Usman Ghafoor

Pusan National University | PNU · Department of Mechanical Engineering

Interaction between devices, people, and the Internet has given birth to a new digital communication model, the internet of things (IoT). The integration of smart devices to constitute a network introduces many security challenges. These connected devices have created a security blind spot, where cybercriminals can easily launch attacks to compromi...

The constantly evolving human–machine interaction and advancement in sociotechnical systems have made it essential to analyze vital human factors such as mental workload, vigilance, fatigue, and stress by monitoring brain states for optimum performance and human safety. Similarly, brain signals have become paramount for rehabilitation and assistive...

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. It is imperative to develop a proper treatment for this neurological disease in the aging society. This observational study investigated the effects of acupuncture therapy on MCI patients. Eleven healthy individuals and eleven MCI patients were recruited for this study. Oxy- and...

One of the primary goals in cognitive neuroscience is to understand the neural mechanisms on which cognition is based. Researchers are trying to find how cognitive mechanisms are related to oscillations generated due to brain activity. The research focused on this topic has been considerably aided by developing non-invasive brain stimulation techni...

The electrical discharge machining (EDM) process is one of the most efficient non-conventional precise material removal processes. It is a smart process used to intricately shape hard metals by creating spark erosion in electroconductive materials. Sparking occurs in the gap between the tool and workpiece. This erosion removes the material from the...

Synchromodality is the key to finding sustainable solutions for logistics, especially across larger networks. The era of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought special attention to the disruptions in demand and supply across the world and has accentuated the need for sustainable transportation networks to handle such anomalies in supply chains. The prop...

The design of an intracavity spectroscopy based two-mode biomedical sensor involves a thorough investigation of the system. For this purpose, the individual components that are present in the system must be examined. This work describes the principle of two very important gadgets, namely the Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG), and the tunable coupler. We ad...

The ever-increasing water stress and availability of fresh drinking water are becoming a major challenge in rural and urban communities. The current high-end and large-scale technologies are becoming way more expensive and not friendly to the environment. In this regard, solar still is becoming a prominent and promising future technology due to its...

Sustainable supplier selection and order allocation (SSSOA) is paramount to sustainable supply chain management. It is a complex multi-dimensional decision-making process augmented with the triple bottom line of sustainability. This research presents a multi-phase decision framework to address a SSSOA problem for the multi-echelon renewable energy...

Transcranial direct and alternating current stimulation (tDCS and tACS, respectively) can modulate human brain dynamics and cognition. However, these modalities have not been compared using multiple imaging techniques concurrently. In this study, 15 participants participated in an experiment involving two sessions with a gap of 10 days. In the firs...

Production of hydrogen by means of renewable energy sources is a way to eliminate dependency of the system on the electric grid. This study is based on a technique involving coupling of an oxyhydrogen (HHO) electrolyzer with solar PV to produce clean HHO gas as a fuel. One of objectives of this study was to develop a strategy to make the electrolyz...

The availability of fresh drinkable water and water security is becoming a global challenge for sustainable development. In this regard, solar stills, due to their ease in operation, installation, and utilization of direct sunlight (as thermal energy), promise a better and sustainable future technology for water security in urban and remote areas....

Rapidly changing market has accentuated the need for developing robust and responsive schedules. Intelligent heuristics techniques have been widely used to provide scheduling alternatives for resource constrained scheduling and identify critical activities essential for monitoring and controlling these processes. We argue that traditional parameter...

A data-driven approach is developed to predict the future capacity of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in this work. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD), kernel recursive least square tracker (KRLST), and long short-term memory (LSTM) are used to derive the proposed approach. First, the LIB capacity data is split into local regeneration and monotoni...

High-speed machining is considered to be a promising machining technique due to its advantages, such as high productivity and better product quality. With a paradigm shift towards sustainable machining practices, the energy consumption analysis of high-speed machining is also gaining ever-increasing importance. The current article addresses this is...

Solar light absorber surface is probably one of the most important components in solar still that dictates the distillate yield. In this work, a systematic study is conducted to investigate the effect of particle size and concentration of titanium oxide (TiO 2 ) in black paint in increasing the solar still absorber surface temperature. The various...

The need for automated production plans has evolved over the years due to internal and external drivers like developed products, new enhanced processes and machinery. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems focus on such needs at both production and process planning level. The age of Industry 4.0 focused on mass customization requires computer aided p...

Dye-sensitized solar cells are gaining interest in the aerospace industry, extending their applications from solar-powered drones to origami-style space-based solar power stations due to their flexibility, light weightiness, and transparency. The major issue with its widespread commercial use is the employment of expensive Pt-based counter electrod...

The influence of nanodiamonds (NDs) on the thermal and ablative performance of carbon-fiber-reinforced–epoxy matrix compositeswas explored. The ablative response of the composites with 0.2 wt% and 0.4 wt% NDs was studied through pre-and post-burning morphologies of the composite surfaces by evaluation of temperature profiles, weight loss, and erosi...

In this study, the effects of metallic zinc (Zn) particles were studied to increase surface temperature on a solar-still absorber, which is a major component of increased production. Various concentrations of Zn particles were mixed in black paint and applied to the absorber plate. SEM and XRD were used to examine and confirm the surface morphology...

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a precursor to the critical disease known as Alzheimer’s. It is imperative to develop a proper treatment for this neurological disease in the aging society. This study investigates the effects of acupuncture therapy (AT) on MCI patients. Methods: Eleven healthy individuals and eleven MCI patients were...

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive method for acquiring hemodynamic signals from the brain with advantages of portability, affordability, low susceptibility to noise, and moderate temporal resolution that serves as a plausible solution to real-time imaging. fNIRS is an emerging brain imaging technique that measures brain...

Acupuncture therapy (AT) is a non-pharmacological method of treatment that has been applied to various neurological diseases. However, studies on its longitudinal effect on the neural mechanisms of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) for treatment purposes are still lacking in the literature. In this clinical study, we assess the longitud...

Enhanced classification accuracy and a sufficient number of commands are highly demanding in brain computer interfaces (BCIs). For a successful BCI, early detection of brain commands in time is essential. In this paper, we propose a novel classifier using a modified vector phase diagram and the power of electroencephalography (EEG) signal for early...

During the last few decades, substantial scientific and technological efforts have been focused on the development of neuroprostheses. The major emphasis has been on techniques for connecting the human nervous system with a robotic prosthesis via natural-feeling interfaces. The peripheral nerves provide access to highly processed and segregated neu...

For those individuals with upper-extremity amputation, a daily normal living activity is no longer possible or it requires additional effort and time. With the aim of restoring their sensory and motor functions, theoretical and technological investigations have been carried out in the field of neuroprosthetic systems. For transmission of sensory fe...