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A new hybrid electro‐hydraulic and pneumatic actuator system and its dynamic model for high‐performance control are presented. This work focuses on tracking control of rapidly changing acc...

Copper has attracted significant interests as an abundant and low-cost alternative material for flexible transparent conducting electrodes (FTCEs). However, Cu-based FTCEs still present unsolved technical issues, such as their inferior light transmittance and oxidation durability compared to conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) and silver metal electrodes. This study reports a novel technique for fabricating highly efficient FTCEs composed of a copper ultrathin film sandwiched between zinc oxides, with enhanced transparency and antioxidation performances. A completely continuous and smooth copper ultrathin film is fabricated by a simple room-temperature reactive sputtering process involving controlled nitrogen doping (

An effective method for depositing highly transparent and conductive ultrathin silver (Ag) electrodes using minimal oxidation is reported. The minimal oxidation of Ag layers signifi cantly improves the intrinsic optical and structural properties of Ag without any degradation of its electrical conductivity. Oxygen-doped Ag (AgO x ) layers of thicknesses as low as 6 nm exhibit completely 2D and continuous morphologies on ZnO fi lms, smaller optical refl ections and absorbances, and smaller sheet resistances compared with those of discontinuous and granular-type Ag layers of the same thickness. A ZnO/AgO x /ZnO (ZAOZ) electrode using an AgO x (O/Ag = 3.4 at%) layer deposited on polyethylene terephthalate substrates at room temperature shows an average transmittance of 91%, with a maximum transmittance of 95%, over spectral range 4001000 nm and a sheet resistance of 20 Ω sq 1 . The average transmittance value is increased by about 18% on replacing a conventional ZnO/Ag/ZnO (ZAZ) electrode with the ZAOZ electrode. The ZAOZ electrode is a promising bottom transparent conducting electrode for highly fl exible inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs), and it achieves a power conversion effi ciency (PCE) of 6.34%, whereas an IOSC using the ZAZ electrode exhibits a much lower PCE of 5.65%.

SUMMARY A 3D overhead crane is an underactuated system consisting of five outputs: trolley position, bridge translation, cable length, and two cargo swings. These outputs are controlled by three actuators for cargo hoisting, trolley motion, and bridge traveling. This study proposes the use of a nonlinear controller that performs five tasks concurrently: cargo hoisting, trolley tracking, bridge motion, payload vibration suppression during transport, and cargo swing elimination at the destination. The proposed algorithm is combined with two control components: (i) partial feedback linearization, which is a precursor to controller design, to suppress cargo vibration; and (ii) sliding mode method, which provides robust control in lifting the payload and driving trolley and bridge motions against model imprecision and uncertainty. These two control mechanisms are successfully merged into a combined controller because the kinematic relationships between the state variables are made apparent in the system dynamics. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed controller asymptotically stabilizes all system responses.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study examines the effects of scheduled macroeconomic news announcements on the implied risk-neutral distribution (RND) from option prices. Using the KOSPI200 index options market as the sample market, this study investigates whether the implied RND responds to scheduled macroeconomic news announcements from South Korea and the US. We select six important macroeconomic news announcements each for South Korea and the US and classify them as good news and bad news according to the KOSPI200 index return on the day of the announcement. We use two parametric methods to recover the RND and conduct regression analyses at daily, hourly, and 5-min intervals. The analysis provided several noteworthy results. First, the RND responds to most of the macroeconomic news announcements, but its response disappears within a day in many cases. Second, the longevity of the response depends on the type of news. Third, the implied volatility tends to increase, and the RND tends to become less leptokurtic after news announcements. Fourth, the RND tends to become less (more) negatively skewed after a good (bad) news announcement. Finally, there is no clear evidence of the information contents regarding the effect of news announcements in the RND.