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The laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing process offers many advantages. However, its industrial integration still needs to be improved due to the certification constraints of the produced parts. Thus, this paper proposes a phenomenological causal chain of process failures to ensure the control of the L-PBF process and further certify the quality of the parts produced. Consequences of unsuitable thermal regimes are analysed using a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) approach, allowing a more global understanding of all the causal chain-related data. The proposed approach is based on standard acquisition equipment available on industrial machines and proves relevant for identifying process failures. Experimental validation of the proposed monitoring method is implemented on a use case using dedicated software. Finally, it is shown that the method is relevant in this confrontation and compatible with the time scale of the process for future NC integration and real-time monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The estimation of auditory evoked potentials requires deconvolution when the duration of the responses to be recovered exceeds the inter-stimulus interval. Based on least squares deconvolution, in this article we extend the procedure to the case of a multi-response convolutional model, that is, a model in which different categories of stimulus are expected to evoke different responses. The computational cost of the multi-response deconvolution significantly increases with the number of responses to be deconvolved, which restricts its applicability in practical situations. In order to alleviate this restriction, we propose to perform the multi-response deconvolution in a reduced representation space associated with a latency-dependent filtering of auditory responses, which provides a significant dimensionality reduction. We demonstrate the practical viability of the multi-response deconvolution with auditory responses evoked by clicks presented at different levels and categorized according to their stimulation level. The multi-response deconvolution applied in a reduced representation space provides the least squares estimation of the responses with a reasonable computational load. matlab/Octave code implementing the proposed procedure is included as supplementary material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) microinverters have grown rapidly in the small-scale PV market, where typical two-stage converters are used to connect one PV module to the single-phase AC grid. This configuration achieves better performance in terms of energy yield compared with other PV configurations. However, the conversion efficiency of a two-stage system is the main drawback, especially when a high-voltage gain effort is required. In this context, single-stage microinverter topologies have been recently proposed since only one power conversion stage is required to extract the maximum power of the PV module and inject the AC power to the grid. This single-stage configuration allows considerable improvement of the overall efficiency of microinverters by reducing the number of elements in the system. However, the main challenge of these topologies is their control, since all variables of the converter are composed by the AC waveform with DC-bias. In this paper, four control strategies are analyzed for the mainstream single-stage topology, which is the dual-boost inverter (DBI). Classical linear control and three non-linear strategies, namely finite control set–model predictive control, flatness-based control, and sliding mode control, are detailed. The main contribution of this work is a complete comparison of the control strategies, to give insights into the most suitable control strategy for the DBI in PV microinverter application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photonic crystals display partial or full band gaps that become more pronounced with rising refractive index contrast. However, imperfections in the material cause light scattering and extinction of the interfering propagating waves. Positive as well as negative defect volumes may contribute to this kind of optical perturbation. In this study, 3D woodpile photonic crystals are fabricated and characterized with a pseudo‐bandgap for near‐infrared optical wavelengths. By direct laser writing, defects are introduced in the periodic structure at selected positions. It is shown that defect scattering can be modeled by considering the difference between the disordered and the regular structure. The findings pave the way toward better control and understanding of the role of defects in photonic materials that will be crucial for their usability in potential applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the non-linear stability of a coupled system of two non-linear transport-diffusion equations set in two opposite half-lines. This system describes some aspects of yeast pairwise cellular communication, through the concentration of some protein in the cell bulk and at the cell boundary. We show that it is of bistable type, provided that the intensity of active molecular transport is large enough. We prove the non-linear stability of the most concentrated steady state, for large initial data, by entropy and comparison techniques. For small initial data we prove the self-similar decay of the molecular concentration towards zero. Informally speaking, the rise of a dialog between yeast cells requires enough active molecular transport in this model. Besides, if the cells do not invest enough in the communication with their partner, they do not respond to each other; but a sufficient initial input from each cell in the dialog leads to the establishment of a stable activated state in both cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we study the coupling of a nonlinear renewal equation to an ordinary differential equation. We start with existence and uniqueness issues for the coupled equations and, in particular cases, we study the long-time behaviour. The novelty here is the nonlinearity in the renewal equation. This model arises in the context of atherosclerosis. The renewal part accounts for the inflammatory process: leucocyte recruitment in the arterial wall, differentiation when internalizing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and death. The ordinary differential equation describes the LDL dynamics in the arterial wall, leucocyte absorption and release in the blood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine energy conversion systems are highlighted among nonconventional renewable energy sources for their availability and energy density. Most marine energy conversion systems are based on multigenerator units or arrays, projected to inject power to the grid in the megawatt range. The current solution for regulating generators and managing power output is the use of two-level voltage-source converters in a back-to-back configuration for each generator. This work presents the model, control scheme, and experimental validation of a configuration, which is able to interface medium-voltage high-power multigenerator marine energy conversion systems to the grid at medium-voltage high-power levels. The configuration is based on a two-step rectifier/boost converter for each generator and a multilevel inverter that merges and manages the multiple power outputs from the multigenerator section of the system. The multilevel inverter is responsible for controlling power flow to the grid and provides regulated medium-voltage high-power injection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Budding yeast cells exist in two mating types, a and α, which use peptide pheromones to communicate with each other during mating. Mating depends on the ability of cells to polarize up pheromone gradients, but cells also respond to spatially uniform fields of pheromone by polarizing along a single axis. We used quantitative measurements of the response of a cells to α-factor to produce a predictive model of yeast polarization towards a pheromone gradient. We found that cells make a sharp transition between budding cycles and mating induced polarization and that they detect pheromone gradients accurately only over a narrow range of pheromone concentrations corresponding to this transition. We fit all the parameters of the mathematical model by using quantitative data on spontaneous polarization in uniform pheromone concentration. Once these parameters have been computed, and without any further fit, our model quantitatively predicts the yeast cell response to pheromone gradient providing an important step toward understanding how cells communicate with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]