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Nick K. Jones1,2*, Lucy Rivett1,2*, Chris Workman3, Mark Ferris3, Ashley Shaw1, Cambridge COVID-19 Collaboration1,4, Paul J. Lehner1,4, Rob Howes5, Giles Wright3, Nicholas J. Matheson1,4,6¶, Michael P. Weekes1,7¶1 Cambridge University NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK2 Clinical Microbiology & Public Health Laboratory, Public Health England, Cambridge, UK3 Occupational Health and Wellbeing, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK4 Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK5 Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre and AstraZeneca, Anne Mclaren Building, Cambridge, UK6 NHS Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, UK7 Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK*Joint first authorship¶Joint last authorshipCorrespondence: [email protected] UK has initiated mass COVID-19 immunisation, with healthcare workers (HCWs) given early priority because of the potential for workplace exposure and risk of onward transmission to patients. The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has recommended maximising the number of people vaccinated with first doses at the expense of early booster vaccinations, based on single dose efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 disease.1-3At the time of writing, three COVID-19 vaccines have been granted emergency use authorisation in the UK, including the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech). A vital outstanding question is whether this vaccine prevents or promotes asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, rather than symptomatic COVID-19 disease, because sub-clinical infection following vaccination could continue to drive transmission. This is especially important because many UK HCWs have received this vaccine, and nosocomial COVID-19 infection has been a persistent problem.Through the implementation of a 24 h-turnaround PCR-based comprehensive HCW screening programme at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUHNFT), we previously demonstrated the frequent presence of pauci- and asymptomatic infection amongst HCWs during the UK’s first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.4 Here, we evaluate the effect of first-dose BNT162b2 vaccination on test positivity rates and cycle threshold (Ct) values in the asymptomatic arm of our programme, which now offers weekly screening to all staff.Vaccination of HCWs at CUHNFT began on 8th December 2020, with mass vaccination from 8th January 2021. Here, we analyse data from the two weeks spanning 18thto 31st January 2021, during which: (a) the prevalence of COVID-19 amongst HCWs remained approximately constant; and (b) we screened comparable numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated HCWs. Over this period, 4,408 (week 1) and 4,411 (week 2) PCR tests were performed from individuals reporting well to work. We stratified HCWs <12 days or > 12 days post-vaccination because this was the point at which protection against symptomatic infection began to appear in phase III clinical trial.226/3,252 (0·80%) tests from unvaccinated HCWs were positive (Ct<36), compared to 13/3,535 (0·37%) from HCWs <12 days post-vaccination and 4/1,989 (0·20%) tests from HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination (p=0·023 and p=0·004, respectively; Fisher’s exact test, Figure). This suggests a four-fold decrease in the risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination, compared to unvaccinated HCWs, with an intermediate effect amongst HCWs <12 days post-vaccination.A marked reduction in infections was also seen when analyses were repeated with: (a) inclusion of HCWs testing positive through both the symptomatic and asymptomatic arms of the programme (56/3,282 (1·71%) unvaccinated vs 8/1,997 (0·40%) ≥12 days post-vaccination, 4·3-fold reduction, p=0·00001); (b) inclusion of PCR tests which were positive at the limit of detection (Ct>36, 42/3,268 (1·29%) vs 15/2,000 (0·75%), 1·7-fold reduction, p=0·075); and (c) extension of the period of analysis to include six weeks from December 28th to February 7th 2021 (113/14,083 (0·80%) vs 5/4,872 (0·10%), 7·8-fold reduction, p=1x10-9). In addition, the median Ct value of positive tests showed a non-significant trend towards increase between unvaccinated HCWs and HCWs > 12 days post-vaccination (23·3 to 30·3, Figure), suggesting that samples from vaccinated individuals had lower viral loads.We therefore provide real-world evidence for a high level of protection against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection after a single dose of BNT162b2 vaccine, at a time of predominant transmission of the UK COVID-19 variant of concern 202012/01 (lineage B.1.1.7), and amongst a population with a relatively low frequency of prior infection (7.2% antibody positive).5This work was funded by a Wellcome Senior Clinical Research Fellowship to MPW (108070/Z/15/Z), a Wellcome Principal Research Fellowship to PJL (210688/Z/18/Z), and an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship (MR/P008801/1) and NHSBT workpackage (WPA15-02) to NJM. Funding was also received from Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and the Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. We also acknowledge contributions from all staff at CUHNFT Occupational Health and Wellbeing and the Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre.

Scene flow tracks the three-dimensional (3D) motion of each point in adjacent point clouds. It provides fundamental 3D motion perception for autonomous driving and server robot. Although the Red Green Blue Depth (RGBD) camera or Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) capture discrete 3D points in space, the objects and motions usually are continuous in the macro world. That is, the objects keep themselves consistent as they flow from the current frame to the next frame. Based on this insight, the Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) is utilized to self-learn 3D scene flow with no need for ground truth. The fake point cloud of the second frame is synthesized from the predicted scene flow and the point cloud of the first frame. The adversarial training of the generator and discriminator is realized through synthesizing indistinguishable fake point cloud and discriminating the real point cloud and the synthesized fake point cloud. The experiments on Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute (KITTI) scene flow dataset show that our method realizes promising results without ground truth. Just as human, the proposed method can identify the similar local structures of two adjacent frames even without knowing the ground truth scene flow. Then, the local correspondence can be correctly estimated, and further the scene flow is correctly estimated.   Corresponding author(s) Email: [email protected]

Leukocyte differential test is a widely performed clinical procedure for screening infectious diseases. Existing hematology analyzers require labor-intensive work and a panel of expensive reagents. Here we report an artificial-intelligence enabled reagent-free imaging hematology analyzer (AIRFIHA) modality that can accurately classify subpopulations of leukocytes with minimal sample preparation. AIRFIHA is realized through training a two-step residual neural network using label-free images of isolated leukocytes acquired from a custom-built quantitative phase microscope. By leveraging the rich information contained in quantitative phase images, we not only achieved high accuracy in differentiating B and T lymphocytes, but also classified CD4 and CD8 cells, therefore outperforming the classification accuracy of most current hematology analyzers. We validated the performance of AIRFIHA in a randomly selected test set and cross-validated it across all blood donors. Owing to its easy operation, low cost, and accurate discerning capability of complex leukocyte subpopulations, we envision AIRFIHA is clinically translatable and can also be deployed in resource-limited settings, e.g., during pandemic situations for the rapid screening of infectious diseases.  Corresponding author(s) Email:    [email protected],  [email protected]

Tam Hunt [1], Jonathan SchoolerUniversity of California Santa Barbara Synchronization, harmonization, vibrations, or simply resonance in its most general sense seems to have an integral relationship with consciousness itself. One of the possible “neural correlates of consciousness” in mammalian brains is a combination of gamma, beta and theta synchrony. More broadly, we see similar kinds of resonance patterns in living and non-living structures of many types. What clues can resonance provide about the nature of consciousness more generally? This paper provides an overview of resonating structures in the fields of neuroscience, biology and physics and attempts to coalesce these data into a solution to what we see as the “easy part” of the Hard Problem, which is generally known as the “combination problem” or the “binding problem.” The combination problem asks: how do micro-conscious entities combine into a higher-level macro-consciousness? The proposed solution in the context of mammalian consciousness suggests that a shared resonance is what allows different parts of the brain to achieve a phase transition in the speed and bandwidth of information flows between the constituent parts. This phase transition allows for richer varieties of consciousness to arise, with the character and content of that consciousness in each moment determined by the particular set of constituent neurons. We also offer more general insights into the ontology of consciousness and suggest that consciousness manifests as a relatively smooth continuum of increasing richness in all physical processes, distinguishing our view from emergentist materialism. We refer to this approach as a (general) resonance theory of consciousness and offer some responses to Chalmers’ questions about the different kinds of “combination problem.”  At the heart of the universe is a steady, insistent beat: the sound of cycles in sync…. [T]hese feats of synchrony occur spontaneously, almost as if nature has an eerie yearning for order. Steven Strogatz, Sync: How Order Emerges From Chaos in the Universe, Nature and Daily Life (2003) If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.Nikola Tesla (1942) I.               Introduction Is there an “easy part” and a “hard part” to the Hard Problem of consciousness? In this paper, we suggest that there is. The harder part is arriving at a philosophical position with respect to the relationship of matter and mind. This paper is about the “easy part” of the Hard Problem but we address the “hard part” briefly in this introduction.  We have both arrived, after much deliberation, at the position of panpsychism or panexperientialism (all matter has at least some associated mind/experience and vice versa). This is the view that all things and processes have both mental and physical aspects. Matter and mind are two sides of the same coin.  Panpsychism is one of many possible approaches that addresses the “hard part” of the Hard Problem. We adopt this position for all the reasons various authors have listed (Chalmers 1996, Griffin 1997, Hunt 2011, Goff 2017). This first step is particularly powerful if we adopt the Whiteheadian version of panpsychism (Whitehead 1929).  Reaching a position on this fundamental question of how mind relates to matter must be based on a “weight of plausibility” approach, rather than on definitive evidence, because establishing definitive evidence with respect to the presence of mind/experience is difficult. We must generally rely on examining various “behavioral correlates of consciousness” in judging whether entities other than ourselves are conscious – even with respect to other humans—since the only consciousness we can know with certainty is our own. Positing that matter and mind are two sides of the same coin explains the problem of consciousness insofar as it avoids the problems of emergence because under this approach consciousness doesn’t emerge. Consciousness is, rather, always present, at some level, even in the simplest of processes, but it “complexifies” as matter complexifies, and vice versa. Consciousness starts very simple and becomes more complex and rich under the right conditions, which in our proposed framework rely on resonance mechanisms. Matter and mind are two sides of the coin. Neither is primary; they are coequal.  We acknowledge the challenges of adopting this perspective, but encourage readers to consider the many compelling reasons to consider it that are reviewed elsewhere (Chalmers 1996, Griffin 1998, Hunt 2011, Goff 2017, Schooler, Schooler, & Hunt, 2011; Schooler, 2015).  Taking a position on the overarching ontology is the first step in addressing the Hard Problem. But this leads to the related questions: at what level of organization does consciousness reside in any particular process? Is a rock conscious? A chair? An ant? A bacterium? Or are only the smaller constituents, such as atoms or molecules, of these entities conscious? And if there is some degree of consciousness even in atoms and molecules, as panpsychism suggests (albeit of a very rudimentary nature, an important point to remember), how do these micro-conscious entities combine into the higher-level and obvious consciousness we witness in entities like humans and other mammals?  This set of questions is known as the “combination problem,” another now-classic problem in the philosophy of mind, and is what we describe here as the “easy part” of the Hard Problem. Our characterization of this part of the problem as “easy”[2] is, of course, more than a little tongue in cheek. The authors have discussed frequently with each other what part of the Hard Problem should be labeled the easier part and which the harder part. Regardless of the labels we choose, however, this paper focuses on our suggested solution to the combination problem.  Various solutions to the combination problem have been proposed but none have gained widespread acceptance. This paper further elaborates a proposed solution to the combination problem that we first described in Hunt 2011 and Schooler, Hunt, and Schooler 2011. The proposed solution rests on the idea of resonance, a shared vibratory frequency, which can also be called synchrony or field coherence. We will generally use resonance and “sync,” short for synchrony, interchangeably in this paper. We describe the approach as a general resonance theory of consciousness or just “general resonance theory” (GRT). GRT is a field theory of consciousness wherein the various specific fields associated with matter and energy are the seat of conscious awareness.  A summary of our approach appears in Appendix 1.  All things in our universe are constantly in motion, in process. Even objects that appear to be stationary are in fact vibrating, oscillating, resonating, at specific frequencies. So all things are actually processes. Resonance is a specific type of motion, characterized by synchronized oscillation between two states.  An interesting phenomenon occurs when different vibrating processes come into proximity: they will often start vibrating together at the same frequency. They “sync up,” sometimes in ways that can seem mysterious, and allow for richer and faster information and energy flows (Figure 1 offers a schematic). Examining this phenomenon leads to potentially deep insights about the nature of consciousness in both the human/mammalian context but also at a deeper ontological level.

Cannabis sativa is an extraordinarily versatile species. Hemp and its cousin marijuana, both C. sativa, have been used for millennia as a source of fibre, oil and for medicinal, spiritual and recreational purposes. Because the consumption of Cannabis can have psychoactive effects, the plant has been widely banned throughout the last century. In the past decade, evidence of its medicinal properties did lead to the relaxation of legislation in many countries around the world. Consequently, the genetics and development of Cannabis as well as Cannabis-derived products are the subject of renewed attention.Here, we review the biology of C. sativa, including recent insights from taxonomy, morphology and genomics, with an emphasis on the genetics of cannabinoid synthesis. Because the female Cannabis flower is of special interest as the site of cannabinoid synthesis, we explore flower development, flowering time well as the species’ unique sex determination system in detail. Furthermore, we outline the tremendous medicinal, engineering, and environmental opportunities that Cannabis bears. Together, the picture emerges that our understanding of Cannabis biology currently progresses at an unusual speed. A future challenge will be to preserve the multi-purpose nature of Cannabis, and to harness its medicinal properties and sustainability advantages simultaneously.

Quantum chemistry must evolve if it wants to fully leverage the benefits of the internet age, where the world wide web offers a vast tapestry of tools that enable users to communicate and interact with complex data at the speed and convenience of a button press. The Open Chemistry project has developed an open source framework that offers an end-to-end solution for producing, sharing, and visualizing quantum chemical data interactively on the web using an array of modern tools and approaches. These tools build on some of the best open source community projects such as Jupyter for interactive online notebooks, coupled with 3D accelerated visualization, state-of-the-art computational chemistry codes including NWChem and Psi4 and emerging machine learning and data mining tools such as ChemML and ANI. They offer flexible formats to import and export data, along with approaches to compare computational and experimental data.

This paper responds to one by Graham Martin and colleagues, who offered a critique of my previous publications on masks for the lay public in the Covid-19 pandemic. I address their charges that my co-authors and I had misapplied the precautionary principle; drawn conclusions that were not supported by empirical research; and failed to take account of potential harms. But before that, I remind Martin et al that the evidence on mask wearing goes beyond the contested trials and observational studies they place centre stage. I set out some key findings from basic science, epidemiology, mathematical modelling, case studies and natural experiments, and use this rich and diverse body of evidence as the backdrop for my rebuttal of their narrowly-framed objections. I challenge my critics’ apparent assumption that a particular kind of systematic review should be valorised over narrative and real-world evidence, since stories are crucial to both our scientific understanding and our moral imagination. I conclude by thanking my academic adversaries for the intellectual sparring match, but exhort them to remember our professional accountability to a society in crisis. It is time to lay straw men to rest and engage, scientifically and morally, with the dreadful tragedy that is unfolding across the world.

This Supporting information includes interactive plots, videos, and data captured while performing evaluation and validation experiments for our paper. 

The construct of wellbeing has been criticised as a neoliberal construction of western individualism that ignores wider systemic issues including increasing burden of chronic disease, widening inequality, concerns over environmental degradation and anthropogenic climate change. While these criticisms overlook recent developments, there remains a need for biopsychosocial models that extend theoretical grounding beyond individual wellbeing, incorporating overlapping contextual issues relating to community and environment. Our first GENIAL model \cite{Kemp_2017} provided a more expansive view of pathways to longevity in the context of individual health and wellbeing, emphasising bidirectional links to positive social ties and the impact of sociocultural factors. In this paper, we build on these ideas and propose GENIAL 2.0, focusing on intersecting individual-community-environmental contributions to health and wellbeing, and laying an evidence-based, theoretical framework on which future research and innovative therapeutic innovations could be based. We suggest that our transdisciplinary model of wellbeing - focusing on individual, community and environmental contributions to personal wellbeing - will help to move the research field forward. In reconceptualising wellbeing, GENIAL 2.0 bridges the gap between psychological science and population health health systems, and presents opportunities for enhancing the health and wellbeing of people living with chronic conditions. Implications for future generations including the very survival of our species are discussed.  

Floral plantings are promoted to foster ecological intensification of agriculture through provisioning of ecosystem services. However, a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of different floral plantings, their characteristics and consequences for crop yield across global regions is lacking. Here we quantified the impacts of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control and pollination services in adjacent crops using a global dataset of 529 sites. Flower strips, but not hedgerows, enhanced pest control services in adjacent fields by 16% on average. However, effects on crop pollination and yield were more variable. Our synthesis identifies several important drivers of variability in effectiveness of plantings: pollination services declined exponentially with distance from plantings, and perennial and older flower strips with higher flowering plant diversity enhanced pollination more effectively. These findings provide promising pathways to optimize floral plantings to more effectively contribute to ecosystem service delivery and ecological intensification of agriculture in the future.

Researchers' ability to accurately screen fossil and subfossil specimens for preservation of DNA and protein sequences remains limited. Thermal exposure and geologic age are usable proxies for sequence preservation on a broad scale but are of nominal use for specimens of similar depositional environments. Cell and tissue biomolecular histology is thus proposed as a novel proxy for determining sequence preservation potential of ancient specimens with improved accuracy. Biomolecular histology as a proxy is hypothesized to elucidate why fossils/subfossils of some depositional environments preserve sequences while others do not and to facilitate selection of ancient specimens for use in molecular studies.

IntroductionConsistent with World Health Organization (WHO) advice [1], UK Infection Protection Control guidance recommends that healthcare workers (HCWs) caring for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) should use fluid resistant surgical masks type IIR (FRSMs) as respiratory protective equipment (RPE), unless aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) are being undertaken or are likely, when a filtering face piece 3 (FFP3) respirator should be used [2]. In a recent update, an FFP3 respirator is recommended if “an unacceptable risk of transmission remains following rigorous application of the hierarchy of control” [3]. Conversely, guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that HCWs caring for patients with COVID-19 should use an N95 or higher level respirator [4]. WHO guidance suggests that a respirator, such as FFP3, may be used for HCWs in the absence of AGPs if availability or cost is not an issue [1].A recent systematic review undertaken for PHE concluded that: “patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection who are breathing, talking or coughing generate both respiratory droplets and aerosols, but FRSM (and where required, eye protection) are considered to provide adequate staff protection” [5]. Nevertheless, FFP3 respirators are more effective in preventing aerosol transmission than FRSMs, and observational data suggests that they may improve protection for HCWs [6]. It has therefore been suggested that respirators should be considered as a means of affording the best available protection [7], and some organisations have decided to provide FFP3 (or equivalent) respirators to HCWs caring for COVID-19 patients, despite a lack of mandate from local or national guidelines [8].Data from the HCW testing programme at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUHNFT) during the first wave of the UK severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic indicated a higher incidence of infection amongst HCWs caring for patients with COVID-19, compared with those who did not [9]. Subsequent studies have confirmed this observation [10, 11]. This disparity persisted at CUHNFT in December 2020, despite control measures consistent with PHE guidance and audits indicating good compliance. The CUHNFT infection control committee therefore implemented a change of RPE for staff on “red” (COVID-19) wards from FRSMs to FFP3 respirators. In this study, we analyse the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCWs before and after this transition.

“Operational Renaissance: Harnessing AI for Enhanced Business Efficacy” is a detailed exploration of Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) transformative impact on business operations. It particularly focuses on three domains: Supply Chain Management, Fraud Detection, and the Human-AI workforce relationship. The paper presents a thorough analysis of how AI is revolutionizing supply chain logistics, enhancing fraud detection methods, and reshaping the dynamics between humans and AI in the workplace. It emphasizes AI’s role in predictive analytics, real-time monitoring, and collaborative robotics, showcasing the technology as a pivotal element in modern business strategy and operations.

“Strategic Alchemy: The Role of AI in Transforming Business Decision-Making” is a comprehensive research paper that delves into the revolutionary impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on strategic management and business decision-making processes. It covers a broad range of topics including the evolution of AI, its integration into business strategies, sector-specific impacts, real-world applications, and the inherent challenges and ethical considerations of incorporating AI into business. The paper emphasizes AI’s significant role in transforming industries and decision-making paradigms, advocating for ethical transparency, continuous learning, and collaboration in the adoption of AI-driven strategies. It provides a detailed and enlightening overview of AI’s pervasive influence and transformative potential in contemporary business landscapes.Â

The dynamics of smoke, fire, and toxic gases inside a building is complex and difficult to predict. Models have been used to analyze and develop efficient evacuation protocols for fire-spread evacuation situations. In this study, an integrated model that includes fire spread, evacuation agent, and evacuation guidance signage models, is developed as an efficient control mechanism for a dynamically distributed evacuation guidance system. This mechanism is based on Tsurushimaâ\euro™s distributed algorithm, which does not assume any central control and only requires local information in providing efficient evacuation guidance, thereby minimizing total evacuation time while directing evacuees away from hazards. The parameters of the mechanism were calibrated to mitigate the occurrence of low-probability catastrophic events, which is crucial in the development of evacuation guidance protocols.

This research study is an exploration of the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques towards optimizing configured price quote (CPQ) software systems that are tailored towards quoting renewable energy products. The complexities evident within such systems are critical in that they pose some challenges related to the accurate configuration and pricing of renewable energy solutions. Through harnessing AI and ML capability, this analysis provides an analysis of effectiveness in enhancing the efficiency, accuracy, and customization capabilities of CPQ systems for renewable energy products. Through advanced algorithms and predictive modeling, this research paper discusses ways of streamlining the quoting process, improving the quote accuracy, and expediting decision-making. This will lead to the ultimate advancement of the renewable energy sector quoting efficiency.

The objective of this prospective cohort study was to assess the marginal gain in diagnostic accuracy when physical examination and interpretation of technological tests are added to history taking. In this study, 258 patients were assessed consecutively by two physicians at two Acute Medical Units (AMU) and one emergency department (ED) at three teaching hospitals. After talking to each patient, differential diagnoses were listed, with confidence scores. These lists were modified after each subsequent station of information gathering, that is, physical examination and interpretation of technological tests. A diagnosis was defined as accurate if at least one differential was confirmed at the subsequent encounter with a healthcare provider. The observation period was 4.2 years. Traditional regression analysis found that physician inexperience predicted error. The hazard curve for diagnostic error for the lower experience condition initially decreased but after 3.3 years increased steadily. The hazard curve for the higher experience condition continued to decrease with time, beyond 4 years. Regression analysis did not find other predictors of diagnostic error. However, reliability analysis found patient comorbidity combined with diagnoses that remained unchanged after history taking were factors. Interpretation of the errors using the principles of heuristics, that is, cognitive biases that putatively caused the errors, gave contradictory explanations. Applying reliability analysis provided useful information when regression analysis failed to detect explanatory factors for diagnostic errors. Reliability analysis demonstrates the limited utility of explaining diagnostic error because of cognitive biases.

Electrical machines with eccentrically positioned rotors experience strong unbalanced magnetic pull directed towards the narrowest air gap. This unbalanced force increases the rotor eccentricity and degrades machine performance. Accurate computation and reduction of electromagnetic force are required for controlling electromagnetic vibration, and this can be achieved by employing a bridge-configured winding scheme. This paper presents a two-dimensional bridge configured permanent magnet synchronous machine model to investigates the force compensating strategy under different eccentricity of PMSM. Furthermore, the force components under rotor eccentricity are compared with Bridge ON and Bridge OFF conditions. The connection of bridge points allows the different currents to flow in different coil groups, reducing the unbalanced magnetic pull. The modelling and simulation of PMSM have been done using time-stepping finite element method. The finding indicates that connecting the bridge points can significantly reduce the amplitude of the electromagnetic force components induced by different rotor eccentricities.

Sixth-generation wireless technology (6G) introduces a paradigm shift and fundamental transformation of digital wireless connectivity by converging pillars of softwarization, virtualization, and wireless networks. Terahertz (THz) communication technologies are predicted to become more significant in 6G applications as the requirement for bandwidth grows and wireless cell sizes shrink. As a result, 6G will be able to deal with and manage numerous devices and services requiring enhanced spectral throughput and efficiently work with high interference levels. This convergence highlights the increased threat surface of 6G networks and the potentially severe impacts of sophisticated cyber incidents. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of connected devices and provided services will generate a huge amount of data to be processed and managed efficiently. Quantum computing (QC) can efficiently solve several 6G computationally hard problems with a quadratic speedup and provide adaptive techniques for controlling the current and future significant security threats of the 6G network. This article will discuss the role of various QC components on 6G and explore the opportunities and challenges to achieving such transformation.

In this study, we explored the potential of seventeen quantitative ultrasound parameters (radiofrequency-based) in assessing the progressive loss of collagen and proteoglycans (mimicking an osteoarthritis condition) in ex-vivo bovine cartilage samples. The majority of the analyzed metrics showed significant changes as the degradation progressed due to trypsin and collagenase treatment. For the first time, we employed a combination of these ultrasound parameters to create machine learning models for the automated detection of a model of healthy and degraded cartilage samples. A logistic regression model exhibited a remarkable capability of distinguishing between healthy and collagenase-treated cartilage, achieving accuracy and an area under the curve values of 93% and 90%, respectively. When comparing healthy and trypsin-treated cartilage, an ensemble model yielded accuracy and an area under the curve values of 83% and 75%, respectively. Histological and mechanical analyses further confirmed the ultrasound findings, as collagenase had more pronounced impact on both mechanical and histological properties compared to trypsin. These metrics were obtained using an ultrasound probe, with a transmission frequency of 15 MHz, typically used for the diagnosis of musculoskeletal diseases. As a perspective, the proposed quantitative ultrasound assessment could become a new standard for monitoring cartilage health, aiding in the early detection of cartilage pathologies and enabling prompt interventions.

In Reinforcement Learning (RL), Monte Carlo methods teach the agents how to make decisions based on the principle of averaging the sample returns. Monte Carlo Reinforcement Learning (MCRL) methods interact with an environment and estimate the value functions of states based on experiences gained from those interactions. Monte Carlo RL methods need to collect many full trajectories (sequences of states, actions, and rewards) for accurate estimation of value functions and for achieving convergence. Even if the state space of the Reinforcement Learning problem is moderately large, the number of trajectories required to estimate value functions accurately can become significantly large. Since the length of each trajectory increases as well with the increase in the size of the state space, collecting and processing each trajectory also becomes computationally expensive and time-consuming. To address this problem, in this work, we proposed a new methodology for making Monte Carlo RL methods more efficient and converge faster by accelerating the learning process. The proposed methodology performs state space abstraction by clustering the state space, which causes a significant reduction in the lengths of trajectories. A rough clustering-based approach is considered for the abstraction of state space. An agent is allowed to explore the environment and collect the trajectories for some number of episodes. Based on the collected trajectories, the preliminary topological structure of the environment is obtained and initial estimates of state value functions are calculated. Using the obtained preliminary topological structure, available estimates of state value functions, group average hierarchical agglomerative clustering is performed and the state space is divided into clusters of states. The initial estimates of state value functions and preliminary topological structure are again used for the reshuffling of states in clustered state space via rough clustering. By performing several iterations of rough clustering, better-quality clusters of states are obtained. Options (macro-actions) for traversing between different clusters of the state space are learnt using dynamic programming techniques. Once the options are learnt, at each time step of Monte Carlo learning, the agent can choose between a primitive action or an option if available. These options significantly accelerate the learning process. Options reduce the lengths of trajectories. Trajectory length reduction results in faster convergence of Monte Carlo methods, and the same is shown with the support of experimental results in this paper.

Recent trends in emerging applications have motivated researchers to design advanced wireless systems to meet their evolving requirements. These emerging applications include digital healthcare, intelligent transportation systems, Industry 5.0, and more. To address the evolving requirements, leveraging a metaverse to empower $6$G wireless systems is a viable solution. A metaverse-empowered $6$G wireless system can offer numerous benefits, but it may also be vulnerable to a wide variety of security attacks. In this survey, we discuss potential security attacks in metaverse-empowered $6$G wireless systems. We introduce an architecture designed to enhance security within metaverse-empowered $6$G wireless systems. This architecture comprises two key spaces: the meta space and the physical space. We present physical space attacks and outline effective solutions to secure metaverse-empowered $6$G wireless systems. We provide invaluable insights and discussions on meta space attacks, along with promising solutions. Finally, we discuss open challenges and provide future recommendations.

A Magnetic field Aided Inertial Navigation System (MAINS) for indoor navigation is proposed in this paper. MAINS leverages an array of magnetometers to measure spatial variations in the magnetic field, which are then used to estimate the displacement and orientation changes of the system, thereby aiding the inertial navigation system (INS). Experiments show that MAINS significantly outperforms the stand-alone INS, demonstrating a remarkable two orders of magnitude reduction in position error. Furthermore, when compared to the state-of-the-art magnetic-field-aided navigation approach, the proposed method exhibits slightly improved horizontal position accuracy. On the other hand, it has noticeably larger vertical error on datasets with large magnetic field variations. However, one of the main advantages of MAINS compared to the state-of-the-art is that it enables flexible sensor configurations. The experimental results show that the position error after 2 minutes of navigation in most cases is less than 3 meters when using an array of 30 magnetometers. Thus, the proposed navigation solution has the potential to solve one of the key challenges faced with current magnetic-field simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) solutions â\euro” the very limited allowable length of the exploration phase during which unvisited areas are mapped.

The main goal of Design for Testability (DFT) is to offer a way to test each node in the design (Netlist) for different kinds of defects in the chip. These nodes that are to be checked by using the intended number of patterns, the more thoroughly the design has been tested. Every node in the architecture must be visible(observable) and controlled for this to be achievable. These two concepts may be thought of as the cornerstones of DFT, which must be adhered to in order to get the most test coverage with the fewest possible patterns. This work is applied in the field of IC manufacturing before IC gets fabricated. The parameters like multi-voltages and temperature of IC will be determined with the help of Scan Insertion, ATPG pattern generation, EDT test compression and simulation using mentor graphics tool. In this script we are mainly concentrated on the compression process of the data volume and test time by generating automatic test patterns according to it and simulatingÂ