Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current contours based IMN design methodology for broadband GaN Doherty power amplifiers

This paper proposes a design methodology based off the novel concept of current contours to insure proper current profiles for the main and peaking transistors needed to satisfy the load modulation conditions in a Doherty power amplifier over a wide frequency range. Utilizing this technique allows the construction of input matching networks that maximize the efficiency enhancement and linearity of the DPA. As a proof-of-concept, a 12 W DPA was designed. From 2.7 GHz to 4.7 GHz, continuous wave measurements have shown efficiency levels of greater than 37 % at 6 dB output power back-off and peak power. A gain of at least 8 db was shown with output power ranging from 40.7 dBm ±1 dB. Under an 80 MHz carrier aggregated signal, modulated signal results showed good linearizability with an ACLR of −48 dBc/Hz after digital pre-distortion.
Necessary optimality conditions for switching optimal control problems with mixed constraints

This paper considers optimal control problem for a class of continuous-controlled autonomous switching systems. Instead of relying on traditional variational technique, we transform the optimal control problem into an equivalent problem by parameterizing switching instants. Then based on the optimal theory of Fréchet supperdifferential, nonsmooth optimal conditions of the original problem are derived.
Kommunikationsbeschränkungen Design of Event-Triggered Control for Networked Systems with Communication Constraints

Zusammenfassung Der Betrieb komplexer, verteilter Regelungssysteme erfordert eine effiziente Nutzung vorhandener Ressourcen. Kürzlich erzielte Ergebnisse zeigen wesentliche Vorteile einer ereignisbasierten Regelung verglichen mit herkömmlichen Entwurfsmethoden mit periodischer Abtastung, wenn die Kommunikationsbandbreite, der Energieverbrauch oder die Rechenleistung beschränkt sind. Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit dem Entwurf ereignisbasierter Regelungen mehrerer heterogener Teilsysteme, deren Rückführschleifen über ein gemeinsames Kommunikationssystem verkoppelt sind. Mittels Zustandsaggregation wird eine dezentrale ereignisbasierte Regelungsstruktur entworfen und Stabilitätsbedinungen hergeleitet, unter welchen das Gesamtsystem stochastisch stabil ist. Unter diesen Stabilitätsbedingungen lässt sich zeigen, dass der vorgeschlagene Regelungsentwurf asymptotisch optimal mit zunehmender Anzahl an Teilsystemen ist. Summary The design of complex, distributed control systems urges an efficient usage of available resources, such as communication, energy and computation. Recent results indicate substantial benefits of event-based control compared to conventional designs, when these resources are sparse. This paper considers multiple entities of heterogeneous control systems whose feedback loops are coupled through a common communication medium. A state aggregation technique is used to develop a decentralized event-triggering scheme. Stability conditions are derived that guarantee stochastic stability of the aggregate system. Under these conditions, it is shown that the design approach is asymptotically optimal as the number of subsystems increases.
Spectroscopic Study of $\gamma$ -Ray and Pulsed X-Ray Radiation-Induced Point Defects in Pure-Silica-Core Optical Fibers

We investigate the radiation-induced effects on pure-silica-core (PSC) optical fibers. For this, we measured the radiation-induced attenuation (RIA) growth and decay kinetics in four fibers with different hydroxyl and chorine contents. Our results show that PSC fibers exhibit different transient and continuous radiation responses depending of the silica-glass composition. Self-trapped charges [self-trapped excitons (STEs) and self-trapped holes (STHs)] seem mainly responsible for the fiber transient responses (times shorter than 1 s after the X-ray pulse) in the ultraviolet to near infrared part of the spectrum (300-900 nm). As these defects are unstable at room temperature, the contribution of other defects, like non-bridging oxygen hole centers (NBOHC) increases with time. Finally, these stable defects mainly explain the fiber permanent responses. To complete our online RIA measurements, we also studied by confocal microscopy luminescence (CML) the spatial distribution of the stable radiation-induced emitting centers in both pristine and irradiated fibers. Our CML results, obtained with 514 and 633 nm laser excitation, showed that several optically-active centers are non-uniformly generated in the fiber cross-sections. The generation of NBOHC by breakage of Si-O-Si strained bonds is clearly enhanced in high-OH fibers, especially at their core and cladding interfaces. The generation mechanisms of other unidentified defects emitting around 600 nm seem to be affected by both the hydroxyl content in the fiber core and by another factor that is not related to the silica glass composition.
Inhibition of Virus Growth by Ouabain: Effect of Ouabain on the Growth of HVJ in Chick Embryo Cells

The effect of ouabain (g-strophanthin), a cardiac glycoside, on the growth of several enveloped viruses was examined. It was found that the growth of HVJ (Sendai virus) in chick embryo cells was markedly inhibited by the drug at a concentration as low as 5 × 10−5m. A virus-inhibitory concentration of ouabain did not cause morphological changes in uninfected cells, nor did it have the capacity to inactivate virus infectivity. Ouabain interfered with the intracellular synthesis of viral macromolecules. Although viral ribonucleic acid and viral antigens were synthesized by the ouabain-treated cells, the rate of synthesis was slower, and the total amounts of these macromolecules were smaller than those in the untreated control cells. It is suggested that ouabain inhibits the function of membrane-bound Na, K-adenosine triphosphatase of the chick embryo cells and thus prevents accumulation of K ion in them. Accumulation of intracellular K ion to a certain level would be needed for events of exponential growth of virus to proceed, and ouabain might inhibit this step by preventing such accumulation of K ion. This view was supported by the finding that the concentration of K ion in the HVJ-infected cells was rapidly reduced by the treatment with ouabain, and that, when the ouabain-treated culture was shifted to a medium containing a higher concentration of K ion than normal medium, virus production started in parallel with the increase of intracellular K ion. The fact that the concentration of K ion in BHK-21 cells, which support virus growth in the presence of ouabain, is not reduced by the treatment with the drug also suggested this possibility.
Fabrication of a direct-type silicon pixel detector for a large area hybrid x-ray imaging device

We demonstrated the design and the fabrication processes of a direct-type silicon pixel detector for a digital dental radiography made using a high-resistive n-type silicon substrate. The structure of the detector is based on a fully-depleted p-i-n diode. The detector is composed of 644,328 pixels with a pitch of 35 mum. The size of the detector is 2.58 cm x 3.47 cm and it is composed of a 4-block assembly with four read-out CMOS ICs. We focused on experimentally evaluating the process conditions for the silicon pixel detector to reduce the leakage current and improve the breakdown voltage. From the experimental results, we found that the high temperature drive-in after p+ ion implantation deteriorates the leakage current and p+ passivation by thermal oxidation improves the breakdown voltage. The leakage current of a pixel was 0.07 pA/pixel and the breakdown voltage was more than 1700 V. The read-out IC consists of a current-integrating pixel readout CMOS chip and PbSn bumps. After bump-bonding four read-out ICs to a pixel detector and wire-bonding to a PCB, X-ray image tests showed a resolution of 11 lp/mm and provided a good image of human teeth.
Automatic evaluation of search engines: Using webpages' content, web graph link structure and websites' popularity

Measurement of the information retrieval effectiveness of web search engines is an important problem because it can determine which of the available search engines can provide better results to its users. But because of the need of human assessors and their judgments this Measurement is expensive and time consuming. So for solving this problem we introduced an automatic method that is applicable quickly and provides a ranking on the web search engines that were under evaluation without the need of having relevance judgments. In the experiments that were conducted we compared our method with the one proposed by Can et al. and the results acquired from human assessors' evaluations. The comparisons showed that the introduced method provides rankings that are consistent with the rankings resulted from human assessors' evaluations and are better than the ones achieved by the Can et al.'s method. Also it is shown that the consistencies observed are statistically significant, so the proposed method can be used for evaluation of web search engines in real environments.
Opportunistic communications at the downlink of mobile systems in the presence of inaccurate channel information

The throughput of a multi-user broadcast opportunistic communications system is highly affected by the accuracy of the available channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter side. It is a questionable assumption to have almost perfect knowledge of the user SNRs at the transmitter due to the error in the channel measurement, or due to reporting feedback errors from users to the transmitter. As a result such errors, the system can not gain its maximum throughput. In this paper, we investigate the performance of opportunistic communications system considering imperfect SNR reports. We show that in order to maximize the throughput, the transmitter needs to estimate the channel state information. The imposition of a correlation constraint will prevent the estimate of channel from fluctuating too widely. Employ Kalman filter, we estimate the channel state information and show that the throughput is significantly improved.
THE EFFECTS OF POSTFIRE SALVAGE LOGGING ON CAVITY-NESTING BIRDS

Abstract ABSTRACT We investigated the effects of postfire salvage logging on cavity-nesting birds by comparing nest densities and patterns of nest reuse over a three-year period in seven logged and eight unlogged patches of mixed-conifer forest in the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area, Montana. We found 563 active nests of 18 cavity-nesting birds; all species were found nesting in the uncut burned forest plots, but only eight nested in the salvage-logged plots. All except one species nested at a higher density in the unlogged areas, and half of the species were significantly more abundant in the unlogged plots. Every timber-drilling and timber-gleaning species was less abundant in the salvage-logged plots, including two of the most fire-dependent species in the northern Rocky Mountains—American Three-toed (Picoides dorsalis) and Black-backed (P. arcticus) Woodpeckers. Lower abundances in salvage-logged plots occurred despite the fact that there were still more potential nest snags per hectare than the recommended minimum number needed to support maximum densities of primary cavity-nesters, which suggests that reduced woodpecker densities are more related to a reduction in food (wood-boring beetle larvae) than to nest-site availability. Because cavities were present in only four of 244 randomly selected trees, and because frequency of cavity reuse by secondary cavity-nesters was higher in salvage-logged than in unlogged plots, nest-site limitation may be a more important constraint for secondary cavity-nesters in salvage-logged areas. These results suggest that typical salvage logging operations are incompatible with the maintenance of endemic levels of most cavity-nesting bird populations, especially populations of primary cavity-nesting species.
Shock Tactics in Advertising and Implications for Citizen-Consumer

In 1990’s a few companies produced advertisements that carried explicit social and political messages. Pioneering this move was the Italian clothing company whose “shock advertising” style was soon adopted by other companies including Diesel, FCUK, and the Body Shop. While some praised these companies for addressing important issues, others condemned them for exploiting social and political issues. This study explores the implications shock advertising for advertising language, the functions of advertising, and the notion of consumer-citizen. The paper first reviews three paradoxes that shock advertisements introduce into the discourse of advertising. Next, it discusses the possibility of a performative function for advertising, which in addition to selling products can incite public debate and dialogue on social and political issues, and foster positive notions of identity and citizenship. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.
Improved Crude Oil Price Forecasting With Statistical Learning Methods

Reliable forecasts of the price of oil are of interest for a wide range of applications. For example, central banks and private sector forecasters view the price of oil as one of the key variables in generating macroeconomic projections and in assessing macroeconomic risks. Of particular interest is the question of the extent to which the price of oil is helpful in predicting recessions. This paper presents a statistical learning method (SLM) based on combined fuzzy system (FS), artificial neural network (ANN), and support vector regression (SVR) to cope with optimum long-term oil price forecasting in noisy, uncertain, and complex environments. A number of quantitative factors were discovered from this model and used as the input. For verification and testing, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil spot price is used to test the effectiveness of the proposed learning methodology. Empirical results reveal that the proposed SLM-based forecasting can model the nonlinear relationship between the input variables and price very well. Furthermore, in-sample and out-of-sample prediction performance also demonstrates that the proposed SLM model can produce more accurate prediction results than other nonlinear models.
A Unified Design Framework for Single-Channel Dispersion-Managed Terrestrial Systems

This paper provides a unified framework to the design, performance optimization, and accurate numerical simulation of periodic, dispersion-managed (DM) single-channel long-haul optical transmission systems for nonsoliton on-off keying (OOK) modulation. The focus is on DM terrestrial systems, with identical spans composed of a long transmission fiber compensated at the span end by a linear dispersion compensating module, with pre- and postcompensation fibers at the beginning and end of the link. The framework is based on the dispersion-managed nonlinear Schrodinger equation (DM-NLSE). First, expressions of the DM-NLSE kernel are provided both in the frequency and the time domain, and a novel map strength parameter, appropriate for terrestrial systems, is introduced. It is then shown that the DM-NLSE contains all the basic information needed for system design, as summarized by three parameters: i) nonlinear phase, ii) in-line dispersion, and iii) map strength. Through a large-signal perturbative analysis of the DM-NLSE, the well-known linear relationship between the in-line dispersion and the optimal precompensation is derived, along with the large-signal step response of the DM link, from which the ghost pulses energy growth and a first estimation of the link memory are derived. The DM-NLSE is then linearized around the average signal field to get the amplitude/phase small-signal system matrix of the overall DM link, including pre- and postcompensation. By a singular-value decomposition of the small-signal DM link matrix, a novel expression of the memory of the optimized DM link is finally provided. Knowledge of such a memory is mandatory to run accurate numerical simulations and laboratory measurements with a sufficiently long pseudorandom bit sequence to avoid patterning effects.
Fractional Order Controller Design For Inverted Pendulum On A Cart System ( POAC )

In this paper we propose a Fractional Order Controller for an under-actuated system (POAC). This system has two degrees-of-freedom and one control input. The model of the system is derived using Euler Lagrange method and the stabilization is achieved with constraints using Fractional Order Controller. To validate the control law, simulation are performed and compared with Integer Order Controller. Key–Words: Coefficient of friction, Fractional order controller (FOC), FOPID, IOC, PID, POAC, Underactuated robotic system.
Diversity reception of nonorthogonal multipulse signals in multiuser Nakagami fading channels

We consider the problem of multiantenna reception of nonorthogonal multipulse signals in a multiuser system operating over a flat-flat Nakagami fading channel, wherein each user sends an M-ary information symbol by transmitting one out of M available waveforms. The receiver first-stage is a decorrelative filter, which gets rid of the MAI, and whose output, is then properly processed in order to decode the information symbols from the user of interest. In particular, we derive both the optimum noncoherent and the GLRT detectors, and show that the latter receiver not only is simpler to implement, but also achieves a performance level very similar to that of the former receiver.
Thick film biaxially textured YBCO coated tape conductors prepared using magnetic grain alignment

We report a new approach to the preparation of biaxially textured YBCO coated tape conductors. Using a dynamic magnetic grain alignment technique, a biaxially aligned dispersion of orthorhombic Y-247 powder is settled on untextured silver substrates. In subsequent heat treatment the Y-247 is transformed to Y-123 and CuO involving a partial melt. Critical current densities at 77 K in self-field of up to 5000 A/cm/sup 2/ have been obtained in films from 10 to 30 /spl mu/m thick. There is a clear enhancement of J/sub c/ relative to identically prepared untextured or uniaxially textured samples. J/sub c/ appears to be limited at present by the difficulty of achieving fully densified films while retaining biaxial texture. Provided significant improvements in J/sub c/ can be obtained this method offers an alternative to coated tape processes based on epitaxial growth which does not demand textured substrates and can give much higher fill factors. The grain alignment technique is quite general for materials with anisotropic magnetic or electric susceptibility and can therefore be utilised in a wide range of applications.
Models of hearing

People have thought about their ears (and those of certain animals) for a long time. Intelligent speculation, supplemented by experiment (and vice versa), has brought us a long way toward understanding how the ear works-from subtle monaural phase effects (verboten by Ohm's law of acoustics) to expansive binaural stereophony (hailed by almost everyone). Much of this new gained knowledge, some of it acquired only very recently, has found its formal expression-as it has in other fields-in models: mathematical models or physical models (or both) of how the ear "does it" . or might do it if it had been designed by fanciful model builders instead of by pragmatic evolution. In this paper, after a brief introduction into the human ear, a selection of models of both kinds is presented-not with claims of exhaustiveness, but with the intent to give a flavor of what is going on in a very active field on a fascinating, and ultimately still mysterious, subject: man's sense of hearing.
Deployment of the Saddle Space Transformation in Tracking the Base of Support

Balance is the fundamental skill behind human locomotion, and its impairment is the principal indicator of self-perceived disability. Despite significant improvements in balance assessment, there is still large incidence of fall related injuries among elderlies. The Base of Support (BoS) is a popular method for bipedal stability assessment, but its accuracy depends on the accuracy the BoS geometry measurement. This work presents a method to ease the BoS tracking by the identification of a reference frame that allows to define postural models of the BoS geometry. Although we also propose a geometry based on the geometry determined from centre of pressure range of motion within the foot obtained from literature, this methodology can be used with other models (i.e., the feasible base of support). The model has been tested with 12 healthy subjects, which have been asked to explore their stability in six different postures. The results show that the model can accurate deform the geometry of the BoS to adapt its shape to the different postures, which can remove the necessity of force/torque sensors in some application. Potentially the proposed method can be also applied to describe any posture dependent attribute (e.g., gravitational forces), and it can be also applied to bipedal robots. Therefore, it constitutes a novel mathematical tool that can be deployed to develop both better sensors and models for bipeds. For example, it can be used with the Extrapolated CoM model to evaluate dynamic stability from the body kinematics.
Canny edge-based deformable image registration

This work focuses on developing a 2D Canny edge-based deformable image registration (Canny DIR) algorithm to register in vivo white light images taken at various time points. This method uses a sparse interpolation deformation algorithm to sparsely register regions of the image with strong edge information. A stability criterion is enforced which removes regions of edges that do not deform in a smooth uniform manner. Using a synthetic mouse surface ground truth model, the accuracy of the Canny DIR algorithm was evaluated under axial rotation in the presence of deformation. The accuracy was also tested using fluorescent dye injections, which were then used for gamma analysis to establish a second ground truth. The results indicate that the Canny DIR algorithm performs better than rigid registration, intensity corrected Demons, and distinctive features for all evaluation matrices and ground truth scenarios. In conclusion Canny DIR performs well in the presence of the unique lighting and shading variations associated with white-light-based image registration.
Neural Network Interpretation via Fine Grained Textual Summarization

Current visualization based network interpretation methodssuffer from lacking semantic-level information. In this paper, we introduce the novel task of interpreting classification models using fine grained textual summarization. Along with the label prediction, the network will generate a sentence explaining its decision. Constructing a fully annotated dataset of filter|text pairs is unrealistic because of image to filter response function complexity. We instead propose a weakly-supervised learning algorithm leveraging off-the-shelf image caption annotations. Central to our algorithm is the filter-level attribute probability density function (p.d.f.), learned as a conditional probability through Bayesian inference with the input image and its feature map as latent variables. We show our algorithm faithfully reflects the features learned by the model using rigorous applications like attribute based image retrieval and unsupervised text grounding. We further show that the textual summarization process can help in understanding network failure patterns and can provide clues for further improvements.