Soft Boundary Research Articles

Ultra-sparse metamaterials absorber for broadband low-frequency sound with free ventilation.

An absorptive device for broadband low-frequency sound with ventilation is essential but challenging in acoustic engineering, which is subjected to the narrow-band limitation and difficulty of balancing high-efficiency absorption and excellent ventilation. Here, we have theoretically and experimentally demonstrated an ultra-sparse (with filling ratio of 53.7%) broadband metamaterial absorber which can efficiently absorb (absorptance >90%) sound energy ranging from 307 to 341 Hz, while enabling air to flow freely. The broadband absorber is constructed by parallel coupling four ventilated metamaterials absorbers (VMAs) showing different operating frequencies. Each VMA is composed of three folded Fabry-Pérot resonators as paste components, which are patched subsequently to the walls of a waveguide and correspondingly act as dark, middle, and bright modes following the coupled mode theory. In the VMA, the dark mode is highly over-damped to absorb sound energy, while the bright mode is highly under-damped to be an effective acoustic soft boundary, and the middle mode in-between should be slightly over-damped to strengthen the absorptions. Further investigation demonstrates that broadband high-efficiency absorption is robust against oblique incident angles. The proposed VMA provides a clear scheme for efficiently absorbing low-frequency sound while allowing free air flow simultaneously, which may prompt versatile applications in noise control.

New Soft Structure: Infra Soft Topological Spaces

It is always convenient to find the weakest conditions that preserve some topologically inspired properties. To this end, we introduce the concept of an infra soft topology which is a collection of subsets that extend the concept of soft topology by dispensing with the postulate that the collection is closed under arbitrary unions. We study the basic concepts of infra soft topological spaces such as infra soft open and infra soft closed sets, infra soft interior and infra soft closure operators, and infra soft limit and infra soft boundary points of a soft set. We reveal the main properties of these concepts with the help of some elucidative examples. Then, we present some methods to generate infra soft topologies such as infra soft neighbourhood systems, basis of infra soft topology, and infra soft relative topology. We also investigate how we initiate an infra soft topology from crisp infra topologies. In the end, we explore the concept of continuity between infra soft topological spaces and determine the conditions under which the continuity is preserved between infra soft topological space and its parametric infra topological spaces.

X-Ray Crystalline Undulator Radiation in Water Window

The problem of radiation produced by the bunch of relativistic positrons, channeled into the crystalline undulator, is considered, taking into account the polarization of a crystal medium. If a bunch energy is above the threshold energy, then the radiation is generated in the limited frequency range, due to the medium polarization. Both soft and hard boundary photons are emitted at a zero angle. When the ratio of the bunch energy to the threshold energy approaches unity from above, the peak of the bunch radiation spectrum is near the resonant frequency and can fall into the soft X-ray frequency range due a certain choice of the parameters of the crystalline undulator. In that case, it is necessary to use a low energy relativistic bunch. Method is effective because a fairly dense beam of soft X-ray photons is generated. It is shown the possibility of obtaining monochromatic, intense, directed photon beams in the water window region, important for medical and biological applications.

Acoustic constant mode one-way device based on wave pattern filter

An acoustic one-way device plays an important role in acoustic wave regulation. However, traditional one-way structures mainly discuss the unidirectional behavior of acoustic energy and often suffer from changes in mode or frequency. Here, we propose an acoustic one-way waveguide device with acoustic soft boundaries in which a special wave pattern filter is constructed. The numerical and experimental results show that acoustic waves can pass through the acoustic waveguide device efficiently in the positive direction without any wave pattern change and can be totally reflected back in the negative direction. The effective cascade of two one-way waveguide devices is also realized. Our work may provide a practical and efficient approach to the innovative design possibilities in the fields of acoustic wave regulation and computing devices.

Method to Derive the Hamiltonian of Acoustic Topological Crystalline Insulators

Acoustic systems that are without limitations imposed by the Fermi level have been demonstrated as significant platform for the exploration of fruitful topological phases. By surrounding the nontrivial domain with trivial "environment", the domain-wall topological states have been theoretically and experimentally demonstrated. In this work, based on the topological crystalline insulator with a kagome lattice, we rigorously derive the corresponding Hamiltonian from the traditional acoustics perspective, and exactly reveal the correspondences of the hopping and onsite terms within acoustic systems. Crucially, these results directly indicate that instead of applying the trivial domain, the soft boundary condition precisely corresponds to the theoretical models which always require generalized chiral symmetry. These results provide a general platform to construct desired acoustic topological devices hosting desired topological phenomena for versatile applications.

Integration of Dual Border Effects in Resource Estimation: A Cokriging Practice on a Copper Porphyry Deposit

Hierarchical or cascade resource estimation is a very common practice when building a geological block model in metalliferous deposits. One option for this is to model the geological domains by indicator kriging and then to estimate (by kriging) the grade of interest within the built geodomains. There are three problems regarding this. The first is that sometimes the molded geological domains are spotty and fragmented and, thus, far from the geological interpretation. The second is that the resulting estimated grades highly suffer from a smoothing effect. The third is related to the border effect of the continuous variable across the boundary of geological domains. The latter means that the final block model of the grade shows a very abrupt transition when crossing the border of two adjacent geological domains. This characteristic of the border effect may not be always true, and it is plausible that some of the variables show smooth or soft boundaries. The case is even more complicated when there is a mixture of hard and soft boundaries. A solution is provided in this paper to employ a cokriging paradigm for jointly modeling grade and geological domains. The results of modeling the copper in an Iranian copper porphyry deposit through the proposed approach illustrates that the method is not only capable of handling the mixture of hard and soft boundaries, but it also produces models that are less influenced by the smoothing effect. These results are compared to an independent kriging, where each variable is modeled separately, irrespective of the influence of geological domains.

Study on Blasting Construction Technology of Tunnel Engineering in Soil-rock Interlaced Strata at Soft and Hard Rock Boundary

With the development of transportation construction and the acceleration of urbanization in China, the construction of urban highway tunnel engineering has also entered a new climax. In order to overcome obstacles in terrain and elevation such as railway construction, blasting technology for railway tunnel construction is widely used. However, due to the unhealthy and complex geological conditions of railway tunnels, and the unreasonable application of blasting technology, blasting safety accidents occur. Blasting technology in railway tunnel construction, but blasting construction is easily interfered by various external interference factors. In the tunnel face blasting construction under the condition of soil-rock crisscross composite stratum, not only the physical and mechanical properties of the lower surrounding rock should be considered, but also the engineering characteristics of the upper surrounding rock or surface rock mass have great influence on the construction blasting. Taking the actual project as an example, this paper expounds the tunnel engineering and geological conditions, and studies the blasting construction technology of the tunnel engineering in the soft and hard rock boundary soil-rock crisscross strata to ensure the safety of blasting construction.

Contribution of Interface Fracture Mechanism on Fracture Propagation Trajectory of Heterogeneous Asphalt Composites

Asphalt mixture is a type of textured composite material made of aggregates and mastic part. Overall strength and failure behavior in such materials depends on the texture or heterogeneity of the mixture. In particular, the crack growth mechanism from the tip of the pre-crack is significantly affected by the texture of the asphalt composite and environmental conditions. The crack can extend through the soft mastic, tight aggregates or interface of the mastic/aggregates. In this research, by performing some fracture tests on a typical asphalt mixture with different test specimens under mode I, mixed mode I/II and mixed mode I/III, the fracture resistance and trajectory of propagating crack is studied at two low and medium temperatures (i.e., −15 and +15 °C). The load bearing capacity and the fracture resistance of the tested asphalt samples increases by decreasing the temperature. It is also shown that a significant part of fracture plane passes through the soft mastic and boundary of aggregates (i.e., the interface of aggregates and mastic) and only about 10–15% of the fracture surface of the propagating crack passes via the tight aggregates by breaking them. This percentage decreases for mode II and III loading conditions and higher testing temperatures. Compared to brittle and isotropic materials, the fracture path of the asphalt mixture shows more deviation, and this deviation increases for those mixtures containing coarser aggregates in the ligament and tested under medium temperature conditions.

Multiband asymmetric sound absorber enabled by ultrasparse Mie resonators.

On the quest towards efficiently eliminating noises, the development of a subwavelength sound absorber with the capability of free ventilation remains challenging. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate an asymmetric metamaterial absorber constructed by tuned Mie resonators (MRs) with unbalanced intrinsic losses. The lossy MR layer is highly dissipative to consume the sound energy while the lossless one acts as an acoustically soft boundary. Thus, the absorber presents quasi-perfect absorption (95% in experiment) for sound waves incident from the port nearer the dissipative MR and large-amount reflection (71% in experiment) from the opposite port. Moreover, the fluid dynamics investigation confirms the superior character of free air circulation owing to the ultrasparsity (volume filling ratio as low as 5%) of the absorber and its robustness to the velocity of airflows. Due to the multiple-order resonant modes of MR, we further demonstrate the flexibility of a methodology to extend asymmetric absorptions into multibands. Coupled mode analysis is employed to reveal the physical mechanism and further indicates that sparsity can be tuned by attentively controlling the reference leakage factor and intrinsic loss.

Soft Lens Detection in Iris Image using Lens Boundary Analysis and Pattern Recognition Approach

Recent studies have demonstrated that the soft lens wearing during iris recognition has indicated the increase of false reject rate. It denies the strong belief that the soft lens wearing will cause no performance degradation. Therefore, it is a necessity for an iris recognition system to be able to detect the presence of soft lens prior to iris recognition. As a first step towards soft lens detection, this study proposed a method for segmenting the soft lens boundary in iris images. However, segmenting the soft lens boundary is a very challenging task due to its marginal contrast. Besides, the flash lighting effect during the iris image enrolment has caused the image to suffer from inconsistent illumination. In addition, the visibility condition of the soft lens boundary may be discerned as a bright or dark ridge as a result of the flash lighting. Three image enhancement techniques were therefore proposed in order to enhance the contrast of the soft lens boundary and to provide an even distribution of intensities across the image. A method called summed-histogram has been incorporated as a solution to classify the visibility condition of the soft lens boundary automatically. The visibility condition of the ridge is used to determine the directional directive magnitude by the ridge detection algorithm. The proposed method was evaluated with Notre Dame Contact Lens Detection 2013 database. Results showed that the proposed method has successfully segment the soft lens boundary with an accuracy of over 92%.

A data fusion approach to optimize compositional stability of halide perovskites

Summary Search for resource-efficient materials in vast compositional spaces is an outstanding challenge in creating environmentally stable perovskite semiconductors. We demonstrate a physics-constrained sequential learning framework to subsequently identify the most stable alloyed organic-inorganic perovskites. We fuse data from high-throughput degradation tests and first-principle calculations of phase thermodynamics into an end-to-end Bayesian optimization algorithm using probabilistic constraints. By sampling just 1.8% of the discretized CsxMAyFA1−x−yPbI3 (MA, methylammonium; FA, formamidinium) compositional space, perovskites centered at Cs0.17MA0.03FA0.80PbI3 show minimal optical change under increased temperature, moisture, and illumination with >17-fold stability improvement over MAPbI3. The thin films have 3-fold improved stability compared with state-of-the-art multi-halide Cs0.05(MA0.17FA0.83)0.95Pb(I0.83Br0.17)3, translating into enhanced solar cell stability without compromising conversion efficiency. Synchrotron-based X-ray scattering validates the suppression of chemical decomposition and minority phase formation achieved using fewer elements and a maximum of 8% MA. We anticipate that this data fusion approach can be extended to guide materials discovery for a wide range of multinary systems.

Protecting Decision Boundary of Machine Learning Model With Differentially Private Perturbation

Machine learning service API allows model owners to monetize proprietary models by offering prediction services to third-party users. However, existing literature shows that model parameters are vulnerable to extraction attacks which accumulate prediction queries and their responses to train a replica model. As countermeasures, researchers have proposed to reduce the rich API output, such as hiding the precise confidence. Nonetheless, even with response being only one bit, an adversary can still exploit fine-tuned queries with differential property to infer the decision boundary of the underlying model. In this article, we propose boundary differential privacy (BDP) against such attacks by obfuscating the prediction responses with noises. BDP guarantees an adversary cannot learn the decision boundary of any two classes by a predefined precision no matter how many queries are issued to the prediction API. We first design a perturbation algorithm called boundary randomized response for a binary model. Then we prove it satisfies <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\epsilon$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mi>&#x03B5;</mml:mi></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="zheng-ieq1-3043382.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-BDP, followed by a generalization of this algorithm to a multiclass model. Finally, we generalize a hard boundary to soft boundary and design an adaptive perturbation algorithm that can still work in the latter case. The effectiveness and high utility of our solution are verified by extensive experiments on both linear and non-linear models.

Formula-E race strategy development using distributed policy gradient reinforcement learning

Energy and thermal management is a crucial element in Formula-E race strategy development. In this study, the race-level strategy development is formulated into a Markov decision process (MDP) problem featuring a hybrid-type action space. Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) reinforcement learning is implemented under distributed architecture Ape-X and integrated with the prioritized experience replay and reward shaping techniques to optimize a hybrid-type set of actions of both continuous and discrete components. Soft boundary violation penalties in reward shaping, significantly improves the performance of DDPG and makes it capable of generating faster race finishing solutions. The new proposed method has shown superior performance in comparison to the Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) with policy gradient reinforcement learning, which solves this problem in a fully discrete action space as presented in the literature. The advantages are faster race finishing time and better handling of ambient temperature rise.

Flexural wave-based soft attractor walls for trapping microparticles and cells.

Acoustic manipulation of microparticles and cells, called acoustophoresis, inside microfluidic systems has significant potential in biomedical applications. In particular, using acoustic radiation force to push microscopic objects toward the wall surfaces has an important role in enhancing immunoassays, particle sensors, and recently microrobotics. In this paper, we report a flexural-wave based acoustofluidic system for trapping micron-sized particles and cells at the soft wall boundaries. By exciting a standard microscope glass slide (1 mm thick) at its resonance frequencies <200 kHz, we show the wall-trapping action in sub-millimeter-size rectangular and circular cross-sectional channels. For such low-frequency excitation, the acoustic wavelength can range from 10–150 times the microchannel width, enabling a wide design space for choosing the channel width and position on the substrate. Using the system-level acousto-structural simulations, we confirm the acoustophoretic motion of particles near the walls, which is governed by the competing acoustic radiation and streaming forces. Finally, we investigate the performance of the wall-trapping acoustofluidic setup in attracting the motile cells, such as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii microalgae, toward the soft boundaries. Furthermore, the rotation of microalgae at the sidewalls and trap-escape events under pulsed ultrasound are demonstrated. The flexural-wave driven acoustofluidic system described here provides a biocompatible, versatile, and label-free approach to attract particles and cells toward the soft walls.

Inherent Feature Extraction and Soft Margin Decision Boundary Optimization Technique for Hyperspectral Crop Classification

Inherent Feature Extraction and Soft Margin Decision Boundary Optimization Technique for Hyperspectral Crop Classification

Neutrosophic Soft Bitopological Spaces

In this paper, we built bitopological space on the concept of neutrosophic soft set, we defined the basic topological concepts of this spaces which are N3-(bi)*-open set, N3-(bi)*-closed set, (bi)*-neutrosophic soft interior, (bi)* neutrosophic soft closure, (bi)*-neutrosophic soft boundary, (bi)*-neutrosophic soft exterior and we introduced their properties. In addition, we investigated the relations of these basic topological concepts with their counterparts in neutrosophic soft topological spaces and we introduced many examples.

Full-size experimental assessment of the aerodynamic sealing of air curtains for particulate matter

An air curtain is used to ensure an adequate separation between two compartments that is aimed to restrict, a clean one and a contaminated one. The air curtain performance is improved with the use of an air extraction from the “contaminated” compartment. The aerodynamic sealing of an optimized air curtain is assessed regarding particulate matter. The evaluation using visual assessment of the aerodynamic sealing using a cold smoke source is validated against PM 10 detection. It is shown that the air curtain presents a good aerodynamic sealing for the particulate of PM10 and PM2.5 classes and that the visual assessment method can lead to similar results. An equation was obtained with a view to be used to predict the level of aerodynamic sealing of the air curtain when the exhaust rate becomes too low. Another equation was obtained for predicting the average velocity through the door protected by the air curtain required to obtain an aerodynamic sealing, as a function of the jet parameters (nozzle average velocity and thickness). These test results prove that the air curtain, complemented with an air exhaust from the “contaminated compartment”, is suitable to provide an acceptable aerodynamic sealing for the particulate matter. Practical application: The findings of this research are applicable when it is necessary to retain the contamination due to particulate matter using a soft boundary, as air plane jets. This is applicable to medical care centres to reduce the possibility of contamination due to bacteria between different compartments or in pharmaceutical process units to avoid cross contamination among them.

Review of the assessment of two stocks of Antarctic minke whales (eastern Indian Ocean and western South Pacific)

An in-depth assessment of an eastern Indian stock (I-stock) and a western South Pacific stock (P-stock) of Antarctic minke whales distributed between 35°E and 145°W was carried out by the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC/SC) from 2001 to 2014 using data mainly collected from 1985 to 2004. This paper is a synthesis and summary of the outcomes of that assessment, although research on this species has been ongoing since 2014. The assessment integrates information from a wide range of topics including systematics, survey methods, direct catches, population structure, abundance, spatial distribution, biological information, population dynamics, species interactions, pollutants and interactions with marine debris. At least two stocks (I-stock and P-stock) are found between 35°E–145°W, with a soft boundary between 100°E and 165°E. Two sets of agreed circumpolar estimates of abundance from IWC assessment cruises (termed ‘CPII’ – 1985/86–1990/91, and ‘CPIII’ – 1991/92–2003/04) were obtained; a null hypothesis of no change in overall abundance between CPII and CPIII was not rejected. The results of a Statistical Catch-at-Age Analysis (SCAA) applied to the two stocks revealed that (1) abundance increased from 1930 until the mid-1970s, anddeclined over the period from the mid-1970s until the late-1980s and (2) trends in abundance over the most recent 20 years were relatively flat for the I-stock but decreasing for the P-stock. Although the primary focus at the start of this assessment was to try to understand abundance trends during the 1985–2004 period, it expanded to increasing knowledge on the life history of this species. The assessment also advanced many aspects of analytical methods.

Flow-induced choking of a compliant Hele-Shaw cell

After centuries of striving for structural rigidity, engineers and scientists alike are increasingly looking to harness the deformation, buckling, and failure of soft materials for functionality. In fluidic devices, soft deformable components that respond to the flow have the advantage of being passive; they do not require external actuation. Harnessing flow-induced deformation for passive functionality provides a means of developing flow analogs of electronic circuit components such as fluidic diodes and capacitors. The electronic component that has so far been overlooked in the microfluidics literature-the fuse-is a passive safety device that relies on a controlled failure mechanism (melting) to protect a circuit from overcurrent. Here, we describe how a compliant Hele-Shaw cell behaves in a manner analogous to the electrical fuse; above a critical flux, the flow-induced deformation of the cell blocks the outflow, interrupting (choking) the flow. In particular, the pressure distribution within the fluid applies a spatially variant normal force to the soft boundary, which causes nonuniform deformation. As a consequence of lateral confinement and incompressibility of the soft material, this flow-induced elastic deformation manifests as bulging near the cell outflow; bulges that come into contact with the rigid cell roof interrupt the flow. We identify two nondimensional parameters that govern the central deflection and the choking of the cell, respectively. This study therefore provides the mechanical foundations for engineering passive-flow limiters into fluidic devices.

Minimax Estimation of Divergences Between Discrete Distributions

We study the minimax estimation of $\alpha$-divergences between discrete distributions for integer $\alpha\ge 1$, which include the Kullback--Leibler divergence and the $\chi^2$-divergences as special examples. Dropping the usual theoretical tricks to acquire independence, we construct the first minimax rate-optimal estimator which does not require any Poissonization, sample splitting, or explicit construction of approximating polynomials. The estimator uses a hybrid approach which solves a problem-independent linear program based on moment matching in the non-smooth regime, and applies a problem-dependent bias-corrected plug-in estimator in the smooth regime, with a soft decision boundary between these regimes.