Cognitive and affective processes for learning science in immersive virtual reality

As immersive virtual reality (IVR) systems proliferate in classrooms, it is important to understand how they affect learning outcomes and the underlying affective and cognitive processes that may cause these outcomes. Proponents argue that IVR could improve learning by increasing positive affective and cognitive processing, thereby supporting improved performance on tests of learning outcome, whereas opponents of IVR contend that it could hurt learning by increasing distraction, thereby disrupting cognitive learning processes and leading to poorer learning outcomes. In a media comparison study, students viewed a biology lesson either as an interactive animated journey in IVR or as a slideshow on a desktop monitor. Those who viewed the IVR lesson performed significantly worse on transfer tests, reported higher emotional arousal, reported more extraneous cognitive load and showed less engagement based on EEG measures than those who viewed the slideshow lesson, with or without practice questions added to the lessons. Mediational analyses showed that the lower retention scores for the IVR lesson were related to an increase in self-reported extraneous cognitive load and emotional arousal. These results support the notion that immersive environments create high affective and cognitive distraction, which leads to poorer learning outcomes than desktop environments.     

High performance H2 sensor based on rGO-wrapped SnO2–Pd porous hollow spheres

Hydrogen (H₂) sensors based on metal oxide semiconductors (MOS) are promising for many applications such as a rocket propellant, industrial gas and the safety of storage. However, poor selectivity at low analyte concentrations, and independent response on high humidity limit the practical applications. Herein, we designed rGO-wrapped SnO₂–Pd porous hollow spheres composite (SnO₂–Pd@rGO) for high performance H₂ sensor. The porous hollow structure was from the carbon sphere template. The rGO wrapping was via self-assembly of GO on SnO₂-based spheres with subsequent thermal reduction in H₂ ambient. This sensor exhibited excellently selective H₂ sensing performances at 390 °C, linear response over a broad concentration range (0.1–1000 ppm) with recovery time of only 3 s, a high response of ～8 to 0.1 ppm H₂ in a minute, and acceptable stability under high humidity conditions (e. g. 80%). The calculated detection limit of 16.5 ppb opened up the possibility of trace H₂ monitoring. Furthermore, this sensor demonstrated certain response to H₂ at the minimum concentration of 50 ppm at 130 °C. These performances mainly benefited from the special hollow porous structure with abundant heterojunctions, the catalysis of the doped-PdO_x, the relative hydrophobic surface from rGO, and the deoxygenation after H₂ reduction.     

Applied data science in patient-centric healthcare: Adaptive analytic systems for empowering physicians and patients

We define the emerging research field of applied data science as the knowledge discovery process in which analytic systems are designed and evaluated to improve the daily practices of domain experts. We investigate adaptive analytic systems as a novel research perspective of the three intertwining aspects within the knowledge discovery process in healthcare: domain and data understanding for physician- and patient-centric healthcare, data preprocessing and modelling using natural language processing and (big) data analytic techniques, and model evaluation and knowledge deployment through information infrastructures. We align these knowledge discovery aspects with the design science research steps of problem investigation, treatment design, and treatment validation, respectively. We note that the adaptive component in healthcare system prototypes may translate to data-driven personalisation aspects including personalised medicine. We explore how applied data science for patient-centric healthcare can thus empower physicians and patients to more effectively and efficiently improve healthcare. We propose meta-algorithmic modelling as a solution-oriented design science research framework in alignment with the knowledge discovery process to address the three key dilemmas in the emerging “post-algorithmic era” of data science: depth versus breadth, selection versus configuration, and accuracy versus transparency.     

The control of paracetamol particle size and surface morphology through crystallisation in a spray dryer

The parameters governing the crystallisation of paracetamol using various conventional techniques has been extensively studied, however the factors influencing the drug crystallisation using spray drying is not as well understood. The aim of this work was to investigate the crystallisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient through evaporative crystallisation using a spray dryer to study the physicochemical properties of the drug and to use semi-empirical equations to gain insight into the morphology and particle size of the dried powder. Paracetamol solutions were spray dried at various inlet temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C and also from a series of inlet feed solvent compositions ranging from 50/50% v/v ethanol/water to 100% ethanol and solid-state characterisation was done. The size and morphology of the dried materials were altered with a change in spray drying parameters, with an increase in inlet temperature leading to an increase in particle Sauter mean diameter (from 3.0 to 4.4 µm) and a decrease in the particle size with an increase in ethanol concentration in the feed (from 4.6 to 4.4 µm) as a result of changes in particle density and atomised droplet size. The morphology of the dried particles consisted of agglomerates of individual crystallites bound together into larger semi-spherical agglomerates with a higher tendency for particles having crystalline ridges to form at higher ethanol concentrations of the feed.     

采用信道估计法的基站VSWR实时检测

为解决无线基站宽带工作频带内电压驻波比(Voltage Standing Wave Ratio,VSWR)的实时测量，提出了一种采用信道估计法的测量方案。该方案实现简单，在基带处理单元高速率位置发送数据，依次抓取射频通道反馈和反射数据，分别求取信道响应序列，结合工厂装备测试数据，计算驻波反射系数和反射点位置。发送信号采用宽带正交频分复用信号，能检测到工作频段内任何频点处的驻波异常。有用信号前加循环前缀，并引入峰值抵消核，能正确检测到多个反射点驻波。仿真结果表明，该方案驻波测量精度和单回波点位置精度达到预期，多回波点测量能抓准外部主要故障点，在基站VSWR实时测量中具有良好的应用前景。     

数字花卉植物的全息可视化与交互实现

花卉植物形态、结构与生长过程的数字化和可视化是现代林业科研的重要研究内 容，数字花卉植物在科普、教育、展示等方面都有着广泛的应用与需求。全息影像技术是一种 新兴的前沿技术，其原理源自佩珀尔幻象，通常用于生成立体感强的影像，实现数字幻象与真 实世界的融合，拥有良好的观赏性，用户接受度较高。将全息影像技术与数字花卉植物相关研 究进行结合，可以加强数字花卉植物的可视化效果，从而实现更好的科普、教育、展示效果。 因此在现有的研究基础之上，考虑实现数字花卉植物的全息可视化，并在可视基础上增加了用 户交互实现，设计出一套兼具展示性和交互性的流程，力求总结出一种具有完整可行性的方案， 从而对数字花卉植物的新型表现形式进行深入研究，以期对数字植物研究与应用的进一步发展 提供参考。     

基于文本与语义相关性分析的图像检索

为了更加有效地检索到符合用户复杂语义需求的图像，提出一种基于文本描述与语义相关性分析的图像检索算法。该方法将图像检索分为两步：基于文本语义相关性分析的图像检索和基于SIFT特征的相似图像扩展检索。根据自然语言处理技术分析得到用户文本需求中的关键词及其语义关联，在选定图像库中通过语义相关性分析得到“种子”图像；接下来在图像扩展检索中，采用基于SIFT特征的相似图像检索，利用之前得到的“种子”图像作为查询条件，在网络图像库中进行扩展检索，并在结果集上根据两次检索的图像相似度进行排序输出，最终得到更加丰富有效的图像检索结果。为了证明算法的有效性，在标准数据集Corel5K和网络数据集Deriantart8K上完成了多组实验，实验结果证明该方法能够得到较为精确地符合用户语义要求的图像检索结果，并且通过扩展算法可以得到更加丰富的检索结果。     

The influence of inner material with different average thermal conductivity on the performance of whole insulation system for liquid hydrogen on orbit storage

At present, several composite insulation systems were proposed that can be used for passive insulation systems, including foam-variable density multilayer insulation (VDMLI), aerogel-VDMLI and hollow glass microspheres (HGMs)-VDMLI. The passive insulation systems with different inner material (IM) showed different performances. However, the relationship between the average thermal conductivity of IM and the insulation performance of the whole system has rarely been investigated. It is of great significance for efficient configuration and matching of the passive insulation system. In this paper, a series of average thermal conductivity of IM were assumed to predict the insulation performance of the whole system at 20 K–300 K and high vacuum. In order to further illustrate the relationship between IM and MLI/VDMLI, the foam was replaced by the HGMs as 5 mm a unit forming a series of HGMs-foam-MLI/VDMLI insulation systems. The performance of the systems was investigated. After the foam was completely replaced by the HGMs, the performance of MLI and VDMLI systems was improved 33% and 13%, respectively. Moreover, each mode of heat transfer including solid conduction, radiation, and gas conduction for foam-MLI/VDMLI and HGMs-MLI/VDMLI insulation systems were calculated and analyzed.