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Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the list of reviewers focused on recognition of 2017 transactions and magazine paper.

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective authors are requested to submit new, unpublished manuscripts for inclusion in the upcoming event described in this call for papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions are used to obtain information, stimulate thinking, and redirect reasoning. Academics in higher education use questions on a daily basis to stimulate thinking and reasoning in students. Final examination papers are used by academics to assess the retention and application skills of students. The assumption, however, exists that questions relating to application skills at universities of technology should start to dominate the higher academic levels in education, with a subsequent drop in questions regarding retention skills. These questions may be categorized as either higher order or lower order questions. This article attempts to distinguish between these two types of questions in light of Bloom's taxonomy, with similar concepts such as deep and surface learning being examined. The literature review is applied to an electrical engineering module titled Electronics, which serves as the case study. The results of this study indicate that a high percentage of the final examination papers dealt with the objective "Application," where students had to make use of numerous mathematical equations to solve various unknowns. The results also indicated that academics in electronics are using more lower order than higher order questions in their final examination papers. A balance is suggested between these two types of questions for various academic levels at universities of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IEEE Transactions on Reliability is the premiere technical journal for reliability and related disciplines. We strive to continue this reputation, so we continue to discover what makes journals great. We have discovered that IEEE journals work to have the qualities readers and authors would like to expect. Correctness and technical merit are important features of accepted manuscripts, with correctness rating as most important to the responding editors. Writing and solving real problems seem to be the least important features. The relative unimportance of these last two categories may be a concern, except that relative importance is not an indicator of absolute importance. However, a recent IEEE survey suggests that members place most value on more practical articles, which suggests that the relative importance of solving real problems should be high if we are to meet the needs of our members through our journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the recipients of Outstanding EMBS Paper awards for 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discipline maturity and, more often, discipline development are recurrent themes in technical and professional communication scholarship. This paper reviews 25 years of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION in terms of how and who creates knowledge. Specifically, we identify methods used by whom in an attempt to explore how the journal has developed complexity. We posit that the journal has evolved from describing practice to positing theory and finally to employing empirical research methods to evaluate theoretical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The December page is devoted to IEEE Communications Society Awards and the Awards Committee that receives the nominations and processes them to identify the recipients. ComSoc Awards are meant to honor colleagues who in some ways, either via scientific/technical contributions or exemplary services, have reached significant, widely recognized achievements in our telecommunications community. Owing to their high significance and value, they need to be awarded through a fair and transparent process, and this is the essential, yet difficult and heavy task of the Awards Committee. It is my pleasure to introduce Lajos Hanzo, the Chair of the IEEE Communications Society Awards Committee, who will describe the awards and the procedure followed by the Awards Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Information of papers to be published in future issues of "IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management" is presented.

The article presents a list of papers that will be published in forthcoming issues of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) transactions in Engineering Management, which includes "Casual Discovery and Inference of Project Disputes," by P. Love, P.Davis, S.O. Cheung and Z. Irani, "The Moderating Role of Organizational Context on the Relationship between Innovation and Firm Performance," by D. De Clercq, N. Thongpapanl, and D. Dimov, and "Assessing Organizational Capabilities: Reviewing and Guiding the Development of Maturity Grids," by A. Majer, J. Moultrie and P. Clarkson.

Presents the recipient of the APS 2015 R. W. P. King Paper Award. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents deadlines for submission of manuscript in the periodical on December 1, 2016 along with guidelines for manuscript submission. It informs that topics of manuscript includes case studies of incorporation of knowledge of telecommunication standards into professional training; impact of standards education on engineering, technology, society, and economy and best practices for incorporating standards into telecommunication curricula.

The International Computer and Software Applications Conference has celebrated its tenth anniversary in 1986. The conference has been very successful in attracting excellent papers and panels from both academia and industry. It continued the tradition and attracted superb papers for the following tracks: software quality, software engineering, software requirements, development environments, software techniques and knowledge-based systems.

The 2012 Ernest K. Smith USNC-URSI Student Prize Paper Competition was held January 5, 2012, in Boulder, Colorado. The first prize was won by Matthew J. Burfeindt (Figure 1) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for his paper with Susan C. Hagness and Barry D. Van Veen, “Beamforming-Enhanced Inverse Scattering for Microwave Breast Imaging,” a paper from Commission K. The second prize went to Timothy Brockett (Figure 2) of the University of California, Los Angeles for his paper with Harish Rajagopalan and Yahya Rahmat-Samii, “A New Paradigm in Solar Energy Harvesting: Characterization of High Absorption Nanopillar Array Photovoltaics, a paper from Commission B. The third prize was awarded to Pai-Yen Chen (Figure 3) of the University of Texas at Austin for his paper with Andrea Alù, “Ultra-Broadband Mantle Cloak Using Non-Foster Negative-Impedance Metasurfaces, a paper from Commission B. A group photo of the winners and organizers of the contest is shown in Figure 4. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses various papers published in various sections of this journal including one by Heydt et al. on electric power and energy engineering, one by Kezonuvic et al. on smart grid and one by Froyd et al. on engineering education.

The latest of a series of classified lists of power system relaying references, begun in 1927, is presented. This bibliography is in continuation to the bibliographies of relay literature, which were published previously and are contained in the following volumes of the IEEE Transactions: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Announces the winners of the 2003 Outstanding Paper Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society. Overview of the winning paper; Career background of the winners; Comments of award committee members on the winning paper.

Present the table of content for this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The table of contents for the January 2012 issue of the "Proceedings of the IEEE" is presented.

This paper reviews and analyzes studies concerning measurement uncertainty, examining 114 papers published between 2004 and 2010 in the following international journals: IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Measurement, Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, and Precision Engineering. The papers were classified according to six different approaches identified during the research and six different methods of calculating uncertainty used by the authors of the researched articles. This paper provides a short summary of the state of the art of measurement uncertainty, analyzes the research scenario on the theme, and, finally, brings suggestions on future work based on the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a systematic review of the literature pertaining to the use of blockchain technology in the engineering and manufacturing activities. The uses of blockchain have been growing quickly in the literature, and this fast pace can make it difficult for researchers to keep abreast of the state of the art. Using a systematic approach to search the primary electronic indices, the compiled list of papers is then analyzed and a number of themes are identified. The results of this article suggest that the literature surrounding blockchain and the engineering/manufacturing industry can be categorized into three primary groups: blockchain to protect data validity, blockchain to enhance inter and intraorganizational communications, and blockchain to increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process. Within each top-level theme, there exist some subthemes that provide a more finely defined categorization of the papers contained in that theme. These subthemes include specific areas of blockchain application such as additive manufacturing, cloud manufacturing, and building information models (BIMs). For each group of papers identified, each study is discussed briefly. This article concludes with a set of conclusions about the current state of the literature and suggestions for further research directions. The primary contribution of this article is to provide a foundation upon which additional research can be accomplished as well as to provide a resource for practitioners to help them understand the current state of the industry and help them determine how blockchain might be beneficial to their organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These instructions give guidelines for preparing papers for this publication. Presents information for authors publishing in this journal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides an overview of sustainability-based research in Engineering Management, with a specific emphasis on work published in technology and innovation management academic journals. The importance of sustainability is not lost on managers and researchers since this research is necessary for the basic survival of society and man. This paper not only identifies the developments that have occurred in sustainability research, based on the departmental topics of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, but also potential research streams in the field. We observe that the research in this area has seen its largest growth only in the past few years, but can be traced back for almost 40 years. We also provide an overview of the special issue associated with this review along with an introduction to Sustainability in Engineering Management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses reports published within the issue including "The Impacts of Global Information Systems Sourcing on Engineering, Technology, and Innovation Management," by Leslie Willcocks and colleagues, "Consumer Acceptance of Personal Information and Communication Technology Services," by Thong and colleagues and "A Novel Approach to DSM-Based Activity Sequencing Problem," by Qian and colleagues.

Editorial. Reports on the processes and procedures which have made the "IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques" one of the leading journals in electrotechnology. Search for original submissions; Accessibility of articles through IEEE Xplore; Best indicator of a paper's usefulness; Need for theoretical papers to be supported by experimental results.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various reports in the issue on the topics including one on International Association for Management of Technology, the other on engineering management and the third on leadership.

A great deal of previous work has studied methods to determine system reliability. That work has defined system reliability as the probability that the production output meets a predetermined demand for a network with many workstations, each of which has random capacity determined by a discrete probability distribution. It is noteworthy that the archival work presents numerous examples, wherein entities are discrete and indivisible, while the analysis is based upon continuous flow, much like a fluid, through the network. The inconsistency, inherent in mixing discrete-entity examples with continuous-flow analysis, can result in erroneous conclusions about the system reliability. The current paper presents a rigorous discrete-analysis analytical approach, which is called the Song rule (Stochastic “Output $\geq$ demand” Networks and their Generation). Based on all examples studied in this paper, the absolute difference ratios between the previous incorrect (as published) and the correct probabilities (from the Song rule) are all greater than 23%. The proposed Song rule analysis is verified to be correct using discrete-event simulation. In addition to providing rigorous analysis for the network problems under consideration, the Song rule is a useful tool for assessing the validity of any future proposed approach for other stochastic reliability problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the maximum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (MSINR) beamforming problem in antenna-array CDMA systems is considered. In this paper, a modified MSINR criterion presented in a previous paper is interpreted as an unconstrained scalar cost function. By applying recursive least squares (RLS) to minimize the cost function, a novel blind adaptive beamforming algorithm to estimate the beamforming vector, which optimally combines the desired signal contributions from different antenna elements while suppressing noise and interference, is derived. Neither the knowledge of the channel conditions (fading coefficients, signature sequences and timing of interferers, statistics of other noises, etc.) nor training sequence is required. Compared with previously published adaptive beamforming algorithms based on the stochastic-gradient method, it has faster convergence and better tracking capability in the time-varying environment. Simulation results in various signal environments are presented to show the performance of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses typical grounding practices and ground fault protection methods for medium-voltage generator stators, highlighting their merits and drawbacks. Particular attention is given to applications of multiple generators connected to a single bus. The paper also provides an overview of the generator damage mechanism during stator ground faults. Problem areas associated with each type of grounding are identified and solutions are discussed. The paper also provides a list of references on the topic. The paper is intended as a guide to aid engineers in selecting adequate grounding and ground fault protection schemes for medium-voltage industrial and commercial generators for new installations, for evaluating existing systems, and for future expansion of facilities, to minimize generator damage from stator ground faults. These topics are presented in four separate parts, Parts 1-4. Part 1 covers scope, introduction, user examples of stator ground failure, and theoretical basis for the problem. Part 2 discusses various grounding methods used in industrial applications. Part 3 describes protection methods for the various types of grounding and Part 4 provides a conclusion and bibliography of additional resource material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a design based research study about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) learning by making through collaboration and production. This study examines learning by making by students to explore STEM using a constructionist approach with a particular focus on computer science and engineering. The use of IoT as a technology enhanced learning (TEL) tool created the learning conditions to be studied: (a) collaborative: no one person had the knowledge to complete the project alone, (b) problem-based: no off the shelf solution was used, and (c) multidisciplinary: the learning context pushed the boundaries across the subjects. The study investigated the learning conditions and indicators of collaboration and production taking place when learning about STEM. The results were used to inform the design of effective data analytics and visualization tools for the PELARS project to advance practice-based learning activities in STEM teaching. However, more specifically, the findings provide insight into the knowledge construction process when learning through making in complex environments. These insights illustrate the combined pedagogical value of collaboration and production supporting the multidisciplinary learning opportunities. The importance of community knowledge construction and its relationship to the pedagogical approach is examined. The significance of these findings in the context of IoT TEL tools in education is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduces a series of papers presented at the 15th International Conference on Data Engineering, held in Sydney, New South Wales in March 1999. 'Querying Rewriting for SWIFT (First) Answers'; 'A Database Approach for Modeling and Querying Video Data'; 'Querying Time Series Data Based on Similarity.'

The article presents information on the 42nd annual IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference that was held in Seattle, Washington from July 11-15th, 2005. The conference included a one-day short course, followed by three and one-half days of technical sessions, a Radiation Effects Data Workshop, and an Industrial Exhibit. A total of 658 engineers, scientists, managers, and exhibitors from 17 countries participated in the conference. The conference was sponsored by the Radiation Effects Committee of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. The Technical Program Committee selected an outstanding set of contributed papers for oral and poster presentations.

The table of contents for the May 2013 issue of the journal "Proceedings of the IEEE" is presented.

The stator ground fault location of large generators can guide rapid maintenance. In this paper, a location criterion without fault transition resistance is constructed by using the fundamental potential and the third harmonic potential of the faulty winding simultaneously. The above potentials of the faulty winding are corresponding to the fault position. To precisely locate the grounding fault, it is necessary to clarify the analytical relationship between the faulty winding potential and the fault position. However, the existing methods often take the coil potential as the unit to analyze the winding potential, which has theoretical errors for the generators with short-pitch winding. Aiming at this problem, a more precise analysis method for winding potential is established by taking the slot conductor potential as the unit. To solve the location criterion, the optimization model for each slot conductor of the faulty phase is constructed. The slot conductor with the smallest optimal objective function value is judged as the faulty slot conductor, and the corresponding decision variable is judged as the fault position. Simulation and experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, which can still meet the needs of engineering applications under multiple adverse conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pulsed discharge plasma (PDP) system with a multineedle-to-plate geometry electrode was applied in this paper to investigate the regeneration of granular activated carbon (GAC) spent with phenol in the PDP system. Regeneration percentage of the GAC under different conditions of initial solution conductivity and pH values was studied to clarify the regeneration of the GAC by the PDP. Formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with the same solution conditions was also investigated in this paper. The obtained results show that there was the same changing trend of GAC regeneration and H2O2 formation under different solution conditions, which clarify the critical effect of •OH on the GAC regeneration in the PDP system. The methods of scanning electron microscope (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, Boehm titration, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used in this paper to demonstrate the medication of the GAC by the PDP treatment. The obtained results show that the regenerated GAC could recover a partial pore structure compared with the original GAC by the SEM analysis. The surface area, micropore volume, and total pore volume of the regenerated GAC increased, while the mesopore volume and the macropore volume decreased on the regenerated GAC; comparing with the original GAC, there was higher amount of acidic functional groups and lower amount of basic functional groups on the surface of the regenerated GAC; the intensities of O–H, C=C, C=O, and C–O enhanced significantly by the FTIR analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a robust PD control scheme for flexible-joint robots based on a disturbance observer (DOB). In this paper, the DOB is applied only to the motor-side dynamics of the robot, and the uncertainties on the motor-side are successfully eliminated. It is shown that the proposed DOB-based approach guarantees global asymptotic stability. To this end, two special treatments are required. First, unlike the typical configuration of the DOB, nominal states of the motor-side are fed back to the PD controller. Second, a control input that makes the nominal states stable is additionally introduced. The proposed approach was verified using multi-degree-of-freedom experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper comprises two new methodologies to improve yield and reduce system-on-a-chip power. The first methodology is based on faulty static random-access memory (SRAM) cells detections and cache resizing. The key advantage of this approach is that it enables the end user to control the system’s parameters to be error tolerant. Furthermore, this technique enables aggressive voltage scaling which causes parametric (soft) failures in SRAM-based memory. As such, the proposed methodology can be utilized to exchange cache size for lower power or better yield. In the second methodology, data from faulty cells are treated as imposed noise. Depending on the application, this error percentage (imposed noise) can be mitigated through three options. First, ignore error if the percentage of the error is tolerable. Second, simple hardware filtration is needed. Finally, software-based filtration is required. The viability of this approach is that it allows aggressive voltage scaling below the traditional to be a 100% correct approach for SRAM supply, which results in substantial reduction of power, trading off quality for power. For both approaches, BIST is used as part of the powerup sequence to identify the faulty memory addresses per voltage level and compute the faulty cells percentage. Furthermore, the proposed methodologies help in improving reliability and counteracting long-term effects on memory cell stability and lifetime degradation caused by negative bias temperature instability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers updates concerning the publication "IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and CyberneticsߞPart B: Cynbernetics" in the U.S. It is stated that the publication processed 1,093 papers and project over 1,300 research in 2008. The development resulted in a larger pool of high-quality research under consideration of the publication policy. The Technical Correspondences, special class of papers in the publication, are not simply short papers but still represent significant contributions on par with regular papers. The authors are encouraged to use the National Library of Medicine vocabulary in order to help better disseminate their work in the publication.

In this paper, a linearized small-signal model for a six-pulse HVDC system is presented. In this paper, the effects of on and off states resistances, forward voltage drop, and snubber circuits of the thyristors and filter circuits are taken into account. RL series circuits are used for modeling of the converter transformer and ac system. To validate the model developed in this paper, a comparison is made with the PSCADIEMTDC time-domain simulation program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on our August 2004 paper where data fusion is used to combine results from multiple audio and video localizers in order to locate a talker in video conferencing applications. The two studies differ in the type of data fusion engine used. The former study explored using a summing voter for data fusion, whereas this study employs a Bayesian network. The novelty of both papers is the use of reliability estimates to improve the overall localization performance and robustness. Reliability estimates, which are derived based on known physical properties of each individual localizer, were used to gauge the trustworthiness of the current localization results. These reliability estimates were introduced into the fusion engines to achieve better performance. Although the summing voter fusion engine used in [1] improves the overall localization performance, it does not take into account the unique characteristics of each localizer. The Bayesian network allows the inclusion of these unique characteristics as part of the fusion process and therefore further improves the overall localization performance. When one or more localizers fails, the persistent erroneous data streams from the failed localizers can negatively affect a statistically based data fusion method, like the Bayesian network, resulting in poor localization accuracy [2]. The study described in this paper explores the use of the reliability estimates to automatically stop the failed devices from contributing in the data fusion process, hence improving the overall robustness of the system. In this paper, we investigate the impact of 1) using a Bayesian network as the data fusion engine, 2) adding reliability estimates into the fusion engine, and 3) using reliability estimates to stop the failed localizers from contributing in the fusion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an efficient method of teaching impulse voltage testing of power transformers to undergraduate students of power system groups in electrical engineering departments, as a part of a high-voltage course for senior undergraduate students. The paper shows how to simulate the power transformer and impulse generator to teach students the basics of impulse voltage testing of power transformers and to practice analyzing the test results. In the first part of the paper, the effect of wave shaping of the voltage waveform is simulated to teach the behavior of the impulse generator, and in the second part, impulse voltage testing of a transformer is simulated. Evaluation of the simulation over several semesters with more than 80 students is very positive in terms of their developing confidence in an understanding of this test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a novel power system laboratory at Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya (B.V.M.) Engineering College, Gujarat, India, where every experiment was designed, wired and commissioned through senior design projects. The experiments on power system protection are especially unique in terms of their design and implementation and will be highlighted in this paper. They provide a real substation-like operating environment. Through these projects, the students, in addition to getting familiar with the fundamentals of protection, learned how different protection schemes are wired and how they operate in a real power system. For the institute, a quality laboratory was established at a low cost, which is a crucial issue for most colleges in many parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a successive gait-transition method for a quadruped robot to realize omnidirectional static walking. The gait transition is successively performed among the crawl gaits and the rotation gaits, while the feet hold in common positions before and after gait transition. The gait-transition time is reduced by carefully designing the foot positions of the crawl gait and the rotation gait, while limiting the feet in rectangular reachable motion ranges. Computer simulations and experiments were executed to show the validity and the limitation of the proposed gait-transition method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Network flow problems cover a wide range of engineering and management applications. Many streamlined solution methods have been devised for solving different types of the problems. This paper investigates the network flow problems in that the arc lengths of the network are fuzzy numbers. Based on the integer-solution property of the network flow problem, the Yager ranking indices can be calculated for the fuzzy arcs to change the fuzzy formulation of the problem to a crisp formulation. Consequently, the conventional streamlined solution methods can still be applied to find an optimal solution. This optimal solution is proved to be the same as that derived from an exhaustive comparison of all possible solutions. Two examples, one shortest path and one transshipment, discussed in some previous studies illustrate that the method proposed in this paper is able to find the optimal solution. To show that the proposed method is useful in solving real-world problems, the problem of multimedia transmission over the Internet is exemplified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in computational methods, materials science, and new manufacturing processes are resulting in an unprecedented design flexibility which is driving the geometrical complexity of the components found in modern structures and machines. For safety-critical components, the geometrical complexity poses a significant challenge to the sensitivity of the existing nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods available for the detection of manufacturing defects or damage that develops while a component is in service. Although X-ray computed tomography is the primary NDE method used to test these parts in current industrial practice, it is widely recognized that it has limited sensitivity to critical defects, such as cracks, especially in the presence of large size parts made of dense materials. The lack of sensitive NDE methods represents a major technology gap that could impede the acceptance of rapidly developing technologies, such as 3-D printing, for the production of safety-critical components. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by exploring the possibility of inspecting a complex-shaped part with ultrasonic waves after it has been encapsulated in ice, under the paradigm of what can be defined as cryo-ultrasonic NDE. The underpinning hypothesis is that through ice encapsulation a complex-shaped part can be transformed into a simple-shaped solid whose volume can be probed with ultrasonic waves, which are known to be highly sensitive to both pores and crack-like defects and over a wide range of material properties. Damage detection is then performed by analyzing cross-sectional images of the ice-encapsulated part obtained by applying migration methods to the ultrasonic signals measured by an array of transducers. This paper lays the foundation for cryo-ultrasonic NDE and presents the first experimental results demonstrating the possibility of imaging defects through multiple ice–metal interfaces. This paves the way to the detection of defects in complex-shaped parts containing internal vanes which have so far limited the use of conventional NDE methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Time-domain near-field scanning is gaining more and more interest within EMC engineering to analyze electromagnetic near-fields of, e.g., quasi-stationar devices. When using a digital oscilloscope to scan the near-fields of an electronic device, the oscilloscope measures time-domain signals that comprise in most cases a large number of frequency components. For many of these components, noncoherent sampling occurs, resulting in spectral leakage when calculating the frequency spectrum of the time-domain signals with the discrete Fourier transform. This paper proposes an improved method to detect the presence of such noncoherently sampled signals as well as an iterative algorithm to obtain accurate approximations of all the frequency components with their accompanying amplitudes and phase angles. The algorithm excels over existing algorithms in obtaining these values especially in situations where several sinusoidal components are close to each other in the spectrum. This is achieved, thanks to an iterative process of removing the influence of the multiple sinusoidal components on each other. This paper contains the mathematical description of the algorithm and a numerical example evaluating the accuracy of the algorithm. The algorithm has a higher accuracy than the existing approaches, e.g., multipoint Interpolated Discrete Fourier Transform (IpDFTs), with only a slight increase of the computational cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complex engineering system typically consists of a group of components/subsystems in a hierarchical structure and the system is monitored at only some, not all, of these hierarchical levels. This paper investigates a Bayesian approach to system reliability prediction using multilevel incomplete data. These data are drawn simultaneously from different component/subsystem levels within the same system, thus need to be analyzed with the consideration of their overlapping nature. In this paper, a Bayesian network model is proposed for modeling the reliability of a multilevel system, where a lower level node can only be connected to one higher level node. Through Bayesian inference, the posterior distributions of lifetime parameters and conditional probabilities in the model are obtained by combining prior beliefs with lifetime data coming from different system levels. This study is also extended to include mixed data types, i.e., both pass/fail data and lifetime data. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated in a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]