1. Freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera L.) is an endangered species. Rearing in captivity for eventual release is one possible method of increasing the likelihood of persistence in different rivers. As rearing is a time-consuming procedure, knowledge about conditions that increase survival and growth rates and decrease the period of the parasitic stage would be advantageous. 2…
A study was carried out to investigate the effects of background colour on the growth performance, bskin colour, haematology, physiological condition and non-specific immune responses of goldfish, Carassius auratus. Goldfish were reared in tanks with four different background colours (white, black, blue and red) for 8 weeks. Fish growth performance markedly rose in white background compared wit…
Indonesia has the greatest reported chondrichthyan catches worldwide, with c.110,000 t caught annually. The pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus) and scalloped hammerhead (Sphryna lewini) together comprise about 25% of the total catches of sharks landed in Indonesia. Age and growth parameters were estimated for A. pelagicus and S. lewini from growth-band counts of thin-cut vertebral sections. Al…
Presentation skills, such as oral expression and public speaking, have normally been relegated to the background in engineering degree programs. In recent years, however, the labor market has specifically demanded these kinds of skills in engineers. Accordingly, new engineering degrees, adapted to the goals of the Bologna Declaration or ABET criteria, consider presentation skills as being fund…
A machine vision implementation on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) device for real-time microfluidic monitoring on Lab-On-Chips is presented in this paper. The machine vision system is designed to follow continuous or plug flows, for which the menisci of the fluids are always visible. The system discriminates between the front or “head” of the flow and the back or “tail” and is a…
This paper presents a self-contained, single-chip biosignal monitoring system with wireless programmability and telemetry interface suitable for mainstream healthcare applications. The system consists of low-noise front end amplifiers, ADC, MICS/ISM transmitter and infrared programming capability to configure the state of the chip. An on-chip packetizer ensures easy pairing with standard off-th…
This paper describes a mixed-signal ECG System-on-Chip (SoC) that is capable of implementing configurable functionality with low-power consumption for portable ECG monitoring applications. A low-voltage and high performance analog front-end extracts 3-channel ECG signals and single channel electrode-tissue-impedance (ETI) measurement with high signal quality. This can be used to evaluate the qu…
The failure mechanisms for two kinds of the 750-V Superjunction VDMOS (SJ-VDMOS) devices with different charge imbalance conditions (Qp < Qn and Qp > Qn) under unclamped inductive switching (UIS) condition are investigated in detail by experiments and 2-D devices simulations in this paper. For Qp < Qn, only the channel current appears in the device during the UIS turn-off process, and the aval…
Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) is a safe medical imaging technology, requiring no ionizing or heating radiation, as opposed to most other imaging modalities. This has led to a clinical interest in its use for long-term monitoring, possibly at the bedside, for ventilation monitoring, bleeding detection, gastric emptying and epilepsy foci diagnosis. These long-term applications demand auto…
In deeply scaled CMOS technology, time-dependent degradation mechanisms (TDDMs), such as Bias Temperature Instability (BTI), have threatened the transistor performance, hence the overall circuit/system reliability. Two well-known attempts to model BTI mechanism are the reaction-diffusion (R-D) model and the Atomistic trap-based model. This paper presents a thorough comparative analysis of the …
An analog inner hair cell and auditory nerve circuit using a dual AGC model has been implemented using 0.35 micron mixed-signal technology. A fully-differential current-mode architecture is used and the ability to correct channel mismatch is evaluated with matched layouts as well as with digital current tuning. The Meddis test paradigm is used to examine the analog implementation’s auditory …
The last few years have seen the development and fabrication of nanoscale circuits at high density and low power. Following a single-event upset (SEU), so-called soft errors due to internal and externally induced phenomena (such as α-particles and cosmic rays in adverse environments) have been reported during system operation; this is especially deleterious for storage elements such as flip-f…
This paper reports on the application of the Walsh–Hadamard transform (WHT) for data compression in brain-machine/brain-computer interfaces. Using the proposed technique, the amount of the neural data transmitted off the implant is compressed by a factor of at least 63 at the expense of as low as 4.66% RMS error between the signal reconstructed on the external host and the original neural si…
The future cyber security workforce needs radio frequency identification (RFID) information systems security (INFOSEC) and threat modeling educational materials. A complete RFID security course with new learning materials and teaching strategies is presented here. A new RFID Reference Model is used in the course to organize discussion of RFID, much as the open systems interconnection (OSI) mode…
Conventionally, measurements of temperaturedependent device parameters and degradation are performed using thermo chucks or dedicated test-furnaces. With such an equipment, the available temperature range is limited (typically to a maximum of 300 ◦C) and reliable temperature switches are rather slow, i.e., in the range of minutes to hours. We refine the recently suggested use of polycrystall…
Survival rates and growth parameters of hatchery-reared sea trout (Salmo trutta trutta L.) fry were determined after stocking in the wild. The larvae were hatchery-reared for 12 weeks in two groups: fry were fed either on live zooplankton and live chironomidae larvae (LFG), or fed a pellet diet (PFG). The survival rate and specific growth rates were higher in the LFG than in the PFG group. Mos…
This paper describes and discusses the implementation of a project-based graduate design course in telecommunications engineering. This course, which requires a combination of technical and soft skills for its completion, enables guided independent learning (GIL) and application of technical knowledge acquired from classroom learning. Its main implementation challenge is the need for instructo…
Parentage analysis in aquaculture determines genealogical relationships between broodstock and progeny when the parents are unknown. Thus, parentage analysis is a useful tool to establish pedigree reports in molecular-assisted selection programs. Here, we evaluated 10 heterologous microsatellite markers for parentage assignment in abalone hybrids produced from 43 abalone broodstocks of red abal…
This paper discusses the design and implementation of laboratories and course projects using LabVIEW in an instrumentation course. The pedagogical challenge is to enhance students’ learning of digital communication using LabVIEW. LabVIEW was extensively used in the laboratory sessions, which better prepared students for the course projects. Two course projects were designed to familiarize t…
Computing the degree of redundancy for structured linear systems is proven to be NP-hard. A linear system whose model matrix is of size is considered structured if some row vectors in the model matrix are linearly dependent. Bound-and-decompose and 0-1 mixed integer programming (MIP) are two approaches to compute the degree of redundancy, which were previously proposed and compared in the liter…
This paper examines the problem of determining the distribution of a number of indistinguishable moving bodies located in regions separated by sensor beams that can detect whether a body moves across them. We characterize the conditions under which an exact distribution of bodies can be determined, and compute bounds on the expected number of sensor observations required to determine this exac…
Optimal design is an inevitable step for parallel manipulators. The formulated optimal design problems are generally constrained, nonlinear, multimodal, and even without closed-form analytical expressions. Numerical optimization algorithms are thus applied to solve the problems. However, the optimization algorithms are usually chosen ad arbitrium. This paper aims to provide a guideline to choos…
Today’s electrical and computer engineering graduates need marketable skills to work with electronic devices. Hands-on experiments prepare students to deal with real-world problems and help them to comprehend theoretical concepts and relate these to practical tasks. However, shortage of equipment, high costs, and a lack of human resources for laboratory maintenance and assistance decrease th…
Mobile service providers andmanufacturers continue to provide services and devices that take advantage of the location information associated with devices to provide a more personalized experience for users. For many such services, the user experience can be dramatically improved if a mobile device can predict how long a mobile user will stay at the current location. In this paper, we propose t…
System stability is a basic concept in courses on dynamic system analysis and control for undergraduate students with computer science backgrounds. Typically, this was taught using a simple simulation example of an inverted pendulum. Unfortunately, many difficult issues arise in the learning and understanding of the concepts of stability, instability, and marginal stability. Instead, the author…
Abstract—A 2-D micromachined silicon thermal wind sensor measures wind speed and direction by monitoring temperature differences induced by an airflow that passes along the substrate surface. When ambient temperature changes, however, the temperature drift of the sensor will lead to incorrect output values. By examining the thermophysical properties of the airflow, substrate, and temperature…
1. Biological invaders can provide a highly abundant novel prey, yet the effect this has on the body condition of native predators is unknown. 2. Since invading the Laurentian Great Lakes over two decades ago, the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) has become an important food source for many native species. 3. We used long-term data from Lakes Erie and Ontario (19932012) to create quantile…
Abstract—The conversion of electrical to mechanical power on a sub-centimeter scale is a key technology in many microsystems and energy harvesting devices. In this paper, we present a type of a capacitive energy conversion device that uses capillary pressure and electrowetting to reversibly convert electrical power to hydraulic power. These microhydraulic actuators use a high surface-to-volum…
Abstract—We report our work in developing microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based Ultra High Frequency (UHF) AT-cut quartz monolithic crystal filters operating between 350 and 400 MHz for integration with Si electronics for highly compact Radio Frequency (RF) front-end electronics. Our narrow bandwidth (0.2%) high Q filters have measured insertion losses of −2 dB with temperature stabil…
Abstract—This paper reports on a proof-of-concept microelectromechanical system-based Fabry–Perot filter that is capable of electrically tuning within the long-wave infrared thermal imaging band of 8–12 μm. The device employs a single-layer quarter-wavelength thick tensile germanium membrane for the suspended top mirror in order to achieve nanometer-scale as-released mirror flatness acr…
Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) loci encode glycoproteins that bind to foreign peptides and initiate immune responses through their interaction with T cells. MHC class II molecules are heterodimers consisting of a and b chains encoded by extremely variable genes; variation in exon 2 is responsible for the majority of observed polymorphisms, mostly concentrated in the codons specifying th…
1. Desert rivers are highly dynamic systems in which dry periods, frequently involving the cessation of superficial flow, alternate with violent flash floods. In spite of their territorial importance and high functional and biological diversity, desert rivers have received little attention in the scientific literature, especially in Northern Africa. 2. This study investigated the distribution …
The mechanisms most likely to determine the distribution of the two major herring Clupea harengus stocks in their common early summer feeding ground in the eastern North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat were investigated through analysis of acoustic survey data from six consecutive years. No change was detected in biomass of North Sea autumn spawning C. harengus (NSAS) over time, whereas the biomass…
The nuclear receptors dax1 and SF-1 play important and antagonistic roles in gonad differentiation in mammals. To study their potential functions in teleost fish, the full-length cDNAs of dax1 and SF-1 were cloned and characterized from spotted scat. Their expression patterns in adult tissues and juveniles treated with 17
A lactic acid bacterial strain, Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. tolerans F2, isolated from the intestine of Ramnogaster arcuata, was evaluated as a growth promoter in juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1972) farming. In addition, the safety of the strain was assessed according to the FAO recommendations. Strain F2 was susceptible to most antibiotics tested and no evidence of he…
Dietary lipid source in aquaculture has become a central topic in research whilst natural resources availability diminishes. Hence, to weigh up and forecast consumers impressions, the impact of partial (70%) and complete (100%) dietary replacement of fish oil (FO) by linseed oil (LO) on sensory and quality attributes was studied during the edible shelf life of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata…
Abstract—Ensuring safe operation of stimulators is the most important issue in neural stimulation. Safety, in terms of stimulators’ electrical performances, can be related mainly to two factors; the zero-net charge transfer to tissue and the heat generated by power dissipation at tissue. This paper presents a safety ensuring neurostimulator for retinal vision prostheses, featuring precise …
Using supervised machine learning approaches to recognize human activities from on-body wearable accelerometers generally requires a large amount of labeled data.When ground truth information is not available, too expensive, time consuming or difficult to collect, one has to rely on unsupervised approaches. This paper presents a new unsupervised approach for human activity recognition from raw …
This paper aims at investigating the drop impact solder interconnect reliability of an advanced ultra-fine-pitch 3-D integrated circuit chip stacking packaging in accordance with JEDEC board-level test specification through finite-element (FE) simulation and experimental testing. To characterize the transient dynamic responses of the package, ANSYS/LS-DYNA incorporated with the Input-G method i…
Early detection of patients with elevated risk of developing diabetes mellitus is critical to the improved prevention and overall clinical management of these patients. We aim to apply association rule mining to electronic medical records (EMR) to discover sets of risk factors and their corresponding subpopulations that represent patients at particularly high risk of developing diabetes. Given…
The barrier properties of self-forming barrier aresensitive to the thickness, annealing temperature, annealing time, and impurity concentration of itself. In this paper, the properties of Cu/CuMn/SiO2 bilayer structures were investigated, and an optimized thickness of Cu and CuMn alloy used as barrier layers in these bilayer structures was also determined. The bilayer structure could reduce the…
Ciona intestinalis sp. A (Tunicata, Ascidiacea) is a marine invertebrate with a widespread distribution and high invasive potential, yet little is known about its ecology. Here, the macrodynamics of demographic and reproductive trends were first determined using archive data covering 2002–2012. Species abundance in the central Tyrrhenian Sea (Campania, Italy - NW Mediterranean) displayed Pois…
In this study, a laboratory of genetics and physiology 2 gene (lgp2) from common carp Cyprinus carpio was isolated and characterized. The full-length complementary (c)DNA of lgp2 was 3061 bp and encoded a polypeptide of 680 amino acids, with an estimated molecular mass of 77 341⋅2Da and a predicted isoelectric point of 6⋅53. The predicted protein included four main overlapping structural do…
The objective was to document the variations in the intermuscular bone counts among three carp strains: mirror carp, hybrid carp [Boshi carp (Cyprinus pellegrini) 9 Heilongjiang carp (Cyprinus carpio)], and a cold-resistant strain of Hebao carp. The intermuscular bone counts, lengths, and weights were obtained from 146 fish; the bone count ranged from 55 to 110 (mean 92.85) among the three str…
Most of the studies investigating synchrony in fluctuations of abundance of small pelagic fish have been based on catch data only, which do not describe the dynamics of populations as a relative abundance index. In this paper, catch, biomass, recruitment and recruitment rate, were used to compare synchronous changes for two stocks of anchovy (Engraulis ringens) from 1982 to 2004. One is the No…
1. We compared leaf litter conditioning in two artificial stream channels that were connected to a second-order stream (both in- and outflow). The water in one channel had the same temperature as the stream and in the other channel was warmed (3 °C above ambient stream water temperature). In addition to measuring leaf decomposition by microbes, we ran feeding trials in the artificial streams a…
During scientific surveys on the continental slopes north-west of Spitsbergen and off north-east Greenland (c. 600 and 1000m depths), two female Arctic skates Amblyraja hyperborea were caught while swallowing extraordinary large individuals of glacial eelpout Lycodes frigidus. The total length (LT) of the prey constituted 50 and 80% of the LT of the skates, which reveal that A. hyperborea are c…
Abstract—Fabrication of ultra-thin (1–20-μm thickness) polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films is enabled with a hexane dilution process and an underlying gelatin release layer. The release and transfer of these films over large areas (>5 cm) allows measurement of the thickness-dependent and process-dependent mechanical properties of ultra-thin PDMS membranes, reported for the first time. The e…
Abstract—A compact, low-power, single-loop third-order delta–sigma () time-to-digital converter (TDC) for time-mode signal processing is presented in this brief. In general, a high-resolution TDC requires a cascadable time integrator to increase the order of the loop filter. However, implementing the time integrator has been very challenging owing to the difficulty in storing time inf…
An analytical approach to predict initiation and growth of interfacial delamination in the through-silicon via structure is developed by combining a cohesive zone model with a shear-lag model. Two critical temperatures are predicted for damage initiation and fracture initiation, respectively. It is found that via extrusion significantly increases beyond the second critical temperature. The depe…