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Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a prevalent disease of the West which pathogenesis is driven by a combination interaction between bacteria and inflammatory cells. In this study, two Kazal domain peptide from Palythoa Caribaeorum were identified. They were found to exhibit serine protease inhibitory, anti-bacterial effects and low toxicity, making them ideal candidates for IBD treatment due to their ability to inhibit inflammatory cell migration and bacterial load. We amplified their coding DNA sequences via PCR and ligated the resulting PCR product into pGEX-4T3 vector. The recombinant plasmid was verified by sequencing, and restriction digest before being transformed into competent E.coli cells. Following transformation, we induced target peptides expression by IPTG to confirmed successful transformation and peptide production. Selected transformed bacterial colonies were expanded in LB broth before mixing with glycerol and frozen in -80°C freezer to complete the process of cell bank production.

We were very curious about whether the aircraft will suffer lightning damages during flight, so we tried to search the answer on the internet. According to the searching results, we realized that during flight departure, passenger planes can suffer lightning damage. As a result, there will be lightning strike points, which needs immediate solutions for safety concerns. Besides, we found out that the exterior aircraft components, such as aircraft body, wings, tail, turbine engine and other areas, are vulnerable to corrosion, which also needs immediate solutions. Luckily, we came across a chance to chat with the engineer who works in the airport. Through that meeting, we knew that the maintenance of the aircraft is very important. However, the maintenance of the components depends on professional technicians, weather, the surrounding noise level, and other environmental effects. As a result, we think that it is initial for us to develop a device that can automatically complete the missions of aircraft maintenance. Below are two objectives that we need to complete: 1. Complete a non-destructive testing for aircraft damage, including corrosion and lightning strike points. Assessment areas include: Aircraft body, airplane wings, tail of the aircraft and the turbine engine 2. Engage in scanning results to analyze and predict for flight readiness. The collected results will proceed to the aviation company for inspection and maintenance. Based on these two objectives, we designed an automatic platform for aircraft maintenance. Below are four innovations of this platform: 1. we developed a method to replace the current stage based on the manual operation of the aircraft maintenance, the use of AGV (Automated guided vehicle) and the robotic arm combination. 2. Design a modular platform based on this method, including telescopic four-wheel independent rotating chassis and locking mechanism, scissors lifting mechanism, double sided synchronous belt forward detection telescopic mechanism, etc. The platform can shrink at the minimum height of A320, convenient access to the machine abdomen. 3. The positioning algorithm of the platform relative to the aircraft is proposed.

Current medical intervention in cancer therapeutic methods has shown risks and side effects with normal tissues. This includes incomplete cancer eradication. In reference to numerous studies and literature reviews, a stimuli-responsive drug delivery system is selected as an innovative, safe and more assured treatment due to its site-specific release ability. This allows specific intervention upon the given stimulus which response to the presenting disease symptoms. Hence, we designed a ROS(Reactive Oxygen Species)-responsive BA-ADA(4-Hydroxyphenylboronic acid pinacol ester and 1-Adamantanecarboxylic acid bonded molecule) nanoparticle delivery system. In our study, ROS-responsive nanoparticle was designed and prepared based on a synthetic molecule from BA and ADA. A therapeutic payload, Doxorubicin, can be loaded into the nanoparticles and it can be selectively released within cancerous tissues whereby ROS level is over-expressed. This will enhance both therapeutic efficiency and reduce side effects. The stability and ROS-responsiveness of the particle were proven in a series of evidence-based experiments. The results showed a significant difference in cell viability during the experiments with healthy and cancerous cell samples. Further research will be required to extend the experiment in vivo.

In 2016, the population of people over the age of 65 in Macau was 11.2%. This means that Macau has already become an aging society. As such, more younger generations are needed to look after the elderly. According to statistics, falls are the primary cause of injury or death for the elderly over 65 years old. About 30% of the elderly over 65 years old fall every year. Along with the increase in the elderly population, it is urgent to find a fast and effective way to ensure the safety of the elderly. As there is a lot more danger besides falling in an elderly life, we aim to build a robot collocated with its danger detection system to ensure the safety of the elderly at home. The reason we decided to use robots is that we want to have larger flexibility and mobility, for example, we can give elderly rescue materials when they need help. Moreover, more home robots will be used in the future, they can just apply our system to theirs and ensure the safety of elderlies. In this research, we mainly used cameras with the Openpose model to detect dangers such as falling, potential human action danger, and environmental danger. Innovative ways are used to detect fall action, collocated with our home robot, it is a foreseeing project that could ensure the safety of the elderly in a home environment.

This underwater remote operating vehicle (ROV) is designed with and without tethered operation. The operator can control the ROV from the real time first-person view in graphical user interface combined with sonar and object detection function when the tether is attached to perform search and rescue. The control tether with fiber optic lighting cable establishes a guided link medium between the possible search victim location and the rescue team. When the tether is detached, rapid deployment by a predefined set of instruction to achieve further operation range. The intelligent technologies of signal processing were used for object recognition, collision detection and sonar scanning data to enhance underwater operation. Autonomous driving is based on software development with limited capability to run in unrestricted open areas. We have achieved the design intent and confirmed the performance data in the laboratory boundary conditions.

Two years ago, I attended a robot contest, in which one of the missions required the robot to follow the pedestrian to complete the task. At that time, I used their demo program to complete the task. Not long after, I found two main issues: 1. The program follows the closest point read by the depth camera, which if I walk close to a wall next to, the robot may likely ‘follow’ the wall. 2. Not to mention if another pedestrian crosses between the robot and the target. Regarding these two issues, I decided to improve it. We’ve designed a procedure of using YOLO Object Detection and Person re-identification to re-identify the target for continuous following.

Double Parallelogram Lifting Mechanism (DPLM) is a compact and stable lifting mechanism with a large extension range widely adopted in robot designs. Rubber bands and springs are often installed on the DPLM to lighten the motors' load and maintain its height, yet the installation positions are often obtained through trial and error. This project aims at finding the optimal rubber band installation positions for DPLM using modeling and optimization techniques. A mathematical model which describes the forces and moments acting on all the linkages of DPLM was derived based on the conditions for the static equilibrium and verified with a 3D simulation software. A genetic algorithm (GA) was implemented to optimize rubber band installation positions, which managed to find solutions with the overall root-mean-square- error (RMSE) of the net moment less than 2 for 2 to 6 rubber bands. A further statistical analysis of 50000 random rubber band samples showed that installing rubber bands in triangles is the best solution with the overall lowest RMSE. A test was conducted with a prototype of the DPLM and the results were consistent with our model and optimization. This project derived and verified a mathematical model for the DPLM, and found the optimal way and positions to install rubber bands. The results of this project provides a theoretical basis for controlling DPLM with rubber bands, allowing it to be further adopted in industrial robots that require repetitive lifting and lowering such as inspection robots and aerial work platforms.

Two years ago, I attended a robot contest, in which one of the missions required the robot to follow the pedestrian to complete the task. At that time, I used their demo program to complete the task. Not long after, I found two main issues: 1. The program follows the closest point read by the depth camera, which if I walk close to a wall next to, the robot may likely ‘follow’ the wall. 2. Not to mention if another pedestrian crosses between the robot and the target. Regarding these two issues, I decided to improve it. We’ve designed a procedure of using YOLO Object Detection and Person re-identification to re-identify the target for continuous following.

Double Parallelogram Lifting Mechanism (DPLM) is a compact and stable lifting mechanism with a large extension range widely adopted in robot designs. Rubber bands and springs are often installed on the DPLM to lighten the motors' load and maintain its height, yet the installation positions are often obtained through trial and error. This project aims at finding the optimal rubber band installation positions for DPLM using modeling and optimization techniques. A mathematical model which describes the forces and moments acting on all the linkages of DPLM was derived based on the conditions for the static equilibrium and verified with a 3D simulation software. A genetic algorithm (GA) was implemented to optimize rubber band installation positions, which managed to find solutions with the overall root-mean-square- error (RMSE) of the net moment less than 2 for 2 to 6 rubber bands. A further statistical analysis of 50000 random rubber band samples showed that installing rubber bands in triangles is the best solution with the overall lowest RMSE. A test was conducted with a prototype of the DPLM and the results were consistent with our model and optimization. This project derived and verified a mathematical model for the DPLM, and found the optimal way and positions to install rubber bands. The results of this project provides a theoretical basis for controlling DPLM with rubber bands, allowing it to be further adopted in industrial robots that require repetitive lifting and lowering such as inspection robots and aerial work platforms.