A Design Methodology for Energy-Aware Processing in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have rapidly become popular for monitoring, delivery, and actuation in many application domains such as environmental management, disaster mitigation, homeland security, energy, transportation, and manufacturing. However, the UAV perception and navigation intelligence (PNI) designs are still in their infancy and demand fundamental performance and energy optimizations to be eligible for mass adoption. In this article, we present a generalizable three-stage optimization framework for PNI systems that (i) abstracts the high-level programs representing the perception, mining, processing, and decision making of UAVs into complex weighted networks tracking the interdependencies between universal low-level intermediate representations; (ii) exploits a differential geometry approach to schedule and map the discovered PNI tasks onto an underlying manycore architecture. To mine the complexity of optimal parallelization of perception and decision modules in UAVs, this proposed design methodology relies on an Ollivier-Ricci curvature-based load-balancing strategy that detects the parallel communities of the PNI applications for maximum parallel execution, while minimizing the inter-core communication; and (iii) relies on an energy-aware mapping scheme to minimize the energy dissipation when assigning the communities onto tile-based networks-on-chip. We validate this approach based on various drone PNI designs including flight controller, path planning, and visual navigation. The experimental results confirm that the proposed framework achieves 23% flight time reduction and up to 34% energy savings for the flight controller application. In addition, the optimization on a 16-core platform improves the on-time visit rate of the path planning algorithm by 14% while reducing 81% of run time for ConvNet visual navigation.

A Self-powered and Sensitive Terahertz Photodetection based on PdSe2

With the rapid development of terahertz technology, terahertz detectors are expected to play a key role in diverse areas such as homeland security and imaging, materials diagnostics, biology and medical sciences, communication. Whereas self-powered, rapid response, and room temperature terahertz photodetectors are confronted with huge challenges. Here, we report a novel rapid response and self-powered terahertz photothermoelectronic (PTE) photodetector based on a low-dimensional material: palladium selenide (PdSe2). An order of magnitude performance enhancement was observed in photodetection based on PdSe2/graphene heterojunction that resulted from the integration of graphene and enhanced the Seebeck effect. Under 0.1 THz and 0.3 THz irradiation, the device displays a stable and repeatable photoresponse at room temperature without bias. Furthermore, rapid rise (5.0 μs) and decay (5.4 μs) times are recorded under 0.1 THz irradiation. Our results demonstrate the promising prospect of the detector based on PdSe2 in terms of air-stable, suitable sensitivity, and speed, which may have great application in terahertz detection.

Between mobile corridors and immobilizing borders: race, fixity and friction in Palestine/Israel

This article wrestles with the question of ‘national’ borders in racial capitalism. We do so through an examination of border and capitalist corridors. We focus particularly on the Israeli border, branded and then sold to the rest of the world by the epistemic community of border-makers and interlocutors. In tracking the Israeli border and showing the implication of the experts and their markets, we ask how the border reflects and is refracted through a global order organized by the twin dictates of racism and capitalism. We are especially interested in how racialized processes of bordering, ostensibly governed by national exigencies, are transplanted on to other contexts. Two points emerge from this: in the first instance, we ask who and what enables this movement of the border. And in the second, we interrogate which logics and practices are transplanted with the border, as it is reproduced and seemingly fixed in a new place. We examine the violent ontologies that give shape and reputation to Israel's high-tech border industry, which has become a model for the ever-growing global homeland security industry. We ask: has Israel's border become an exportable commodity and who are the actors who have enabled this ‘achievement’? Related to this, what sort of occlusions and structural violence does the fetishization of the Israeli border rely on?

The Formation of a Safety Ecosystem in the Context of Ensuring the National Homeland Security

Today, the issue of creating conditions for homeland security is relevant, under which any socio-economic system can be comfortable and is not threatened by the negative influence of any external and internal factors. The main purpose of the study is to form a methodological approach to the formation of an appropriate defense ecosystem in the context of ensuring homeland security. To achieve this goal, we applied analysis and synthesis methods to study the current state of the homeland security level and the methodology for the formation of the IDEF0 functional model to represent the proposed defense ecosystem. The methodological approach can have the practical importance for state structures dealing with the issue of ensuring homeland security. The result of the study was the formation of a decomposition of the first, second and third levels of the functional model of the defense ecosystem in the context of ensuring homeland security. The article has limitations which are associated with the choice of the security system of Ukraine, since in the context of a pandemic, it was difficult to gain access to information from other countries. In the future, the proposed methodological approach is planned to be applied to the homeland security systems of other countries.

Economic Dividends of the Abraham Accords

The UAE and Israel had no direct relations before August 2020, as UAE had not recognized Israel as a state. However, the UAE was keen on building diplomatic relations with all countries in the recent past and is progressively becoming more liberal and tolerant. The UAE signed the historic Abraham Accord with Israel in September 2020. The Abraham Accord is an avenue of peace. It supports the efforts for prosperity and advancement as it paves the way for deepening economic, knowledge and cultural ties between the countries. There are opportunities to expand cooperation, engagement and knowledge sharing in various sectors such as agriculture, energy, technology, tourism, education, health care and services, trade and homeland security, climate issues, water, food security and smart mobility. Since September 2020, several transactions have been signed between Israeli and Emirati firms in different fields, valued at tens of millions of dollars. On the anniversary of the agreements, the volume of trade between Israel and the Emirates amounted to more than $ 100 million per month. The Abraham Accord has paved the way, is gradually improving the relationships in the region, and will slowly but surely lead to better peace and economic prosperity of the region.

Nanocrystals of Metal Halide Perovskites and Their Analogues as Scintillators for X-ray detection

Scintillators are widely used for X-ray detection in various fields, such as medical diagnostics, industrial inspection and homeland security. Nanocrystals of metal halide perovskites and their analogues showed great advantages as X-ray scintillators due to their cheap manufacturing, fast decay time, and room temperature scintillation from quantum confinement effect. However, there are still many challenges unsolved for further industrialization. Herein, it is necessary to summarize the progress of scintillators based on nanocrystals of metal halide perovskites and their analogues. In first section, the scintillation mechanism and key parameters are outlined. Then, various nanocrystals of metal halide perovskites and their analogues used as scintillators are reviewed. Finally, the challenges and outlook are discussed. It is believed that nanocrystals of metal halide perovskites and their analogues are favorable for large-area and flexible X-ray detectors.