Texas A&M University

Recent theoretical studies have suggested the feasibility of using a non-insulated, non-transposed REBCO tape-stack cable in a high-field dipole winding. Variation in magnetic field across the tape-stack induces a redistribution of current as the cable current is increased. As each tape approaches its critical current, the dynamic rise in tape resistance drives currents to redistribute preventing premature quench. A lumped network circuit model coupled with magnetic field simulation has been used to predict the dynamics. A small-scale model dipole has been designed to experimentally study current redistribution in a model dipole containing a racetrack tape-stack REBCO winding. The model dipole will operate at liquid nitrogen temperature with a central field of ∼0.25 T. The predicted dynamics for current redistribution are similar to what is expected in the REBCO insert winding for a high-field hybrid dipole.

In addition to lifting up the body during gait, human legs provide stabilizing torques that can be modeled as a spring-damper mechanical impedance. While powered prosthetic leg actuators can also imitate spring-damper behaviors, the rendered impedance can be quite different from the desired impedance, stemming from unmodeled transmission characteristics ( e.g. , sliding friction, bearing damping, gear inefficiency, etc.). Moreover, for powered prostheses to mimic human joint impedance, they will need actuators that accurately render a wide range of mechanical impedances in a variety of ground contact conditions, including nearly free-swinging behavior in swing phase and stiff spring-like behavior in stance phase. For series-elastic prosthetic leg actuators, as in Open-Source Leg (OSL), these sudden output inertia changes present a challenge for traditional cascaded impedance control. In this paper we propose a solution based on disturbance observers (DOBs) and full-state feedback (FSF) impedance control. The DOB serves to mask transmission imperfections, while the FSF controller (via pole-zero placement) specifies the actuator impedance that couples to the uncertain joint inertia. We validate our control framework on an OSL-like two-actuator dynamometry testbed.

Mares enrolled in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) programs are often treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), particularly phenylbutazone (Bute), due to chronic lameness. The current study was performed to determine the effect of Bute administration on the developmental competence of in vitro-matured equine oocytes subjected to Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). In a Preliminary Study, immature cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) recovered by post-mortem ovary harvested from two healthy mares (n = 2) treated for 10 days with Bute (4.4 mg/kg, PO, BID), and four non-treated healthy mares (n = 4), were matured in vitro and subjected to Piezo-driven ICSI. Lower oocyte in vitro maturation [Bute: 25% (3/12) vs. Control: 61% (28/46)] and blastocyst rates [Bute: 0% (0/12) vs. Control: 18% (5/28)] were observed in the Bute-treated when compared to the Control mares (P < 0.05). In the Main Experiment, a group of healthy mares (n = 9) received a daily dose of Bute (4.4 mg/kg, orally, SID) for 10 days. A control group of mares (n = 10) was treated with an equal volume of placebo. Mares in both groups were subjected to ultrasound-guided transvaginal oocyte aspiration (TVA) on days 3, 33, and 77 following the last dose of Bute (PT). Recovered COCs from both mare groups were matured in vitro and subjected to Piezo-driven ICSI. By day-3 PT, oocyte in vitro maturation rate was similar between mare groups [Bute: 65% (36/55) vs. Control: 67% (78/116); P > 0.05], while oocyte recovery [Bute: 53% (55/103) vs. Control: 70% (116/166)], cleavage [Bute: 31% (11/36) vs. Control: 62% (48/78)] and blastocyst rates [Bute: [0%] (0/36) vs. Control: 28% (22/78)] were significantly different (P < 0.05). By day 33 PT and 77 PT, differences on oocyte recovery, in vitro maturation, cleavage, and blastocyst rates were not observed between mare groups. In summary, the administration of Bute for 10 consecutive days (4.4 mg/kg, PO, SID, or BID) is associated with a decrease in the ability of immature equine oocytes to undergo in vitro-maturation (Preliminary Study) and develop to the blastocyst stage following ICSI (Preliminary Study and Main Experiment). This negative effect appeared to be transient, as 30- and 77-days post-treatment, no differences on in vitro maturation, cleavage or blastocyst rates were observed.

Scenario approach is an effective data-driven method for solving chance-constrained optimization while ensuring desired risk guarantees with a finite number of samples. Crucial challenges in deploying this technique in the real world arise due to blacknon-stationarity environments and the absence of appropriate risk-tuning models tailored for the desired application. In this paper, we focus on designing efficient scenario generation schemes for economic dispatch in power systems. We propose a novel scenario generation method based on filtering scenarios using ambient wind conditions. These filtered scenarios are deployed incrementally in order to meet desired risk levels while using minimum resources. In order to study the performance of the proposed scheme, we illustrate the procedure on case studies performed for both 24-bus and 118-bus systems with real-world wind power forecasting data. Numerical results suggest that the proposed filter-and-increment scenario generation model leads to a precise and efficient solution for the chance-constrained economic dispatch problem.

As natural disasters and abnormal weather phenomena continue to cause damage to power systems, resilience has become a critical characteristic for future power grids. While microgrids (MGs) have been studied as a potential source of resilience, previous research has mainly focused on operational strategies to improve the resilience of existing MGs. This study proposes a planning approach for a gas-electric-based integrated multi-energy system that includes a microgrid to enhance the power grid's resilience against serious failures. The approach includes an operational process to achieve a specific resiliency level at the lower level, and a bi-level optimization method that considers cost effects at the upper level. The proposed method uses mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) to establish the operational process based on the required resilience level and determine the optimal location for each asset in the microgrid. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated using the IEEE 33 Bus test system in various severe failure scenarios. The results demonstrate that the proposed planning approach can effectively enhance the resilience of power grids through the integration of microgrids, and the bi-level optimization method can provide an optimal solution while considering the cost-effectiveness of the microgrid.

This paper presents TULIP, a new architecture for a variable precision Quantized Neural Network (QNN) inference. It is designed with the goal of maximizing energy efficiency per classification. TULIP is constructed by arranging a collection of unique processing elements (TULIP-PEs) in a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) fashion. Each TULIP-PE contains binary neurons that are interconnected using multiplexers. Each neuron also has a small dedicated local register connected to it. The binary neurons are implemented as standard cells and used for implementing threshold functions, i.e., an inner-product and thresholding operation on its binary inputs. The neurons can be reconfigured with a single change in the control signals to implement all the standard operations used in a QNN. This paper presents novel algorithms for implementing the operations of a QNN on the TULIP-PEs in the form of a schedule of threshold functions. TULIP was implemented as an ASIC in TSMC 40nm-LP technology. A QNN accelerator that employs a conventional MAC-based arithmetic processor was also implemented in the same technology to provide a fair comparison. The results show that TULIP is 30-50X more energy-efficient than an equivalent design, without any penalty in performance, area, or accuracy. Furthermore, TULIP achieves these improvements without using traditional techniques such as voltage scaling or approximate computing. Finally, the paper also demonstrates how the run-time trade-off between accuracy and energy efficiency is done on the TULIP architecture.

There is a continuing interest in the relationship between sport and nature. As a new field, sport ecology explores the impact sport has on the natural environment and how sport organizations and individuals can promote sustainability. However, a critical element is still missing in the sport ecology discourse—the link between organizations’ sustainability efforts and their value co-creation processes. The circular economy can provide this link by decoupling the value co-creation of sport business models from their environmental impact and resource depletion. Based on an extensive literature review, this study provides a new theoretically derived typology of circular sport business models, including comprehensive reasoning about sustainable value co-creation processes in the sport industry. It explains how sport managers of all three sectors—for-profit, public, and nonprofit—can transition toward more sustainable and circular business practices and offer integrative guidelines for future research.

Solar energy from solar photovoltaics (PV) has become a rapidly growing sustainable energy source around the world. However, maintaining PV system efficiency remains a challenging problem. In desert regions, soiling is one of the most significant environmental factors that can cause PV system loss. In our early work, a PV soiling loss estimation method based on a single-image feature and in-lab testing was developed. In this study, we extend our previous work by incorporating various image features in a machine-learning regression model to predict PV soiling loss. The new model is trained and tested using PV performance data and RAW panel images collected in the field over several months, covering real-time soiling loss levels up to about 28%. There are 479 RAW images with 21 unique soiling loss levels, which were taken under different camera settings. The results show that the new method can reliably predict the soiling loss when the images are taken under similar settings as the training data ( R -squared value of 0.98 and normalized RMSE is 0.01 for the training dataset).

Predicting human motion plays a crucial role in ensuring a safe and effective human-robot close collaboration in intelligent remanufacturing systems of the future. Existing works can be categorized into two groups: those focusing on accuracy, predicting a single future motion, and those generating diverse predictions based on observations. The former group fails to address the uncertainty and multi-modal nature of human motion, while the latter group often produces motion sequences that deviate too far from the ground truth or become unrealistic within historical contexts. To tackle these issues, we propose TransFusion, an innovative and practical diffusion-based model for 3D human motion prediction which can generate samples that are more likely to happen while maintaining a certain level of diversity. Our model leverages Transformer as the backbone with long skip connections between shallow and deep layers. Additionally, we employ the discrete cosine transform to model motion sequences in the frequency space, thereby improving performance. In contrast to prior diffusion-based models that utilize extra modules like cross-attention and adaptive layer normalization to condition the prediction on past observed motion, we treat all inputs, including conditions, as tokens to create a more practical and effective model compared to existing approaches. Extensive experimental studies are conducted on benchmark datasets to validate the effectiveness of our human motion prediction model. The project page is available at https://github.com/sibotian96/TransFusion .

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a highly recalcitrant organic pollutant, and its bioaccumulation severely endangers human health. While various methods are developed for PFOA removal, the targeted design of adsorbents with high efficiency and reusability remains largely unexplored. Here the rational design and synthesis of two novel zirconium‐based metal‒organic frameworks (MOFs) bearing free ortho‐hydroxy sites, namely noninterpenetrated PCN‐1001 and twofold interpenetrated PCN‐1002, are presented. Single crystal analysis of the pure ligand reveals that intramolecular hydrogen bonding plays a pivotal role in directing the formation of MOFs with free hydroxy groups. Furthermore, the transformation from PCN‐1001 to PCN‐1002 is realized. Compared to PCN‐1001, PCN‐1002 displays higher chemical stability due to interpenetration, thereby demonstrating an exceptional PFOA adsorption capacity of up to 632 mg g⁻¹ (1.53 mmol g⁻¹), which is comparable to the reported record values. Moreover, PCN‐1002 shows rapid kinetics, high selectivity, and long‐life cycles in PFOA removal tests. Solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance results and density functional theory calculations reveal that multiple hydrogen bonds between the free ortho‐hydroxy sites and PFOA, along with Lewis acid‐base interaction, work collaboratively to enhance PFOA adsorption.

A piezoelectric tube actuator has a number of segments or electrodes. The induced voltage and the piezoelectric voltage, two easy‐to‐measure electrical signals in piezoelectric tubes, have been used in position estimation of these actuators since 2006 and 1982. However, since introduction, the induced voltage has never been compared with the piezoelectric voltage for piezoelectric tubes’ position estimation. In addition, only linear models have been used to present the relationship between the induced voltage and the position of piezoelectric tubes. In other words, in the literature, it has been practically assumed that (1) the relationship between the induced voltage and the position is linear, and (2) the induced voltage can estimate the position more accurately compared to the piezoelectric voltage. This article assesses and nullifies both these assumptions. In this research, with the use of the experimental data, both aforementioned voltage signals were mapped into the position through linear and nonlinear models. It was shown that the position can be estimated less accurately with the induced voltage compared to the piezoelectric voltage, and the relationship of the position with the induced voltage presents higher and non‐negligible nonlinearity compared to the one with the piezoelectric voltage.

The entropy design paradigm is yielding advanced materials for many societally crucial applications. While most work focuses on single-phase materials, there are vast opportunities to integrate entropy-designed materials into novel composites. Here we develop a nanocomposite design strategy using exsolution-self-assembly to fabricate Cu nanorods in an entropy-stabilized oxide. Atomic-scale electron probes and energetic calculations elucidate how exsolution-self-assembly is tunable using knowledge of point defect interactions. We leverage this to then demonstrate a high-throughput synthesis and screening strategy to fabricate a library of Cu-ESO tandem CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) electrodes. Electrocatalytic mapping and localized physicochemical analyses reveal structure-property relationships between local Cu valence and CO2RR activity, identifying operating potentials and electrode surface chemistries that favor CO2RR over competitive hydrogen evolution. This high-throughput synthesis-screening approach can accelerate development of advanced electrocatalysts and nanocomposite materials for many applications given its compatibility with entropy-designed materials and physical vapor deposition at/near silicon volume manufacturing temperatures.

Background Gallbladder disease in people is frequently associated with disorders of lipid metabolism and metabolic syndrome. A recently emergent gallbladder disease of dogs, referred to as mucocele formation, is characterized by secretion of abnormal mucus by the gallbladder epithelium and is similarly associated with hyperlipidemia, endocrinopathy, and metabolic dysfunction. The cause of gallbladder mucocele formation in dogs is unknown. Methods A prospective case-controlled study was conducted to gain insight into disease pathogenesis by characterization of plasma lipid abnormalities in 18 dogs with gallbladder mucocele formation and 18 age and breed matched control dogs using direct infusion mass spectrometry for complex plasma lipid analysis. This analysis was complemented by histochemical and ultrastructural examination of gallbladder mucosa from dogs with gallbladder mucocele formation and control dogs for evidence of altered lipid homeostasis of the gallbladder epithelium. Results Gallbladder mucocele formation in dogs carried a unique lipidomic signature of increased lipogenesis impacting 50% of lipid classes, 36% of esterified fatty acid species, and 11% of complex lipid species. Broad enrichment of complex lipids with palmitoleic acid (16:1) and decreased abundance within complex lipids of presumptive omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic (20:5) and docosahexaenoic (22:6) was significant. Severe lipidosis of gallbladder epithelium pinpoints the gallbladder as involved causally or consequently in abnormal lipid metabolism. Conclusion Our study supports a primary increase in lipogenesis in dogs with mucocele formation and abnormal gallbladder lipid metabolism in disease pathogenesis.

Objective To systematically review evidence and devise treatment recommendations for basic life support (BLS) in dogs and cats and to identify critical knowledge gaps. Design Standardized, systematic evaluation of literature pertinent to BLS following Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. Prioritized questions were each reviewed by 2 Evidence Evaluators, and findings were reconciled by BLS Domain Chairs and Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER) Co‐Chairs to arrive at treatment recommendations commensurate to quality of evidence, risk to benefit relationship, and clinical feasibility. This process was implemented using an Evidence Profile Worksheet for each question that included an introduction, consensus on science, treatment recommendations, justification for these recommendations, and important knowledge gaps. A draft of these worksheets was distributed to veterinary professionals for comment for 4 weeks prior to finalization. Setting Transdisciplinary, international collaboration in university, specialty, and emergency practice. Results Twenty questions regarding animal position, chest compression point and technique, ventilation strategies, as well as the duration of CPR cycles and chest compression pauses were examined, and 32 treatment recommendations were formulated. Out of these, 25 addressed chest compressions and 7 informed ventilation during CPR. The recommendations were founded predominantly on very low quality of evidence and expert opinion. These new treatment recommendations continue to emphasize the critical importance of high‐quality, uninterrupted chest compressions, with a modification suggested for the chest compression technique in wide‐chested dogs. When intubation is not possible, bag–mask ventilation using a tight‐fitting facemask with oxygen supplementation is recommended rather than mouth‐to‐nose ventilation. Conclusions These updated RECOVER BLS treatment recommendations emphasize continuous chest compressions, conformation‐specific chest compression techniques, and ventilation for all animals. Very low quality of evidence due to absence of clinical data in dogs and cats consistently compromised the certainty of recommendations, emphasizing the need for more veterinary research in this area.

Objective To systematically review evidence on and devise treatment recommendations for patient monitoring before, during, and following CPR in dogs and cats, and to identify critical knowledge gaps. Design Standardized, systematic evaluation of literature pertinent to peri‐CPR monitoring following Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. Prioritized questions were each reviewed by Evidence Evaluators, and findings were reconciled by Monitoring Domain Chairs and Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER) Co‐Chairs to arrive at treatment recommendations commensurate to quality of evidence, risk:benefit relationship, and clinical feasibility. This process was implemented using an Evidence Profile Worksheet for each question that included an introduction, consensus on science, treatment recommendations, justification for these recommendations, and important knowledge gaps. A draft of these worksheets was distributed to veterinary professionals for comment for 4 weeks prior to finalization. Setting Transdisciplinary, international collaboration in university, specialty, and emergency practice. Results Thirteen questions pertaining to hemodynamic, respiratory, and metabolic monitoring practices for identification of cardiopulmonary arrest, quality of CPR, and postcardiac arrest care were examined, and 24 treatment recommendations were formulated. Of these, 5 recommendations pertained to aspects of end‐tidal CO2 (ETco2) measurement. The recommendations were founded predominantly on very low quality of evidence, with some based on expert opinion. Conclusions The Monitoring Domain authors continue to support initiation of chest compressions without pulse palpation. We recommend multimodal monitoring of patients at risk of cardiopulmonary arrest, at risk of re‐arrest, or under general anesthesia. This report highlights the utility of ETco2 monitoring to verify correct intubation, identify return of spontaneous circulation, evaluate quality of CPR, and guide basic life support measures. Treatment recommendations further suggest intra‐arrest evaluation of electrolytes (ie, potassium and calcium), as these may inform outcome‐relevant interventions.

Multi-differential measurements of dilepton spectra serve as a unique tool to characterize the properties of matter in the interior of the hot and dense fireball created in heavy-ion collisions. An important property of virtual photons is their spin polarization defined in the rest frame of the virtual photon with respect to a chosen quantization axis. Microscopic calculations of in-medium electromagnetic spectral functions have mostly focused on integrated yields which are proportional to the sum of the longitudinal and transverse components of the virtual photon’s self-energy, while photon polarization results from the difference of these components. As the processes that drive the medium effects in the spectral function change with invariant mass and momentum, this becomes a powerful tool for studying the medium composition. We present the polarization observables of thermal virtual photons as a function of mass and momentum and confront the results with existing measurements from HADES and NA60.

The thermodynamic T-matrix approach is used to study Wilson line correlators (WLCs) for a static quark-antiquark pair in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Selfconsistent results that incorporate constraints from the QGP equation of state can approximately reproduce WLCs computed in 2+1-flavor lattice-QCD (lQCD), provided the input potential exhibits less screening than in previous studies. Utilizing the updated potential to calculate pertinent heavylight T-matrices we evaluate thermal relaxation rates of heavy quarks in the QGP. We find a more pronounced temperature dependence for low-momentum quarks than in our previous results (with larger screening), which turns into a weaker temperature dependence of the (temperature-scaled) spatial diffusion coefficient, in fair agreement with the most recent lQCD data.

The proper treatment of hadronic resonances plays an important role for many aspects of heavy ion collisions. We expect this to be the case also for hadronization, due to the large degeneracies of excited states, and the abundant production of hadrons from their decays. We show how a comprehensive treatment of excited meson states can be incorporated into quark recombination, and in extension, into Hybrid Hadronization. We discuss in detail the quantum mechanics of forming excited states, utilizing the Wigner distribution functions of angular momentum eigenstates of isotropic 3-D harmonic oscillators. We describe how resonance decays can be handled, based on a set of minimal assumptions, by creating an extension of hadron decays in PYTHIA 8. Finally, we present a study of hadron production by jets using PYTHIA and Hybrid Hadronization with excited mesons up to orbital angular momentum L = 4. We find that states up to L = 2 are produced profusely by quark recombination.

This study reports on the tribological performance of aromatic thermosetting co-polyester (ATSP) and polyether ether ketone (PEEK)-based polymer composite coatings mixed with PTFE filler. The coatings were tested across a wide temperature range from −180 to 110 °C to simulate the environmental temperatures on Titan, Moon, and Mars, which are of particular interest for NASA’s future exploratory missions. An experimental setup was developed to conduct the pin-on-disk experiments under dry sliding conditions and extreme temperature and contact pressure. Transfer film formation and its characteristics were found to play significant roles in the tribological performance, and the characteristics of the film were temperature-dependent. The XPS and SEM analysis indicated the increase of the PTFE content in the transfer film as the temperature decreased to cryogenic conditions. The coefficient of friction did not follow a linear trend with temperature and was minimum at 110 °C and maximum at −180 °C. ATSP coating showed superior performance with lower friction and unmeasurable wear at all temperatures, whereas PEEK coating exhibited maximum wear at 25 °C followed by −180, and 110 °C.

In this study, BiVO4 particles were synthesized via the combustion method using orange peel powder as a fuel for photocatalytic methylene blue (MB) degradation. The novelty lies in using biomass as a fuel source and leveraging orange peel phytochemicals as stabilizing and complexing agents, eliminating the need for nitric acid required in conventional methods. XRD patterns showed that the orange peel promotes ternary phase formation (Dreyerite and Clinobisvanite phases), while urea supports the binary and ternary phase combination (i.e., V6O13 and BiVO4). Raman, XPS, and FTIR analyses confirmed the BiVO4 monoclinic phase formation using both fuels, with a band gap of approximately 2.4 eV. Increasing annealing temperature reduced structural disorder, V–O bond length, and surface area, which are more pronounced with orange peel. Photocatalytic experiments revealed the significant MB removal by adsorption with urea, while orange peel primarily drove photocatalysis in both cases, following a pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Scavenger experiments showed holes as the main reactive species promoting MB degradation. With a rise in catalyst dosage, removal is primarily enhanced through adsorption, confirmed by dark condition experiments. The BiVO4 sample annealed at 350 ºC with orange peel fuel exhibited the best photocatalytic performance that can completely remove MB after 270 min under 200 W LED light.