Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sideband level suppression in time-modulated linear arrays using modified switching sequences and fixed bandwidth elements

A new technique for suppressing the sideband levels in time-modulated linear arrays (TMLAs) is presented. The technique utilises the fixed bandwidth of the radiating elements of the array to act as bandpass filters to suppress the out-of-band harmonics generated by the time-modulation process. The approach is combined with a new element switching sequence that can be designed to redistribute the dominant harmonic components of the TMLA to predetermined frequencies that are outside the bandwidth of the array elements. The proposed technique does not require the use of complicated optimisation procedures to generate the TMLA switching sequences and is applicable to a TMLA configured to synthesise arbitrary low sidelobe patterns. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the proposed approach by considering a 16-element array of patch antenna elements designed to provide a -30 dB Chebyshev sidelobe level radiation pattern.
Low power high speed and high accuracy design methodologies for Pipeline Analog-to- Digital converters

Different aspects of power optimization of a high-speed, high-accuracy pipeline Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) are considered to satisfy the current and future needs of portable communication devices. First power optimized design strategies for the amplifiers are introduced. Closed form expressions of power w.r. t settling requirements are presented to facilitate a fair comparison and selection of the amplifier structure. Next a new low offset dynamic comparator has been designed. Simulation based sensitivity analysis is performed to demonstrate the robustness of the new comparator with respect to stray capacitances, common mode voltage errors and timing errors. With simplified amplifier power model along with the use of dynamic comparators, a method to optimize the power consumption of a pipeline ADC with kT/C noise constraint is also developed. The total power dependence on capacitor scaling and stage resolution is investigated for a near-optimal solution. After considering the power requirements of a pipeline ADC, design and statistical modeling of over-range protection requirements is investigated. Closed form statistical expressions for the over-range requirements are developed to assist in the allocation of the error budgets to different pipeline blocks. A new over-range protection algorithm is also developed that relaxes the amplifier design and power requirements. Finally, two new CMOS Schmitt trigger designs are proposed which can be used as clock inputs for the pipeline ADC. In the new designs, sizing of the feedback inverters is used for independent trip point control. The new designs have also a modest reduction in sensitivity to process variations along with immunity to the kick-back noise without the addition of path delay.
Member's Perception of Service Quality At the Nellis Air Force Base Officers Open Mess

Abstract : This study pertains to members' perceptions of service quality at the Nellis Air Force base Officers' Open Mess. The Officers, club members were surveyed using the parsimonious 22-item SERVQUAL instrument. Perceptions were compared to expectations to achieve a SERVQUAL score for the five dimensions of service quality. These scores were then averaged to obtain an overall Unweighted and Weighted SERVQUAL score for the Officers' Club. The results indicated that the Officers, Club was providing less than average service quality as perceived by the club members. The Active Duty members perceived the difference to be greater than that of the Other club members. Both groups of club members rated the tangible dimension as exceeding their expectations, while the reliability dimension had the greatest difference between expectations and perceptions of service quality.
Evaluación del trabajo de adhesión termodinámico en placas de acero AISI 4140 y pistas de rodamiento utilizando adhesivos anaeróbicos

The thermodynamic adhesion work of AISI 4140 flat plates and AISI 52100 steels in contact with two commercial anaerobic adhesives was evaluated by measuring the advancing and receding contact angles in an immersion-emersion tensiometer. The polar and non-polar adhesive components were calculated by the van Oss method for all the adhesive-metal pairs tested. The effect of the application of a primer on the metal surface was also considered. The results showed that application of the primer nada significant effect on the wettability of adhesives, although the adhesion work remained practically unchanged with respect to the pure adhesive-metal joints. On the other hand, major differences on the response of the two commercial were observed between the two commercial adhesives studied, mainly as a consequence of their chemical composition and rheological properties.
Left ventricular dyssynchrony assessment using tissue synchronization imaging in acute myocardial infarction

Abstract Objectives: To assess left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Background: Mechanical synchronization disorder leads to a decrease in LV ejection fraction (LVEF) and stroke volume, an abnormal distribution of wall tension, and increase in workload during cardiac contraction. Methods: We enrolled 56 participants, 36 with acute STEMI and 20 healthy controls. The automatically color-coded time to peak myocardial velocity was measured using a 6mm sample volume, manually positioned within the two-dimensional-tissue strain image of the 12 basal and middle LV segments. Results: A significant delay was found between the septal-lateral and septal-posterior walls in patients with STEMI compared to patients in the control group (36.36 vs. −6.0ms, P = 0.036; and 42.7 vs. 23.94ms, P = 0.042, respectively). Furthermore, all segment maximum differences and all segment standard deviation (SD; dyssynchrony index) were found to be significantly higher in the STEMI group (131.28 vs. 95.45ms, P = 0.013; and 44.47 vs. 26.45ms, P = 0.001, respectively). A significant delay between the septal-lateral walls and septal-posterior walls, all segment maximum difference, and all segment SD (dyssynchrony index) were found in patients with complicated STEMI (70.89 vs. 15.83ms, P = 0.038; 57.44 vs. 19.06ms, P = 0.040; 138.11 vs. 100.0ms, P = 0.035; and 45.44 vs. 32.50ms, P = 0.021, respectively). There was a significant negative correlation between tissue synchronization imaging parameters and LVEF, and a positive correlation with LV end systolic dimension. Conclusion: Patients with acute STEMI showed significant LV dyssynchrony, which was an independent predictor of inhospital complications.
Unambiguous evaluation of a chirp measurement standard

This article describes an automated evaluation method for the chirp standard. Chirp calibration standards provide a way to describe the transfer behavior of different spatial frequencies as they contain sinusoidal functions of varying wavelengths (Krüger-Sehm et al 2007 chirp calibration standards for surface measuring instruments Tech. Mess. tm 74 572–76; Pehnelt et al 2011 Comparative analysis of optical surface measuring systems with a chip calibration standard Tech. Mess. tm 78 457–62). By introducing a new, automated evaluation method, an improvement for the application of the chirp standard can be achieved. The data-preprocessing for topography and profile measurement data and the fit of the geometric elements are described. Automated evaluation can reduce the labor required to evaluate measured data and make it easier to compare different evaluations in the course of standardization. The algorithm can be used to characterize the so-called ‘small scale fidelity’ of an optical instrument. The term ‘small scale fidelity’ is currently discussed in the optical group of working group no. 16 of the ISO technical committee 213.
Sharing through Artefacts: client-user centred design

In order to anneal high speed steel powder having a hardness of the order of about 550 to 600 Vickers and an oxygen content of 1500-2000 ppm, the powder is heated to a maximum temperature of about 1050 DEG C. and held at that temperature for about one hour. The powder is then gas quenched to between 700 DEG and 780 DEG C. , held at that temperature for about one hour, and finally gas quenched to ambient temperature.
A planar hybrid antenna for UWB application

A novel hybrid antenna formed by a printed monopole slot (open‐ended slot) and a printed monopole for Ultra‐Wideband (UWB) operation is presented. The monopole slot and monopole are fed in series using a 50 Ω microstrip feed line and printed on a FR4 substrate of small size 30 × 34 mm2. The monopole is on the top edge of the proposed antenna and can provide a wide impedance bandwidth for UWB upper band operation (6.15 GHz–10.6 GHz). The monopole slot is printed below the monopole and is used to excite a quarter‐wavelength resonant mode at about 4 GHz for UWB lower band operation (3.1 GHz–4.8 GHz). Detailed results and parametric studies of the proposed hybrid antenna are presented and discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 1243–1246, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24328
A socio-technical approach for the design of a production control system: towards controllable production units

In the design of a production control system much attention is usually paid to technicalaspects, whereas the elaboration upon social aspects remain underexposed. SociotechnicalSystems Theory (SST) emphasizes the importance of finding a joint optimization between the technical and the social systems of an organization. This paper investigates to what extent STS-principles can be applied in the design of a production control system. Part of the paper is devoted to the integration of STS-principles in a bottom-up design methodology for a production control system. A case study demonstrates the usefulness of such an integration in the design and allocation of production control tasks and responsibilities among the various departments /people of the firm.
Patch-fed planar dielectric slab waveguide Luneburg lens

The design of a patch-fed planar dielectric slab waveguide Luneburg lens weighing only 45 g and operated at 27 GHz in TM 0 mode is described. The measured half-power beamwidth (HPBW) for a 10.8 lambda, 12-cm diameter lens fed by a microstrip patch placed in intimate contact with the lens rim is 6.9deg with 16.8 dB gain and 10% bandwidth for -10 dB feed return loss, lens cross-polar levels were below -20 dB. The lens is also capable of operating in the TE 0 mode with similar radiation performance to that of the TM 0 mode. Here, measured HPBW and gain is 8 and 15.5 dB at 27 GHz. Unlike other planar lens arrangements, because of its ability to handle both TM 0 and TE 0 modes the lens has the potential to deal with the circularly polarised signals, this aspect is also explored.
“Soft” Controls for Hard Displays: Still a Challenge

Future trends in design of controls and displays for cockpit sub-systems (electrical, pneumatics, fuel, etc.), will undoubtedly focus on replacing dedicated “hard” controls with reconfigurable “soft” controls depicted on the sub-system schematic display. This concept would allow for direct manipulation of mechanical components via the display. The case study reported here discusses the approach, redesign, and evaluation of soft controls and multi-functional displays for the Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator (ACFS), a two-engine, “generic” airliner. The redesign effort focused on the input interface (a touch sensitive screen), the display concept, and improving “navigation” among sub-system displays. The paper concludes with a summary of questionnaire data and comments of 26 airline pilots who flew a four-segment mission in the simulator. The subjective results indicated that pilots favored the direct manipulation concepts and the ability to link alerts, procedures, and configuration tasks. However, the technology used to support this concept still requires improvements.
Analysis of global spine sagittal parameters in cervical spondylotic patients and asymptomatic subjects

Background: Degenerative changes associated with cervical spondylotic can result in a change of normal sagittal alignment, and this may be the initial change of kyphosis and sagittal imbalance. Few studies have analyzed the correlations between the cervical spine lordosis and global spine balance in patients with cervical spondylotic. This study is applied to investigate the characteristics and relationships of cervical and global sagittal parameters in normal adults and cervical spondylotic patients. Methods: We reviewed 46 asymptomatic control subjects (normal group, NG) and 48 cervical spondylotic patients (cervical spondylotic group, CSG), who had both cervical MRI and global radiographs obtained together, between January 2016 and September 2018. Data includes C1-2 angle, C2–7 lordosis (CL), T1 slope (T1S), thoracic inlet angle (TIA), C2–7 sagittal vertical axis (CSVA), sagittal vertical axis(SVA), thoracic-kyphosis(TK), thoracic-lumbar lordosis(TL), lumbar lordosis (LL), pelvic incidence (PI), pelvic tilt (PT) and sacral slope (SS). The values were presented as the mean ± standard deviation. Student t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefﬁcient were used for statistical analysis. Probability values less than 0.05 were considered statistically signiﬁcant. Results: 1.Comparison of global sagittal parameters between the normal group and cervical spondylosis group. A total of 48 cervical spondylotic patients with an average age of 57.91±9.58 and 46 healthy people with an average age of 28.00±8.09 were recruited in our study. CL in the NG was significantly lower than CSG (P<0.05), while TK and TL were significantly lower than in the CSG(P< 0.01). However, a comparison of the NG and CSG yielded no significant differences in C1-2, TIA, TIS, LL, PT, PI, SS, CSVA, and SVA. 2.The relationship between cervical and global sagittal alignment. CL positively correlated with T1S (r=0.433) and TK (r=0.335) while negatively correlated with CSVA (r=-0.309) in cervical spondylosis group. TIA has positively correlated with T1S (r=0.376 in NG and r=0.416 in CSG) and no correlated with other parameters in both groups. Conclusions Cervical spondylosis causes changes in sagittal parameters of the cervical and thoracic spine but does not affect on lumbar and pelvic parameters. TIA is a relative constant parameter, not affected by cervical spondylotic.
Information Service Excellence Through Tqm: Building Partnerships for Business Process Reengineering and Continuous Improvement

From the Publisher: This book presents an application of total quality management (TQM) principles, tools, and techniques to the business of defining, constructing, and delivering automated information systems and services. This book will prepare anyone within an information services (IS) department to understand and fully participate in the quality improvement and reengineering challenges facing corporate America and the government. It also illustrates for IS user management and the quality assurance professional some of the actions an IS provider needs to take in order to support the quality initiatives of the rest of the organization. Author Timothy Braithwaite uses his many years of experience as a systems development and data processing executive to apply the principles of TQM to the development process and to the management practices of the IS department. His approach helps any IS department to easily comprehend this to-the-point primer on how to apply TQM in the typical IS departmental environment. Key topics of the book include a generic treatment of TQM applied to the business of IS; the need to improve the quality and performance of most information systems and services; TQM and the management of the systems development process; how to create an environment for success for quality improvement initiatives; steps for implementing a system of continuous improvement in IS; creating a quality-conscious IS organization; Deming's l4 points applied to the IS organization; identifying and using cost of quality to monitor IS projects and identify areas requiring corrective action; steps for getting an IS/TQM program started and hints for resuscitating one that has floundered.
UAV Data-Links: Tasks, Types, Technologies and Examples

Abstract : This paper provides an overview of Data-Links for UAVs. Based on the functions, which have to he performed in different UAV missions, requirements for data-links are identified. After highlighting the basic variants of data-links and their general advantages and disadvantages a detailed discussion of some important design aspects is provided. Some real-world examples of data-links show how theory has been put to use, namely * Global Hawk SATCOM Data-Link as an example for an off-the-shelf solution. * HF Data-Link for Mucke UAV System as an example for the adaptation of MOTS hardware to a small UAV. * The BREVEL Microwave DATA-Link as an example for a solution to a specific requirement. The BREVEL Data-Link is one of the most advanced solutions available today. It was developed jointly between DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG and MATRA SYSTEMS & Information until 1998 and is expected to go into production in Germany in 1999.
Damping control of micromachined lowpass mechanical vibration isolation filters using electrostatic actuation with electronic signal processing

Some harsh environments, such as those encountered by aerospace vehicles and various types of industrial machinery, contain high frequency/amplitude mechanical vibrations. Unfortunately, some very useful components are sensitive to these high frequency mechanical vibrations. Examples include MEMS gyroscopes and resonators, oscillators and some micro optics. Exposure of these components to high frequency mechanical vibrations present in the operating environment can result in problems ranging from an increased noise floor to component failure. Passive micromachined silicon lowpass filter structures (spring-mass-damper) have been demonstrated in recent years. However, the performance of these filter structures is typically limited by low damping (especially if operated in near-vacuum environments) and a lack of tunability after fabrication. Active filter topologies, such as piezoelectric, electrostrictive-polymer-film and SMA have also been investigated in recent years. Electrostatic actuators, however, are utilized in many micromachined silicon devices to generate mechanical motion. They offer a number of advantages, including low power, fast response time, compatibility with silicon micromachining, capacitive position measurement and relative simplicity of fabrication. This paper presents an approach for realizing active micromachined mechanical lowpass vibration isolation filters by integrating an electrostatic actuator with the micromachined passive filter structure to realize an active mechanical lowpass filter. Although the electrostatic actuator can be used to adjust the filter resonant frequency, the primary application is for increasing the damping to an acceptable level. The physical size of these active filters is suitable for use in or as packaging for sensitive electronic and MEMS devices, such as MEMS vibratory gyroscope chips.
Influence of the laser optical resonance on the binary direct detection equalized optical receiver performance

Using a simple model for laser optical resonance, the performance of a binary direct detection equalized optical receiver is presented, assuming as a photodetector a PIN diode in a circuit-noise-dominant situation. The normalized dimensionless bandwidth integrals I/sub 2/ and I/sub 3/ defined by S.D. Personick (1973) are evaluated in typical cases that allow the study of the influence of laser resonance on system sensitivity. <<ETX>>
On the degradation of p-MOSFETs in analog and RF circuits under inhomogeneous negative bias temperature stress

The effect of inhomogeneous Negative Bias Temperature Stress (NBTS) applied to p-MOS transistors under analog and RF CMOS operating conditions is investigated. Experimental data of a 0.18 /spl mu/m standard CMOS process are presented and an analytical model is derived to physically explain the effect of stress on the device characteristics. The impact of inhomogeneous NBTS on device lifetime is considered and compared to the homogeneous case.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Shocks? 
Utilitarian Machine Ethics

Consider Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the droid C3PO from Star Wars, or the Replicants that appear in Bladerunner: They can use language (or many languages), they are rational, they form relationships, they use language that suggests that they have a concept of self, and even language that suggests that they have “feelings” or emotional experience. In the films and TV shows that they appear, they are depicted as having frequent social interaction with human beings; but would we have any moral obligations to such a being if they really existed? What would we be permitted to do or not to do to them? On the one hand, a robot like Data has many of the attributes that we currently associate with a person. On the other hand, he has many of the attributes of the machines that we currently use as tools. He (and other science-fiction machines like him) closely resembles one of the things we value the most (a person), and at the same time, one of the things we value the least (an artefact), leading to an apparent ethical paradox. What is its solution?
Exploration and Exploitation Strategies in Industrial R&D

This paper discusses four types of strategic decisions in technology management in established firms. We argue that more attention, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective, should be paid to the strategic solutions which are implemented as a consequence of such decisions, as well as to the various types of interactions between strategic decisions and organizational solutions in industrial R&D. Here we apply management concepts derived from the industrial dynamics literature to R&D, and use a theoretical framework to describe and analyse four case studies concerning the largest R&D centres of Italian firms operating in different industrial sectors (telecommunications, automotive, communication and cables, and semiconductors). The different approaches that those private R&D centres have chosen in their recent past are compared and discussed. We analyse the patterns of exploration, technology transfer and commercialization that industrial R&D labs have adopted in order to combine short-term objectives of exploitation of research results and competencies, and long-term goals of exploration of new technological trajectories, based upon the use of two dimensions: first, the type of technological change, and second the control of complementary assets and the existence of a dominant design. We argue that the interpretation of the four case studies can represent a useful basis for discussion among R&D managers as well as innovation and technology management scholars.