. We built the bench and the real vehicle test platform of the IAE-FTEG waste heat recovery system. The simulation test results demonstrate that the maximum power density achieved by the IAE-FTEG waste heat recovery system is 244 kW/m3. The real vehicle tests show that the IAE-FTEG waste heat recovery system has a relatively stable output performance with an average power density of 117 kW/m3 under urban conditions and can realize a stable power supply for back-end loads. Our IAE-FTEG can offer new opportunities in enabling efficient curved-surface waste heat recovery, flexible wearable electronics, and personalized thermal management.