Indication of Electromagnetic Field Exposure via RBF-SVM Using Time-Series Features of Zebrafish Locomotion.

This paper introduces a novel model based on support vector machine with radial basis function kernel (RBF-SVM) using time-series features of zebrafish (Danio rerio) locomotion exposed to different electromagnetic fields (EMFs) to indicate the corresponding EMF exposure. A group of 14 adult zebrafish was randomly divided into two groups, 7 in each group; the fish of each group have the novel tank test under a sham or real magnetic exposure of 6.78 MHz and about 1 A/m. Their locomotion in the tests was videotaped to convert into the x, y coordinate time-series of the trajectories for reforming time-series matrices according to different time-series lengths. The time-series features of zebrafish locomotion were calculated by the comparative time-series analyzing framework highly comparative time-series analysis (HCTSA), and a limited number of the time-series features that were most relevant to the EMF exposure conditions were selected using the minimum redundancy maximum relevance (mRMR) algorithm for RBF-SVM classification training. Before this, ambient environmental parameters (AEPs) had little effect on the locomotion performance of zebrafish processed by the empirical method, which had been quantitatively verified by regression using another group of 14 adult zebrafish. The results have demonstrated that the purposed model is capable of accurately indicating different EMF exposures. All classification accuracies can be 100%, and the classification precision of several classifiers based on specific parameters and feature sets with specific dimensions can reach higher than 95%. The speculative reason for this result is that the specified EMF has affected the zebrafish neural aspect, which is then reflected in their behaviors. The outcomes of this study have provided a new indication model for EMF exposures and provided a reference for the investigation of the impact of EMF exposure.

Effect of Static Magnetic Field of Electric Vehicles on Driving Performance and on Neuro-Psychological Cognitive Functions.

Human neuropsychological reactions and brain activities when driving electric vehicles (EVs) are considered as an issue for traffic and public safety purposes; this paper examined the effect of the static magnetic field (SMF) derived from EVs. A lane change task was adopted to evaluate the driving performance; and the driving reaction time test and the reaction time test were adopted to evaluate the variation of the neuro-psychological cognitive functions. Both the sham and the real exposure conditions were performed with a 350 µT localized SMF in this study; 17 student subjects were enrolled in this single-blind experiment. Electroencephalographs (EEGs) of the subjects were adopted and recorded during the experiment as an indicator of the brain activity for the variations of the driving performance and of the cognitive functions. Results of this study have indicated that the impact of the given SMF on both the human driving performance and the cognitive functions are not considerable; and that there is a correlation between beta sub-band of the EEGs and the human reaction time in the analysis.

Proximity Environmental Feature Based Tree Health Assessment Scheme Using Internet of Things and Machine Learning Algorithm.

Improperly grown trees may cause huge hazards to the environment and to humans, through e.g., climate change, soil erosion, etc. A proximity environmental feature-based tree health assessment (PTA) scheme is proposed to prevent these hazards by providing guidance for early warning methods of potential poor tree health. In PTA development, tree health is defined and evaluated based on proximity environmental features (PEFs). The PEF takes into consideration the seven surrounding ambient features that strongly impact tree health. The PEFs were measured by the deployed smart sensors surrounding trees. A database composed of tree health and relative PEFs was established for further analysis. An adaptive data identifying (ADI) algorithm is applied to exclude the influence of interference factors in the database. Finally, the radial basis function (RBF) neural network (NN), a machine leaning algorithm, has been identified as the appropriate tool with which to correlate tree health and PEFs to establish the PTA algorithm. One of the salient features of PTA is that the algorithm can evaluate, and thus monitor, tree health remotely and automatically from smart sensor data by taking advantage of the well-established internet of things (IoT) network and machine learning algorithm.

Apodization of terahertz Bragg gratings in subwavelength polymer fiber.

We report on an apodization scheme for terahertz fiber Bragg gratings. The grating consists of only 90 ablated notches on two opposite sides of a subwavelength polymer fiber. The grating strength can be effectively tuned by controlling the longitudinal shift between the two-sided notches, and apodization can be achieved by applying an envelope profile. Side lobe suppression of 14 dB was experimentally observed when compared with an unapodized grating.

Terahertz filter with tailored passband using multiple phase shifted fiber Bragg gratings.

Transmission filters for the terahertz domain having a shaped bandpass have been modeled and demonstrated. The filter designs were based on the desired filter type and bandwidth, and implemented by cascading quarter wave phase shifted fiber Bragg gratings written in Topas polymer subwavelength fiber. As an example, a 5-pole Chebyshev filter with <3 GHz bandwidth was designed and fabricated. Experimental and simulated results are in good agreement.

Binary image encryption based on interference of two phase-only masks.

Optical image encryption based on interference has attracted a lot of attention recently. The technique employs two pure phase masks derived from the complex field of the image in the Fresnel diffraction domain. The image decryption procedure can be carried out by inverse Fresnel transformation of the summation of two pure phase masks. However, the silhouette of the original image, which is recovered by either of the two phase-only masks, impedes the application of this technique. In this paper, a very simple method for binary image encryption based on interference of two phase-only masks is proposed without any silhouette problem. The binary image in combination with a random phase mask is separated into two phase-only masks directly, and the decryption by summation of the two masks can be performed digitally or optically. In this paper, the encryption and decryption processes are analyzed, after which both the optical simulation and the experimental results based on single-beam holography are given to demonstrate the feasibility of the encryption method. As information nowadays is mainly digitized into binary codes, the proposed encryption method may find applications in the information processing field.

Characterization and modeling of Bragg gratings written in polymer fiber for use as filters in the THz region.

We demonstrate fiber Bragg gratings written in polymer fiber for use in the THz window for the first time. A KrF excimer laser operating at 248 nm was used to inscribe notch-type gratings in single component Topas subwavelength fiber. A transmission loss at the centre wavelength of the grating of 60 dB is observed in short gratings containing only 192 notches. Experimental results and modeling are presented. The gratings are expected to find use in THz signal filtering and chemical or biosensing applications.

CO2 laser induced refractive index changes in optical polymers.

We study the infrared photosensitivity properties of two optical polymer materials, benzocyclobutene (BCB) and epoxy OPTOCAST 3505, with a 10.6 µm CO2 laser. We discover that the CO2 laser radiation can lower the refractive index of BCB by as much as 5.5 × 10(-3), while inducing no measurable index change in the epoxy. As confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the observed index change in BCB can be attributed to photothermal modification of chemical bonds in the material by the CO2 laser radiation. Our findings open up a new possibility of processing polymer materials with a CO2 laser, which could be further developed for application in the areas of post-processing and direct-writing of polymer waveguide devices.

Coaxial holographic encoding based on pure phase modulation.

We describe a simple technique for coaxial holographic image recording and reconstruction, employing a spatial light modulator (SLM) modified in pure phase mode. In the image encoding system, both the reference beam in the outside part and the signal beam in the inside part are displayed by an SLM based on the twisted nematic LCD. For a binary image, the part with amplitude of "1" is modulated with random phase, while the part with amplitude of "0" is modulated with constant phase. After blocking the dc component of the spatial frequencies, a Fourier transform (FT) hologram is recorded with a uniform intensity distribution. The amplitude image is reconstructed by illuminating the reference beam onto the hologram, which is much simpler than existing phase modulated FT holography techniques. The technique of coaxial holographic image encoding and recovering with pure phase modulation is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally in this paper. As the holograms are recorded without the high-intensity dc component, the storage density with volume medium may be increased with the increase of dynamic range. Such a simple modulation method will have potential applications in areas such as holographic encryption and high-density disk storage systems.

Single-beam data encoding using a holographic angular multiplexing technique.

We propose a novel configuration for angular multiplexing holographic encoding in which the signal beam and the reference beam are combined into a single beam. By using a spatial light modulator based on twisted nematic liquid crystals, the signal and the reference beams are modulated in amplitude mode and phase mode, respectively. The multiplexed interference patterns with the reference beams of different incident angles are recorded near the Fourier transform plane, and then the signals are selectively reconstructed by the corresponding reference beam. Both the simulation and the experiment of single-beam angular multiplexed holography are performed with consistent results. Compared with the traditional angular multiplexing holographic recording system, the single-beam configuration is more compact, easier to adjust, and less sensitive to the vibration of the environment. Therefore, it will be more attractive for potential applications in many fields, such as high-density signal recording and data encryption.