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Surgical removal of unexploded ordnance has been described in literature, usually in the context of the military. We describe a case of a 31-year-old gentleman who presented with a traumatic fireworks injury resulting in an unexploded three-inch aerial shell lodged in his left upper thigh. The sole regional Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) expert was not available, so a local pyrotechnic engineer was contacted and he helped in identification of the firework. The firework was removed without the use of electrocautery, irrigation, or metal instrument contact after skin incision. The patient recovered well after prolonged wound healing. Creativity needs to be employed in low resource settings to identify all available resources that can impart knowledge when medical training is not enough. People with knowledge of explosives can be, as in our case, local pyrotechnics engineer or can be local cannon enthusiasts, veterans, or active military personnel at a nearby military base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ischemic heart diseases remain the leading cause of death globally, and stem cell-based therapy has been investigated as a potential approach for cardiac repair. Due to poor survival and engraftment in the cardiac ischemic milieu post transplantation, the predominant therapeutic effects of stem cells act via paracrine actions, by secreting extracellular vesicles (EVs) and/or other factors. Exosomes are nano-sized EVs of endosomal origin, and now viewed as a major contributor in facilitating myocardial repair and regeneration. However, EV/exosome therapy has major obstacles before entering clinical settings, such as limited production yield, unstable biological activity, poor homing efficiency, and low tissue retention. This review aims to provide an overview of the biogenesis and mechanisms of stem cell-derived EV/exosomes in the process of cardiac repair and discuss the current advancements in different optimized strategies to produce high-yield EV/exosomes with higher bioactivity, or engineer them with improved homing efficiency and therapeutic potency. In particular, we outline recent findings toward preclinical and clinical translation of EV/exosome therapy in ischemic heart diseases, and discuss the potential barriers in regard to clinical translation of EV/exosome therapy. • An overview of the biogenesis and mechanisms of EV/exosomes in cardiac repair. • Current advancements in different optimized strategies for EV/exosome therapy. • Finding and potential barriers toward clinical translation of EV/exosome therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capability to manipulate and analyze hard-wired metabolic pathways sets the pace at which we can engineer cellular metabolism. Here, we present a framework to extensively rewrite the central metabolic pathway for malonyl-CoA biosynthesis in yeast and readily assess malonyl-CoA output based on pathway-scale DNA reconstruction in combination with colorimetric screening (Pracs). We applied Pracs to generate and test millions of enzyme variants by introducing genetic mutations into the whole set of genes encoding the malonyl-CoA biosynthetic pathway and identified hundreds of beneficial enzyme mutants with increased malonyl-CoA output. Furthermore, the synthetic pathways reconstructed by randomly integrating these beneficial enzyme variants generated vast phenotypic diversity, with some displaying higher production of malonyl-CoA as well as other metabolites, such as carotenoids and betaxanthin, thus demonstrating the generic utility of Pracs to efficiently orchestrate central metabolism to optimize the production of different chemicals in various metabolic pathways. Pracs will be broadly useful to advance our ability to understand and engineer cellular metabolism. • A platform strain with an easily swappable malonyl-CoA biosynthetic pathway. • Development of a colorimetric reporter for malonyl-CoA. • A framework to extensively rewrite and monitor malonyl-CoA biosynthetic pathway. • Multiple superior enzyme mutants for malonyl-CoA production were identified. • Pathway-scale engineering boosted flaviolin, β-carotene and betaxanthin production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a new procedure for clustering partially masked images from wafer bin maps (WBMs). A WBM is an image of bin codes from circuit probe tests on a wafer after a semiconductor manufacturing process. Certain defect patterns of WBMs provide engineers with information to isolate manufacturing problems. The engineers prefer to see the identified defect patterns in clusters. Then they may match each cluster to a well-known defect type or they could easily see if there are new defect patterns. However, the WBMs may be masked at a large area due to the sequential circuit probe tests for bin codes. WBMs may also have various proportions of noise. There are two major contributions of this research. First, our method of locally iterative interpolation for the image reconstruction of masked WBMs will recover certain parts of the original patterns. Second, we proposed a new modified Radon transformation to extract features for better clustering of partly masked WBMs. We demonstrated our procedure on synthetic WBMs with various defect pattern types and levels of masking through a simulation study. The image patterns of WBMs during simulation were observed from a specific kind of real wafer product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death in 2019 produced a wealth of new publications, including a four-volume monograph by Carmen Bambach, annotated new editions and the first monograph on Leonardo as an engineer, the myriad problems posed by his scientific and technological legacy have by no means been resolved. Much remains to be done on the reconstruction of the numerous writings he announced or intended to write later. As regards major projects such as the drainage of the Pontine Marshes we should consider the extent to which Leonardo could truly have conceived the plans associated with him without the help of other experts. Leonardo's claimed military ambitions when he left Florence for Milan in 1482 have been accepted in the newly published monographs, although a wealth of material from the following years indicates that he became familiar with military matters only much later. This is particularly true of the military qualifications Leonardo lists in his first letter to Ludovico Sforza. His famous letter dates to the year 1489 and not to Leonardo's move from Florence to Milan in 1482. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James Woodward's book, "Causation with a Human Face," offers a unique perspective on causation by starting with how humans reason causally and then exploring the normative aspects of causation. Woodward acts as an "epistemic or conceptual engineer," connecting different aspects of causation with their functional roles in human reasoning. The book integrates empirical research on causal cognition, formal approaches like causal modeling, and philosophical theories of causation, all under the umbrella of a "functional account of causation." Woodward's approach aims to overcome dichotomies between the descriptive and the normative, as well as between epistemology and metaphysics. The book explores the role of philosophy and empirical research in studying causal cognition and evaluates different conceptions and theories of causation. Woodward's normative framework is based on the notions of invariance and proportionality, which are derived from empirical work on human causal cognition. However, the grounding of these normative notions in the descriptive features of causation requires careful methodology and justification. Overall, Woodward's book provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary exploration of causation from a human-centered perspective. [Extracted from the article]

Predators can directly and indirectly alter the foraging behaviour of prey through direct predation and the risk of predation, and in doing so, initiate indirect effects that influence myriad species and ecological processes. We describe how wolves indirectly alter the trajectory of forests by constraining the distance that beavers, a central place forager and prolific ecosystem engineer, forage from water. Specifically, we demonstrate that wolves wait in ambush and kill beavers on longer feeding trails than would be expected based on the spatio-temporal availability of beavers. This pattern is driven by temporal dynamics of beaver foraging: beavers make more foraging trips and spend more time on land per trip on longer feeding trails that extend farther from water. As a result, beavers are more vulnerable on longer feeding trails than shorter ones. Wolf predation appears to be a selective evolutionary pressure propelled by consumptive and non-consumptive mechanisms that constrain the distance from water beavers forage, which in turn limits the area of forest around wetlands, lakes and rivers beavers alter through foraging. Thus, wolves appear intricately linked to boreal forest dynamics by shaping beaver foraging behaviour, a form of natural disturbance that alters the successional and ecological states of forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of a lower index oxide layer inclusion within a highly doped silica glass slot waveguide is investigated for optimized supercontinuum generation at telecom wavelengths. By controlling the thickness of the oxide slot, it is demonstrated that one can engineer the waveguide dispersion profile in order to obtain supercontinua with vastly different spectral broadening dynamics and bandwidths. Using this approach, a waveguide with a low and flat dispersion profile of less than 43 pskm−1nm−1$\rm ps\ km^{-1}\ nm^{-1}$ across a wavelength range spanning over 1000 nm is designed and fabricated. It is shown that, when pumped at the telecom C‐band, a supercontinuum that spans over 1.5 octaves can be generated from 817 to 2183 nm. The numerical simulations, whose parameters are derived from the measured waveguide dimension and material indices, exhibit good agreement with experimental measurements, where one can observe both a qualitative and quantitative match in the supercontinuum overall spectrum and specific features (e.g., soliton and dispersive wave locations). This study represents an important step forward in the control and manipulation of dispersive and nonlinear dynamics in highly doped silica glass waveguides, paving the way toward advanced on‐chip broadband light manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-noise microwave signals can be efficiently generated with microresonator-based dissipative Kerr solitons (microcombs). However, the phase noise level in integrated microcombs is presently several orders of magnitude above the limit imposed by fundamental thermorefractive noise, resulting from residual pump laser frequency noise transduction to the soliton repetition rate. This effect can be substantially reduced by accessing a quiet point (QP) in the parameter space, where the transduction is compensated by the dispersive wave (DW) recoil, which conventionally relies on accidental mode crossings. Here we present a method to deterministically engineer the QP, both in terms of spectral width and position, and we discover a continuum of possible QPs within the soliton existence region. Using two controlled mode crossings, we obtain regions where the QPs interact with each other, extending the noise suppression range. Our work demonstrates a promising way to reach the fundamental limit of low-noise microwave generation in integrated microcombs. Quiet points (QPs) in chip-integrated microcomb platforms allow the cancellation of transduction noise arising due to the presence of Raman self-frequency shifts, but the conditions to exploit them are fortuitous and system-dependent. The authors propose a strategy to deterministically engineer QPs both in terms of spectral width and position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subterranean rodents are often considered as ecosystem engineers because they physically modify the surrounding environment due to their burrowing and foraging activities. Understanding the modifications that ecosystem engineering species exert on the environment are of crucial importance in ecology studies, since they may affect the structure and population dynamics of several species, including lizards. Thus, the objective of the present study is to test the effect that Ctenomys mendocinus exert in the abundance of Liolaemus ruibali and its escape behaviour, in a high‐elevation desert. Lizard abundance was estimated using observation transects and escape behaviour was studied with an experiment where the observer was considered by lizards as a potential predator and distance before the lizard flees was measured. All the variables were compared between areas disturbed by C. mendocinus and undisturbed ones. We found that L. ruibali was favoured by C. mendocinus activity. By creating burrow systems that serve as refuges for lizards, this rodent species increases the abundance of L. ruibali and reduces its flight distance, thereby improving its escape performance. We may suggest that C. mendocinus, through the construction of burrow systems, would be acting as an ecosystem engineer in Puna desert, affecting L. ruibali ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing a combination of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) thermoforming and 3D-printed cylindrical patterns, we carefully engineer a linear resistive temperature sensor. This intricate process involves initial PET thermoforming, yielding a hollow cylindrical chamber. This chamber is then precisely infused with a composite fluid of graphite and water glue. Ensuring electrical connectivity, both ends are affixed with metal wires and securely sealed using a hot gun. This cost-effective, versatile sensor adeptly gauges temperature shifts by assessing composite fluid resistance alterations. Its PET outer surface grants immunity to water and solubility concerns, enabling application in aquatic and aerial settings without extra encapsulation. Rigorous testing reveals the sensor's linearity and stability within a 10 °C to 60 °C range, whether submerged or airborne. Beyond 65 °C, plastic deformation arises. To mitigate hysteresis, a 58 °C operational limit is recommended. Examining fluidic composite width and length effects, we ascertain a 12 Ω/°C sensitivity for these linear sensors, a hallmark of their precision. Impressive response and recovery times of 4 and 8 s, respectively, highlight their efficiency. These findings endorse thermoforming's potential for fabricating advanced temperature sensors. This cost-effective approach's adaptability underscores its viability for diverse applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the vibration periodic property of Duffing oscillator with generalized initial conditions. Firstly, the undamped case is solved by Ji-Huan He’s frequency formulation; Secondly, the formulation is extended to the damped case. Numerical verification shows that the frequency formulation is mathematically simple and physically insightful and practically applicable. This paper paves a novel way for engineers to use the formulation to study nonlinear vibration system with ease and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A proper and successful methodology of electrical contact design is achieved by combining the theoretical and practical studies. This paper presents an instructional approach involving FEM simulations in order to aid in the practical operations on electrical contacts in MV and HV electrical apparatuses effectively. Prior to the completed engineering and scientific work in the field of the electrical apparatuses, constructing the FEM-based model is an effective way to achieve and understand the pros and cons of the experimental solutions. This design method is widely used by the industrial companies and can be implemented as an educational method giving young engineers a new edge. The desired effect of the proposed course was to develop student understanding of electrical contacts engineering by combining the theoretical (simulations) and the practical approach. Ordered creativity was successfully put into practice by checking the parameters derived from the simulations on the real scale layout, which affected and enhanced student confidence in the field and in engineering skills. This instructional approach consisted of two sections (The Theoretical and the Practical) and is essential for understanding and further exploiting the acquired knowledge and certain other measures in engineering work. Moreover, it renders a complete engineering experience employing consequences and their impact on experimental electrical contact research based on multitasking and diversity. The statistical analysis proved that the proposed method had a significant impact and yielded improved results. Moreover, a major improvement in student learning and satisfaction after participating in the proposed course was noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their highly influential paper, Yarkoni, Tal, and Jacob Westfall. 2017. "Choosing Prediction over Explanation in Psychology: Lessons from Machine Learning." Perspectives on Psychological Science 12 (6):1100–1122. the authors highlight difficulties in traditional explanatory research in the field of psychology and argue in favour of novel data-driven science. By applying machine-learning methods to large data sets, predictive power has been shown to increase significantly. Geological engineers are responsible for a wide range of applications, including the design of tunnels, dams, foundations, and mines. While the field of geological engineering stands on solid mechanistic grounds, we argue that its predictive aspect aligns more closely with psychology than other mechanistic sciences. We therefore propose a paradigm shift in geological engineering research towards a prediction-centric approach. Potentially, this could enhance cost-effectiveness in structural design and lead to substantial societal savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Successful implementation of artificial intelligence in gastroenterology and hepatology practice requires more than technology. There are ethical, legal, and social issues that need to be settled. Aim: A group consisting of AI developers (engineer), AI users (gastroenterologist, hepatologist, and surgeon) and AI regulators (ethicist and administrator) formed a Working Group to draft these Positions Statements with the objective of arousing public and professional interest and dialogue, to promote ethical considerations when implementing AI technology, to suggest to policy makers and health authorities relevant factors to take into account when approving and regulating the use of AI tools, and to engage the profession in preparing for change in clinical practice. Statements: These series of Position Statements point out the salient issues to maintain the trust between care provider and care receivers, and to legitimize the use of a non‐human tool in healthcare delivery. It is based on fundamental principles such as respect, autonomy, privacy, responsibility, and justice. Enforcing the use of AI without considering these factor risk damaging the doctor–patient relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulation is usually justified by the public interest in theory but in practice may end up serving special interests. This paper evaluates the regulatory frameworks for engineers and engineering technologists in Kenya with the view to establishing whether they take the public interest into consideration or only other special interests. Taking public interest into account is necessary to foster development and avoid regulatory conflicts. The study used qualitative document analysis (QDA) to collect and analyze the documentary data available in relevant statutes, namely the Engineers Registration Act (1969–2012), the Engineers Act (from 2012), and the Engineering Technology Act, as well as the Auditor-General's annual reports. The main aim of the study is to establish whether the regulators are motivated by public interest or not. The findings are that public interest is not the main goal because regulators focus on non-regulatory activities such as business investments, there is capture of regulatory instruments by the regulator, there is limited inclusion of other actors in the regulatory operations, there is engagement in extraprofessional activities with the risk of distraction from the core mandate of professional regulation, there is budgeting for excess funds, a lack of clear definition of the public interest in the relevant sections of the statute. The findings confirm pursuit of special interests by the regulators, rather than the public interest. The main contribution of the study is that in developing and African countries, regulatory mechanism of professions can be captured by the regulators to further narrow or special interests, just as it happens with the regulation of businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the challenges faced by post-disaster construction, the present study endeavours to offer an improved solution in a practical manner. To this end, a critical analysis of modular systems that can be employed in post-disaster construction is conducted, which is succeeded by the set of required features. Considering these features, a system based on modular prefabricated components (MPC) is presented, which effectively eliminates all hitches while demonstrating facilitated solutions. From a practical standpoint, a comprehensive description of the structure's dimensions, assembly steps and design constraints are proffered, accompanied by primary structural analysis factoring in the highest risk categories. The applicability and limitations of the system in post-disaster scenarios are also discussed in comparison to other modular construction methods. The findings indicate that the system exhibits high levels of disjoint-ability and collectability, flexibility and customisability, developability and repairability, in addition to being cost- and time-efficient. Furthermore, it demonstrates a favourable response to the predicaments posed by post-disaster situations, such as logistics, construction process, safety, seismic behaviour and environmental effects. Overall, this research highlights the applicability and potential of MPC systems in post-disaster construction and delivers a valuable output for policymakers, managers, architects and engineers involved in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shelter building caterpillars act as ecosystem engineers by creating and maintaining leaf shelters, which are then colonized by other arthropods. Foliage quality has been shown to influence initial colonization by shelter-building caterpillars. However, the effects of plant quality on the interactions between ecosystem engineers and their communities have yet to be studied at the whole plant level. We examined how leaf tying caterpillars, as ecosystem engineers, impact arthropod communities on Quercus alba (white oak), and the modifying effect of foliage quality on these interactions. We removed all leaf tying caterpillars and leaf ties on 35 Q. alba saplings during the season when leaf tying caterpillars were active (June–September), and compared these leaf tie removal trees to 35 control trees whose leaf ties were left intact. Removal of these ecosystem engineers had no impact on overall arthropod species richness, but reduced species diversity, and overall arthropod abundance and that of most guilds, and changed the structure of the arthropod community as the season progressed. There was an increase in plant-level species richness with increasing number of leaf ties, consistent with Habitat Diversity Hypothesis. In turn, total arthropod density, and that of both leaf tying caterpillars and free-feeding caterpillars were affected by foliar tannin and nitrogen concentrations, and leaf water content. The engineering effect was greatest on low quality plants, consistent with the Stress-Gradient Hypothesis. Our results demonstrate that interactions between ecosystem engineering and plant quality together determine community structure of arthropods on Q. alba in Missouri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Engineers operate in an increasingly global environment, making it important that engineering students develop global engineering competency to prepare them for success in the workplace. To understand this learning, we need assessment approaches that go beyond traditional self‐report surveys. A previous study (Jesiek et al., Journal of Engineering Education 2020; 109(3):1–21) began this process by developing a situational judgment test (SJT) to assess global engineering competency based in the Chinese context and administering it to practicing engineers. Purpose: We built on this previous study by administering the SJT to engineering students to explore what prior experiences related to their SJT performance and how their SJT performance compared with practicing engineers' performance on the SJT. Method: Engineering students completed a survey including the SJT and related self‐report survey instruments. We collected data from three groups of students: those who had studied abroad in China; those who had studied abroad elsewhere; and those who had not studied abroad. Results: We found that students' SJT performance did not relate to their scores on the self‐report instruments, but did relate to their participation in study abroad programs. The students also performed better on the SJT when compared to the practicing engineers. Conclusions: Our results highlight the need to use multiple forms of assessment for global engineering competence. Although building evidence for the validity of the Global Engineering Competency China SJT is an ongoing process, this data collection technique may provide new insights on global engineering competency compared to traditionally used assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

if the professionalization of the social professions is increasingly based on the model of professionalization engineering, what are the imaginaries underlying this movement? How can we understand that the profession of engineer, the one who, at least in the imagination, invents and designs machines with a magically predictable functioning, can be the model for designing training systems for the helping professions? This contribution proposes to explore these questions through two mythological figures often summoned when it comes to engineering and technology: Prometheus and Hephaestus. These two figures will help us to move from the model of professionalization engineering to ingenium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The approximate prediction of lateral performance of buildings without any analytical study requires quite a lot of knowledge and experience in the field for an engineer and an architect as well. An algorithm is required to enhance the mentioned predictions that mostly rely on the knowledge and experience. In this context, in order to quantify the degree of irregularity in framing of the structure in plan column density maps are developed, and thanking to the developed quantification method, the derivation of the relationship between the degree of irregularity and the maximum global roof drift of the structure is aimed. Knowing that the degree of irregularity has a negative impact on the lateral performance, in order to derive the relationship between the two, a regular structure is designed and 16 irregular models based on the regular model are developed. Linear response spectrum analysis and non-linear pushover analysis are conducted to obtain the global drifts and based shears. For linear analysis, the fundamental periods of vibration, mass participation ratio and eccentricity are monitored, while in non-linear analysis the global drifts are monitored. Shortly, the quantification of the irregularity in plan, is a novel approach which a potential to strengthen the hands of the designers, engineers and architects, also could be treated an evaluation tool as an improved global drift and lateral performance prediction method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Process-induced strain engineering is an effective method of crafting the strain state in 2D materials. Much like how it has been used in the fabrication of Si-based electronics, stressed thin films are deposited onto van der Waals-bonded 2D systems where relaxation of the stressor layer causes strain transfer into the 2D materials. This type of strain engineering can be used on a device-by-device level and be controlled for strain magnitude, compression or tension, uniaxiality or biaxiality, and directionality relative to crystal structure by varying film stress or geometry. One critical question in translating this technique to 2D materials is how temperature and time stable this strain engineering process is. In this work, we explore these factors through Raman spectroscopic mapping and photoluminescence spectroscopy ranging in temperatures from 293 to 4 K. It is shown that strain engineering with thin film stressors is equally persistent at all temperatures examined and time stable for a period of at least 14 months (the period of observation). These results suggest that process-induced strain engineering may be used to tune any number of interesting low-temperature properties in 2D materials and that any devices engineered in this way will have long-term stability for applications in electronics, optoelectronics, and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a rare incident that occurred 20 years ago involving the successful replantation of a Russian engineer's amputated hand. The engineer sustained the amputation while working on a Russian vessel in the mid-sea and was rescued by the Indian Coast Guards and taken to a hospital in Mangalore, India. The hand was well preserved and underwent a replantation procedure, which was successful. The patient lived a fruitful life after the surgery but recently passed away. This case received national attention and helped raise awareness about the importance of microsurgery and proper preservation of amputated limbs during transportation. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis 2023 Focused Ion Beam (FIB) User Group meeting, where Steve Herschbein emphasized the need to address failure analysis gaps within the CHIPS for America Act. Topics include FIB technology categories, challenges in circuit edit, and the application of artificial intelligence tools in physical failure analysis.

Materials displaying resistive switching have emerged as promising candidates for implementation as components for neuromorphic computing. Under an applied electric field, certain resistive switching materials undergo an insulator-to-metal transition through the formation of a percolating filament, resulting in large resistance changes. The location and shape of these filaments are strongly influenced by hard-to-control parameters, such as grain boundaries or intrinsic defects, making the switching process susceptible to cycle-to-cycle and device-to-device variation. Using focused Ga+ ion beam irradiation, we selectively engineer defects in VO2 and V2O3 thin films as a case study to control filament formation. Using defect pre-patterning, we can control the position and shape of metallic filaments and reduce the switching power significantly. A greater than three orders of magnitude reduction of switching power was observed in V2O3, and a less than one order of magnitude reduction was observed in VO2. These experiments indicate that selective ion irradiation could be applied to a variety of materials exhibiting resistive switching and could serve as a useful tool for designing scalable, energy efficient circuits for neuromorphic computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topology optimization (TO) plays a significant role in industry by providing engineers with optimal material distributions based exclusively on the information about the design space and loading conditions. Such approaches are especially important for current multidisciplinary design tasks in industry, where the conflicting criteria often lead to very unintuitive solutions. Despite the progress in integrating manufacturing constraints into TO, one of the main factors restricting the use of TO in practice is the users' limited control of the final material distribution. To address this problem, recently, a universal methodology for enforcing similarity to reference structures in various TO methods by applying scaling of elemental energies was proposed. The method, however, requires an expensive hyperparameter sampling, which involves running multiple TO processes to find the design of a given similarity to a reference structure. In this article, we propose a novel end-to-end approach for similarity-based TO, which integrates a machine learning model to predict the hyperparameters of the method, and provide the engineer, at minimal computational cost, with a design satisfying multidisciplinary criteria expressed by the similarity to a reference. The training set for the model is generated based on an academic linear elastic problem, but the model generalizes well to both nonlinear dynamic crash and industrial-scale TO problems. We show the latter by applying the proposed methodology to a real-world multidisciplinary TO problem of a car hood frame, which demonstrates the usefulness of the approach in industrial settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Letter, we report on the phase-controlled topological plasmons in 1D graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) based on a Su−Schrieffer−Heeger (SSH) model variant. By considering the dipole–dipole mode interactions, we first study the normal SSH model by an effective Hamiltonian and calculate the Zak phase as a topological invariant, finding that it is nontrivial (trivial) when the coupling distance is bigger (smaller) than half the period. Then, we reveal that the edge modes with fields highly localized at only one side exist in the model with nontrivial topology and shows the robustness of strong field confinement and extreme frequency stability against in-plane and out-of-plane disorders. Finally, we introduce the offset SSH model variant by vertically offsetting one of the GNR in SSH unit, which allows us to greatly engineer both the width of topological gap and the number of topological windows. The underlying physics are uncovered by defining a parameter called phase difference, which reveals that the topological edge modes appear (disappear) generally near the positions where the inter-unit coupling strength is bigger (smaller) than the intra-unit coupling strength, and, more notably, the phase difference is around even (odd) multiple numbers of π, which is much different from the normal SSH model where the topological phase is simply affected by the resonator distance. In addition to opening up a possibility to explore the fundamental physics of topologically protected graphene plasmons, this work also offers potential applications of these concepts to design graphene-based plasmon devices with immunity to structural imperfections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poem "NOTE TO SELF" by ELIZABETH J. COLEMAN is presented. First Line: Take a pen, soften your jaw, and write, Last Line: while Chaim and Sonia headed South to Haifa Bay.

Phototrophic aggregates containing filamentous cyanobacteria occur naturally, for example, as cryoconite on glaciers and microbialites in fresh or marine waters, but their formation is not fully understood. Laboratory models are now available to reproduce aggregation, that is, the formation of different morphotypes like hemispheroids, microbial mats or sphere-like aggregates we call photogranules. In the model, activated sludge as starting matrix is transformed into aggregates enclosed by a phototrophic layer of growing cyanobacteria. These cyanobacteria were either enriched from the matrix or we added them intentionally. We hypothesize that the resulting morphotype depends on the type and concentration of the added cyanobacteria. When cyanobacteria from mature photogranules were added to activated sludge, photogranulation was not observed, but microbial mats were formed. Photogranulation of sludge could be promoted when adding sufficient quantities of cyanobacterial strains that form clumps when grown as isolates. The cyanobacteria putatively responsible for photogranulation were undetectable or only present in low abundance in the final communities of photogranules, which were always dominated by mat-forming cyanobacteria. We suggest that, in a temporal succession, the ecosystem engineer initiating photogranulation eventually disappears, leaving behind its structural legacy. We conclude that understanding phototrophic aggregate formation requires considering the initial succession stages of the ecosystem development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs about a list of relevant papers and publications in the field of non-destructive testing (NDT). Topics including a variety of topics such as practical use of drones during inspection, advancements in NDT technologies, and the benefits and issues surrounding NDT for inspecting parts, sourced from various journals and publications.