Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Collaborative practices in new product development projects involving suppliers

Abstract Collaboration with suppliers in New Product Development (NPD) is essential for business competitiveness. However, the management of such collaborative project needs to focus on interactions between team members from different companies since they performed inter-organizational activities. While the impact of collaboration with suppliers on NPD project performance has been widely studied, the investigation of practices to support daily collaborative activities between both teams has received limited attention. This paper aims at developing a framework of operational practices for successful inter-organizational collaboration in NPD. The practices enacted by both project teams in six case studies were examined according to the stages of the collaboration and a knowing perspective. The results revealed some peculiarities linked to the inter-organizational context. Practices interact with each other across stages with a specific dynamic. More particularly, early in the project, practices to justify the collaboration with the suppliers are determinant for practices related to the creation of social interactions between project members and project commitment. The results also show that boundary objects are useful formal socialization mechanisms for supporting the undertaking of collaborative work.
DeepCoin: A Novel Deep Learning and Blockchain-Based Energy Exchange Framework for Smart Grids

In this paper, we propose a novel deep learning and blockchain-based energy framework for smart grids, entitled DeepCoin. The DeepCoin framework uses two schemes, a blockchain-based scheme and a deep learning-based scheme. The blockchain-based scheme consists of five phases: setup phase, agreement phase, creating a block phase and consensus-making phase, and view change phase. It incorporates a novel reliable peer-to-peer energy system that is based on the practical Byzantine fault tolerance algorithm and it achieves high throughput. In order to prevent smart grid attacks, the proposed framework makes the generation of blocks using short signatures and hash functions. The proposed deep learning-based scheme is an intrusion detection system (IDS), which employs recurrent neural networks for detecting network attacks and fraudulent transactions in the blockchain-based energy network. We study the performance of the proposed IDS on three different sources the CICIDS2017 dataset, a power system dataset, and a web robot (Bot)-Internet of Things (IoT) dataset.
Recent Developments in Modulation Spectroscopy for Methane Detection Based on Tunable Diode Laser

In this review, methane absorption characteristics mainly in the near-infrared region and typical types of currently available semiconductor lasers are described. Wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS), frequency modulation spectroscopy (FMS), and two-tone frequency modulation spectroscopy (TTFMS), as major techniques in modulation spectroscopy, are presented in combination with the application of methane detection.
An Integrated Design Approach for LCL-Type Inverter to Improve Its Adaptation in Weak Grid

To improve the robustness of grid-connected inverter against grid impedance in a weak grid an integrated design method of LCL-filter parameters and controller parameters is proposed. In the method the inherent relation of LCL-filter parameters and controller parameters is taken into consideration to realize their optimized match. A parameter normalization scheme is also developed to facilitate the system stability and robustness analysis. Based on the method all normalization parameters can be designed succinctly according to the required stability and robustness. Additionally, the LCL parameter and controller parameter can be achieved immediately by restoring normalization parameters. The proposed design method can guarantee the inverter stability and robustness simultaneously without needing any compensation network, additional hardware, or the complicated iterative computations which cannot be avoided for the conventional inverter design method. Simulation and experiment results have validated the superiority of the proposed inverter design method.
Algebra+Homotopy=Operad

This survey provides an elementary introduction to operads and to their applications in homotopical algebra. The aim is to explain how the notion of an operad was prompted by the necessity to have an algebraic object which encodes higher homotopies. We try to show how universal this theory is by giving many applications in Algebra, Geometry, Topology, and Mathematical Physics. (This text is accessible to any student knowing what tensor products, chain complexes, and categories are.)
A Three-Fingered Force Feedback Glove Using Fiber-Reinforced Soft Bending Actuators

Force feedback gloves are promising for producing immersive haptic sensations in virtual reality systems or for intuitive control of remote robots in dexterous manipulation tasks. Existing gloves mainly adopt rigid actuators. In this article, we propose a force feedback glove using pneumatically powered fiber-reinforced soft bending actuators. Based on the unilateral deformable feature of the soft actuator, a dorsal-side mounted soft-rigid linkage mechanism is proposed to produce fingertip force feedback. We incorporated and experimentally determined a positive prebending deformation of the actuator to ensure small backdrive forces for simulating free-space sensation. To enable a large workspace of the glove, the soft-rigid linkage is synthesized to ensure full open/closure of the finger without any mechanical interference. Using a modular design concept, a three-fingered glove prototype is developed with a mass of 93.7 g. Experimental results show that the glove can provide distinct force feedback between free and constrained space. For free space, the maximum backdrive force is 0.48 N, while the fingertip force reaches up to 4.09 N for simulating the constrained space. Experiments also indicate that the glove is easy to put on/off. These results illustrate the feasibility of developing light-weighted force feedback gloves using fiber-reinforced soft bending actuators.
Design of efficient fractional operator for ECG signal detection in implantable cardiac pacemaker systems

A low power and high‐performance digital electrocardiogram (ECG) detector has become a basic requirement in modern implantable cardiac pacemakers. A fractional operator‐based digital ECG detector for modern pacemaker systems is proposed in this work. Instead of conventional thresholding, an adaptive slope prediction threshold is utilized for the detection of ECG peaks. A stochastic search‐based algorithm, namely, cuckoo search algorithm, is used to design an optimal fractional operator that is used for ECG denoising. It has been found that the proposed adaptive slope prediction threshold increases the QRS complex detection performance. A low detection error rate (DER) ranges from 0.01% to 0.56%, positive predictivity (P+) ranges from 99.32% to 99.98%, sensitivity (Se) ranges from 99.45% to 99.98%, and a detection accuracy (Acc) ranges from 99.43% to 99.96% for different databases are achieved for the proposed ECG detector, which is better compared with the existing ECG detectors. The proposed design of fractional order operator based on the lattice wave digital filter (LWDF) requires a minimum number of the multipliers for its structural realization.
Nickel Particle-Based Compact Flexible Antenna for Modern Communication Systems

A flexible antenna is a significant part of the new generation of wireless communication systems. Conventional antennas are typically fabricated on available FR-4 and RT/Duroid dielectric materials, where the dielectric constant cannot be selected arbitrarily and the degrees of freedom in designing the antenna are limited, whereas our flexible substrate offers moderate dielectric values by changing the concentration of the raw materials. Synthesised nickel particle-based flexible nickel aluminate (NiAl2O4) is utilized as a substrate material to make an effective antenna for microwave applications. The nickel aluminate substrate was made with 42% concentration of nickel, and has a dielectric constant of 4.979 and a thickness of 1 mm. The fabricated flexible antenna shows measured bandwidth from 6.50–8.85 GHz. On the other hand, the maximum measured gain and efficiency was 4.75 dBi and 91%, respectively. Finally, that antenna has directional radiation patterns and the presented antenna has a novelty where the nickel aluminate substrate was used for the first time. Thus the compactness of the antenna and its performance with a flexible nature makes it a worthy one to be used in the C-band application.
Validating effectiveness of safety requirements' compliance evaluation in process assessments

Safety is the primary concern when developing systems containing software in the nuclear power domain. Process assessments are used to ensure quality of the development processes for safety‐critical systems. Regulators of the nuclear power industry have increased requirements concerning the systems development processes. Now, process assessments are integrated in the qualification of the systems and are expected to provide information not only based on the assessment model but also about the domain‐specific requirements. Therefore, a specific activity, compliance evaluation, was inserted into the assessment process to provide detailed information that supports analysis of the compliance to the domain standards. Compliance evaluation utilizes assessment findings to create evidence of the relevant domain‐specific requirements. The main purpose of this study is to validate effectiveness of compliance evaluation by analyzing assessment findings and their relation to the requirements of a safety‐critical domain. The analysis is based on representing the data in compliance evaluation reports as binary relations. The results of this analysis indicate that process assessment findings are also relevant when evaluating compliance to other sets of requirements. The results can significantly support the trustworthiness of the process assessment method and ensure effective use of process assessments.
Prediction of Phase Noise and Spurs in a Nonlinear Fractional- ${N}$ Frequency Synthesizer

Integer boundary spurs appear in the passband of the loop response of fractional- ${N}$ phase lock loops and are, therefore, a potentially significant component of the phase noise. In spite of measures guaranteeing spur-free modulator outputs, the interaction of the modulation noise from a divider controller with inevitable loop nonlinearities produces such spurs. This paper presents analytical predictions of the locations and amplitudes of the spurs and accompanying noise floor levels produced by interaction between a divider controller output and a PLL loop with a static nonlinearity. A key finding is that the spur locations and amplitudes can be estimated by using only the knowledge of the structure and pdf of the accumulated modulator noise and the nonlinearity. These predictions also offer new insights into why the spurs appear.
A novel powered circular stapler designed for creating secure anastomoses

Although the first recorded use of staplers in surgery occurred in 1827, wide-spread usage did not start until the development of linear staplers in the Soviet Union in the 1950’s [1]. Substantial improvements in stapling technology have been achieved, such as multi-row staple lines, switching from steel to titanium for superior biocompatibility, and most recently the introduction of powered devices.
Individuals Identification Based on Palm Vein Matching under a Parallel Environment

Biometric identification and verification are essential mechanisms in modern society. Palm vein recognition is an emerging biometric technique, which has several advantages, especially in terms of security against forgery. Contactless palm vein systems are more suitable for real-world applications, but two of the major challenges of the state-of-the-art contributions are image deformations and time efficiency. In the present work, we propose a new method for palm vein recognition by combining DAISY descriptor and the Coarse-to-fine PatchMatch (CPM) algorithm in a parallel matching process. Our proposal aims at providing an effective and efficient technique to obtain similarity of palm vein images considering their displacements as discriminatory information. Extensive evaluation on three publicly available databases demonstrates that the discriminability of the proposed approach reaches the state-of-the-art results while it is considerably superior in time efficiency.
Temporal Signatures of Passive Wi-Fi Data for Estimating Bus Passenger Waiting Time at a Single Bus Stop

This paper proposes an alternative method for bus passenger waiting time estimation using passive Wi-Fi data. With the underlying mechanism for Wi-Fi communication, the presence of Wi-Fi enabled devices in a particular area can be passively discoverable. The mobile devices carried by bus passengers can be exploited to estimate passenger waiting time at a bus stop without the passengers’ direct participation. Passenger waiting time estimation using such opportunistic data is challenging due to the particular characteristics of the Wi-Fi data collected from bus stop environments. This paper proposes a methodology to handle massive noise in Wi-Fi data and identify the potential Wi-Fi records which are derived from passengers’ devices. The filtered data can then be used to estimate passenger waiting time. The Wi-Fi data collected from a bus stop in Hong Kong are used as a case study for evaluating the proposed system. The practicality is investigated in terms of estimation accuracy and insightful analysis.
An electromechanical impedance-instrumented corrosion-measuring probe

Corrosion of metallic structures widely existed in multiple industries, such as oil and gas, civil infrastructure, aerospace, mechanical, mining, and processing. Current available corrosion-monitoring methods are based on different sensing principles, which have their own advantages, and some drawbacks that may limit their application on some aspects. This article presents an electromechanical impedance-instrumented corrosion-measuring probe for corrosion monitoring. The proposed probe is fabricated by attaching a circular lead zirconate titanate patch onto a metal rod. Compared to other electromechanical impedance-based corrosion-monitoring methods, the probe is capable of isolating the influence of structural complexity, variations in loading and boundary conditions. Five probes were fabricated in the experimental study and three of them were subjected to accelerated corrosion tests to mimic the corrosion-induced mass loss damage. Results showed that the peak magnitude of the conductance signatures was reduced with the increase in corrosion amount. The variations in the conductance signatures were quantified by three statistical quantifying metrics, that is, root-mean-square deviation, mean absolute percentage deviation, and correlation coefficient deviation. All these metrics increase with the increase in corrosion amount, which can be used as an indicator of the corrosion process. This study proves that the proposed corrosion-measuring probe is effective in monitoring corrosion and shows promising application potential. This research also serves as a proof-of-concept study to demonstrate the capability of the electromechanical impedance technique in monitoring mass loss due to corrosion.
Shape Memory Alloy-Based Spring Bundle Actuator Controlled by Water Temperature

This paper proposes a novel artificial muscle, shape memory alloy (SMA) spring bundle actuator (SSBA), which can be applied to robotic arms while replacing the motor-gear mechanism. Artificial muscles applicable to robotic arms should have characteristics, such as high contraction strain comparable to that of skeletal muscles, high load capacity, fast actuation frequency, and force/position controllability. To improve the low efficiency and slow cooling of the Joule heating, which is widely used for SMA heating, the SMA spring bundle is heated and cooled using hot and cold water. A faucet-like valve was developed to control the temperature of water supplied to the SSBA, and the force generated by the SSBA with respect to the water temperature change was confirmed to be very linear compared to that of the conventional SMA actuators. Owing to this linearity, the force control of the SSBA was easy by using a simple proportional-integral-derivative controller. A bundle weighing 12 g and consisting of 24 SMA springs was able to actuate with a contraction strain of more than 50% and actuating frequency of 1 Hz under a mass condition of 10 kg. Further, it could generate 130 N of force with respect to a temperature change from 28 °C to 82 °C. The flexion–extension motion of an arm of 1-Hz actuating speed was possible by applying two SSBAs antagonistically to an arm of one degree-of-freedom. This proposed artificial muscle offers the possibility of lightweight and safe robotic arms.
Optimization Platform to Find a Switching Pattern of Digital Active Gate Drive for Reducing Both Switching Loss and Surge Voltage

A gate driving for power devices is a key technology to further improve switching characteristics. With the help of digital gate driver IC, the switching behavior of power devices can be enhanced even under high-speed switching. In this paper, an evaluation platform for determining the optimal switching pattern of an active gate drive control is proposed for an inverter circuit. A high speed optimization system is built up to search for an advantageous switching pattern that reduces total switching loss of two power devices in an inverter circuit and constrains surge voltage simultaneously. The proposed online optimization demonstrates its feasibility for the full-bridge inverter circuit, which is rated at 500 V with digital active gate drive control. Experimental results show that the proposed optimization system is able to obtain optimal switching pattern from $64^{60}$ possible combinations of switching patterns within 15 min, which is 6 times faster than the previous study. Optimizations can also conducted under different load current conditions. Eventually, the obtained optimal pattern yields up to 42% reduction in the total switching loss when it constrains surge voltage to minimum compared with the conventional driving pattern.
Load frequency regulation for multi‐area power system using integral reinforcement learning

Active load variations in uncertain dynamical power system environments affect the energy exchange and efficiency in multi-area power systems, which could compromise the stability of power grids. Hence, model-free load frequency control mechanisms are needed in order to sustain proper performances under such conditions. An online model-free adaptive control scheme based on integral reinforcement learning is proposed to regulate load frequency deviations in multi-area power systems. This scheme takes into account the generation rate constraints of the power generation units and the optimal control decisions do not employ any knowledge about the dynamical model of the power system. This approach reformulates Bellman equation and approximates the associated solving value functions and model-free control strategies using neural networks. The adaption mechanism uses value iteration processes to evaluate the underlying modified-Bellman equation and model-free control strategy in real time. The performance of the adaptive learning scheme is compared with other control methodologies using challenging validation scenarios.
A Multiplexing DAPD Technique for Fast-Locking and Charge Pumps Calibration in PLLs

This letter presents a 5-GHz phase-locked loop (PLL) with fast-locking and charge pump (CP) calibration. Based on dual-mode time division multiplexing discriminator-aided phase detector (DAPD), the fast-locking and CP calibration procedure are proposed in a compatible and efficient manner. The proposed dual-mode time division multiplexing DAPD has coarse-resolution and fine-resolution modes, which is used in fast locking and CP calibration, respectively. The proposed technique is incorporated in a design of 5-GHz PLL. Implemented in the 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 1P6M CMOS process, the power dissipation is less than 18.3 mW. The measured total settling time (including fast-locking and CP calibration) is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$22~\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, evidently improved by <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$36~\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> over the conventional method. At 4.905 GHz, the phase noise measured at 1-MHz offset is −123.7 dBc/Hz, and the measured output spur levels are less than −70.44 dBc throughout the whole output frequency range.
A Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Algorithm to Minimize the Sensing Overhead of Cognitive Radio System

Received: 9 January 2019 Accepted: 20 March 2019 Cognitive radio (CR) technology is an emerging technology that overcomes the scarcity and poor utilization of spectrum resources. Under the constraint of system energy, this paper puts forward a cooperative spectrum sensing algorithm to minimize the sensing overhead, considering the mutual relation between sensing duration and the number of cognitive users. The simulation results show that, when the selected cognitive users face the same mean signalto-noise ratio (SNR), the system overhead can be minimized by determining the proper number of required cognitive users and sensing duration. Thus, the proposed algorithm was proved valid.
On techniques for optimal noise matching of a class of multimode antenna

This article investigates techniques to design noise‐matching networks for a class of multimodal antennas, specifically, the so‐called quad‐mode antenna. Such an antenna utilizes weighted combinations of four very dissimilar radiation patterns, and different modal input impedances, which vary across scan angle. The matching problem is therefore quite different from that of a classical array, where antenna elements are normally assumed to be similar. In addition to the standard techniques, a new, recursively averaged active impedance, is proposed and applied, as well one using a noise‐active impedance, and two optimization approaches. It is shown for the first time that the quad‐mode antenna displays excellent noise properties, with the simplest technique, namely that of matching to the self‐impedances, producing noise performances across all scan angles which are almost as good as the best solution found by all the techniques.