Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated microwave and millimeter-wave phased-array designs in silicon technologies

This research focuses on the design and analysis of on- chip phased-array receivers and transmitters in silicon technologies. Passive phase shifters have been widely used in conventional discrete implementations of phased-arrays which are based on transmit/receive modules in III-V technologies. However their large volume and high loss impose several challenging issues for on-chip integration. To leverage system optimizations of on-chip phased-arrays, active phase shifter architecture is primarily investigated in this dissertation. The active phase shifter utilizes a quadrature signal interpolation where the I/Q signals are added with appropriate amplitude and polarity to synthesize the required phase. The quadrature signal generator is a key element for accurate multi-bit phase states in the active phase shifter. To generate lossless wideband quadrature signals, a novel I/Q signal generator based on second-order L-C series resonance is developed. Active phase shifters with 4-bit and 5-bit control are then designed in 0.13-um and 0.18-um CMOS technologies and tested successfully for 6-26 GHz phased- arrays applications, featuring the smallest chip size ever reported at these frequencies with similar phase resolutions. After successful demonstration of the active phase shifters, an eight-element phased-array receiver is developed in 0.18-um SiGe BiCMOS technology for X- and Ku- band satellite communications. The phased-array receiver adopts corporate-feed architecture implemented with active signal combiners. The phased-array receiver is rigorously characterized including channel-to-channel mismatches and signal coupling errors from different channels. The on- chip phased-array designs are then extended to millimeter- wave frequencies. A four-element phased-array receiver and a sixteen-element phased-array transmitter are designed using the SiGe BiCMOS technology and tested successfully for Q-band applications. Wilkinson couplers are compactly integrated for linear coherent signal combining in the Q- band phased-array receiver. Also in the Q-band transmitter array, passive Tee-junction power dividers are integrated as a linear signal feed network. The power divider is based on a coaxial-type shielded transmission line utilizing three-dimensional metal stack, which leads to a compact corporate-feed network suitable for large on-chip arrays. The sixteen-element phased-array transmitter marks the highest integration of phased-array elements known to- date, proving a good scalability to a large array of the proposed phased-array architecture. Also, each phased- array design integrates all digital control units and presents the first demonstration of on-chip silicon phased -array at the corresponding design frequency, solving one of key barriers for low-cost and complex phased-arrays
The TUBA Family of Plate Elements for the Matrix Displacement Method

The analytical construction of displacement functions for plate elements subject to bending was discussed at some length in ref. 1. Attention was thereby drawn to both triangular and quadrilateral elements available in the ASKA system, which satisfy either all kinematic compatibility conditions or are deficient in the continuity of the gradient normal to the edge. The most rudimentary elements of the triangular set consist of the so-called fully compatible TRIB 3C and the TRIB 3, which satisfies the slope condition only at the vertices. The TRIB 3C corresponds in principle, but not in detail, to the element evolved by Bazeley et al but allows, however, also for linear taper.
Evaluation and Optimization in Dense Wireless Networks

The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the performance of wireless networks under various scenarios: stationary, mobile, single-hop and multi-hop networks. Our main focus in the first two parts of this thesis is on the geometric placement of simultaneous transmitters in the network. In the first part, we study the impact of the placement of transmitters, by the medium access control scheme, on the performance of single-hop wireless network. We establish a general framework and study the optimal placement of transmitters in the network. Later we compare this optimal placement with placements obtained by random point processes such as Poisson point process, ALOHA, node coloring and CSMA. Our analysis allows us to evaluate the per- formance gains of a highly managed medium access control that would be required to implement the optimal placement of transmitters. For instance, we show that the capacity of this highly managed medium access control cannot be more than twice the capacity of a low managed medium access control such as ALOHA. Later, we use analytical methods to evaluate the heuristics for optimizing the capacity and coverage in an existing cellular network by optimally locating additional base stations. In the second part, we extend our analysis to multi-hop wireless network where we evaluate the optimum transmission range and network throughput capacity with various medium access control schemes. Our analyses in the first two parts of this thesis allow us to gain perspectives into the theoretical limits on the performance of an optimized medium access control in single-hop and multi-hop wireless network. In the last part, we shift our focus to capacity-delay tradeoff in mobile wireless network. We propose a georouting scheme and study its scaling properties. Using a realistic mobility model and the information available at mobile nodes, our scheme achieves a delay which is bounded by a constant with network capacity that increases quasi-linearly when the number of nodes in the network increases and approaches infinity.
Intersection Auctions and Reservation-Based Control in Dynamic Traffic Assignment

Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is maturing, and AVs are being test-driven on public roads. A promising intersection control policy, tile-based reservation (TBR), proposed by Dresner and Stone in 2004, could improve intersection capacity beyond the capabilities of optimized traffic signals. Although TBR has been studied in several microsimulation models, it has yet to be analyzed under user equilibrium behavior. In this study, TBR was modeled in the dynamic traffic assignment to draw on the extensive literature on vehicle routing behaviors. With the proposed model, TBR can be computationally simulated on large city networks, with the goal of solving the traffic assignment problem. TBR also arbitrarily prioritizes vehicle movement, and high-value-of-time travelers may be able to gain priority through intersection auctions, as suggested by the literature. An in-depth study of simple intersection auctions found that much of the benefit (over first-come, first-served prioritization) resulted from the randomizing effect of auctions giving larger queues of vehicles greater shares of the intersection capacity.
System integration of large scale offshore wind power

Electricity generation, along with motor vehicles, is one of the biggest sources of pollution for the planet. Renewable energies are not able to replace massively polluting power plants but they can at least alleviate for it. Biomass and hydro power are the main source of renewable energy but wind power is developing to high extent, increasing by 30% its installed capacity every year in the world. Norway is increasing its wind power production since every hydro power areas are already used. The shallow Norwegian waters along with the increase of energy demand leads to offshore wind project. The aim of this thesis is to study the integration of large scale offshore wind farms into the grid. The biggest offshore wind farm is currently installed in the United Kingdom (Thanet) and its capacity is 300 MW. The wind farm studied here has a capacity of 1000 MW. HVAC and HVDC transmission are investigated in order to connect the wind farm to Norway. Case faults are performed in order to study the system stability. The connection points are located in the most populated areas of Norway, where there is a real need for new power plants: Sorlandet and Vestlandet. Statnett is the Norwegian transmission system operator and thus the focus was made on the connection with power flow and stability analysis and not on the full description of the wind farm. For simulations, Statnett is mainly using PSS®E (Power System Simulator) from Siemens but as much of the help was providing by SINTEF, the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia, it was more convenient to use their tool: SIMPOW from STRI AB.
Position and Heading Control of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle using Model Predictive Control

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) is currently being used for scientific research, commercial and military underwater applications. AUV requires autonomous guidance and control systems to perform underwater applications. This Thesis is concerned with position and heading control of AUV using Model Predictive Control. Position control is a typical motion control problem, which is concerned with the design of control laws that force a vehicle to reach and maintain a fixed position. The position control of body fixed x-axis to a fixed point using MPC toolbox of MATLAB is done here. System is modelled Using INFANTE AUV hydrodynamic parameters. There is physical limitation on thruster value. Heading control is concerned with the design of control laws that force a vehicle to reach and maintain a fixed direction. There are physical limitations on control input (Rudder deflection) in heading control also a high yaw rate can produce sway and roll motion, which makes it necessary to put constraint on yaw rate. The MPC have a clear advantage in case of control and input constraints. To avoid constraint violation and feasibility issues of MPC for AUV heading control Disturbance Compensating (DC) MPC scheme is used. The DC-MPC scheme is used for ship motion control and gave better results so we are using the proposed scheme to AUV heading control. A 2 DOF AUV model is taken with yaw rate and rudder deflection constraints. Line of sight (LOS) guidance scheme is utilised to generate the reference heading, which is to be followed. Two types of disturbances are taken constant and sinusoidal. Then simulation has been done for standard MPC, M-MPC and DC-MPC. A (DC) MPC algorithm is used to satisfy the state constraints in presence of disturbance to get a better performance. Standard MPC gives good result without disturbance. But in case of disturbance yaw constraint is violated. At many time steps the standard MPC has no solution for given yaw rate constraint at those time steps the constraints have been removed. The M-MPC satisfies the constraints. The DC-MPC gives better result in comparison to standard MPC and Modified MPC. The steady state oscillations are less in DC-MPC as compared to M-MPC for sinusoidal disturbances. The minimization of extra cost function in DC-MPC makes the result better than M-MPC. By solving the extra cost function we try to make response close to that of without disturbance. The only added complexity in DC-MPC is ni-dimensional optimization problem. Which is very less compared to Np*ni, complexity of M-MPC. Where ni is the dimension of control input and Np is value of prediction horizon. The feasibility of DC-MPC scheme largely depends on the magnitude of disturbance. If disturbance is too large then this scheme is not feasible.
Numerical modelling of sound transmission in lightweight structures

The thesis deals with the numerical modelling of sound transmission, All the analyses are done in the frequency domain and assuming that the structures are linear and elastic. Linear acoustics is considered for the fluid domains. Thus, the fluid-structure interaction problems analysed here are governed by the vibroacoustic equations. The models are applied to the field of building acoustics, with especial interest on lightweight structures. A set of one-dimensional models for single and layered partitions considering finite acoustic domains is developed. Preliminary parametric analyses are done, considering aspects like the acoustic absorption, the structural damping, the separation between layers, the quality of absorbing material, or the influence of the eigenfrequencies of the problem in the isolation capacity. The analytical solution of these situations is available and it is used to test two and three-dimensional models. Numerical-based models for vibroacoustic problems lead to large system of linear equations. This is an important drawback for mid and high-frequencies where the computational costs become unaffordable. The block Gauss-Seidel algorithm has been applied for sound transmission problems. Its performance has been analysed by means of analytical expressions of the spectral radius obtained in one-dimensional situations. Moreover, a selective coupling strategy is developed in order to efficiently iii solve problems where some acoustic domains are strongly coupled (i.e. double walls). In building acoustics, the acoustic domains are often cuboid-shaped rooms. Analytical expressions of the eigenfunctions are well known and can be used in order to obtain the pressure field by means of a modal analysis. A model that combines this with a more general finite element (FEM) description of the structure is presented. This mixed approach is more efficient (time and memory requirements) than a FEMFEM model. The most relevant aspects of the modal-FEM approach are a
Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer System For The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Lee, Tae Sup M.S.E, Purdue University, December 2014. Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer System for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Major Professor: Kartik B. Ariyur, School of Mechanical Engineering. UAVs have limitless applications to help our daily lives for the autonomous operations. UAVs have a limited power capacity due to weight constraints and are therefore not able to travel long distances. Ground stations for recharging UAVs throughout different points can increase the flight time of the UAVs with the current UAV battery capacity. This study investigates how the wireless charging system for the ground station can be made more robust when there are misalignments. The wireless charging system is monitored by an Arduino, micro controller, to assess the current condition of charging. The Arduino is able to change the capacitance of the wireless charging system to optimize the resonant frequency when misalignment occurs. The weight to fly of the UAV is limited and battery source power is the huge drawback. In order to increase the flight time, increasing battery run time, or position ground stations to recharge the UAV rapidly are possible methods. In this study method of improving the ground station’s wireless recharging ability by using microprocessor to provide more dynamic recharging is explained. The ground station is equipped with an inductive charging system and successfully recharges the UAV. The ground station has been further improved to use magnetic resonant coupling to create better efficiency and wider controlling range. The resonant frequency is tunable by the Arduino, a micro processor, to change capacitance of varactors. By changing capacitance of the varactor, the magnetic resonant coupling wireless power transfer system can work in wider range from the ground station.
Artificial Intelligence Practices in Everyday News Production: The Case of South Africa’s Mainstream Newsrooms

ABSTRACT This article explores artificial intelligence (AI) uptake in selected South African mainstream newsrooms. It seeks to determine the extent to which AI has been adopted and how journalists and editors perceive its appropriation in newsmaking practices. To address these two broad aims, the study used in-depth interviews with journalists and editors. Our findings suggest a slow, varied but methodical uptake of AI practices in South Africa’s mainstream newsrooms. We deduced three uses of AI in these newsrooms. The first is what we call the holistic appropriation of AI. The second one is the exclusively technological appropriation of AI, and the last one is the task-specific appropriation of AI. This varied uptake of AI is taking place against a deep-seated skepticism with this technology. The skepticism is driven by fear of job losses, the costs of adopting AI, limited training, ethical issues around AI and its efficacy in the democratic process. On this last point, South African journalists question whether AI can be beneficial to the sustenance of a post-apartheid democratic society. Our argument, therefore, is that the optimism about AI in newsrooms that some researchers find in Europe and US newsrooms cannot be transferred to newsrooms in South Africa.
Towards Autonomous Vehicles

The age of autonomous vehicles is approaching. Cycles of innovation initiated in the public and private sectors have led one into another since the 1990s; and out of these efforts have sprung a variety of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and several functioning autonomous vehicles. The challenges that face autonomous vehicle are still significant. There is still technical work to be done to make sensors, algorithms, control schemes, and intelligence more effective and more reliable. As automation in vehicles increases, the associated human factors challenges become more complex. Then, there are a host of socioeconomic issues. Are autonomous vehicles legal; and who is liable if one crashes? How can the privacy and security of data and automation be ensured? Finally, how might the wide adoption of autonomous vehicles affect society at large? It is hoped that when they appear, they will bring with them the promised benefits of safety, mobility, efficiency, and societal change.
Implementing a strong feedback culturea case study at Nedap

Organisations challenge their employees to become lifelong learners, in order to have relevant and up-to-date knowledge and skills. Feedback is considered to be essential to this process, which is why feedback becomes a central subject to organisations. Nedap recognizes the importance of feedback and wants to transform itself into an organisation with a strong feedback culture. Since it is unknown how organisations can manage this process, this research will answer the following research question: How can an organisation implement a strong feedback culture?
Performance of Non-Prior-Service Navy Recruits: 1978-1986

Abstract : This research memorandum describes measures of recruit success in the Navy using five performance indicators: desertion, demotion, first-term attrition, promotion, and retention. The CNA data base used here includes all non-prior-service accessions between FY 1978 and December 1986. As the experience of the Navy with the All Volunteer Force has increased, so has information on the performance of Naval accessions in both good and bad recruiting climates. This research memorandum uses easily measured recruit characteristics found in the accession data base at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) and reviews several indicators of performance for recruits with initial obligations of three and four years. Sections of the work were alternatively requested by the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Manpower, Personnel and Training) or by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower). The results of these descriptions of the Navy's recent experience help to identify recruit characteristics associated with successful adaptation to Navy life. The indicators are desertion, demotion, first-term survival, promotion, and retention beyond the initial contract period. Keywords: Aptitude tests; Education; Enlisted personnel; Naval personnel; Performance(Human); Personnel retention; Promotion(Advancement); Recruits; Tables(Data). (sdw)
The use of matrix attachment regions to enhance the in-vivo potency of rAAV vectors

Adeno-associated virus vector encoding codon optimised human factor IX (AAV-LP1-hFIXco) has demonstrated great promise for the treatment of patients with severe haemophilia B. However, in some patients treated with a high vector dose, hepatocellular toxicity was observed. To improve AAV vector potency, various scaffold/matrix attachment regions (S/MARs) were cloned at the 3’ end of a modified single-stranded (ss) AAV-LP1-hFIXco expression cassette. In a head to head comparison, a vector containing a S/MAR element from the human hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl-transferase gene in the forward orientation (ssAAV-LP1-hFIXco-HPRT-F) was found to mediate the highest levels of hFIX expression in mice. In comparison to animals transduced with a control vector containing no S/MAR, the ssAAV-LP1-hFIXco-HPRT-F transduced cohort expressed hFIX at 28-fold higher levels. This trend was reproducible in rhesus macaques where 10-fold higher FIX levels were observed following transduction with ssAAV-LP1-hFIXco-HPRT-F as compared to delivery of ssAAV-LP1-hFIXco-control vector. Through a deletion analysis, short regions from the IFNβ and HPRT S/MARs with potent enhancer activity were identified. This allowed for the in-silico elicitation of motifs with a potential role in S/MAR function and also minimised the space occupied by S/MARs within our AAV expression cassette. When cloned into a self-complementary (sc) AAV-LP1-hFIXco expression cassette, the 130bp region from the HPRT S/MAR (fragment 2b) was sufficient to enhance FIX levels in mice by 35-fold over that observed with a control self-complementary vector. Mechanistic studies showed that S/MAR elements enhanced AAV transgene expression by reducing heterochromatin marks (H3K9me2 and HP1α) in the promoter region, resulting in an increase in FIX mRNA levels by up to 20-fold. S/MARs therefore provide a novel inbuilt process for enhancing AAV mediated transgene expression by preventing epigenetic silencing of the provirus. As such, S/MARs offer the possibility to improve gene transfer to humans through using lower and potentially safer doses of AAV.
Assessment of homologous recombination deficiency phenotype in breast cancers in adolescents and young adults in the clinical setting

Background Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD), which may be associated with high efficacy of PARP inhibitor- and platinum agent-based therapies, is a prevalent phenotype of breast cancer diagnosed in adolescents and young adults (AYAs; 15–39 years old). HRD score, indicating HRD status, is not routinely assessed in the oncology clinic due to the need for genome-wide analyses. Methods Subjects were a Japanese cohort of 46 AYA breast cancer patients, whose HRD scores were calculated from whole-exome sequencing data, and two existing breast cancer cohorts (US and European) for which HRD scores were available. Genetic and clinicopathological factors associated with the HRD-high phenotype, defined as HRD score ≥42, were selected based on the criterion that they be assessible by routine examinations qualifying for insurance reimbursement. A model for prediction of the HRD-high phenotype was constructed and validated using data from the three cohorts. Results In the Japanese AYA cohort, as in the US and European cohorts, HRD-high phenotype (13/46, 28.3%) was preferentially observed in cases with any or combination of germline BRCA1/2 mutations, somatic TP53 mutations, triple-negative subtype, and higher tumor grades. Because these four factors can be assessed by routine examination that qualifies for insurance reimbursement, we developed a model based on these factors to judge whether a case is HRD-high, using the US cohort (n = 744; Area under the curve AUC = 0.85). The predictive power of the model was validated in the Japanese (n = 46; AUC = 0.90) and European (n = 58; AUC = 0.96) AYA cases. A model developed using the European cohort (n = 477; AUC = 0.89) had similar predictive power in Japanese (AUC = 0.89) and US (n = 54; AUC = 0.87) AYA cohorts. Conclusions The HRD-high phenotype of AYA breast cancer can be deduced based on genomic and pathological factors that are routinely examined in the