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Data visualizations convert numbers into visual marks so that our visual system can extract data from an image instead of raw numbers. Clearly, the visual system does not compute these values as a computer would, as an arithmetic mean or a correlation. Instead, it extracts these patterns using perceptual proxies; heuristic shortcuts of the visual marks, such as a center of mass or a shape envelope. Understanding which proxies people use would lead to more effective visualizations. We present the results of a series of crowdsourced experiments that measure how powerfully a set of candidate proxies can explain human performance when comparing the mean and range of pairs of data series presented as bar charts. We generated datasets where the correct answer-the series with the larger arithmetic mean or range-was pitted against an “adversarial” series that should be seen as larger if the viewer uses a particular candidate proxy. We used both Bayesian logistic regression models and a robust Bayesian mixed-effects linear model to measure how strongly each adversarial proxy could drive viewers to answer incorrectly and whether different individuals may use different proxies. Finally, we attempt to construct adversarial datasets from scratch, using an iterative crowdsourcing procedure to perform black-box optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an integrated approach for creating and assigning color palettes to different visualizations such as multi-class scatterplots, line, and bar charts. While other methods separate the creation of colors from their assignment, our approach takes data characteristics into account to produce color palettes, which are then assigned in a way that fosters better visual discrimination of classes. To do so, we use a customized optimization based on simulated annealing to maximize the combination of three carefully designed color scoring functions: point distinctness, name difference, and color discrimination. We compare our approach to state-of-the-art palettes with a controlled user study for scatterplots and line charts, furthermore we performed a case study. Our results show that Palettailor, as a fully-automated approach, generates color palettes with a higher discrimination quality than existing approaches. The efficiency of our optimization allows us also to incorporate user modifications into the color selection process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax evasion is a serious economic problem for many countries, as it can undermine the government's tax system and lead to an unfair business competition environment. Recent research has applied data analytics techniques to analyze and detect tax evasion behaviors of individual taxpayers. However, they have failed to support the analysis and exploration of the related party transaction tax evasion (RPTTE) behaviors (e.g., transfer pricing), where a group of taxpayers is involved. In this paper, we present TaxThemis, an interactive visual analytics system to help tax officers mine and explore suspicious tax evasion groups through analyzing heterogeneous tax-related data. A taxpayer network is constructed and fused with the respective trade network to detect suspicious RPTTE groups. Rich visualizations are designed to facilitate the exploration and investigation of suspicious transactions between related taxpayers with profit and topological data analysis. Specifically, we propose a calendar heatmap with a carefully-designed encoding scheme to intuitively show the evidence of transferring revenue through related party transactions. We demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of TaxThemis through two case studies on real-world tax-related data and interviews with domain experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bar charts are among the most frequently used visualizations, in part because their position encoding leads them to convey data values precisely. Yet reproductions of single bars or groups of bars within a graph can be biased. Curiously, some previous work found that this bias resulted in an overestimation of reproduced data values, while other work found an underestimation. Across three empirical studies, we offer an explanation for these conflicting findings: this discrepancy is a consequence of the differing aspect ratios of the tested bar marks. Viewers are biased to remember a bar mark as being more similar to a prototypical square, leading to an overestimation of bars with a wide aspect ratio, and an underestimation of bars with a tall aspect ratio. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the aspect ratio of the bar marks indeed influenced the direction of this bias. Experiment 3 confirmed that this pattern of misestimation bias was present for reproductions from memory, suggesting that this bias may arise when comparing values across sequential displays or views. We describe additional visualization designs that might be prone to this bias beyond bar charts (e.g., Mekko charts and treemaps), and speculate that other visual channels might hold similar biases toward prototypical values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressure wave therapy is widespread for multiple purposes, from cell metabolism stimulation to tendons, ligaments, muscles, and bones pathologies treatment. However, in the literature, there are no quantitative metrological data related to pressure wave devices. On the contrary, it would be extremely important to have more information on the provided therapeutic signal, which could also be exploited as input for a finite-element model able to foresee the pressure wave propagation inside the tissues. The authors investigated three different versions of the same device in terms of force applied to the tissue. The results show high variability of the pulses intensities (up to 25%), highlighting a nonuniformity of the treatment (in particular at low frequencies and high compressed air pressure). Moreover, the dependence from different parameters (i.e., pulse frequency, pressure, opening time of the solenoid valve for the compressed air pushing the bullet) was investigated. It was found that the lower the frequency and the higher the opening time of the valve, the higher the force applied to the tissue. An estimation of energy density was done; sometimes the limit values provided by pressure wave therapy guidelines (i.e., DIGEST and ISMST) are exceeded, in particular for soft tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the motor current signal, the characteristic frequency of broken rotor bar (BRB) fault is modulated by the supply frequency and it decreases with the decrease of the load, resulting it to be easily buried under light load conditions. Teager–Kaiser energy operator (TKEO) has shown better performance to detect the BRB faults than classical methods, such as envelope analysis and spectral analysis. However, the original definition of TKEO leads to its result lack of physical meanings and the causal processing in TKEO can lead to phase distortion and nonideal filter characteristics. Therefore, this article proposes a normalized frequency-domain energy operator (FDEO) for the BRB fault diagnosis, which does not require causal processing and calculates multiple differentiations in the frequency domain with equal accuracy in one operation. Furthermore, the normalized FDEO removes the influence of the supply frequency followed by the spectral analysis to extract fault features. The mathematical model of induction motor (IM) under healthy and faulty condition is studied in this article. Then, the proposed approach is experimentally validated with seeded one and two BRB faults operating under various load conditions. To verify the effectiveness, the results are compared with the TKEO, envelope analysis, and spectral analysis. It was found that the proposed method provides slightly obvious fault features with respect to the TKEO, especially when the IMs run under light load conditions with two BRB faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research work investigates the phenomenon of interbar currents in induction motors equipped with die-cast aluminum cages. Flowing in the lamination and distorting the bar current distributions, the interbar currents cause additional stray losses as well as an increase of the joule loss in the cage bars. The contact resistance between the bars and the rotor laminations is the key modeling element for a correct prediction of the interbar currents and the related extra losses. The study presents a new noninvasive method to obtain a reliable estimation of the contact resistance. The proposed hybrid approach is based on a mix of experimental data and Finite Element method (FEM)-based simulation results. A reliable three-dimensional FEM model of a four-pole 15-kW induction motor with closed rotor slots has been used to investigate the impact of variable contact resistance on the interbar currents, rotor joule losses, and the voltage drops along the bars, opening a new perspective for this complex phenomenon and its impact on the stray losses. Finally, the proposed methodologies are critically discussed and the obtained results compared with other relevant research works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to participant preferences and new ethics guidelines, researchers are increasingly sharing data with health study participants, including data on their own household chemical exposures. Data physicalization may be a useful tool for these communications, because it is thought to be accessible to a general audience and emotionally engaged. However, there are limited studies of data physicalization in the wild with diverse communities. Our application of this method in the Green Housing Study is an early example of using data physicalization in environmental health report-back. We gathered feedback through community meetings, prototype testing, and semistructured interviews, leading to the development of data t-shirts and other garments and person-sized bar charts. We found that participants were enthusiastic about data physicalizations, it connected them to their previous experience, and they had varying desires to share their data. Our findings suggest that researchers can enhance environmental communications by further developing the human experience of physicalizations and engaging diverse communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a method is presented for automatic scaling of the F-layer from ionograms based on an image processing technique for the extraction of curvilinear structures. The algorithm obtains the ordinary and extraordinary traces and determines the F2 critical frequency. The performance was tested using a wide data set of ionograms recorded by the Advanced Ionospheric Sounder/Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (AIS/INGV) ionosonde located at Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Tucuman, Argentina, and the results are compared with manual scaling and also with Autoscala method. Results from these tests show that the method is feasible and can be the seed for the development of a robust automated scaling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The silicon carbide (SiC) devices have faster switching speed than that of the conventional silicon (Si) devices, which however may cause excessive device voltage overshoot. Larger gate resistance can help to restrain the overshoot, it however slows down the switching speed and increases switching losses. There are other methods that can mitigate the voltage overshoot, e.g., using low-inductance busbars, adding snubber circuits, etc. In this article, the busbar design for a 250-kW SiC three-level T-type inverter is investigated. The current commutation loops (CCLs) are first analyzed using a single-phase equivalent circuit. Then the detailed busbar design methods, especially a 3-D busbar design concept, are proposed to select the optimal stacking order for the multilayer laminated busbar and to address constraints posed by the physical terminal arrangements of SiC modules and dc-link capacitors. The stray inductance in each CCL is extracted via a finite element analysis and validated on the actual inverter busbar prototypes using an impedance analyzer. To further minimize the busbar stray inductance, a hybrid busbar structure with printed circuit board based buffer circuit using high-frequency decoupling capacitors is designed and evaluated in this article. Finally, the effectiveness of the designed busbars as well as the buffer circuit are validated using experimental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study documents the occurrence of several MISS such as laminated microbial mats, biostabilized ripples, gas domes, mat folds, erosional pockets and remnants, microbial cracks, and gypsified mat chips in Salman hypersaline lagoon, north Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. This study indicates that both microbial and physical processes are reponsible for sediments biostablization and formation of spits, bars and berms. It focuses on the role of waves generated by winds in erosion of the microbially, biostabilized sediments and their deposition on the eastern shore of the semi-closed Salman lagoon. In winter months, the floor of the lagoon shows a rippled surface that mantled with green to black microbial mats. In summer months, gypsum crystals grow on the surface of the mats and develop a gypsified microbial crust. A slight agitation of the lagoonal water in winter months partially erodes the mat layer and impart a black stain to the water column of the lagoon. In summer months, strong agitation of the waves generated by winds in the lagoon leads to erosion of the gypsified micribial crusts and underlying bioclastic and gypsum layers into gravelly mat chips that leave erosion pockets surrounded with erosion remnants. The gravely, eroded sediments are transported by a longshore current and deposited on the eastern shore of the lagoon as berms, spits and bars. The spits and bars enclose small, shallow pools filled with mud sediments. The result of this study provides useful data to elucidate processes of change in coastal landforms due to bio-stabilization by microbial mats and their erosion by waves induced by wind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The horizontal orientation angle and the vertical inclination angle of an elongated subsurface object are key parameters for object identification and imaging in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) applications. Conventional methods can only extract the horizontal orientation angle or estimate both angles in narrow ranges due to limited polarimetric information and detection capability. To address these issues, this letter, for the first time, explores the possibility of leveraging neural networks with multipolarimetric GPR data to estimate both angles of an elongated subsurface object in the entire spatial range. Based on the polarization-sensitive characteristic of an elongated object, we propose a multipolarization aggregation and selection network (MASNet), which takes the multipolarimetric radargrams as inputs, integrates their characteristics in the feature space, and selects discriminative features of reflected signal patterns for accurate orientation estimation. Numerical results show that our proposed MASNet achieves high estimation accuracy with an angle estimation error of less than 5°. The promising results obtained by the proposed method encourage one to think of new solutions for GPR-related tasks by integrating multipolarization information with deep learning techniques. The data and code implemented in the letter can be found at https://haihan-sun.github.io/GPR.html. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relevance. To ensure the safe operation of buildings and structures, it is necessary to more accurately determine the stress-strain state (SSS) of structural elements, to identify areas of stress concentration. The distribution of stresses in the region of the fastening bars in three-dimensional formulation is relatively little studied. In these areas, there may be significant stress concentrations that contribute to the occurrence and development of cracks and splits, which are a harbinger of destruction. The development of modern methods of calculation, software systems and the growth of computing capabilities allow refining the design scheme: to move from one-dimensional to two-dimensional calculation scheme, from two-dimensional to three-dimensional calculation scheme. All this makes it possible to more accurately assess the SSS of structural elements and structures, to identify areas of stress concentration, as well as to investigate the effect of the Poisson's ratio on the stress concentration. Methods of research. It is noted that cracks and breaks in the edges under the influence of longitudinal loads occur in the rods (racks) of square cross-section. Three-dimensional elements based on the spline version of the finite element method and the LIRA computational complex are used to estimate the stress-strain state. The spline finite element method, thanks to the synthesis of the idea of parametrization and the finite element method (FEM) with cubic approximation of all three required variables within each element, allows obtaining consistent three-dimensional finite elements. On the basis of the mentioned methods and complexes, numerical studies of the stress concentration in the bars of square and rectangular cross-sections fixed at one end and perceiving the tensile forces at the other end are performed. Conclusions. It is found that in the angular points of the cross section in the area of fastening of straight bars, perceiving axial tensile forces, there are stress concentrations. Away from the mounting area of the bar, the voltages are aligned. By increasing the Poisson's ratio, the stress concentration increases faster than at low values. The transition from a onedimensional design model to a two-dimensional one, and even more so to a three-dimensional model allows to determine the stress concentration, both in plan and in thickness. Information about the concentration of stresses in elements of structures will allow designers to more accurately design structures and facilities, and the operators to promptly identify the defective region.

Abstract Two challenges in the literature have inspired this paper. First, the highly contradictory puzzle of debates on the “public budget–economic growth” correlation, explainable in great measure by the inadequacy of involved modeling tools (assumptions and specifications) with studied samples. Regarding this issue, the paper proposes three temporal scales of analysis: (1) the global historical trajectory of the modern society, concerning which the Wagner–Kaldor theorem has a leading explicative position; (2) the given structural state–society relationship, for which Barro–Armey–Rahn–Scully (BARS), Laffer in narrower sense (LINS), and the public budget balance restriction (BBR) curves are more suited; and (3) the short–medium horizon, where the Keynesian and post-Keynesian framework remains relevant. Another starting point of this paper refers to the second scale. While the BARS and LINS curves were extendedly examined, the BBR one benefited of attention only during the last period in the context of the sovereign debt crisis. Besides, all these functions were studied separately. Since in the real economy they interact continuously, we integrate BARS, LINS, and BBR curves into a unitary model with a “compatibility restriction” as technical solution. Data for an emergent medium-sized EU country (Romanian case study) illustrate this approach.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a metal oxide semiconductor of interest for a wide range of electronic and optoelectronic device applications. Many devices require etching of ZnO structures and there have been many investigations of ZnO wet-etching processes. However, most reported etches have problems with reproducibility and especially control of vertical and lateral (or undercut) etching uniformity. In this work, we report new buffer solutions that provide controlled vertical and lateral etching of ZnO. We compare the ZnO etch characteristics of buffer etchants to a previously reported ammonium chloride etch. Using buffer etchants of suitable composition we find reaction-rate-limited, uniform, reproducible etching, and similar vertical and lateral etch rates. [2020-0009] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three-phase induction motor (TIM) is present in most industrial processes, being the main responsible for the electromechanical conversion in the sector. The total breakdown of these machines can compromise the production of entire sectors in a manufacturing environment, and hence, the need for early fault detection. In this context, broken bar failures are the most common on the TIM rotor. This article analyzes the chaotic behavior of one stator current of a TIM, with different levels of broken rotor bar failures. The characterization of the failure is performed by analyzing the behavior of the chaotic variable called density of maxima. The proposed approach has advantages over classic motor current signature analysis techniques in that it does not require long acquisition windows (in this work, it was possible to perform detection using a range of 0.35 s) and enables fault detection even for motors operating under variable load or with low slip. The technique also has a lower computational cost compared with classical detection methods. The obtained results indicate that the method is also able to identify different severity levels with the TIM under nominal load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Computerized testing used the Behavioral Assessment and Research System (BARS). • Children living near coal ash storage sites completed the BARS and an ADHD scale. • The BARS was sensitive to developmental changes in children's cognitive functioning. • The BARS had excellent external validity based on correlations with behavior. • The BARS provides a dimensional measure to assess neurotoxin exposure in children. Environmental exposures have been linked to childhood problems with overactivity, attention, and impulse control, and an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis. Two approaches to identify these types of exposure-related neurobehavioral problems include the use of computerized tests, such as the Behavioral Assessment and Research System (BARS), as well as the use of behavior rating scales. To assess comparability of these two types of measures, we analyzed data from 281 children aged 6 to 14 years enrolled in a 5-year research study investigating coal ash exposure and neurobehavioral health. All children lived in proximity of coal ash storage sites. We administered six computer tests from the BARS and obtained behavior measures from the parent-completed Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) ADHD DSM oriented scale. BARS test performance was associated with age indicating that the tests could be used to evaluate neurodevelopmental changes over time or across a wide age range. Tests within the BARS including Continuous Performance (CPT) false alarm (standardized estimate 1.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.67, 2.48), adjusted p = 0.006), Selective Attention (SAT) wrong count (standardized estimate 2.8, 95% CI (1.17, 4.44), adjusted p = 0.006), and SAT proportion correct (standardized estimate -2.45, 95% CI (-4.01, -0.88), adjusted p = 0.01) were associated with attention and impulse control problems on the CBCL after adjustment for multiple comparisons. Findings support that the BARS can contribute to research on environmental exposures by assessing subclinical behaviors related to ADHD such as sustained attention, impulse control, response inhibition, associative learning, and short-term memory. Future research can examine relationships of these BARS measures with biomarkers of neurotoxic exposures related to living near coal ash storage sites to better identify the potential risk for ADHD-related behaviors among children living near coal ash storage sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RISC-V is a promising open-source architecture that targets low-power embedded devices and system-on-chips (SoCs). However, there is a dearth of practical and low-overhead security solutions in the RISC-V architecture. Programs compiled using RISC-V toolchains are still vulnerable to code injection and code reuse attacks, such as buffer overflow and return-oriented programming (ROP). In this article, we propose two hardware-implemented security extensions to RISC-V that provides a defense mechanism against such attacks. We first employ a physically unclonable function (PUF)-based randomized canary generation technique that removes the need to store the sensitive canary words in memory or CPU registers, thereby being more secure, while incurring low overheads. We implement the proposed Canary Engine in RISC-V RocketChip with rocket custom coprocessor (RoCC). The simulation results show 2.2% average execution overhead with a single buffer protection, while a $10\times $ increase in buffer count only increases the overhead by $1.5\times $ when protection is extended to all buffers. We further improve upon this with a dedicated security coprocessor flow integrity extensions for embedded RISC-V (FIXER), implemented on the RoCC. FIXER enforces fine-grained control-flow integrity (CFI) of running programs on backward edges (returns) and forward edges (calls) without requiring any architectural modifications to the processor core. Compared to software-based solutions, FIXER reduces energy overhead by 60% at minimal execution time (1.5%) and area (2.9%) overheads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclic shifting is usually applied in quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QC-LDPC) decoders for permutation operations. In this brief, we propose a flexible and high parallel permutation network for QC-LDPC decoders in the 5th generation (5G) communication systems, which supports LDPC codes with arbitrary code lengths and all lifting sizes in 5G standards. The proposed permutation network can cyclically shift at most 128 frames of data in parallel, which greatly improves the hardware efficiency and decoding throughput. Based on the TSMC 90-nm CMOS technology, synthesis results illustrate the superiority of the proposed design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wavelength-selective switches have been proposed for datacenter use to enhance the scalability of their networks to help in meeting ever-increasing traffic demands. We have previously demonstrated a 4 × 4 ring-based crossbar silicon photonic switch in which each cross-point contained three ring pairs to partition the free spectral range (FSR) into three equal regions to reduce wavelength tuning range per ring pair—thereby reducing both the tuning power consumption and stress on the rings—while maintaining full routing flexibility. However, the question of scalability remains for such a crossbar switch in which 96 signal pads—one routed to each ring—are required to fully control it. In this article we present a 4-port silicon photonic ring-assisted Mach–Zehnder interferometer (RAMZI) switch with multiple-sized rings per switching elements in a Beneš network configuration to reduce the number of electrical pads required to 36 signal pads for the equivalent number of wavelength-selective switch elements per switch cell. The switch is 500 μm × 3 mm in size and is packaged on a custom PCB. Another advantage the RAMZI switch has over the crossbar switch is that the loss through the switch is not path-dependent due to its balanced path configuration. In the crossbar switch, the difference between the shortest and longest paths is 2(N − 1) switching elements. Finally, we present results from the fabricated switch and the outlook for further scaling of the switch architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel mismatching fused Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MFMZI) for noncontacted steel corrosion monitoring in real time. Without sputtering or contacting any steel film on the surface of the MFMZI, the corrosion rate of the steel bars can be evaluated with ultrasensitivity even when the concentration of the NaCl solution is only 0.05 wt%. Moreover, simulations have been carried out with variations in the water-based solution to understand the sensitivity response as a function of the effective refractive index (RI). The simulation and experimental results reveal that the sensitivity is up to 10372 nm/RIU, and the speeds of the wavelength shift in 0.05 wt%, 0.1 wt% and 0.2 wt% NaCl solutions are 0.08, 0.12 and 0.17 nm/min under the dynamic corrosion process, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Set visualization is a well-known task in information visualization. In biology, it is used for comparing visually sets of genes or proteins, typically using Venn diagrams. However, limitations of the Venn diagram are well-known: they are limited to 6 sets and difficult to read above 4. Many other set visualization techniques have been proposed, but they have never been widely used in biology. In this paper, we introduce RainBio, a technique for visualizing sets in biology and aimed at providing a global overview showing the size of the main intersections, in a proportional way, and the similarities between sets. We adapt rainbow boxes, a technique for visualizing small datasets, to the visualization of larger sets, using element aggregation and intersection clustering. We present the application of RainBio to three datasets, with 5, 6 and 12 sets. We also describe a small user study comparing RainBio with Venn diagrams, involving 30 students in biology. Results showed that RainBio led to significantly fewer errors on 6-set dataset, and that the majority of students preferred RainBio. RainBio is proposed as a web-based tool for up to 15 sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to present a new hybrid formulation based on non-uniform rational b-splines functions and enrichment strategies applied to free and forced vibration of straight bars and trusses. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the idea of enrichment from generalized finite element method (GFEM)/extended finite element method (XFEM), an extended isogeometric formulation (partition of unity isogeometric analysis [PUIGA]) is conceived. By numerical examples the methods are tested and compared with isogeometric analysis, finite element method and GFEM in terms of convergence, error spectrum, conditioning and adaptivity capacity. Findings: The results show a high convergence rate and accuracy for PUIGA and the advantage of input enrichment functions and material parameters on parametric space. Originality/value: The enrichment strategies demonstrated considerable improvements in numerical solutions. The applications of computer-aided design mapped enrichments applied to structural dynamics are not known in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid dc circuit breaker (HCB) is an effective device for interrupting dc fault currents in dc grids. Conventional two-port HCB requires too many insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) in series in its main breaker, resulting in considerable costs. Recently proposed multiport hybrid dc circuit breakers (multiport HCBs, and the number of ports is greater than or equal to 2) interrupt fault currents on multiple lines using only one shared main breaker, significantly reducing the implementation costs but losing some fault handling capabilities. To overcome these obstacles, we propose a novel high-performance economical multiport hybrid dc circuit breaker (MP-HCB) in this article. The topology and its control method are proposed. Due to the designed ring-connection structure, the proposed MP-HCB can avoid dc bus fault, and thus is more reliable. The electrical stresses of the breaker are theoretically analyzed, and the parameters are determined to make the MP-HCB capable of multiple-line faults. Compared with the typical two-port HCB and the existing multiport HCBs, the proposed MP-HCB can achieve full fault current interruption capability with lower costs. To protect a dc node connecting with three lines, the cost of the semiconductors of the proposed MP-HCB is only 1/3 of the typical two-port HCB and 1/2 of the existing multiport HCB. Finally, the performances of the proposed MP-HCB are verified via a four-terminal HVdc system in power systems computer aided design/ electromagnetic transients including DC (PSCAD/EMTDC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sketches are probabilistic data structures designed for recording frequencies of items in a multi-set. They are widely used in various fields, especially for gathering Internet statistics from distributed data streams in network measurements. In a distributed streaming application with high data rates, a sketch in each monitoring node “fills up” very quickly and then its content is transferred to a remote collector responsible for answering queries. Thus, the size of the contents transferred must be kept as small as possible while meeting the desired accuracy requirement. To obtain significantly higher accuracy while keeping the same update and query speed as the best prior sketches, in this article, we propose a new sketch – the Slim-Fat (SF) sketch. The key idea behind the SF-sketch is to maintain two separate sketches: a larger sketch, the Fat-subsketch, and a smaller sketch, the Slim-subsketch. The Fat-subsketch is used for updating and periodically producing the Slim-subsketch, which is then transferred to the remote collector for answering queries quickly and accurately. We also present the error bound as well as an accurate model of the correct rate of the SF-sketch, and verify their correctness through experiments. We implemented and extensively evaluated the SF-sketch along with several prior sketches. Our results show that when the size of our Slim-subsketch and of the widely used Count-Min (CM) sketch are kept the same, our SF-sketch outperforms the CM-sketch by up to 33.1 times in terms of accuracy (when the ratio of the sizes of the Fat-subsketch and the Slim-subsketch is 16:1). We have made all source codes publicly available at Github [“Source code of SF sketches,” [Online]. Available: https://github.com/paper2017/SF-sketch ]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the 1929 economic crisis affected France from 1931 osnwards, the sport system continued its ascent during the 1930s. Some sports, such as ping-pong, also called table-tennis for questions of legal risk between the federations and the ping-pong brand, took advantage of this context of crisis to develop. A fashionable sport in 1932 and 1933, this new practice developed in drinking establishments where the sporting culture was already well established since bars often served as the head offices of many clubs. However, once the craze had subsided ping-pong struggled to evolve in a spatial and economic environment that was less favorable to its expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a novel approach for detecting broken rotor bars in squirrel-cage induction motors, using a time-domain current analysis. More particularly, this solution proposes a new use of histogram of oriented gradients since this method is usually applied in computer vision and image processing applications. Fully broken rotor bars have been detected when the motor was running at a very low slip since this operational condition is very difficult to identify using the traditional motor-current signature analysis. In addition, only one phase of the stator current of the machine was applied to extract the intensity gradients and edge directions of each current time window, for both healthy and damaged rotors. It is important to highlight that the present method does not require the slip measurement for fault detection, as demand for other techniques and often related to false negative indications. The features extracted from the histograms have been applied as inputs for a neural network classifier. This method has been validated using some experimental data from a 7.5-kW squirrel-cage induction machine running at distinct load levels (slip conditions) and also for oscillatory loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sonic nozzle is commonly used in flow measurement. However, the nonequilibrium condensation phenomenon of moist air in the nozzle has a negative effect on the measuring accuracy. To investigate this complex phenomenon, the experiments on the oscillating condensation flow of moist air were conducted by an adjustable humidification apparatus with different relative humidities (0%–100%), temperatures (30–50°C), and carrier gas pressures (1–6 bar), where the microsize pressure measuring system was designed by Bergh–Tijdeman (B–T) model. The accurate mathematical model of nonequilibrium condensation was also built and validated by the experimental data of time-averaged pressure distribution. Then, the frequency and intensity of pressure fluctuation of oscillating flow at a wide range of operation condition were obtained combining experimental data and physical simulation model. Importantly, a new semiempirical relation of dimensionless frequency deduced from dimensionless analysis was identified accurately by experimental data. Finally, the signal nonstationarity was also observed using the continuous wavelet transform (CWT). The instantaneous frequency saltation and the energy attenuation of pressure signals were observed in the condensation flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, the monitoring and analysis of the induction motor stray flux has been a modern trend and significant research work was accomplished. Most papers have focused on the monitoring of rotor electrical faults around the fundamental stray flux signature, imitating in this way the traditional motor current signature analysis (MCSA). However, such signatures may still have some disadvantages leading to false alarms. This is the motivation behind the use of alternative signatures, such as in this particular case and the mechanical frequency. The existence of the mechanical frequency in the stator current is still the best signature for detection of the mixed rotor eccentricity fault and load imbalances. Even healthy motors present this harmonic due to some low-level inherent eccentricity and inherent load oscillations. Despite that, it will be shown for the first time in this article that the mechanical frequency associated harmonics in the stray flux is possible to originate purely from rotor electrical faults. Those signatures present significant sensitivity to the broken bar fault severity. Moreover, they are advantageous for low load operation compared to traditional signatures. Finally, the sidebands of the mechanical frequency related harmonics are very sensitive to the broken rotor bar fault while quite immune to the number of the rotor bars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of rotor cage faults in induction motors based on motor current signature analysis (MCSA) is being extensively applied in the field for preventing forced outage of the motor and industrial process. Although MCSA is very effective for detecting broken bars that are adjacent to each other, it can fail if the broken bars are nonadjacent, which is common for applications with frequent starts. If multiple broken bars are spread out at locations where the rotor “electrical” asymmetry is canceled, the presence of broken bars is difficult to detect with MCSA. A false indication can lead to a catastrophic-forced outage, but the only known means of detecting this type of fault in the field is through rotor visual inspection. In this article, the feasibility of detecting nonadjacent broken rotor bars from the rotor rotational frequency sideband components in the internal and external search coil measurements during steady state and motor starting is evaluated. Experimental testing on a 7.5-hp induction motor shows that nonadjacent broken bars can be reliably detected from the analysis of flux measurements for cases where MCSA and all other electrical tests fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is undergoing an extensive Phase II upgrade program to prepare for the challenging conditions of the high-luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). In particular, a new timing layer will measure minimum ionizing particles (MIPs) with a time resolution of ~30–40 ps and hermetic coverage up to a pseudorapidity of |η| = 3. The precision time information from this detector will reduce the effects of the high levels of pileup expected at the HL-LHC and will bring new and unique capabilities to the CMS detector. This MIP Timing Detector (MTD) will consist of a central barrel timing layer (BTL) based on L(Y)SO:Ce crystals read out with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and two end-caps instrumented with radiation-tolerant low-gain avalanche detectors (LGADs). With the goal of maximizing the detector performance within the stringent constraints of space, cost, and channel count, the BTL exploits elongated crystal bars, each read out with two SiPMs. This unusual geometry enables the instrumentation of large surfaces while minimizing the active area of the photodetectors and thus noise and power consumption. This article presents a summary of the research and development studies carried out to optimize this crystal-based technology and key beam test results in which the target time resolution of 30 ps has been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of a Social Branding intervention in bars and nightclubs on smoking behavior.Design: Quasi-experimental controlled study.Setting: Bars and nightclubs in San Diego and San Francisco (intervention) and Los Angeles (control).Participants: "Hipster" young adults (age 18-26) attending bars and nightclubs.Intervention: Anti-tobacco messages delivered through monthly anti-tobacco music/social events, opinion leaders, original art, direct mail, promotional activities, and online media.Measures: A total of 7240 surveys were collected in 3 cities using randomized time location sampling at baseline (2012-2013) and follow-up (2015-2016); data were analyzed in 2018. The primary outcome was current smoking.Analysis: Multivariable logistic regression assessed correlates of smoking, adjusting for covariates including electronic cigarette use; differences between cities were evaluated using location-by-time interactions.Results: Smoking in San Francisco decreased at a significantly faster rate (51.1%-44.1%) than Los Angeles (45.2%-44.5%) (P = .034). Smoking in San Diego (mean: 39.6%) was significantly lower than Los Angeles (44.8%, P < .001) at both time points with no difference in rate of change. Brand recall was not associated with smoking behavior, but recall was associated with anti-tobacco attitudes that were associated with smoking.Conclusion: This is the first controlled study of Social Branding interventions. Intervention implementation was accompanied by decreases in smoking (San Francisco) and sustained lower smoking (San Diego) among young adult bar patrons over 3 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dense plasma focus (DPF) nuclear fusion device is an attractive pulsed neutron source in many applications, due to its relatively large neutron yield, produced in a short time duration. To design a DPF that generates neutrons within a specified time profile, or that generates a neutron energy spectrum with specific properties, it is necessary to characterize and model the results of the fusion process releasing the neutrons. The time–energy spectrum of fusion neutrons is an ideal quantity used in validating multiphysics codes that simulate the pinch and fusion processes, because it is a quantity that requires physics of each of the stages leading up to and ending in the fusion reaction to be simulated correctly. In particular, since DPF fusion neutrons are not monoenergetic—and there can often be several fusion pinches creating neutrons—a computer simulation matching high quality neutron spectrum measurements provides confidence in the fidelity of the simulation. In order to make such a comparison, it is first necessary to have quality measurements from which to infer the spectrum. In this work, we project neutron spectroscopy as the classical tomographic inverse problem from neutron time-of-flight data at multiple distances, but enhanced by using an additional measurement of the time profile of the fusion pinch near its source and by using detector pairs set up in a geometry that allows for scatter background subtraction. The detector pairs enhance the quality of the time-of-flight measurements, and the additional constraint posed by the measured time profile allows for reconstructions discretized as finely as the time measurements and in energy as finely as 100 keV, without the problem being underdetermined. We present results from a deuterium-fueled DPF at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site and show that we can infer the time–energy spectrum from our measurements for both single and multi-pinch fusion reactions with equal fidelity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gay bars have been central to the social and cultural geography of queer folk throughout the twentieth century. In North America, Liquor Control Boards have been important in governing homosexuality. In order to explore the spatial governance of homosexuals, this paper uses a Foucauldian governmentality perspective to analyze data from Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) enforcement and hearing files between 1934 and 1971. While the WSLCB governed heteronormatively, it did so with a relatively light touch through the deployment and selective enforcement of often vague administrative rules. Adherence to the rules, meanwhile, relied upon an ability and willingness to understand authorities' intentions and imaginations and to self-govern accordingly. Gay bars were somewhat privileged vis-à-vis neighboring straight bars, due to the unintended consequences of certain state practices, a desire by state authorities to closet homosexuality generally, and a propensity for self-governance on the parts of gay bar owners, managers, and patrons. Our findings add nuance to work on Foucauldian studies in geography, work on licensing and regulation, and urban gay histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The damping structures of turbo-generators, such as rotor damping bars, core, and slot wedges, can provide positive damping effect for the low-frequency oscillation of power system. However, the magnetic saturation, distortion, and skin effect of generators make nonlinear damping effects during the low-frequency oscillation caused by large disturbance. In order to quantitatively describe the damping effect of the three damping structures, the damping torque coefficient (DTC) during the low-frequency oscillation is calculated by coupling time-stepping finite element method with the polynomial approximation method. The DTCs of turbo-generator with different rotor damping structures are obtained by comparing the individual and combined effect of the three damping components. Since there are several material options for the rotor slot wedges and damping bars, the influence of these materials on DTC is studied. A rotor damping structure that can not only improve the symmetry of rotor damping structure, but also enhance the DTC of turbo-generator is proposed. The results provide theoretical basis for power system stability enhancement by improving the rotor damping structures of turbo-generator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent cases of broken damper bars and shorted field winding turns in synchronous motors (SMs) have shown that rotor faults can degrade motor performance and lead to a forced outage of the motor and driven process. However, detection of SM rotor faults has not received much attention since SMs are not as common as induction motors. Detection of SM rotor faults is difficult, as the damper bar is active only under the starting or load transients, and shorted field winding turns result only in a slight increase in rotating asymmetry. SM rotor fault testing in the field mainly relies on visual inspection or off-line tests, and new test methods that can provide reliable detection of the faults without motor disassembly is highly desirable. In this article, new test methods for not only detecting, but also classifying the two types of SM rotor faults under motor standstill and starting are proposed. A finite element and experimental study on 1.1 MW and 30 kW salient pole SMs are provided to verify the proposed methods. It is shown that damper and field winding faults can be detected and classified with high sensitivity and reliability compared to conventional tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production scheduling is a crucial task in modern steel plants. The scheduling of a wire rod and bar rolling process is challenging in many steel plants, which has a direct impact on their production efficiency and profit. This article studies a new single-machine scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup time, release time, and due time constraints originated from a wire rod and bar rolling process in steel plants. In this problem, jobs have been assigned to batches in advance. The objective is to schedule the batches and jobs on continuous time to minimize the number of late jobs. A mixed-integer program is created as a baseline model. A baseline method is used to solve this NP-hard problem by solving the baseline model. We further design a two-stage decomposition method after analyzing the characteristics of this problem. Both actual and simulated instances with varying sizes are solved by using the proposed methods. The results demonstrate that the baseline method can only solve some small-scale cases, while the decomposition method can solve all small-scale cases and some medium-scale cases. Finally, we reveal the impacts of different instances on the performance of the proposed decomposition method. Note to Practitioners—This article deals with a new single-machine scheduling problem arising from an industrial wire rod and bar rolling process. A baseline method is given to tackle this problem by solving an established mixed-integer program. Afterward, a two-stage decomposition method is proposed such that an industrial size problem can be solved. Computational results of both actual and simulated cases show that it is more efficient than the baseline method in solving the scheduling problem. It can get an optimal solution of the concerned problem with one-week-scale batches and jobs in short time, thereby proving the readiness to put it in industrial use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have previously shown that augmenting orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) with an additional step in the identification stage of each pursuit iteration yields improved $k$ -sparse reconstruction and denoising performance relative to baseline OMP. At each iteration a “path” or geodesic, is generated between the two dictionary atoms that are most correlated with the residual and from this path a new atom that has a greater correlation to the residual than either of the two bracketing atoms is selected. Here, we provide new computational results illustrating improvements in sparse coding and denoising on canonical datasets using both learned and structured dictionaries. The two methods of constructing a path are investigated for each dictionary type: the Euclidean geodesic formed by a linear combination of the two atoms and the 2-Wasserstein geodesic corresponding to the optimal transport map between the atoms. We prove here the existence of a higher-correlation atom in the Euclidean case under assumptions on the two bracketing atoms and introduce algorithmic modifications to improve the likelihood that the bracketing atoms meet those conditions. Although, we demonstrate our augmentation on OMP alone, in general it may be applied to any reconstruction algorithm that relies on the selection and sorting of high-similarity atoms during an analysis or identification phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on an ethnography of dyke bar commemoration in four U.S. cities, this article applies Sedgwick's concept of "reparative reading" to commemorative practices, tracing how commemorators leverage this reading to guide a logic of reparative action. They commemorate material spaces rooted in place, but cultivate mobile and inclusive space. That is, commemorators, most of whom have had limited exposure to the spaces that they mourn, carefully situate the lost dyke bar, highlighting geographic, esthetic, demographic, and temporal attributes. The images they construct of the situated bar contrast with their commemorative events, which emphasize social over alternate attributes. Commemorators repair and critique the situated bar – not to restore it, but to harness it for their forward-facing efforts – by using memory to advocate for a move from specificity to generality; from situated to mobile and inclusive social spaces. I elucidate how this turn toward social space and bar commemoration itself emerges not merely from institutional and territorial loss, but from commitments to diversity, inclusivity, and queer identities and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MnZn-based ferrite materials like the EPCOS N87 or K2004 are commonly used as magnetic cores in inductive power transfer (IPT) applications. However, the performance and the reliability of IPT systems are limited by ferrite's intrinsic brittleness and low flux density saturation point. In this article, a study of nanocrystalline-ribbon-based magnetic cores for IPT applications is presented. Finite element method (FEM) simulations and experimental validations are used to compare both materials. The design of ultrathin laminated cores such as nanocrystalline ribbons for IPT systems is presented. Compared to ferrite, nanocrystalline ribbon is mechanically more robust; it has a higher magnetic permeability and a higher saturation point. Results show that nanocrystalline ribbon cores achieve more than a $\text{50}\%$ volume reduction when used in IPT pads. This is due to nanocrystalline's high saturation point. However, a compromise arises as the total power loss increases due to the induced eddy currents in the core. The reduction of efficiency can be mitigated by special geometrical designs of the nanocrystalline ribbon cores. A 6.6-kW IPT system has been built for experimental validation of the design methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated vehicles or AVs (i.e., those that have the ability to operate without a driver and can communicate with the infrastructure) may transform the transportation system. This study integrates AV trajectory planning and signal phase and timing (SPaT) optimization at an isolated intersection. The proposed control algorithm functions under mixed traffic of AVs and conventional vehicles (CNVs) in real-time. The proposed system aims to achieve coordination among incoming vehicles and SPaT through joint optimization. The input to the algorithm includes vehicles arrival data, and the output consists of optimized trajectories and SPaT commands to the AVs and the signal controller, respectively, to be implemented. Comparison of the algorithm to operations with a fully actuated signal control shows 38%–52% reduction in average travel time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Movement of a grid of bars between the two hands creates the tactile illusion of a velvet-like material, namely, the velvet hand illusion (VHI). It was recently proposed that the VHI is caused by a masking effect; bar movement suppresses conscious perception of tactile inputs from the opposing hand. If this hypothesis sufficiently explains the VHI, the physical properties of the opposing hand should not affect the illusion. Another hypothesis suggests that the integration of inputs from the grid of bars and the hands plays a critical role in the VHI. To compare these two hypotheses, the VHI was elicited under two conditions; the grid of bars was between one hand and a soft texture or the grid of bars was between one hand and a hard texture. A hand was stimulated by moving bars while contacting the stationary texture held by the opposing hand. The grid of bars with the soft texture induced a stronger illusion and softer feeling than that with the hard texture. This result supports the integration hypothesis in which tactile inputs from both bars and textures attached to the opposing hand are integrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel silicon photonics wavelength selective switch (WSS) with sidewall-corrugated contra-directional couplers (C-DCs), which has an unlimited free spectral range and is suitable for broadband operation. Fabricated 2 × 2 1-ch and 2-ch WSSs demonstrate the expected operation with channel wavelengths of 1532 and 1553 nm, a 3-dB bandwidth of ∼3 nm, a flattop spectral shape, and an outband extinction ratio larger than 30 dB over a wavelength range wider than C-band. We discuss a limiting factor for the lower inband extinction of ∼15 dB, which is a leakage to the bar port in the Mach–Zehnder (MZ) switch. Matching the center wavelength of each MZ switch to the Bragg wavelength of the corresponding C-DCs will improve the inband extinction ratio to be larger than 30 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This communication describes a full-wave modal analysis of plane-wave scattering by periodic arrays of penetrable conducting bars with strip covers on both the lower and upper surfaces of each ridge to create iris-type slits across groove apertures, which altogether is sandwiched by multiple dielectric layers on both sides of the gratings. The approach entails the moment method using parallel-plate waveguide cavity Green’s functions and a numerical spectral-domain Green’s function for planar stratified media accompanied by the Floquet theorem. Computed results obtained from codes written based on this formulation are validated with those simulated by a commercial full-wave software solver as well as results from the literature. Validation is performed in terms of reflection and transmission spectra as well as modal dispersion. The new parameters arising from the special complex geometry herein studied provide the means to enhance the performances of various applications such as beam deflectors, mode converters, and grating couplers, as well as the resolution of diffraction gratings in the context of spectroscopy. Measurement results acquired from experimentations carried out on a manufactured grating that corroborate well with theoretical predictions are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern manufacturing processes, motivations for automatic fault diagnosis (FD) are increasingly growing as a result of the great trends toward achieving zero breakdowns. Induction motors (IMs) represent a critical part in most of the applications. Due to its high potential of automatic feature extraction, the deep learning (DL)-based FD of IM has recently been introduced and has essentially emphasized on the diagnosis using the vibration analysis. However, this approach has not received considerable attention when using the current analysis, although it represents a cost-effective alternative. Moreover, the already implemented DL architectures are still suffering from lack of physical interpretability. In this article, a new DL architecture called deep-SincNet is implemented for a multi-FD task. The proposed end-to-end scheme automatically learns the fault features from the raw motor current and accordingly finalizes the FD process. A high accuracy for several separated and combined faults, a more physical interpretability, a high robustness against noisy environments, and a significant gain in implementation cost prove the competitive performance of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a novel snack bar based on sesame paste (SP) and date syrup (DS) was investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluation the effects of SP/DS ratio and encapsulated thymol (thymol‐loaded nanostructured lipid carrier [TNLC]) on physicochemical, textural, rheological, and sensorial properties of snack bars. The effect of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), thymol, and TNLC showed that the addition of 100 ppm TNLC could improve the oxidative stability of SP/DS mixtures even better than BHT, while a higher concentration of TNLC had a negative effect. The unpleasant taste and odor of thymol could be overcome by its encapsulation in nanostructured lipid carriers. The textural properties of the formulations with different SP/DS ratios (1:2, 1:1, 2:1) and an overall concentration of 7 g of gelatin/kg of mixtures were evaluated. The texture profile analysis showed that the sample with an SP/DS ratio of 1:1 had higher hardness, adhesiveness, springiness, cohesiveness, and gumminess in comparison with the other ratios. From the sensory evaluation data, the bar prepared with an SP/DS ratio of 1:1 had the most acceptable texture. According to the results, the SP/DS ratio of 1:1 with gelatin and 100 ppm TNLC can be used in developing SP/DS blends as a highly acceptable functional food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine if a single baseline adherence assessment (Brief Adherence Rating Scale [BARS]) could identify patients who are likely to respond to long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic treatment.Method: The current secondary analysis included a sub-sample of adult outpatients (N = 176) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who participated in the "A Comparison of Long-Acting Injectable Medications for Schizophrenia (ACLAIMS)" trial and had a baseline BARS assessment and a baseline and month 3 Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) rating. The main outcome was LAI treatment response, defined as a ≥ 20% decrease (baseline to month 3) on the PANSS total score. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and Area Under the Curve (AUC) analysis was conducted to determine the optimal cutpoint of baseline BARS adherence in discriminating LAI treatment response at month 3. A logistic mixed model estimated the odds of response to LAI treatment at month 3 from the optimal baseline BARS cutpoint.Results: The ROC analysis determined that the single baseline BARS rating (cutoff ≤66%), indicating low adherence, best discriminated patients likely to respond to LAI treatment (AUC = 0.603, SE = 0.046, 95% binomial exact CI = 0.527 to 0.676, p = 0.025), with 38% sensitivity and 85% specificity. The logistic mixed model analysis revealed that patients with ≤66% BARS adherence had 3.464 times the predicted odds (95% CI = 1.604 to 7.480, p = 0.001) of responding to LAI treatment than those who were >66% BARS adherent.Conclusion: A single baseline BARS assessment discriminated response to LAI treatment suggesting it is a reasonable tool to identify candidates for LAI antipsychotic treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, neural networks have been used to generate symbolic melodies. However, the long-term structure in the melody has posed great difficulty to design a good model. In this article, we present a hierarchical recurrent neural network (HRNN) for melody generation, which consists of three long-short-term-memory (LSTM) subnetworks working in a coarse-to-fine manner along time. Specifically, the three subnetworks generate bar profiles, beat profiles, and notes, in turn, and the output of the high-level subnetworks are fed into the low-level subnetworks, serving as guidance to generate the finer time-scale melody components in the low-level subnetworks. Two human behavior experiments demonstrate the advantage of this structure over the single-layer LSTM which attempts to learn all hidden structures in melodies. Compared with the recently proposed models MidiNet and MusicVAE, the HRNN produces better melodies evaluated by humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classical form of a flexural ultrasonic transducer is a piezoelectric ceramic disc bonded to a circular metallic membrane. This ceramic induces vibration modes of the membrane for the generation and detection of ultrasound. The transducer has been popular for proximity sensing and metrology, particularly for industrial applications at ambient pressures around 1 bar. The classical flexural ultrasonic transducer is not designed for operation at elevated pressures, such as those associated with natural gas transportation or petrochemical processes. It is reliant on a rear seal which forms an internal air cavity, making the transducer susceptible to deformation through pressure imbalance. The application potential of the classical transducer is therefore severely limited. In this study, a venting strategy which balances the pressure between the internal transducer structure and the external environment is studied through experimental methods including electrical impedance analysis and pitch-catch ultrasound measurement. The vented transducer is compared with a commercial equivalent in air towards 90 bar. Venting is shown to be viable for a new generation of low cost and robust industrial ultrasonic transducers, suitable for operation at high environmental pressure levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As dunes and larger‐scale bed forms such as bars coexist in rivers, the question arises whether dune dynamics are influenced by interaction with the underlying bed topography. The present study aims to establish the degree to which dune characteristics in two and three dimensions are influenced by an underlying topography dominated by non‐migrating bars. As a case study, a 20 km stretch in the Waal River in the Netherlands is selected, which represents a sand‐bed lowland river. At this location, longitudinal training dams (LTDs) have recently been constructed to ensure sufficient navigation depth during periods with low water levels, and to reduce flood risk. By using data covering 2‐year‐long periods before and after LTD construction, the robustness of the results is investigated. Before LTD construction, dune characteristics show large variability both spatially and temporally, with dunes being longer, lower, less steep and having a lower lee side angle when they are located on bar tops. The correlation between dune characteristics and the underlying bed topography is disrupted by unsteady conditions for which the dunes are in a state of transition. The bar pattern causes tilting of dune crest lines, which may result from a transverse gradient in bedload sediment transport. As a result of LTD construction, the hydraulic and morphological conditions have changed significantly. Despite this, the main conclusions still hold, which strengthens the validity of the results. ©2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]