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Engaging stakeholders early and throughout design processes is necessary for product success as it supports the alignment of design decisions with user and stakeholder needs and preferences. Leveraging prototypes to engage stakeholders can help designers develop common ground with stakeholders, especially during "front end" design activities, such as problem scoping and product requirements development. While design practitioners intentionally use prototypes to engage stakeholders in a variety of ways including during the earliest stages of design, research suggests that novice designers are not as intentional or comprehensive in their approaches. Therefore, we developed in-depth narratives constructed from practitioners' real design experiences to demonstrate to novice designers how design practitioners use prototypes for stakeholder engagement during the design front-end. Further, we described strategies that could be incorporated into engineering classrooms and suggested ways to support more intentional uses of prototyping strategies by students to engage stakeholders during the design front-end, including through the use of a novel prototyping planning tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing products that are properly suited to users’ needs and preferences in order to be accepted is one of the main challenges designers and engineers face constantly. Evaluating and improving users’ product acceptability has become an important research question. Many approaches leave the acceptability evaluation question for the last phases of the New Product Development process (NPD), when an almost finished prototype is available and when there is no time left for important modifications. In the early phase of the NPD process, the project managers need models and methods to evaluate the potential acceptability of the new concept and if required, to define actions to improve this concept. In this paper, a method with two main goals is proposed to tackle this problem. Its first goal consists in evaluating an index of users’ product acceptability. When this index is too low, the second goal concerns the optimal selection of the most appropriate actions (improvement scenario) to increase this previously assessed index and to optimise the supplementary cost. As information collected from users in the early phase is subject to uncertainty, the proposed method exploits the inference properties of Bayesian networks making it possible to make useful estimations of the acceptability index. Furthermore, the improvement scenarios are composed of actions that make it possible to improve different criteria composing the users’ acceptability index. The improvement problem is formulated as an optimisation problem to be solved by a simulated annealing algorithm. In order to illustrate its interest, the proposed method is applied to a real case concerning the design of a medical-stocking threading device. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the grant proposal is a high-stakes genre for researchers, there are few analyses available for consultation by learners and most studies investigate only a limited number of successful proposals written by experienced academics. This study reports on a genre analysis of a learner corpus of grant proposal summaries (abstracts), written by researchers who operate at the periphery of academia. The proposals were written by exiled Syrian academics and submitted to the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara) grant awarding body for research funding. A corpus of 102 proposal summaries was compiled consisting of 27 successful and 75 unsuccessful summaries, and a genre framework of three moves and ten steps was developed. Successful summaries were contrasted with unsuccessful summaries; this comparison reveals that unsuccessful summaries underuse the move Indicating the value of the research. Specifically, they tend to omit two steps: Importance (of the research) and Research Outcomes. All Cara summaries were also compared with Matzler's (2021) prototype; results show that both successful and unsuccessful summaries underuse the Methods step. These findings provide pointers to the genre functions likely to be most problematic for learners, and have immediate practical applications in pedagogic materials for proposal writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is shifting towards renewable energy sources most notably solar and wind power. Besides these two, there are other sources of renewable power which are relatively less exploited. Among these, a rather unexplored field is that of animate prime movers. The current paper intends to present hardware prototype based methodology for evaluation of the potential of generatable power from an exercising animate prime mover -- which in the current case is a male caprine subject. MATLAB environment has been used for an attempt to track the center of mass (COM) motion of the subject subsequent to its movement on a retrofitted treadmill. These COM motion trajectories can be used to evaluate the potential of generatable power -- wherein the vertical COM motion upon the treadmill with an incline is compared with the corresponding COM motion on the machine when it is flat, and thus the power expended for vertical propulsion of the body is evaluated. This power is potentially generatable if the machine is kept flat and an energy harvesting mechanism is attached to it. Furthermore, the paper includes a relevant literature review section for this relatively unorthodox field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into moderators, which support collaborative teams by proactively making team members aware of actions or potential problems which may affect them, began in the 1990s, in the context of supporting collaborations during concurrent engineering projects. This paper provides a background to the evolution of moderators and explores their role in supporting virtual organisations. A collaboration moderator (CM) is an evolution of earlier moderators and is capable of behaving differently for different types of users and therefore caters for the varying requirements of individual users depending on the roles they have in the collaborations. This paper describes the architecture and components of a CM from an implementation perspective. Prototype CMs have been developed during the EU-funded SYNERGY project, and two use cases for which the prototype CMs were implemented as a service (a Pre-Creation use case and an Operational use case) are also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wrist splints are a common treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, however, their effectiveness is compromised by patients not wearing splints as prescribed. Previous research has identified reasons for non-compliance, but typically lacks insights that could lead to improved splint design. A three-part study, using design probes, context mapping and a personalization toolkit as co-design methods for eliciting patient needs for wrist splint designs, is described. It identifies three themes and nine sub-themes for situations that affect compliance in wearing a splint. Additionally, four motivating factors to wear and 10 motivating factors not to wear a splint are presented. Nine requirements for improved splint design are established and form the basis of the design for a prototype personalization toolkit. Testing of this toolkit reveals participants are keen to wear splints whose appearance matches the clothes they are wearing or activities being undertaken. Co-design methods are shown to be capable of identifying determinants of compliance not previously discussed in the literature, as well as eliciting patient-specific needs for splint design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dublin Core descriptors capture metadata in most repositories, and this includes recent repositories dedicated to datasets. DC descriptors are generic and are being adapted to the requirements of different communities with the so-called Dublin Core Application Profiles that rely on the agreement within user communities, taking into account their evolving needs. In this paper, we propose an automated process to help curators and users discover the descriptors that best suit the needs of a specific research group in the task of describing and depositing datasets. Our approach is supported on Dendro, a prototype research data management platform, where an experimental method is used to rank and present DC Terms descriptors to the users based on their usage patterns. User interaction is recorded and used to score descriptors. In a controlled experiment, we gathered the interactions of two groups as they used Dendro to describe datasets from selected sources. One of the groups viewed descriptors according to the ranking, while the other had the same list of descriptors throughout the experiment. Preliminary results show that (1) some DC Terms are filled in more often than others, with different distribution in the two groups, (2) descriptors in higher ranks were increasingly accepted by users in detriment of manual selection, (3) users were satisfied with the performance of the platform, and (4) the quality of description was not hindered by descriptor ranking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accuracy of control links directly affects the compensation effect of active power filter (APF). Fast repetitive control (FRC) strategy based on single synchronous rotating frame is proposed, for improving the steady-state compensation accuracy and dynamic response. Based on the fundamental rotating mathematical model of APF, the fundamental component of output instruction current can be converted to DC component by synchronous rotation coordinate transformation, and 6k ± 1 times harmonics can be transferred to 6k times harmonics. Then, a hybrid control method based on proportion-integral (PI) control combined with FRC is proposed. The experimental results of the prototype proved that the method advantages in steady-state compensation accuracy, adaptability to load variation and dynamic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using bacteria to transform reactive corrosion products into stable compounds represents an alternative to traditional methods employed in iron conservation. Two environmental Aeromonas strains (CA23 and CU5) were used to transform ferric iron corrosion products (goethite and lepidocrocite) into stable ferrous bearing minerals (vivianite and siderite). A genomic and transcriptomic approach was conducted to analyze the metabolic traits of these strains and to evaluate their pathogenic potential. Although genes involved in solid-phase iron reduction were identified, key genes present in other environmental iron-reducing species are missing from the genome of CU5. Several pathogenicity factors were identified in the genomes of both strains, but none of these was expressed under iron-reduction conditions. Additional in vivo tests showed hemolytic and cytotoxic activities for the strain CA23, but not for the strain CU5. Both strains were easily inactivated using ethanol and heat. Nonetheless, given a lesser potential for a pathogenic lifestyle, CU5 is a most promising candidate for the development of a bio-based iron conservation method stabilizing iron corrosion. Based on all the results, a prototype treatment was established using archaeological items. On those, the conversion of reactive corrosion products and the formation of a homogenous layer of biogenic iron minerals was achieved. This study shows how naturally-occurring microorganisms and their metabolic capabilities can be used to develop bio-inspired solutions to the problem of metal corrosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Technological advancements in high-throughput DNA sequencing have led to an exponential growth of sequencing data being produced and stored as a byproduct of biomedical research. Despite its public availability, a majority of this data remains hard to query for the research community due to a lack of efficient data representation and indexing solutions. One of the available techniques to represent read data is a condensed form as an assembly graph. Such a representation contains all sequence information but does not store contextual information and metadata. Results We present two new approaches for a compressed representation of a graph coloring: a lossless compression scheme based on a novel application of wavelet tries as well as a highly accurate lossy compression based on a set of Bloom filters. Both strategies retain a coloring even when adding to the underlying graph topology. We present construction and merge procedures for both methods and evaluate their performance on a wide range of different datasets. By dropping the requirement of a fully lossless compression and using the topological information of the underlying graph, we can reduce memory requirements by up to three orders of magnitude. Representing individual colors as independently stored modules, our approaches can be efficiently parallelized and provide strategies for dynamic use. These properties allow for an easy upscaling to the problem sizes common to the biomedical domain. Availability and implementation We provide prototype implementations in C++, summaries of our experiments as well as links to all datasets publicly at https://github.com/ratschlab/graph%5fannotation. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of using micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) to convert a binary phase shift keying (BPSK) signal to a simpler amplitude shift keying (ASK) scheme.Design/methodology/approach The prototype is designed within the SOIMUMPs® fabrication process constraints. The fabrication constraints imposed geometric limitations on what could be tested. These constraints were used to build a mathematical model, which in turn was used to optimize the response using MATLAB®. The optimized design was tested using finite element analysis with CoventorWare®, and finally lab tests on the fabricated device were performed to confirm theoretical predictions.Findings Theoretical predictions compared well with lab measurements on a prototype device measuring 2.9 mm2. The prototype was tested with a carrier frequency of 174 kHz at a BPSK data rate of 3 kHz and carrier amplitude of 6 V. With these parameters, ASK modulation indices of 0.96 and 0.94 were measured at the two output sensors.Originality/value This study provides a MEMS solution for BPSK to ASK conversion. The study also identifies what limits betterment of the modulation index and data rate. Such a device has potential application in wireless sensor network (WSN) nodes that have energy harvesters and sensors that are also built in MEMS. Being a MEMS device, it can facilitate integration in such WSN nodes and, hence, potentially reduce size and costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Mechanical design of fuel assembly for prototype GEN-IV sodium-cooled fast reactor. • Structural analysis of fuel assembly under normal operation and accident conditions. • Derived conservative design limit for protected transient over-power (PTOP) and unprotected loss of flow (ULOF) case. • Development of finite element analysis model of structural components for normal operation and accident condition. • Suggestion the design limit for structural analysis under accident condition. Abstract The Korea 150 MWe Prototype GEN-IV Sodium cooled Fast Reactor (PGSFR) project has reached the middle of its preliminary safety analysis report (SAR) design phase. The core design studies are being conducted by KAERI. Some design features for the core have been made to comply with the GEN-IV reactor objectives. The main objective to improve the safety of the core design. A negative sodium void worth was achieved thanks to a new fuel assembly design including U-Zr and U-TRU-Zr axially heterogeneous fuel rods, a large cladding/small spacer wire bundle, a sodium bonding between metal slug and cladding, and upper gas plenum above the active core region, and upper/lower reflectors. Finite element calculations were performed to increase the stiffness of the above core load pad and top load pad in order to analyze their effect on the core mechanical behavior during hypothetical radial core flowering and compaction events. More generally, all design choices for the PGSFR have been made with the permanent objective of minimizing the fuel assembly height to decrease the overall costs of the reactor and the fuel cycle. This paper describes the fuel assembly design for the GEN-IV core at the end of the preliminary SAR design phase and studies performed to optimize the performances. The basic design and fuel assembly analysis results were described in this work. In specially, the design analysis results under the accident condition is focused in this paper. As the results of that, the structural integrity of a fuel assembly was satisfied for the PGSFR fuel assembly mechanical design criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a family of binary classifiers and analyse their performance. Each classifier is determined by a set of ‘prototypes’, with given labels. The classification of a given point is determined through the sign of a discriminant function. For each prototype, its sphere of influence is the largest sphere centred on it that contains no prototypes of opposite label, and, given a point to be classified, there is a contribution to the discriminant function at that point from precisely those prototypes whose spheres of influence contain the point. This contribution is positive from positive prototypes and negative from negative prototypes. These contributions are larger in absolute value the closer the point is (relative to the sphere's radius) to the prototype. We quantify the generalization error of such classifiers in a standard probabilistic learning model which involves the values of the discriminant function on the points of a random training sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new concept of using permanent magnet systems for guiding superparamagnetic nano-particles on arbitrary trajectories over a large volume is proposed. The basic idea is to use one magnet system which provides a strong, homogeneous, dipolar magnetic field to magnetize and orient the particles, and a second constantly graded, quadrupolar field, superimposed on the first, to generate a force on the oriented particles. In this configuration the motion of the particles is driven predominantly by the component of the gradient field which is parallel to the direction of the homogeneous field. As a result, particles are guided with constant force and in a single direction over the entire volume. The direction is simply adjusted by varying the angle between quadrupole and dipole. Since a single gradient is impossible due to Gauß’ law, the other gradient component of the quadrupole determines the angular deviation of the force. However, the latter can be neglected if the homogeneous field is stronger than the local contribution of the quadrupole field. A possible realization of this idea is a coaxial arrangement of two Halbach cylinders. A dipole to evenly magnetize and orient the particles, and a quadrupole to generate the force. The local force was calculated analytically for this particular geometry and the directional limits were analyzed and discussed. A simple prototype was constructed to demonstrate the principle in two dimensions on several nano-particles of different size, which were moved along a rough square by manual adjustment of the force angle. The observed velocities of superparamagnetic particles in this prototype were always several orders of magnitude higher than the theoretically expected value. This discrepancy is attributed to the observed formation of long particle chains as a result of their polarization by the homogeneous field. The magnetic moment of such a chain is then the combination of that of its constituents, while its hydrodynamic radius stays low. A complete system will consist of another quadrupole (third cylinder) to additionally enable scaling of the gradient/force strength by another rotation. In this configuration the device could then also be used as a simple MRI machine to image the particles between movement intervals. Finally, a concept is proposed by which superparamagnetic particles can be guided in three-dimensional space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, over two hundred million people, around the world, went online for the first time bringing the number of people worldwide using the Internet to 3.2 billion. Still, a majority of the world, about 4.2 billion, is offline. The barriers to going online and becoming digitally literate can be greater than just infrastructural obstacles, including psychosocial barriers related to incentives, affordability, and user capability. Our goal is to help the next 4 billion go online by designing an educational solution to equip people with digital literacy skills to improve their lives. We have employed a human-centered design methodology through community research, synthesis, ideation, prototyping, and piloting to build solutions first for northern and central India. The design may be re-contextualized in order to scale to new locations. This paper focuses on the ideation and prototyping parts of the design phase and the initial pilots of the delivery phase, which are still in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prototype split-and-delay unit (SDU) for X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses is proposed based on the Graeff-Bonse four-Bragg-reflection interferometer by installing 12.5° slopes. The SDU can continuously provide a delay time from approximately −20 to 40 ps with a resolution of less than 26 fs. Because the SDU was constructed from a monolithic silicon crystal, alignment is straightforward. The obtained thoroughputs of the SDU reached 0.7% at 7.46 keV and 0.02% at 14.92 keV. The tunability of the delay time using the proposed SDU was demonstrated by finding the interference effects of the split X-rays, and the time resolution of the proposed SDU was evaluated using the width of the interference pattern recorded on the X-ray charge-coupled device camera by changing the energy, i.e. longitudinal coherence length, of the incident X-rays. It is expected that the proposed SDU will be applicable to XFEL experiments using delay times from tens of femtoseconds to tens of picoseconds, e.g. intensity correlation measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a nonisolated bidirectional dc–dc converter is presented. The proposed converter consists of two boost converters to enhance the voltage gain. Four power switches with their body diodes are employed in the proposed converter. Also, two inductors and a capacitor are used as passive components. The input current is divided to the inductors which causes the efficiency to be high. The voltage gain of the proposed converter is higher than the conventional cascaded bidirectional buck/boost converter (CCBC) in step-up mode. Besides, the voltage gain in step-down mode is lower than CCBC. Besides, the efficiency of the proposed converter more than CCBC while the total stress on active switches are same. The simple structure of the proposed converter causes its control to be easy. The steady-state analysis of the proposed converter is discussed in this paper thoroughly. The stress on converters’ devices and the efficiency of the proposed converter and CCBC are compared in this paper. Finally, the proposed converter prototype circuit is implemented to justify the validity of the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, the opportunity of coupling a pressure management strategy with power generation in water distribution networks (WDNs) has attracted increasing interest. Numerical simulations developed for a number of real cases showed attractive profits and capital payback periods. Although many micro- and pico-hydro plants currently are operating along supply water mains, installations in WDNs are quite uncommon because of the high variability of flow and pressure patterns. Aiming at robust and effective industrial-based solutions, a laboratory prototype was developed for hydropower generation in WDNs. A pump as turbine (PAT) was used for generation, although a traditional turbine could be used as well. A control strategy was developed and implemented for automatic setting of regulating valves, aimed at both ensuring adequate pressure over the network and maximizing electric power. Experiments showed that the valves, equipped with the automatic control system previously described, can automatically both regulate the flow running the PAT and guarantee the set point pressure at the network monitored node, even in cases of abrupt change in pressure and flow discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An in-depth treatment of impulse an radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) wireless system is provided reviewing theoretical background, proceeding with detailed implementation procedure, and finally giving simulation and test results. This is the first research and prototyping work to be published in the field of IR-UWB that operates in the 6-8 GHz band. The aim of this work is to implement an IR-UWB wireless system for industrial automation that is robust and reliable. To achieve this, an analogue bandwidth of 250 MHz and digital baseband processing at the clock frequency 499.2 MHz were realized in a 250 nm BiCMOS process, integrating the complete system into a single chip. Simulation and measurement results confirm that the implemented IR-UWB transceiver is operational across four frequency channels in the band 6-8 GHz each supporting three data rates 850 kb/s, 6.81 Mb/s and 27.24 Mb/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed an illumination optical system for 3D imaging ladar (laser detection and ranging) which forms flattop beam shape by transformation of the Gaussian beam in the wide distance range. The illumination is achieved by beam division and recombination using a prism and a negative powered lens. The optimum condition of the transformation by the optical system is derived. It is confirmed that the flattop distribution can be formed in the wide range of the propagation distance from 1 to 1000 m. The experimental result with the prototype is in good agreement with the calculation result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a reinforcement system that utilizes unique geometries in order to improve reinforced concrete beam stiffness, shear strength, and reinforcement bond properties, as compared with conventional glass-fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bar-style reinforcement is introduced. The proposed GFRP reinforcement is formed into modular units intended for use in place of traditional flexural reinforcement. Prototype reinforcement units were manufactured and cast into eight concrete beam specimens. These specimens were tested and compared to similar specimens with conventional straight GFRP bars in order to document their behavior and assess the effect on beam performance of the new geometry under typical loading. Bond failures that occurred in the control specimens were not present in the prototype specimens. Ultimate shear capacity in one of the prototype variations was increased by 26% over the bar-reinforced control specimens. Flexural performance for one of the prototypes was also found to be comparable to the bar-style control reinforcements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel switched reluctance motor incorporating a new design methodology. The proposed structure is designed using distinct concepts including design considerations of salient poles and the motor energy conversion capacity. First, multiple techniques to increase the motor torque using these concepts are discussed. Then, the new design is introduced. Based on the concepts of maximum energy conversion and also providing a topology change process, a novel stator-segmented structure is proposed. The three-phase form of the proposed motor has six segments in the stator with four poles and a solid rotor with 22 poles. The novel motor's characteristics are initially obtained using finite-element analysis and shown to exhibit higher torque density when compared to the conventional structure. Finally, the performance of the new design and analysis methods described in the paper are verified by experimental results obtained by a built prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Review of the virtual prototyping and physical development of the rotary field ferrite phase shifter is presented. A description of the basic principle of operation of the rotary field ferrite phase shifter has been given along with the key aspects about the design and virtual prototyping of various parts of the phase shifter viz ferrite rod, yoke, polarisers and matching section using HFSS and 3-D Maxwell softwares. Calibrated simulation performance of the phase shifters is presented and it shows good agreement with physical measurement results. Three prototypes and one hundred production capable phase shifter modules were fabricated, functionally tested and RF characterised. This is an indigenous development of the physical prototypes of rotary field class of ferrite phase shifters of C-band. This class of ferrite phase shifters finds application in phased array radars, such as battery level radar and weapon locating radar, because of its high phase accuracy and high power handling capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes a method for gamifying the design and assembly of computationally integrated structures built out of discrete identical blocks. As a case study, the interactive installation Sensitive Assembly was designed and built at the Digital Design Unit (Prof. Dr Oliver Tessmann) at the Technische Universität of Darmstadt and exhibited during the digital art festival NODE 2015 in Frankfurt in 2015. Sensitive Assembly invites people to play a Jenga-like game: starting from a solid wall, players are asked to remove and replace the installation's building blocks to create windows to a nurturing light while challenging its stability. A computational system that senses the current state of the wall guides the physical interaction and predicts an approaching collapse or a new light beam breaking through. The installation extends the notion of real-time feedback from the digital into the physical and uses machine-learning techniques to predict future structural behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the design of a new ultra-wideband antenna with an octagonal configuration and reduced size. The prototype has been simulated and designed. It has shown a permissible agreement between simulations and measures and an operation of ultra-wideband from 2.38 to 14 GHz (142 %) for wireless applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital relays are capable of computing the negative-sequence current on both primary and secondary sides of the transformer along with the phase difference between these two negative-sequence currents. By using both phase and magnitude information, negative-sequence current could be used to detect minor turn-to-turn faults involving 3% of the transformer's windings or more. Turn-to-turn faults may still occur even if no current is flowing on one side of the transformer, such as during energization. With no current flowing in the secondary windings of the transformer, negative-sequence current-based algorithms become insensitive. This paper introduces a relay prototype, using both negative-sequence current and negative-sequence voltage, which retains its sensitivity during energization. The relay's performance for several commonly encountered system scenarios, such as overexcitation, current-transformer saturation, nonzero fault resistance, transformer energization, and external faults were also examined. The experimental results presented in this paper indicate that the algorithm proposed in this paper is faster and more sensitive than restrained current differential protection and is capable of detecting turn-to-turn faults occurring during transformer energization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Software-defined vehicular sensor networks in agriculture, such as autonomous vehicle navigation based on wireless multi-sensor networks, can lead to more efficient precision agriculture. In SDN-based vehicle sensor networks, the data plane is simplified and becomes more efficient by introducing a centralized controller. However, in a wireless environment, the main controller node may leave the sensor network due to the dynamic topology change or the unstable wireless signal, leaving the rest of network devices without control, e.g., a sensor node as a switch may forward packets according to stale rules until the controller updates the flow table entries. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a novel SDN-based vehicular sensor networks architecture which can minimize the performance penalty of controller connection loss. We achieve this by designing a connection state detection and self-learning mechanism. We build prototypes based on extended Open vSwitch and Ryu. The experimental results show that the recovery time from controller connection loss is under 100 ms and it keeps rule updating in real time with a stable throughput. This architecture enhances the survivability and stability of SDN-based vehicular sensor networks in precision agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-component force sensors have infiltrated a wide variety of automation products since the 1970s. However, one seldom finds full-component sensor systems available in the market for cutting force measurement in machine processes. In this paper, a new six-component sensor system with a compact monolithic elastic element (EE) is designed and developed to detect the tangential cutting forces Fx, Fy and Fz (i.e., forces along x-, y-, and z-axis) as well as the cutting moments Mx, My and Mz (i.e., moments about x-, y-, and z-axis) simultaneously. Optimal structural parameters of the EE are carefully designed via simulation-driven optimization. Moreover, a prototype sensor system is fabricated, which is applied to a 5-axis parallel kinematic machining center. Calibration experimental results demonstrate that the system is capable of measuring cutting forces and moments with good linearity while minimizing coupling error. Both the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and calibration experimental studies validate the high performance of the proposed sensor system that is expected to be adopted into machining processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates that accurate data concerning bathymetry as well as environmental conditions in shallow waters can be acquired using sensors that are integrated into the same marine vehicle. An open prototype of an unmanned surface vessel (USV) named MicroVeGA is described. The focus is on the main instruments installed on-board: a differential Global Position System (GPS) system and single beam echo sounder; inertial platform for attitude control; ultrasound obstacle-detection system with temperature control system; emerged and submerged video acquisition system. The results of two cases study are presented, both concerning areas (Sorrento Marina Grande and Marechiaro Harbour, both in the Gulf of Naples) characterized by a coastal physiography that impedes the execution of a bathymetric survey with traditional boats. In addition, those areas are critical because of the presence of submerged archaeological remains that produce rapid changes in depth values. The experiments confirm that the integration of the sensors improves the instruments' performance and survey accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Business models to date have remained the creation of management, however, it is the belief of the authors that designers should be critically approaching, challenging and creating new business models as part of their practice. This belief portrays a new era where business model constructs become the new design brief of the future and fuel design and innovation to work together at the strategic level of an organisation. Design/methodology/approach – The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate business model design. The research followed a deductive structured qualitative content analysis approach utilizing a predetermined categorization matrix. The analysis of forty business cases uncovered commonalities of key strategic drivers behind these innovative business models. Findings – Five business model typologies were derived from this content analysis, from which quick prototypes of new business models can be created. Research limitations/implications – Implications from this research suggest there is no “one right” model, but rather through experimentation, the generation of many unique and diverse concepts can result in greater possibilities for future innovation and sustained competitive advantage. Originality/value – This paper builds upon the emerging research and exploration into the importance and relevance of dynamic, design-driven approaches to the creation of innovative business models. These models aim to synthesize knowledge gained from real world examples into a tangible, accessible and provoking framework that provide new prototyping templates to aid the process of business model experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new frequency-reconfigurable antenna architecture is presented, in which a dielectric fluid is pumped into a cavity behind the antenna to change its resonant frequency. The continuous tuning provided by the changing fluid volume allows the resonant frequency to be adjusted to any value within the tunable range. This tuning method does not affect the power handling capability of the antenna and does not consume power while the resonant frequency is kept constant. This method of tuning also stands out in its class by offering a wide tuning range, high efficiency, and very good electrical isolation between the antenna and the control circuitry. The antenna was designed and optimized using Ansys HFSS software and several prototypes were built and tested. Measured results of the input response, radiation pattern, and efficiency are presented. Castor oil (\varepsilonr=\text{2.7}) and ethyl acetate (\varepsilonr=\text{6}) were used in physical tests as the tuning fluids to verify the simulated results. Good agreement between simulated and measured results was observed which is also in line with the behavior suggested by theory and earlier investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Half-width microstrip leaky-wave antennas (HW-MLWAs) are generally single band. Here, we present a new method to achieve dual-band operation from an HW-MLWA by periodically loading the antenna with U-shaped slots. These dual-band MLWAs are able to steer the beam in forward directions in one band and in backward directions in the other band. One of the antenna designs was prototyped and tested, and excellent agreement between the predicted and measured results were observed. The measured 10-dB return loss bandwidth of the first and second bands are $19.5 \% $ (5.24–6.37 GHz) and $13.2 \% $ (7.9–9.02 GHz), respectively. The antenna can steer the main beam from $30^\circ $ to $65^\circ $ in the first band and from $-46^\circ $ to $-10^\circ$ in the second band by sweeping the frequency from 5.25 to 6.25 GHz and 7.75 to 9 GHz, respectively. The measured peak gain of the antenna is 12.2 and 14.1 dBi in the first and second bands, respectively. Although the antenna parameters are optimized for dual-band operation, the radiation properties in another higher frequency band (third band) are also explored. In the third band, the antenna beam continuously scans from backward to forward direction as frequency increases. Moreover, this U-slot loaded single-layer half-width LWA is easy to fabricate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present significant improvements to the circular Eleven feed technology for a dual-reflector system operating over 0.35–1.05 GHz as a backup for the square kilometer array (SKA) project Band 1. In this work, the number of the feed ports is reduced to 4 from the previous 8 for dual polarization using a novel geometry at the center. The design is carried out by optimizing with a social civilization algorithm. The resulting improvements include a reflection coefficient below -12\;\textdB, an aperture efficiency above 70% at the upper end of the band, a maximum cross-polar level under -15\;\textdB, and an ohmic loss about 0.05 dB. A prototype based on this design has been manufactured and the design simulations have been verified against measurements. A simulated sensitivity of the dual-reflector receiver system for the SKA project based on the measured data is also presented in this communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report characterization results for an engineering prototype of a next-generation low-frequency radio astronomy array. This prototype, which we refer to as the Aperture Array Verification System 0.5 (AAVS0.5), is a sparse pseudorandom array of 16 log-periodic antennas designed for 70–450 MHz. It is colocated with the Murchison widefield array (MWA) at the Murchison radioastronomy observatory (MRO) near the Australian square kilometre array (SKA) core site. We characterize the AAVS0.5 using two methods: in situ radio interferometry with astronomical sources and an engineering approach based on detailed full-wave simulation. In situ measurement of the small prototype array is challenging due to the dominance of the Galactic noise and the relatively weaker calibration sources easily accessible in the southern sky. The MWA, with its 128 “tiles” and up to 3 km baselines, enabled in situ measurement via radio interferometry. We present array sensitivity and beam pattern characterization results and compare to detailed full-wave simulation. We discuss areas where differences between the two methods exist and offer possibilities for improvement. Our work demonstrates the value of the dual astronomy–simulation approach in upcoming SKA design work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation control is an important issue for both science and engineering. A metasurface is an artificial surface composed of electrically small scatterers. Of late, metasurfacing has been an emerging and promising technique for controlling wave propagation. Traditional metasurfaces mainly employ surface reactances and generally reflect waves when manipulating wave transmission or refraction. In this paper, a passive metasurface employing both surface reactance and positive surface resistance is proposed, which can not only manipulate wave transmission magnitude and phase independently and fully but also suppress wave reflection simultaneously. Furthermore, reflectionless refraction can also be achieved with the proposed passive metasurface. The complete design theory is established for the passive metasurface. Theoretical analysis, prototypes, simulation, and experimental validation are demonstrated. The reflectionless feature of a passive metasurface is important for avoiding multiple wave reflections and interference between stages in EM systems. It also enables novel wave transmission cascade manipulation and may have potential applications in highly directive radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The fabrication is reported of nanodamascene metallic single electron transistors that take advantage of unique properties of chemical mechanical polishing and atomic layer deposition. Chemical mechanical polishing provides a path for tuning the dimensions of tunnel junctions by adjusting the polish time, surpassing the limits imposed by electron beam lithography and lift-off, while atomic layer deposition provides precise control over the thickness of the tunnel barrier and significantly increases the choices for barrier materials. Single-electron transistor operation of a prototype device was successfully demonstrated at T<1K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Series stacking of multiple devices in power amplifiers is a promising technique that has been explored recently at millimetre-wave frequencies to overcome some of the fundamental limitations of metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Stacking multiple devices improve the output power and efficiency by increasing the achievable output voltage swing. Switching power amplifiers (PAs), such as Class-E PAs, are capable of high efficiency operation and can benefit from device stacking. This study presents a new topology for stacked Class-E-like PAs. In this technique, an appropriate Class-E load network is used for each stacked device, which imparts a true Class-E behaviour to all the devices in the stack. In addition, output power is available from multiple corresponding output nodes. The resulting topology is called the multi-output stacked Class-E PA. Two Q-band prototypes - a unit cell with two devices stacked, and a power-combined version employing two such unit cells - have been fabricated in IBM's 45 nm silicon-oninsulator CMOS technology using the 56 nm body-contacted devices. Measurements yield a peak PAE of 25.5% for the unit cell with saturated output power of 17.9 dBm, and a peak PAE >16% for the power-combined version with saturated output power >19.1 dBm. Owing to the proposed technique, the performance metrics are at par with the current state-of-the-art despite the higher ON-resistance and poor fmax of the body-contacted devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The space-resolving measurement of X-ray flux from a specific area (laser spot, reemitting wall, or capsule) inside the hohlraum is an ongoing and critical problem in indirectly driven inertial-confinement fusion experiments. In this work, we developed a new two-dimensional space-resolving flux detection technique to measure the X-ray flux from specific areas inside the hohlraum by using the time- and space-resolving flux detector (SRFD). In two typical hohlraum experiments conducted at the Shenguang-III prototype laser facility, the X-ray flux and radiation temperature from an area 0.2 mm in diameter inside the hohlraum were measured through the laser entrance hole (LEH). The different flux intensities and radiation temperatures detected using the SRFD from the inner area of the LEH were compared with the result measured using the flat-response X-ray detector from the entire LEH. This comparison was also analyzed theoretically. The inner area detected using the SRFD was found to be the re-emitting wall area alone. This important improvement in space-resolving X-ray flux measurement will enhance the current X-ray flux space characterization techniques, thereby furthering the quantitative understanding of X-ray flux space behavior in the hohlraum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of an analysis of terrorist attacks carried out worldwide, where in recent years a preference for the use of bulk explosives placed in vehicles prevails, effective protection against these malicious explosive-containing systems that have a single goal - to cause death and significant material damage in a large radius is dealt. These improvised explosive devices are, in pyrotechnical terms, ranked as one of the most effective weapons, with a highly destructive character of explosive effect. A special water shaped charge that is able to destructively disassemble a bomb without initiation has been developed as an effective invasive means of eliminating similarly designed terrorist explosives hidden in cars, a condition which allows for considerable variation in location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a method for interactive editing of planar linkages. Given a working linkage as input, the user can make targeted edits to the shape or motion of selected parts while preserving other, e.g., functionally-important aspects. In order to make this process intuitive and efficient, we provide a number of editing tools at different levels of abstraction. For instance, the user can directly change the structure of a linkage by displacing joints, edit the motion of selected points on the linkage, or impose limits on the size of its enclosure. Our method safeguards against degenerate configurations during these edits, thus ensuring the correct functioning of the mechanism at all times. Linkage editing poses strict requirements on performance that standard approaches fail to provide. In order to enable interactive and robust editing, we build on a symbolic kinematics approach that uses closed-form expressions instead of numerical methods to compute the motion of a linkage and its derivatives. We demonstrate our system on a diverse set of examples, illustrating the potential to adapt and personalize the structure and motion of existing linkages. To validate the feasibility of our edited designs, we fabricated two physical prototypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TileCal Demonstrator is a prototype for the future upgrade of the ATLAS hadron calorimeter when the Large Hadron Collider increases luminosity in year 2023 (HL-LHC). It will be used for functionality and performance tests. The Demonstrator has 48 channels of upgraded readout and digitizing electronics and a new digital trigger capability, but is backwards-compatible with the present detector system insofar as it also provides analog trigger signals and can communicate as the present system. The on-detector part of the Demonstrator is comprised of 4 identical mechanical mini-drawers, each equipped with up to 12 photomultipliers (PMTs). The on-detector electronics includes 45 Analog Front-End Boards, each serving an individual PMT; 4 Main Boards, each to control and digitize up to 12 PMT signals, and 4 corresponding high-speed Daughter Boards serving as data hubs between on-detector and off-detector electronics. It is fully compatible with the present system, accepting ATLAS triggers, timing and slow control commands for the data acquisition, detector control, and detector operation monitoring. We plan to insert one fully functional Demonstrator module into the present ATLAS TileCal detector for the LHC RUN 2 in Christmas shutdown in 2015 or 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]