Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comunicación intercultural de los guías de idioma alemán en la agencia Viajes Cubanacan Habana / Intercultural communication of German-speaking guides in the Viajes Cubanacan travel agency in Havana

El objetivo de la investigacion fue analizar determinadas reflexiones acerca de la creacion de un andamiaje conceptual, para evaluar la competencia intercultural de los guias de turismo de idioma aleman. Los metodos empleados fueron: historico-logico, induccion-deduccion, analisis-sintesis, analisis documental, encuesta y criterio de expertos. Se formulo una nueva definicion de competencia intercultural, que se sustenta en el actual contexto de superacion posgraduada, y se propuso una adecuacion del modelo de Competencias Interculturales Transversales, para la medicion de los conocimientos culturales, antes de comenzar el curso de formacion para guias de turismo de idioma aleman. Abstract The objective of the research was to analyze certain reflections about the creation and development of a conceptual framework, to evaluate the intercultural competence of German-speaking tour guides. The methods used were: historical-logical, induction-deduction, analysis-synthesis, document analysis, surveys and experts' criteria. A new definition of intercultural competence was formulated, supported on the current context of postgraduate training, and an adaptation of the Model of Transversal Cross-cultural Competences was proposed, for the measurement of cultural knowledge, before starting the training course for German-speaking tour guides.
Reflection Suppression in the Short-slot 2-plane Coupler by Step Structure

We discuss the reflection suppression in the shortslot 2-plane hybrid coupler by step structure. This structure suppresses the reflection around the design frequency of 22GHz. The reflections to the four input-side ports, S11 and S41 are suppressed to less than –20dB over 8.1% bandwidth, and S21 and S31 are less than –20dB over 12% bandwidth. However, the transmissions to the four output-side ports are deviated from – 6dB at 22GHz. They are in a range from –6.9dB to –5.2dB.
Enhanced sensitivity of SPR sensing and imaging using plasmonic nanopillar arrays

We present a 2-dimensional gold nanopillar array, consisting of narrow gaps between the nanopillars, for application in the area of biosensing. Normally incident light can couple directly into plasmonic waveguide modes in these 2-dimensional plasmonic nano-gratings formed by the 2-dimensional array of gold nanopillars. The effect of polarization of the incident light and of the dimensions of the nanopillars on the sensitivity of localized sensing was studied using Rigorous Coupled-Wave Analysis. The results show that the sensitivity of biosensors made from these nanopillar arrays is not polarization dependent. Moreover, varying the structural parameters of the nanopillar array can enable tuning of wavelengths at which biosensing can be carried out.
LLC Resonant Converter With Topology Morphing Rectifier for Wide Output Voltage Range Application

LLC is one of the most popular DC/DC converters in electric vehicle chargers, however, the change of state of charge requires output voltage range as wider as nearly four times between the upper and lower limits, and always forces the switching frequency to swing outside the preference region. Based on LLC resonant converter, a novel topology morphing rectifier, which can be operated either as full bridge rectifier or as voltage doubler rectifier, is proposed in this paper. This rectifier offers a cost and controllability competitive alternate for wide output voltage range applications. The average efficiency of prototype converter was measured to be more than 95% at a peak power of 0.5 kW, and furthermore the output voltage from 50V to 200V verified the concept of topology morphing.
Smart grid Infrastructure for Efficient Power Consumption Using Real Time Pricing Algorithm and Distributed Algorithm

Electricity supply do not always satisfy customers’ demand; which results in peak demand periods. When demand is at its peak, electricity providers have to react to meet the demand and avoid interruptions by boosting the capacity which is costly and not always possible. In addition to fluctuation in demand, price of electricity production changes continuously due to the variation in resources used for production over periods. Yet, the consumers pay the same price for the electricity unit both in on-peak and off-peak periods. A proposed solution would be the use of real time pricing (RTP) of electricity. The end-users will be involved in the electric grid and will have control on the consumption over different periods either by reducing or by shifting it to off-peak periods as a reaction to RTP. After a literature review and a study of previous work on RTP and demand response in smart homes, we will implement a RTP algorithm. The project will be with direct social and ethical implications since less energy consumption implies more energy efficiency, and thus more respect for environment. We implement the RTP algorithm in both a central and a distributed manner. The results obtained prove that not only the electric utility, but also, the subscribers will benefit. Comparing the results of RTP algorithm to a scenario where price is fixed, we notice that the aggregate utility of every user is higher using RTP algorithm. Along with RTP algorithm we would like to suggest Distributed algorithm that automatically manages the smart meter and the electricity provider interactions. The results from the simulation shows that the proposed RTP algorithm and distributed algorithm can potentially benefit both customer and the electricity providers.
Cyber Vulnerabilities on Smart Healthcare, Review and Solutions

Smart homes and healthcare have increasingly grown more popular in the recent years. Due to the amount of data, it records the need for a more secure method is needed to ensure security and privacy. Consequently, these methods can also ensure security and privacy in Smart health. The intended outcome of this review paper is to analyze the problems which people might be facing related to security issues in their smart homes and initiate a discussion on how healthcare devices which come in a package by future homes are vulnerable to cyber attacks which will result into data breaches. By reviewing previous literature, this paper proposes blockchain as a method to improve security and privacy in smart homes and smart healthcare. Using this platform, we debated about the uprising blockchain technology which may contribute to these elements and how its components can assist healthcare to grow with complete security in mind. This research discusses how blockchain based solutions may give rise to future homes and healthcare based on an ideal framework.
Double-layer Waveguide Planar Array Antenna Composed of Narrow-wall Cavity-backed 2x2element Sub-arrays Fed by E-plane Feeding Circuit

A 16x16 element array antenna is composed of an E-plane waveguide parallel-feeding circuit in the lower layer and 2x2 slotted narrow-wall cavities in the upper layer. The antenna consists of three plates fabricated by plastic molding with metal plating and assembled at the center of the broad wall of the waveguide of each layer to achieve low-loss property and wide bandwidth simultaneously. The simulated bandwidth with reflection lower than, 10 dB was wider than 11 GHz. The gain was 30.5 dBi at 73.5 GHz.
Two-Channel Critically Sampled Graph Filter Banks With Spectral Domain Sampling

We propose two-channel critically-sampled filter banks for signals on undirected graphs that utilize spectral domain sampling. Unlike conventional approaches based on vertex domain sampling, our transforms have the following desirable properties: first, perfect reconstruction regardless of the characteristics of the underlying graphs and graph variation operators; and second, a symmetric structure; i.e., both analysis and synthesis filter banks are built using similar building blocks. Along with the structure of the filter banks, this paper also proves the general criterion for perfect reconstruction and theoretically shows that the vertex and spectral domain sampling coincide for a special case. The effectiveness of our approach is evaluated by comparing its performance in nonlinear approximation and denoising with various conventional graph transforms.
Effect Of Various Torso Orientations On Consumed Energy And Kinetic Pattern Of A Biped

In this paper, we study the effect of torso orientation on the energetic of walking and on the lower limbs kinetic using simple mathematical biped model. The model incorporates the effects of both physical and kinematics constraints of the human locomotion. However, the torso movement of the biped model had been restricted in different ways to observe the effect of such restrictions on the gait. The results showed that walking with flexed torso causes changes in the profile of ground reaction force and the energetic of walking.
Trajectory Tracking on Complex Networks Via Inverse Optimal Pinning Control

In this technical note, a novel approach to trajectory tracking control of a complex network is presented, based on the idea and technique of inverse optimal pinning control. A control law that stabilizes the tracking error dynamics is developed. This controller allows different coupling strengths, and simultaneously minimizing an associated cost functional. Chaotic systems are considered to illustrate the applicability of the new methodology and the proposed controller effectiveness via simulations.
A Parallel Multi-Channel Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, we propose a group-based multi-channel cooperative spectrum sensing scheme to maximize the total throughput of cognitive radio networks that includes a secondary user with non-identical average SNR. In this scheme, sensing groups are adaptively organized to perform sensing the different channel. To minimize the error probability, the fusion center determines the group size under the target error probability constraint. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm can significantly improve the total throughput with target error probability as compared to the conventional cooperative spectrum sensing scheme.
Generalized Symmetrical/Asymmetrical Single-phase MLI Topology

The efficient and effective power conversion is the most vital part of the various applications related to industrial drives. The quality of the output voltage is preferred to be sinusoidal in nature to have an efficient power conversion. The requirement of the filter circuit in the conventional inverter is overshadowed by the use of multilevel inverters. Research in the field of multilevel inverters with reduced components are gaining attention due to some of the major factors like economic cost, installation space, bulkiness, complexity. A novel and generalized multilevel topology is proposed in this paper that can be well implemented for any input voltage magnitudes. The topology has been compared further with the other existed reduced switch topologies to proof the effectiveness of the topology. A 7-level and 9-level proposed inverter is executed in MATLAB environment and the corresponding results are added in this paper.
A Novel Nanocomposite Polymer Electrolyte for Application in Solid State Lithium Ion Battery

Nanocomposite polymer electrolytes (NCPE) have been prepared by blending poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane-functionalized with poly(ethylene glycol) (POSS- PEG) with lithium bis(oxalate) borate (LiBOB). Different thermal, electrical and electrochemical studies exhibit promising characteristics of these polymer electrolytes, suitable as electrolytes in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. POSS-PEG was highly compatible with PEO up to 50 wt% and resulted in single $\mathbf{T}_{\mathbf{g}}$ and increased ionic conductivity. The ionic conductivity of the nanocomposites increased to $3.98\times 10^{-6}$ S/cm at 50 wt% of POSS-PEG by more than 2 orders of magnitude. POSS-PEG nanoparticles sustainably increased ionic conductivity without impeding chain motion of polymer and were highly compatible with PEO up to 50 wt% of POSS-PEG, which can mitigate the restriction of the amount of nanoparticles introduction. The Li/PEO-LiBOB-POSS PEG/LiFeP04 coin-typed cell cycled at 0.1 C shows the $1^{\mathbf{st}}$ discharge capacity about 146 mAh $\mathbf{g}^{-1}$, and remains 126.2 mAh $\mathbf{g}^{-1}$ on the $50^{\mathbf{th}}$ cycle. Overall, these results indicate that POSS-PEG nanocomposites can be potentially useful as a new class of nanocomposite polymer electrolytes for rechargeable lithium batteries.
Piezoelectric Hafnium Oxide Thin Films for Energy-Harvesting Applications

This paper presents the piezoelectric properties of silicon doped hafnium oxide $(\text{Si}:\text{HfO}_{2})$ thin films and their superior suitability for energy harvesting applications. Various layer thicknesses from 10 nm to 50 nm, executed as single layer and in a laminate structure, are investigated. The piezoelectric coefficient $\mathrm{d}_{33,\mathrm{f}}$ of the samples is measured via double beam laser interferometry (DBLI) and converted into $\mathrm{d}_{33}$, based on a numerical simulation model. Values of up to $\mathrm{d}_{33}=73$ pm/V are obtained. Finally, the $\text{Si}:\text{HfO}_{2}$ films are electrically investigated by evaluating a relative permittivity between 37 and 47, respectively.
A Three-Phase Flyback-Push-Pull ZVS-PWM Converter

In this paper a three-phase flyback-push-pull ZVSPWM DC-DC converter is proposed. The converter owns the advantages of three-phase topologies with compact passive devices, low conduction power losses, higher power density and smaller filters. The converter uses a full three-phase bridge and a clamping capacitor in the transformer primary side, allowing the reuse of the energy from leakage inductances and the reduction of the eletromagnetic interference. These characteristics make this converter suitable for many applications, such as telecommunications power supply, battery chargers, and renewable power systems. A detailed analysis of the converter is provided, including theoretical waveforms, a description of the topological stages, a design example and mathematical expression for the voltage gain in continuos conduction mode of region R3. In order to validate the theoretical analysis was presented a design example and the simulation results for an output power of 1000 W with an input voltage of 50 V, an output voltage of 400 V and a switching frequency of 40 kHz.
Millimeter-wave Low-mutual-coupling MIMO Dielectric Resonator Antennas

A simple decoupling approach of suppressing mutual coupling between two millimeter-wave dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) elements using shorting vias is presented in this paper. The simulated results show that, the vias which are vertically added into the DRA elements, can provide an average isolation enhancement of 27 dB in the operating frequency band.
Balancing Voltage in the DC Bus with Split Capacitors in Three-Phase Four-Wire PWM Boost Rectifier

This paper presents a balancer circuit to be used in a four wire three phase boost rectifier with split capacitor topology. The goal is to discuss the problems related to the injection of DC current on the grid when the rectifier feeds unbalanced loads. Since the converter uses four wires, it is suitable for use in UPS where the fourth wire is needed to keep fixed the neutral point. This work will analyze the converter's behavior when unbalanced loads are applied to the DC bus and how they impact on the AC line currents. A balancer circuit will be modeled and a control strategy is applied to overcome the problem.
An extensive comparative study of switching losses prediction in power MOSFETs

This paper presents a study of estimation techniques applied to power MOSFET switching losses. Three loss prediction methods are, then, chosen for this proposal. In this context, the first one uses simple equations to describe the switching transient. The second estimation technique is an improved version of the previous one as it considers the variations regarding reverse transfer capacitance of the device and, finally, the third one adopts the insertion of stray capacitances and inductances. The aforementioned methods are briefly revised and validated concerning results obtained from experimental tests using double pulse circuit, where aspects such as complexity and relative error are investigated.
Image Size, Color Depth, Age variant on Convolution Neural Network

Facial recognition as of biometric authentication used in the field of security, military, finance and daily use is become a trend or famous, because of its natural and not intrusive nature. Many methods for face recognition such as holistic learning, the use of local features, shallow learning and deep learning, some methods are susceptible to variations in pose change, illumination, expression and age variation. State of the art of face recognition today is a deep learning technique that delivers high accuracy. In this paper author replicate an face recognition using deep learning architecture called OpenFace Convolutional Neural Network. In this research author make variation on the size of image, color dept and age, and see how that factor impact on accuracy of face recognition in that architecture. As the result from the research, the accuracy of a model depends on the image size, color depth, and age variation, but in OpenFace CNN that recognition still provides fairly good accuracy when reducing the size of image and color depth, as long as the image can still be detected on the landmark facial, so the alignment process can be done on the face image.
A New Adaptive Thresholding Technique for Binarizing Ancient Document

Binarization is one of the most critical steps in document image analysis, especially in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system. Binarization process results in two image representations: black pixel represents the text or object, and white pixel represents the background. Thresholding is the simplest binarization approach. In this paper, we proposed a new adaptive thresholding technique for binarizing ancient document. The proposed method is the combination of Niblack and Sauvola techniques. It solved Niblack and Sauvola drawbacks by determining the mean of the thresholding values of both methods. The binarization results were evaluated using FM, FMps, PSNR, NRM, DRD, and MPM. The results showed that the proposed method had remarkable performance in binarizing ancient document, especially ancient Jawi document.
Bi-objective Mixed Optimal Planning for Distributed Energy Storage System of Active Distribution System

In this paper, a novel $bi$-objective mixed optimal planning method for distributed energy storage system in active distribution network is designed to take account of both feasibility and comprehensiveness planning. The direct and indirect objects of optimal planning are respectively designed to represent the effect and cost of distributed energy storage system. Above two optimal objects are integrated through dimensionless processing. The weights of two optimal objects are determined through the combination of relative comparison method and entropy method. Based on historical data, simulation on IEEE −33 nodes radial distribution network is set up and analyzed by using LINGO and MATPOWER. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Feature Extraction Method of Retinal Vessel Diameter

Digital image processing is one of the most widely used computer vision techniques, especially in biomedical engineering. Modern ophthalmology is directly dependent on this robust technology, digital image processing to find out the biomarkers analyzing the fundus eye images that are responsible for different kinds of life-threatening diseases like hypertensive retinopathy, Transient Ischemic Attack or sharp stroke. The geometric features like vessel tortuosity, branching angles, vessel diameter, and fractal dimension are considered as the biomarkers for the above-mentioned cardiovascular diseases. Retinal vessel diameter widening has found as the early symptom of transient ischemic attack or sharp stroke. In this paper, a completely new and computer-aided automated method to measure the retinal vessel diameter by employing the Euclidean Distance Transform technique was developed. The proposed algorithm measures the Euclidean Distance of the bright pixels exist on the Region of Interest (ROI). Further, the Vascular Disease Image Set (VDIS) and Central Light Reflex Image Set (CLRIS) of Retinal Vessel Image Set for Estimation of Width database were used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm that measures the vessel diameter. The proposed algorithm obtained 98.1% accuracy for the CLRIS and 97.7% accuracy for VDIS. With further evaluation, validation and enhancement of the method, it can be integrated into the clinical computer-aided diagnostic tool.
Compact Massive MIMO Antenna Using Cubic Arrangement Suitable for Indoor Base Station

This paper proposes a compact massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna for an indoor base station, which uses orthogonally polarized patch antennas at five faces of a cube. A block diagonal (BD) method was applied to the MIMO channel calculated by ray-tracing simulation. The result shows that the proposed antenna yields a higher multiuser capacity than planar array antennas and linear array antennas with the same number of elements.
Development of high performance synchronous rectifier module by multi-chip Cu sintering technology (IMPACT 2018)

In Recent year, the traditional Si and wide band-gap power semiconductor devices, particularly Si MOSFET, Si IGBT, SiC MOSFET and GaN E-HEMT have gained considerable attention in several industrial applications such as the hybrid electric vehicle, the internet data center and aero-space applications. Attachment of power semiconductor devices to an insulated metal carrier substrate is essential for providing electrical and structural connections as well as a heat dissipation path. The die attach materials play a vital role in ensuring the system performance and reliability. In this study, the key technologies including multi-chip Cu paste sintering and panel level packaging have been developed. With an optimized process condition, a voidless die attaching joint was gained, and the die shear strength was as high as 70 MPa as sintering. Furthermore, the reduction of thermal resistance was measured by using Cu sintering, and the electrical performance of the newly developed Synchronous Rectifier was fully reported in this study.
Analysis of Electroencephalographic Signal Acquisition and Processing for Use in Robotic Arm Movement

In recent years, new research has brought the field of electroencephalograph (EEG)-based brain– computer interfacing (BCI) out of its early stages into a phase of relative maturity through many demonstrated prototypes to assist the periphery compromised patients. It is a worth- while technology for disabled people enabling them to reinstate a damaged motor nerve or any neural pathway. This study introduces the development of Brain computer interface by means of a non-invasive wireless electroencephalograph (Emotiv EPOC system) and its application to control a prototype robotic arm. After the pre-processing and spectral analysis of raw EEG signals, an averaged peak value for selected channels were obtained as a feature vector for each movement. Two algorithms namely, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) were used to differentiate the raw EEG data into their associative movements. Performance of a classification algorithms were assessed, which revealed that the accuracy was 71.77 (±0.76) % and 86.57(±0.79) % of LDA and QDA respectively. Feature vector resulted in superior performance of 86.57 (±0.79) % with QDA. The averaged peak value of PSD for selected seven channels were then used to move a robotic arm successfully in the two directions i . e . "Up (elbow flexion)" and "Down (elbow extension)".