bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Symbol Component on the Identifying of Graphic Symbols from EEG for Young Children with and without Developmental Delays
Authors: Huang Chih-Hsiung , Lin Pei-Jung
Published: March 2019

Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) to improve the communication skills of children with disabilities is generally supported by both domestic and foreign scholars. Graphic symbols that represent individual words or phrases are often used in conjunction with AAC; however, research on the reading and identifying of AAC graphic symbols is scant. Therefore, this study used electroencephalogram (EEG) to investigate the success rates of identifying AAC graphic symbols and brainwave changes of young children with and without developmental delays. The results revealed that the number of symbol components affected participants’ success rates of identifying AAC graphic symbols. The EEG Attention Index between the children with and without developmental delays varied during the test. By contrast, the EEG Relaxation Index exhibited no difference between the children with and without developmental delays. When the participants viewed the single-component animations, the children without developmental delays had a significantly higher Relaxation Index than those with developmental delays did. According to cognitive load theory, the children with developmental delays and low cognitive capacities may feel stressed.
Adaptive Backstepping Sliding Mode Control Based RBFNN for a Hydraulic Manipulator Including Actuator Dynamics
Authors: Tran Duc-Thien , Truong Hoai-Vu-Anh , Ahn Kyoung Kwan
Published: March 2019

In this paper, an adaptive robust control is investigated in order to deal with the unmatched and matched uncertainties in the manipulator dynamics and the actuator dynamics, respectively. Because these uncertainties usually include smooth and unsmooth functions, two adaptive mechanisms were investigated. First, an adaptive mechanism based on radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) was used to estimate the smooth functions. Based on the Taylor series expansion, adaptive laws derive for not only the weighting vector of the RBFNN, but also for the means and standard derivatives of the RBFs. The second one was the adaptive robust laws, which is designed to estimate the boundary of the unsmooth function. The robust gains will increase when the sliding variable leave the predefined region. Conversely, they will significantly decrease when the variable approaches the region. So, when these adaptive mechanisms are derived with the backstepping technique and sliding mode control, the proposed controller will compensate the uncertainties to improve the accuracy. In order to prove stability and robustness of the controlled system, the Lyapunov approach, based on backstepping technique, was used. Some simulation and experimental results of the proposed methodology in the electrohydraulic manipulator were presented and compared to other control to show the effectiveness of the proposed control.
Impact of Different Types of ENSO Years on Intensity Changes of Landfalling Tropical Cyclones over China
Authors: Liu Lu
Published: March 2019

This study examines whether there are significant differences in intensity and destructiveness of landfalling tropical cyclones (TCs) over China in central Pacific warm (CPW), eastern Pacific warm (EPW) and La Niña (LA) years. By analyzing different seasons and locations of TCs making landfall over China, it was found that TCs in LA years generally had a larger power dissipation index (PDI) and may cause more disasters in China, while TCs in EPW years had a larger PDI over South China in autumn. A larger PDI of TCSC (landing location in Southern China) usually occurred in EPW years and a larger PDI of TCEC (landing location in Eastern China) occurred in LA years, compared with CPW years. The TCs in LA years were generally stronger, more frequent, and of longer duration over China, because of the positive relative humidity (RH) anomalies, the significant anomalous cyclone that occupied the South China Sea (SCS), and the easterly wind anomalies providing a beneficial steering flow for TCs making landfall. In EPW years, although TCs were less frequent, they had stronger intensity when making landfall and a longer lifetime over land which was mainly caused by a broad band of anomalous westerlies over the SCS giving rise to a belt of positive relative vorticity anomalies, as well as the slow translation speed of TCs before landfall supplying more energy for TCs to survive over land. Overall, we conclude that greater caution is warranted when TCs occur in LA and EPW years, as they may result in more serious disasters in China.
Pushing the Envelope: Developments in Neural Entrainment to Speech and the Biological Underpinnings of Prosody Perception
Authors: Myers Brett R. , Lense Miriam D. , Gordon Reyna L.
Published: March 2019

Prosodic cues in speech are indispensable for comprehending a speaker’s message, recognizing emphasis and emotion, parsing segmental units, and disambiguating syntactic structures. While it is commonly accepted that prosody provides a fundamental service to higher-level features of speech, the neural underpinnings of prosody processing are not clearly defined in the cognitive neuroscience literature. Many recent electrophysiological studies have examined speech comprehension by measuring neural entrainment to the speech amplitude envelope, using a variety of methods including phase-locking algorithms and stimulus reconstruction. Here we review recent evidence for neural tracking of the speech envelope and demonstrate the importance of prosodic contributions to the neural tracking of speech. Prosodic cues may offer a foundation for supporting neural synchronization to the speech envelope, which scaffolds linguistic processing. We argue that prosody has an inherent role in speech perception, and future research should fill the gap in our knowledge of how prosody contributes to speech envelope entrainment.
Identification of Targetable Lesions in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer by Genome Profiling
Authors: Ravi Naveen , Yang Minjun , Gretarsson Sigurdur , Jansson Caroline , Mylona Nektaria , Sydow Saskia R. , Woodward Eleanor L. , Ekblad Lars , Wennerberg Johan , Paulsson Kajsa
Published: March 2019

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a rare and extremely malignant tumor with no available cure. The genetic landscape of this malignancy has not yet been fully explored. In this study, we performed whole exome sequencing and the RNA-sequencing of fourteen cases of ATC to delineate copy number changes, fusion gene events, and somatic mutations. A high frequency of genomic amplifications was seen, including 29% of cases having amplification of CCNE1 and 9% of CDK6; these events may be targetable by cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) inhibition. Furthermore, 9% harbored amplification of TWIST1, which is also a potentially targetable lesion. A total of 21 fusion genes in five cases were seen, none of which were recurrent. Frequent mutations included TP53 (55%), the TERT promoter (36%), and ATM (27%). Analyses of mutational signatures showed an involvement of processes that are associated with normal aging, defective DNA mismatch repair, activation induced cytidine deaminase (AID)/apolipoprotein B editing complex (APOBEC) activity, failure of DNA double-strand break repair, and tobacco exposure. Taken together, our results shed new light on the tumorigenesis of ATC and show that a relatively large proportion (36%) of ATCs harbor genetic events that make them candidates for novel therapeutic approaches. When considering that ATC today has a mortality rate of close to 100%, this is highly relevant from a clinical perspective.
Mechanisms of Anticancer Drug Resistance in Hepatoblastoma
Authors: Marin Jose J. G. , Cives-Losada Candela , Asensio Maitane , Lozano Elisa , Briz Oscar , Macias Rocio I. R.
Published: March 2019

The most frequent liver tumor in children is hepatoblastoma (HB), which derives from embryonic parenchymal liver cells or hepatoblasts. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which rarely affects young people, causes one fourth of deaths due to cancer in adults. In contrast, HB usually has better prognosis, but this is still poor in 20% of cases. Although more responsive to chemotherapy than HCC, the failure of pharmacological treatment used before and/or after surgical resection is an important limitation in the management of patients with HB. To advance in the implementation of personalized medicine it is important to select the best combination among available anti-HB drugs, such as platinum derivatives, anthracyclines, etoposide, tyrosine-kinase inhibitors, Vinca alkaloids, 5-fluorouracil, monoclonal antibodies, irinotecan and nitrogen mustards. This requires predicting the sensitivity to these drugs of each tumor at each time because, it should be kept in mind, that cancer chemoresistance is a dynamic process of Darwinian nature. For this goal it is necessary to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of chemoresistance involved in the refractoriness of HB against the pharmacological challenge and how they evolve during treatment. In this review we have summarized the current knowledge on the multifactorial and complex factors responsible for the lack of response of HB to chemotherapy.
Chasing the FOXO3: Insights into Its New Mitochondrial Lair in Colorectal Cancer Landscape
Authors: Grossi Valentina , Fasano Candida , Celestini Valentina , Lepore Signorile Martina , Sanese Paola , Simone Cristiano
Published: March 2019

Colorectal cancer (CRC) poses a formidable challenge in terms of molecular heterogeneity, as it involves a variety of cancer-related pathways and molecular changes unique to an individual’s tumor. On the other hand, recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies provide an unprecedented capacity to comprehensively identify the genetic alterations resulting in tumorigenesis, raising the hope that new therapeutic approaches based on molecularly targeted drugs may prevent the occurrence of chemoresistance. Regulation of the transcription factor FOXO3a in response to extracellular cues plays a fundamental role in cellular homeostasis, being part of the molecular machinery that drives cells towards survival or death. Indeed, FOXO3a is controlled by a range of external stimuli, which not only influence its transcriptional activity, but also affect its subcellular localization. These regulation mechanisms are mediated by cancer-related signaling pathways that eventually drive changes in FOXO3a post-translational modifications (e.g., phosphorylation). Recent results showed that FOXO3a is imported into the mitochondria in tumor cells and tissues subjected to metabolic stress and cancer therapeutics, where it induces expression of the mitochondrial genome to support mitochondrial metabolism and cell survival. The current review discusses the potential clinical relevance of multidrug therapies that drive cancer cell fate by regulating critical pathways converging on FOXO3a.
Lentiviral Vectors as Tools for the Study and Treatment of Glioblastoma
Authors: Del Vecchio Claudia , Calistri Arianna , Parolin Cristina , Mucignat-Caretta Carla
Published: March 2019

Glioblastoma (GBM) has the worst prognosis among brain tumors, hence basic biology, preclinical, and clinical studies are necessary to design effective strategies to defeat this disease. Gene transfer vectors derived from the most-studied lentivirus—the Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1—have wide application in dissecting GBM specific features to identify potential therapeutic targets. Last-generation lentiviruses (LV), highly improved in safety profile and gene transfer capacity, are also largely employed as delivery systems of therapeutic molecules to be employed in gene therapy (GT) approaches. LV were initially used in GT protocols aimed at the expression of suicide factors to induce GBM cell death. Subsequently, LV were adopted to either express small noncoding RNAs to affect different aspects of GBM biology or to overcome the resistance to both chemo- and radiotherapy that easily develop in this tumor after initial therapy. Newer frontiers include adoption of LV for engineering T cells to express chimeric antigen receptors recognizing specific GBM antigens, or for transducing specific cell types that, due to their biological properties, can function as carriers of therapeutic molecules to the cancer mass. Finally, LV allow the setting up of improved animal models crucial for the validation of GBM specific therapies.
Targeting FER Kinase Inhibits Melanoma Growth and Metastasis
Authors: Ivanova Iordanka A. , Arulanantham Shinthujah , Barr Kevin , Cepeda Mario , Parkins Katie M. , Hamilton Amanda M. , Johnston Danielle , Penuela Silvia , Hess David A. , Ronald John A. , Dagnino Lina
Published: March 2019

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive types of tumors and exhibits high metastatic potential. Fes-related (FER) kinase is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase that has been implicated in growth and metastasis of various epithelial tumors. In this study, we have examined the role that FER kinase plays in melanoma at the molecular level. FER-depleted melanoma cells exhibit impaired Wnt/β-catenin pathway activity, as well as multiple proteomic changes, which include decreased abundance of L1-cell adhesion molecule (L1-CAM). Consistent with the pro-metastatic functions of these pathways, we demonstrate that depletion of FER kinase decreases melanoma growth and formation of distant metastases in a xenograft model. These findings indicate that FER is an important positive regulator of melanoma metastasis and a potential target for innovative therapies.
Validation of Neutrophil Count as An Algorithm-Based Predictive Factor of Progression-Free Survival in Patients with Metastatic Soft Tissue Sarcomas Treated with Trabectedin
Authors: de Nonneville Alexandre , Barbolosi Dominique , Andriantsoa Maeva , El-Cheikh Raouf , Duffaud Florence , Bertucci François , Salas Sebastien
Published: March 2019

Introduction: Based on a mathematical model of trabectedin-induced neutropenia, we assessed the predictive value of absolute neutrophil count (ANC) on progression-free survival (PFS) in an independent validation cohort of patients treated with trabectedin. Methods: We collected data from 87 patients in two expert centers who received at least two cycles of trabectedin for soft tissue sarcomas (STS) treatment. Correlations between ANC, patients’ characteristics, and survival were assessed, and a multivariate model including tumor grade, performance status, ANC, and hemoglobin level was developed. Results: Therapeutic ANC ≥ 7.5 G/L level was associated with shorter PFS: 3.22 months (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.57–4.87) in patients with ANC ≥ 7.5 G/L vs. 5.78 months (95% CI, 3.95–7.61) in patients with ANC < 7.5 G/L (p = 0.009). Age, primary localization, lung metastases, dose reduction, hemoglobin, and albumin rates were also associated with PFS. In multivariate analysis, ANC ≥ 7.5 G/L was independently associated with poor PFS and overall survival. Conclusion: We validated increased pre-therapeutic ANC as a predictive factor of short PFS in patients starting trabectedin for STS. ANC appears to have an impact on survival rates and may be used as a decision-making tool for personalizing second-line strategies in patients with metastatic STS.
Catalytic Cracking of Biodiesel Waste Using Metal Supported SBA-15 Mesoporous Catalysts
Authors: Jiraroj Duangkamon , Tongtooltush Tunyatorn , Panpranot Joongjai , Praserthdam Piyasan , Tungasmita Duangamol Nuntasri
Published: March 2019

Palladium (Pd) and aluminium (Al) supported on SBA-15 were prepared as catalysts for cracking biodiesel waste from biodiesel production. Mesoporous silica SBA-15 was first synthesized by a hydrothermal method and then loaded with Al or Pd particles were loaded using postsynthesis or aqueous wet impregnation methods, respectively. The physical properties of the catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen (N2) adsorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. The catalytic cracking performance of biodiesel waste was evaluated at reaction temperatures above 400 °C under a N2 atmosphere in a batch reactor for 40 min in comparison with that for pure glycerol, where the conversion of biodiesel waste reached 86.8% with 10 wt% Pd-SBA-15 at 650 °C. The product types depended on whether the starting material was pure glycerol or biodiesel waste. The main gaseous products were carbon monoxide as synthesis gas, carbon dioxide, and 1,3-butadiene. Additionally, 2-cyclopenten-1-one and 2-propen-1-ol were major products in the liquid fraction, which can be used in pharmaceuticals and as a flame retardant, respectively.
A New Targeted Lipidomics Approach Reveals Lipid Droplets in Liver, Muscle and Heart as a Repository for Diacylglycerol and Ceramide Species in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver
Authors: Preuss Christina , Jelenik Tomas , Bódis Kálmán , Müssig Karsten , Burkart Volker , Szendroedi Julia , Roden Michael , Markgraf Daniel F.
Published: March 2019

Obesity is frequently associated with excessive accumulation of lipids in ectopic tissue and presents a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Diacylglycerols (DAGs) and ceramides (CERs) were identified as key players in lipid-induced insulin resistance, typical for such diseases. Recent results suggest that the subcellular distribution of these lipids affects their lipotoxic properties. However, the subcellular dynamics of these lipids and the role of lipid droplets (LDs) as a potential storage site is not understood. Here, we developed a liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-method for the rapid and simultaneous quantification of DAG and CER species in tissue sample fractions. The assay is characterized by excellent recovery of analytes, limit of quantification, accuracy and precision. We established a fractionation protocol that allows the separation of subcellular tissue fractions. This method was subsequently tested to measure the concentration of DAGs and CERs in subcellular fractions of human muscle and several mouse tissues. In a mouse model of NAFLD, application of this method revealed a prominent role for LDs as repository for lipotoxic DAG and CER species. In conclusion, the new method proved as a valuable tool to analyse the subcellular dynamics of lipotoxins, related to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance, T2D and NAFLD.
A Collaborative Research Exploration of Pollutant Mixtures and Adverse Birth Outcomes by Using Innovative Spatial Data Mining Methods: The DoMiNO Project
Authors: Wine Osnat , Zaiane Osmar R. , Osornio Vargas Alvaro R.
Published: March 2019

Environmental health research is gaining interest due to the global concern of environmental factors impacting health. This research is often multifaceted and becomes complex when trying to understand the participation of multiple environmental variables. It requires the combination of innovative research methods, as well as the collaboration of diverse disciplines in the research process. The application of collaborative approaches is often challenging for interdisciplinary teams, and much can be learned from in-depth observation of such processes. We share here a case report describing initial observations and reflections on the collaborative research process of the Data Mining and Neonatal Outcomes (DoMiNO) project (2013–2018), which aimed to explore associations between mixtures of air pollutants and other environmental variables with adverse birth outcomes by using an innovative data mining approach. The project was built on interdisciplinary and user knowledge participation with embedded evaluation framework of its collaborative process. We describe the collaborative process, the benefits and challenges encountered, and provide insights from our experience. We identified that interdisciplinary research requires time and investment in building relationships, continuous learning, and engagement to build bridges between disciplines towards co-production, discovery, and knowledge translation. Learning from interdisciplinary collaborative research experiences can facilitate future research in the challenging field of environmental health.
An Effect of the Space Dimension of Electron Fermi Gas upon the Spin Ordering in Clusters and Nanoparticles
Authors: Orlenko Elena , Orlenko Fedor
Published: March 2019

Herein, the collective effects of spin polarization in a degenerate electron gas of an arbitrary space dimension are discussed. We consider these low-dimensional systems in light of potential wells (rectangular or cylindrical), and as a two- or one-dimensional oscillator system with the second (and third) spatial dimension proportional to the oscillator’s length. The concept of “intermediate” sizes ν = 6, 5, 4 corresponding to the quasi-low dimensions ν* = 0, 1, 2, contrary to “pure” space dimensions ν = 1, 2 is introduced. A general effect of the space dimension upon the spontaneous polarization in electron Fermi gas is detected.
Communicating Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Efforts in American Cities
Authors: Boussalis Constantine , Coan Travis G. , Holman Mirya R.
Published: March 2019

City governments have a large role to play in climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, given that urban locales are responsible for disproportionately high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and are on the “front lines” of observed and anticipated climate change impacts. This study examines how US mayors prioritize climate policies within the context of the city agenda. Employing a computer-assisted content analysis of over 2886 mayoral press releases related to climate change from 82 major American cities for the period 2010–2016, we describe and explain the extent to which city governments discuss mitigation and adaptation policies in official communications. Specifically, we rely on a semi-supervised topic model to measure key climate policy themes in city press releases and examine their correlates using a multilevel statistical model. Our results suggest that while mitigation policies tend to dominate the city agenda on climate policy, discussion of adaptation efforts has risen dramatically in the past few years. Further, our statistical analysis indicates that partisanship influences city discussion on a range of climate policy areas—including emissions, land use policy, and climate resiliency—while projected vulnerability to climatic risks only influences discussion of climate resiliency and adaptation efforts.
Effect of Phase Errors on a Quantum Control Protocol Using Fast Oscillations
Authors: Petiziol Francesco , Wimberger Sandro
Published: March 2019

It has been recently shown that fast oscillating control fields can be used to speed up an otherwise slow adiabatic process, making the system always follow an instantaneous eigenvector closely. In applying this method though, one typically assumes perfect phase relations among the control fields. In this work, we discuss the effect of potential static phase errors. We show that the latter can in some cases produce higher fidelities, leading to an unexpected improvement of the method. This is shown numerically and explained via a perturbative expansion of the error produced by the control strategy. When high-precision phase control is accessible, the results suggest that the phases of the control field can be used as free parameters whose optimization can be beneficial for the control protocol.
Heterogeneous Integration of GaN and BCD Technologies
Authors: Soh Mei Yu , Teo T. Hui , Selvaraj S. Lawrence , Peng Lulu , Disney Don , Yeo Kiat Seng
Published: March 2019

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are solid-state devices that are highly energy efficient, fast switching, have a small form factor, and can emit a specific wavelength of light. The ability to precisely control the wavelength of light emitted with the fabrication process enables LEDs to not only provide illumination, but also find applications in biology and life science research. To enable the new generation of LED devices, methods to improve the energy efficiency for possible battery operation and integration level for miniaturized lighting devices should be explored. This paper presents the first case of the heterogeneous integration of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices, both GaN LED and GaN transistor, with bipolar CMOS DMOS (BCD) circuits that can achieve this. To validate this concept, an LED driver was designed, implemented and verified experimentally. It features an output electrical power of 1.36 W and compact size of 2.4 × 4.4 mm2. The designed fully integrated LED lighting device emits visible light at a wavelength of approximately 454 nm and can therefore be adopted for biology research and life science applications.
IoToF: A Long-Reach Fully Passive Low-Rate Upstream PHY for IoT over Fiber
Authors: Díaz Camilo A. R. , Leitão Cátia , Marques Carlos A. , Alberto Nélia , Domingues M. Fátima , Ribeiro Tiago , Pontes Maria J. , Frizera Anselmo , Antunes Paulo F.C. , André Paulo S. , Ribeiro Moisés R.N.
Published: March 2019

Internet of things (IoT) devices heavily rely on wireless connectivity. There are intrinsic overlooked limitations such as reach, availability, security and safety vulnerabilities closely associated with wireless solutions. Wired connectivity is the alternative to tackle those issues, and optical fibers directly connecting IoT devices could provide them unique features such as huge bandwidth, long reach, signal integrity and high security grade for the transmitted information. Nevertheless, it can be prohibitive for IoT devices which are power hungry and have costly electrical-to-optical conversions. In this paper, first, a niche is identified for IoT over fiber (IoToF) based on fully passive optical solutions for long reach upstream of low data rate optical connectivity over dark fibers. Then, we proposed, implemented and characterized a prototype physical connectivity (PHY) based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) low-cost acousto-optic modulation at IoT devices and respective optical edge-filtering as wavelength discriminator at the receiver. Finally, we performed an experimental demonstration of upstream data communication based on simple M-ary frequency-shift keying (FSK), with baud rate of 300 bps transmitted over 30 km range. In terms of data rate and reach for niche applications, IoToF can outperform traditional wireless technologies, such as Sigfox or LoRa. IoToF will enable monitoring urban areas with scarce and polluted spectrum, industrial areas requiring intrinsic safety, and upstreaming data from IoT devices in remote locations with unfavorable wireless propagation but with dark fibers available.
The Improved Division-Less MT-Type Velocity Estimation Algorithm for Low-Cost FPGAs
Authors: Hace Aleš
Published: March 2019

Advanced motion control applications require smooth and highly accurate high-bandwidth velocity feedback, which is usually provided by an incremental encoder. Furthermore, high sampling rates are also demanded in order to achieve cutting-edge system performance. Such control system performance with high accuracy can be achieved easily by FPGA-based controllers. On the other hand, the well-known MT method for velocity estimation has been well proven in practice. However, its complexity, which is related to the inherent arithmetic division involved in the calculus part of the method, prevents its holistic implementation as a single-chip solution on small-size low-cost FPGAs that are suitable for practical optimized control systems. In order to overcome this obstacle, we proposed a division-less MT-type algorithm that consumes only minimal FPGA resources, which makes it proper for modern cost-optimized FPGAs. In this paper, we present new results. The recursive discrete algorithm has been further optimized, in order to improve the accuracy of the velocity estimation. The novel algorithm has also been implemented on the experimental FPGA board, and validated by practical experiments. The enhanced algorithm design resulted in improved practical performance.
Analysis and Experimental Test of Electrical Characteristics on Bonding Wire
Authors: Tian Wenchao , Cui Hao , Yu Wenbo
Published: March 2019

In this paper, electrical characteristic analysis and corresponding experimental tests on gold bonding wire are presented. Firstly, according to EIA (Electronic Industries Association)/JEDEC97 standards, this paper establishes the electromagnetic structure model of gold bonding wire. The parameters, including flat length ratio, diameter, span and bonding height, were analyzed. In addition, the influence of three kinds of loops of bonding wire is discussed in relation to the S parameters. An equivalent circuit model of bonding wire is proposed. The effect of bonding wire on signal transmission was analyzed by eye diagram as well. Secondly, gold bonding wire design and measurement experiments were implemented based on radio frequency (RF) circuit theory analysis and test methods. Meanwhile, the original measurement data was compared with the simulation model data and the error was analyzed. At last, the data of five frequency points were processed to eliminate the fixture error as much as possible based on port embedding theory. The measurement results using port extension method were compared with the original measurement data and electromagnetic field simulation data, which proved the correctness of the simulation results and design rules.
Application of ALD-Al2O3 in CdS/CdTe Thin-Film Solar Cells
Authors: Zeng Guanggen , Hao Xia , Ren Shengqiang , Feng Lianghuan , Wang Qionghua
Published: March 2019

The application of thinner cadmium sulfide (CdS) window layer is a feasible approach to improve the performance of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film solar cells. However, the reduction of compactness and continuity of thinner CdS always deteriorates the device performance. In this work, transparent Al2O3 films with different thicknesses, deposited by using atomic layer deposition (ALD), were utilized as buffer layers between the front electrode transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and CdS layers to solve this problem, and then, thin-film solar cells with a structure of TCO/Al2O3/CdS/CdTe/BC/Ni were fabricated. The characteristics of the ALD-Al2O3 films were studied by UV–visible transmittance spectrum, Raman spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The light and dark J–V performances of solar cells were also measured by specific instrumentations. The transmittance measurement conducted on the TCO/Al2O3 films verified that the transmittance of TCO/Al2O3 were comparable to that of single TCO layer, meaning that no extra absorption loss occurred when Al2O3 buffer layers were introduced into cells. Furthermore, due to the advantages of the ALD method, the ALD-Al2O3 buffer layers formed an extremely continuous and uniform coverage on the substrates to effectively fill and block the tiny leakage channels in CdS/CdTe polycrystalline films and improve the characteristics of the interface between TCO and CdS. However, as the thickness of alumina increased, the negative effects of cells were gradually exposed, especially the increase of the series resistance (Rs) and the more serious “roll-over” phenomenon. Finally, the cell conversion efficiency (η) of more than 13.0% accompanied by optimized uniformity performances was successfully achieved corresponding to the 10 nm thick ALD-Al2O3 thin film.
Optimization of Component Sizing for a Fuel Cell-Powered Truck to Minimize Ownership Cost
Authors: Sim Kyuhyun , Vijayagopal Ram , Kim Namdoo , Rousseau Aymeric
Published: March 2019

In this study, we consider fuel cell-powered electric trucks (FCETs) as an alternative to conventional medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. FCETs use a battery combined with onboard hydrogen storage for energy storage. The additional battery provides regenerative braking and better fuel economy, but it will also increase the initial cost of the vehicle. Heavier reliance on stored hydrogen might be cheaper initially, but operational costs will be higher because hydrogen is more expensive than electricity. Achieving the right tradeoff between these power and energy choices is necessary to reduce the ownership cost of the vehicle. This paper develops an optimum component sizing algorithm for FCETs. The truck vehicle model was developed in Autonomie, a platform for modelling vehicle energy consumption and performance. The algorithm optimizes component sizes to minimize overall ownership cost, while ensuring that the FCET matches or exceeds the performance and cargo capacity of a conventional vehicle. Class 4 delivery truck and class 8 linehaul trucks are shown as examples. We estimate the ownership cost for various hydrogen costs, powertrain components, ownership periods, and annual vehicle miles travelled.
MonLink: Piggyback Status Monitoring over LLDP in Software-Defined Energy Internet
Authors: Chen Xi , Chen Yue , Sangaiah Arun Kumar , Luo Shouxi , Yu Hongfang
Published: March 2019

While software-defined networking (SDN) has been widely applied in various networking domains including datacenters, WANs (Wide Area Networks), QoS (Quality of Service) provisioning, service function chaining, etc., it also has foreseeable applications in energy internet (EI), which envisions an intelligent energy industry on the basis of (information) internet. Global awareness provided by SDN is especially useful in system monitoring in EI to achieve optimal energy transportation, sharing, etc. Link layer discovery protocol (LLDP) plays a key role in global topology discovery in software-defined energy internet when SDN is applied. Nevertheless, EI-related status information (power loads, etc.) is not collected during the LLDP-based topology discovery process initiated by the SDN controller, which makes the optimal decision making (e.g., efficient energy transportation and sharing) difficult. This paper proposes MonLink, a piggyback status-monitoring scheme over LLDP in software-defined energy internet with SDN-equipped control plane and data plane. MonLink extends the original LLDP by introducing metric type/length/value (TLV) fields so as to collect status information and conduct status monitoring in a piggyback fashion over LLDP during topology discovery simultaneously without the introduction of any newly designed dedicated status monitoring protocol. Several operation modes are derived for MonLink, namely, periodic MonLink, which operates based on periodic timeouts, proactive MonLink, which operates based on explicit API invocations, and adaptive MonLink, which operates sensitively and self-adaptively to status changes. Various northbound APIs are also designed so that upper layer network applications can make full use of the status monitoring facility provided by MonLink. Experiment results indicate that MonLink is a lightweight protocol capable of efficient monitoring of topological and status information with very low traffic overhead, compared with other network monitoring schemes such as sFlow.
A Novel Correlation Model for Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines Operating at High-Interference Flow Regimes
Authors: Rajan Anurag , Ponta Fernando L.
Published: March 2019

Driven by economics-of-scale factors, wind-turbine rotor sizes have increased formidably in recent years. Larger rotors with lighter blades of increased flexibility will experiment substantially higher levels of deformation. Future turbines will also incorporate advanced control strategies to widen the range of wind velocities over which energy is captured. These factors will extend turbine operational regimes, including flow states with high interference factors. In this paper we derive a new empirical relation to both improve and extend the range of Blade Element Momentum (BEM) models, when applied to high interference-factor regimes. In most BEM models, these flow regimes are modeled using empirical relations derived from experimental data. However, an empirical relation that best represents these flow states is still missing. The new relation presented in this paper is based on data from numerical experiments performed on an actuator disk model, and implemented in the context of a novel model of the BEM family called the DRD-BEM (Dynamic Rotor Deformation—BEM), recently introduced in Ponta, et al., 2016. A detailed description of the numerical experiments is presented, followed by DRD-BEM simulation results for the case of the benchmark NREL-5MW Reference Wind Turbine with this new polynomial curve incorporated.
A Power Exchange Strategy for Multiple Areas with Hydro Power and Flexible Loads
Authors: Liu Jichun , Yang Yangfang , Xiang Yue , Liu Junyong
Published: March 2019

Areas with hydro power may purchase extra power from the outside power market during dry seasons, which will cause a deviation between the actual and expected power purchase amount due to the inaccurate judgment of the market situation. Because of the uncertainty of price fluctuations, the risk of purchasing power in the real-time market to eliminate this deviation is very high. This paper proposes an innovative trade mode, where the power exchange strategy between multiple areas is adopted through forming an alliance, i.e., one area can use the controllable elements within others, and constructing a monthly and post day-ahead two phase optimization model. The objective function of the monthly stochastic robust optimization considers the power purchase cost to determine the controllable elements dispatch dates for every area in the alliance. Thus, areas can make reasonable dispatch schedules for controllable elements to avoid the resource waste that means more controllable elements are prepared before post day-ahead optimization but less are used after post day-ahead optimization. While the post day-ahead optimization model determines the internal controllable elements dispatch and power exchange amount after the day-ahead market clearing process, users’ satisfaction and dispatch schedule changes for energy storage device are also considered. In order to solve the proposed two phase model, the dual principle and linearization methods are used to convert them into mixed-integer linear programming problems that can be effectively solved by the Cplex solver. The study case verifies the power deviation cost decreases with the power exchange strategy and the important role of energy storage devices.
Research of the Fundamental Wave of Wound-Rotor Brushless Doubly-Fed Machine
Authors: Li Zhenming , Wang Xuefan , Ou Lezhi , Gao Xinmai , Xiong Fei
Published: March 2019

The brushless doubly-fed machine (BDFM) is a special type of machine with two sets of stator windings and one set of rotor winding. The magnetic field of the BDFM is considered to be complex with no regularity. To study the principles of magnetic fields for the BDFM, a general expression of the fundamental wave is deduced, which shows that the fundamental wave can be regarded as a standing wave when it is observed from rotor reference; also, some discussions about the characteristics of the fundamental wave are presented in the paper. Next, a model of wound-rotor BDFM prototype is established, and the enveloping line and the relations between rotor position and its electrical angle of the magnetic field are figured out in the paper. Finally, after detecting the induced electromotive force (EMF) of measurement coils embedded in the corresponding prototype machine, the validity of the proposed conclusions is verified.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of New and Old Kinetic Energy Conversion from an Electric Power Economics Perspective: Evidence on the Shandong Province of China
Authors: Xue Wanlei , Li Bingkang , Yang Yongqi , Zhao Huiru , Xu Nan
Published: March 2019

This paper proposes a hybrid model for evaluating the effectiveness of new and old kinetic energy conversion (NOKEC), China’s major strategic move aiming to transform the mode of economic growth and improvie the quality of economic development. Considering the goals of NOKEC and the supporting roles of power industry to NOKEC, this paper constructs an index system for NOKEC effectiveness evaluation from an electric power economics perspective, involving three dimensions and 17 secondary indicators. Furthermore, a hybrid evaluation model based on DEMATEL-ANP and DQ-GRA techniques is developed to accomplish the evaluation of Shandong’s NOKEC effectiveness. The results show that Shandong’s NOKEC effectiveness increased from 2015–2017, indicating that Shandong’s NOKEC policies have achieved remarkable results. According to the evaluation results, this paper puts forward the indicators that should be paid close attention to and the following work priorities in Shandong’s future NOKEC process, which has certain practical value for the promotion of Shandong’s NOKEC. In addition, the evaluation model proposed in this paper considers the interrelationships between indicators and overcomes the shortcomings of traditional GRA, showing good applicability to similar effectiveness evaluation issues. Finally, the limitations and universality of the model are discussed and the improvement direction is put forward.
Development of a Breadfruit Flour Pasta Product
Authors: Nochera Carmen L. , Ragone Diane
Published: March 2019

Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is grown throughout the tropics. Processing the perishable starchy fruit into flour provides a means to expand the use of the fruit. The flour can be used to develop new value-added products for local use and potential export. The purpose of this investigation was to develop a pasta product using breadfruit flour, test the sensory qualities of the breadfruit pasta product by sensory evaluation, and evaluate the nutritional composition. ‘Ma’afala’, a popular and widely distributed Polynesian cultivar was used for the study. Nutritional labeling shows that the breadfruit pasta product is high in carbohydrates (73.3%/100 g) and low in fat (8.33/100 g). Sensory evaluation indicates that 80.3% of the panelists (n = 71) found the pasta acceptable while 18.3% disliked the pasta. The breadfruit pasta product can provide a nutritious, appealing and inexpensive gluten-free food source based on locally available breadfruit in areas of the world where it can be easily grown.
Finite Element Simulations of an Elasto-Viscoplastic Model for Clay
Authors: Islam Mohammad N. , Gnanendran Carthigesu T. , Massoudi Mehrdad
Published: March 2019

In this paper, we develop an elasto-viscoplastic (EVP) model for clay using the non-associated flow rule. This is accomplished by using a modified form of the Perzyna’s overstressed EVP theory, the critical state soil mechanics, and the multi-surface theory. The new model includes six parameters, five of which are identical to those in the critical state soil mechanics model. The other parameter is the generalized nonlinear secondary compression index. The EVP model was implemented in a nonlinear coupled consolidated code using a finite-element numerical algorithm (AFENA). We then tested the model for different clays, such as the Osaka clay, the San Francisco Bay Mud clay, the Kaolin clay, and the Hong Kong Marine Deposit clay. The numerical results show good agreement with the experimental data.
Using LIDO for Evolving Object Documentation into CIDOC CRM
Authors: Stein Regine , Balandi Oguzhan
Published: March 2019

Over the last years, many projects and institutions have worked on transforming object documentation from several existing cataloguing systems into a CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) compliant graph representation, as expressed in RDF. There were also various attempts to provide a generally valid path for the transfer of data from Lightweight Information Describing Objects (LIDO), CIDOC’s recommended XML Schema for metadata harvesting, into representations that are suitable for the Semantic Web. They all face the challenge that a detailed mapping, which fully exploits the CRM’s expressiveness and requires semantic assumptions that may not always turn out to be valid. Broad mappings, on the other hand, fail to leverage the potential of Semantic Web technologies. In this paper, we propose a method for using LIDO combined with an associated terminology as a means of evolving existing object documentation into CRM-based RDF representations. By clearly distinguishing between controlled vocabulary and ontology, it is possible to transform object data relatively easily into a minimized, though efficient structure using the CIDOC CRM ontology. This structure will open up the whole world of Semantic Web technologies to be used for further semantic refinement and data quality analysis through exploiting the underlying controlled vocabularies
Association between Take-Out Food Consumption and Obesity among Chinese University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Jiang Yuhe , Wang Junbo , Wu Shaowei , Li Nan , Wang Yiming , Liu Jiarui , Xu Xinran , He Zonghan , Cheng Yawen , Zeng Xueqing , Wang Bingwei , Zhang Chenyu , Zhao Miao , Su Zhijie , Guo Bingbing , Yang Wenzhong , Zheng Ruimao
Published: March 2019

Background: The frequency of take-out food consumption has increased rapidly among Chinese college students, which has contributed to high obesity prevalence. However, the relationships between take-out food consumption, body mass index (BMI), and other individual factors influencing eating behavior among college students are still unclear. This study explored the association of take-out food consumption with gender, BMI, physical activity, preference for high-fat and high-sugar (HFHS) food, major category, and degree level among Chinese college students. Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected from 1220 college students in Beijing, China, regarding information about take-out food consumption, physical activity, and preference for HFHS food using a self-reported questionnaire. The logistic linear regression model was used to analyze the association between take-out food consumption and personal and lifestyle characteristics. Results: Out of 1220 college students, 11.6% of college students were overweight or obese. Among the personal and lifestyle characteristics, high frequency of take-out food consumption was significantly associated with a non-medical major, high preference for HFHS food, degree level, and higher BMI, but not physical activity. Conclusion: Among Chinese college students, consumption of take-out food may be affected by major category, preference for HFHS food, degree level, and BMI. This could provide guidance on restrictions of high take-out food consumption, which contributes to high obesity prevalence and high risk for metabolic diseases.