Compensation Scheme Research Articles

A digital twin for parallel liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

One approach to increasing nuclear magnetic resonance measurement sample throughput is to implement multiple, independent detection sites. However, the presence of radio frequency interference poses a challenge in multi-detector systems, particularly in unshielded coil arrays lacking sufficient electrical isolation. This issue can lead to unwanted coupling of inductive coils, resulting in excitation pulse interference and signal transfer among multiple detection sites. Here we propose a theoretical framework that combines electromagnetic simulation with spin-dynamic calculations. This framework enables the evaluation of coil coupling effects, the design of parallel pulse sequences to mitigate inter-channel coupling, and the separation of composite free induction decays obtained from multiple detectors. The parallel pulse compensation scheme was validated by a 2-channel parallel spectroscopy experiment. These results provide valuable insights for the design of parallel nuclear magnetic resonance hardware and for exploring the limits of parallelization capacity within a fixed magnet system.

Language Impairment in English-Speaking Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease: A Role and Reference Grammar Contribution

The linguistic aspects of Alzheimer’s disease have received much less attention from qualitative viewpoints than from quantitative research perspectives. For this reason, the present article proposes the application of the linking algorithm provided by Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) to a corpus from English-speaking patients with Alzheimer’s, namely the Pitt corpus. A sample of verb predicates from this corpus has been analyzed according to the steps provided by the grammar. Thus, the aims of this article are, on the one hand, to identify and describe the linguistic deficits found in the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease and, on the other, to show the feasibility of this grammar in the description and possible early diagnosis of this neuro-degenerative disease. The results manifest a greater proportion of simple sentences with respect to coordinate, cosubordinate and subordinate sentences, as well as compensation strategies and problems with lexical retrieval.

Documenting Community Health Worker Compensation Schemes and Their Perceived Effectiveness in Seven sub-Saharan African Countries: A Qualitative Study.

Community health worker (CHW) incentives and remuneration are core issues affecting the performance of CHWs and health programs. There is limited documentation on the implementation details of CHW financial compensation schemes used in sub-Saharan African countries, including their mechanisms of delivery and effectiveness. We aimed to document CHW financial compensation schemes and understand CHW, government, and other stakeholder perceptions of their effectiveness. A total of 68 semistructured interviews were conducted with a range of purposefully selected key informants in 7 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Zambia. Thematic analysis of coded interview data was conducted, and relevant country documentation was reviewed, including any documents referenced by key informants, to provide contextual background for qualitative interpretation. Key informants described compensation schemes as effective when payments are regular, distributions are consistent, and amounts are sufficient to support health worker performance and continuity of service delivery. CHW compensation schemes associated with an employed worker status and government payroll mechanisms were most often perceived as effective by stakeholders. Compensation schemes associated with a volunteer status were found to vary widely in their delivery mechanisms (e.g., cash or mobile phone distribution) and were perceived as less effective. Lessons learned in implementing CHW compensation schemes involved the need for government leadership, ministerial coordination, community engagement, partner harmonization, and realistic transitional financing plans. Policymakers should consider these findings in designing compensation schemes for CHWs engaged in routine, continuous health service delivery within the context of their country's health service delivery model. Systematic documentation of the tasks and time commitment of volunteer status CHWs could support more recognition of their health system contributions and better determination of commensurate compensation as recommended by the 2018 World Health Organization Guidelines on Health Policy and System Support to Optimize Community Health Worker Programs.

Navigating English-mediated online discourse: Communication strategies of Indonesian EFL learners in online discussions

For non-native English speakers, effective and meaningful communication in English can pose challenges due to potential limitations in their communicative competence. Such challenges can cause communication breakdowns if not effectively managed. This complexity is compounded when English communication occurs in an online setting, where technological issues and lack of social presence may disrupt the communication. This study aims to explore the communication strategies utilized by Indonesian EFL learners when participating in online group discussions. The data were collected from six groups of first-year English Department students involving a total of twenty-two students engaged in 20-minute online discussions per group. The analysis focused on the discourse produced by the participants during these discussions observing the strategies employed by the participants. The findings indicated that Indonesian EFL learners predominantly applied achievement and compensatory strategies. These strategies encompassed code-switching, circumlocution, approximation, the use of all-purpose words, word foreignizing, and appealing for help. Among these strategies, code-switching emerged as the prevailing strategy for Indonesian EFL learners engaged in online group discussions. While conversing, code- switching was automatically and naturally used, particularly when referring to Indonesian acronyms and names. At last, implications and future directions are addressed.

Iterative flexibility compensation based high precision trajectory tracking for industrial manipulators

High precision industrial manipulators are widely demanded in precision machining and advanced manufacturing. To realize high precision trajectory tracking in task space, feedback plus model based feedforward control strategies are widely used in modern industrial manipulators. Furthermore, the accuracy of feedforward model determines the accuracy of trajectory tacking to a great extent, especially for elastic manipulators. In traditional feedforward controllers, the flexibilities out of the rotational plane are often neglected and thus the end-effector tracking performance can be degraded a lot. Therefore, an iterative flexibility compensation based feedforward controller is proposed to improve the end-effector trajectory tracking accuracy of industrial manipulators in this paper. First, the flexible deformations in all directions are described accurately by using the extended flexible joint model (EFJM) for industrial manipulators. Second, a feedforward controller is designed by using the dynamic inversion of EFJM. In the feedforward controller, an iterative flexibility compensation scheme is designed to transform the reference Cartesian trajectory into joint space and thus the limitation of the nonminimum phase characteristics of EFJM can be avoided. Moreover, the flexible deformations are predicted and compensated based on EFJM. After that, the feedforward torque is derived in joint space by using the efficient feedforward torque computation algorithm for EFJM. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

A Non-English Students' Strategies in Learning Technical Vocabularies

This research aimed to finding out the strategies that usually used in learning technical vocabularies by Non-English students’. This research applied the Descriptive Qualitative Method, which took 2 months period of it for the data collection by using interview. The research involved ten students’ from Faculty Economic and Business Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar as the participants. The scope of the study is tend to analyze the strategies used by Non-English students’ in learning a foreign language, in this case English. A result of this research showed that the strategies that usually used in learning technical vocabularies by Non-English students’ most of the students’ used direct strategies, namely memory strategies, cognitive strategies and compensation strategies. And the students’ also used indirect strategies, namely metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies. Based on the data obtained, the researcher concluded that the students’ used both strategies in learning technical vocabularies.

Adaptive fixed-time fault-tolerant tracking control for rotary steerable drilling tool systems

In this paper, the problem of adaptive fixed-time fault-tolerant tracking control is investigated for rotary steerable drilling tool systems (RSDTSs). Markov jump system (MJS) is used to describe the RSDTS with varying parameters which are induced by the changing environment. By employing the smooth projection operator technique, adaptive laws are established to estimate the faults. Based on the fault compensation strategy, a new adaptive fixed-time fault-tolerant tracking control scheme is proposed to ensure that the RSDTS is globally stochastically practically fixed-time stable. In addition, to reduce the computational burden in the backstepping framework, the derivatives of the virtual control are directly derived using command filters. Finally, the experiment performed on the rotary steerable drilling tool systems prototype is exploited to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Frontline Knowledge: Digital Media Literacy of Older Adults in Ukraine

Digital media literacy becomes crucial in modern conflict zones, as conflicts are increasingly digitized and hyperconnected. While a dangerous environment raises the need for orientation, propaganda and fakes discourage audiences’ sense-making efforts. Older adults often experience digital and social exclusion and might be vulnerable to mis- and disinformation. Previous research, focusing mostly on Western Europe, has studied digital media practices of older adults, however, there is very little knowledge on digital media literacy skills and needs of older adults in conflict zones. Drawing on eight focus groups, this article explores Ukrainian older adults’ challenges and compensation strategies during the digitized war. An inductive-qualitative analysis identifies three main factors that shape digital practices and dictate the literacy needs of Ukrainian older adults: (a) (lack of) access, grounded in material infrastructure and social ties; (b) self-(in)efficacy that often stems from pre-convictions about one’s agency and position in society; and (c) resilience that becomes crucial in the situation of continuous exposure to (mediated) violence. This research contributes to the understanding of the media literacy needs of older adults and lays the foundation for developing digital literacy study programs in conflict zones.

Optical Frequency Transfer on the Order of 10−19 Fractional Frequency Instability over a 64 m Free-Space Link

High-precision time–frequency is widely used in time measurement, satellite navigation, scientific research, and other fields. With the rapid development of optical clock technology, the fractional frequency instability and uncertainty of optical clock have reached 10−18 orders of magnitude, which is expected to contribute to generating the International Atomic Time and may even be used to redefine the “second” in the future. Therefore, the long-distance transfer of time–frequency signals between optical atomic clocks is of great significance. Free-space optical frequency transfer technology is one of the important technologies for solving the space-based optical clock comparison because of its high transfer precision and easy networking characteristics. In order to solve the long-distance space-based optical clock comparison, this paper investigates a free-space active phase noise compensation method using an Acousto-Optic Modulator (AOM), based on the traditional optical fiber phase noise compensation scheme. This new method is more flexible and scalable than the optical fiber time–frequency transfer technology. The optical frequency transfer over a 64 m free-space link is demonstrated. The fractional frequency transfer instability during free running is 9.50 × 10−16 at 1 s, and 4.44 × 10−16 at 2000 s, and the fractional frequency instability after compensation is 7.10 × 10−17 at 1 s, 3.07 × 10−19 at 2000 s, which is about 1–3 orders of magnitude better than that in free running, and provides a feasible scheme for space-based optical clock comparison.

The Role of Compensation on Job Satisfaction, Employee Performance and Organisational Performance

Present research looked at the role of compensation on job satisfaction, employee performance and organisational performance. The study was underpinned through social-exchange theory. Further, research used quantitative approach through which gathering data employed questionnaires. Descriptive research design was adopted. Research used one of Tanzania’s public organisations as a case study. The study opted to collect data from all the employees (107) of the organization hence sampling was not done. Out of 107 respondents, data were collected from 85 respondents which accounts for a response rate of 82.5%. Collected data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive outcomes involved frequencies, means and standard deviations while those from inferential statistics were correlations and regressions. The study found compensation has significant positive influence on job satisfaction (β=.790, P-value=.000), employee performance (β=.429, P-value=.000), and organisational performance (β=.551, P-value=.000. The study calls for organisations to design and use effective compensation polices, strategies and practices to create supportive environment for employees to attain job satisfaction, employee performance and organisational performance as well.

A Study of Communication Strategies used by English Teachers and its Implication in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

The objective of this research was to analyze the English teachers’ communication strategies and their perception during the teaching learning process. The writer analyzed the data gained through the questionnaire by describing the English teachers’ perception about the communication strategies usually used during the teaching learning process. She also analyzed the teachers’ communication strategies into the fourteen strategies based on to some experts, there are several types of communication strategies that can be used to solve problems in communication (Dornyei 1995, Littlewood 1984, Tarone 1980). (Tarone (1980) presents five types of communication strategies, including: paraphrase, transfer, appeal for assistance, mime, avoidance. Littlewood (1984) describes eight types of communication strategies: they are avoidable communication, adjust the message, use paraphrase, use approximation, create new words, switch to the native language, use non-linguistic resources, seek for help. Meanwhile, Dornyei (1995) stated that the three main types of communication strategies, namely: topic avoidance strategies (topic avoidance and message abandonment), compensatory strategies (approximation, word coinage, circumlocution, literal translation, code-switching, appeal for help, used all-purpose words, non-linguistic signal, foreignizing), and stalling or time gaining strategies (use of fillers/hesitation devices). The design of this research is qualitative research. The writer described the data in order to have a clear and complete description of the research result. The researcher used the result of the English teachers’ questionnaire as the data. The sample of this research was the English teacher who lives and teach in Bandar Lampung in the academic year 2022/2023.

Working Memory Recovery in Adolescents with Concussion: Longitudinal fMRI Study.

Background: Understanding the behavioral and neural underpinnings of the post-concussion recovery of working memory function is critically important for improving clinical outcomes and adequately planning return-to-activity decisions. Previous studies provided inconsistent results due to small sample sizes and the use of a mixed population of participants who were at different post-injury time points. We aimed to examine working memory recovery during the first 6 months post-concussion in adolescents. Methods: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan 45 concussed adolescents [CONCs] at baseline (<10 days post-concussion) and at 6 months post-concussion. Healthy control adolescents [HCs; n = 32] without a history of concussion were scanned once. During the scans, participants performed one-back and two-back working memory tasks with letters as the stimuli and angry, happy, neutral, and sad faces as distractors. Results: All affected adolescents were asymptomatic and cleared to return to activity 6 months after concussion. Working memory recovery was associated with faster and more accurate responses at 6 months vs. baseline (p-values < 0.05). It was also characterized by significant difficulty-related activation increases in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left orbitofrontal cortex (LOFC) at 6 months vs. baseline. Although the activation differences between one-back and two-back were comparable between HCs and CONCs at 6 months, HCs had more pronounced activation in the LIFG than concussed adolescents. Conclusions: Post-concussion recovery is associated with significant performance improvements in speed and accuracy, as well as the normalization of brain responses in the LIFG and LOFC during the n-back task. The observed patterns of LOFC activation might reflect compensatory strategies to distribute neural processing and reduce neural fatigue post-concussion.

Voltage regulation during short-circuit faults in low voltage distributed generation systems

As the penetration of inverter-based distributed generations into microgrids continues to rise, the significance of power electronic inverters in modern power systems becomes increasingly pronounced. They are designed to have fault ride-through capabilities, enabling them to sustain operation even during and after fault conditions. This paper presents a novel voltage compensation strategy based on the line impedances addressing both positive and negative-sequence aspects, for a three-phase three-wire inverter deployed to regulate the low-voltage network during unsymmetrical faults, thereby preserving voltage stability. The control strategy is carried out in a synchronous reference frame (dq) to govern the positive and negative-sequence voltages and currents of the inverter. By synthesizing AC currents, the inverter restores the positive-sequence voltage to its rated value while mitigating negative-sequence voltage at the point of common coupling arising from unsymmetrical faults. Through MATLAB/Simulink, are investigated three unsymmetrical fault scenarios (single line-to-ground, line-to-line, and double line-to-ground faults) within the low-voltage distribution network of the 18-bus European Cigré, incorporating three inverters equipped with the proposed voltage support capability. The results confirm that inverter-interfaced distributed generators with local voltage support can improve the system’s fault ride-through capability by reducing voltage drops and unbalances.

No-fault compensation schemes for COVID-19 vaccine injury: a mixed bag for claimants and citizens

The development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) presented a unique set of challenges. There was a global need for safe, effective vaccines against a new virus. In response to the...

Calcified Drusen Prevent the Detection of Underlying Choriocapillaris Using Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography.

In age-related macular degeneration (AMD), choriocapillaris flow deficits (CCFDs) under soft drusen can be measured using established compensation strategies. This study investigated whether CCFDs can be quantified under calcified drusen (CaD). CCFDs were measured in normal eyes (n = 30) and AMD eyes with soft drusen (n = 30) or CaD (n = 30). CCFD density masks were generated to highlight regions with higher CCFDs. Masks were also generated for soft drusen and CaD based on both structural en face OCT images and corresponding B-scans. Dice similarity coefficients were calculated between the CCFD density masks and both the soft drusen and CaD masks. A phantom experiment was conducted to simulate the impact of light scattering that arises from CaD. Area measurements of CCFDs were highly correlated with those of CaD but not soft drusen, suggesting an association between CaD and underlying CCFDs. However, unlike soft drusen, the detected optical coherence tomography (OCT) signals underlying CaD did not arise from the defined CC layer but were artifacts caused by the multiple scattering property of CaD. Phantom experiments showed that the presence of highly scattering material similar to the contents of CaD caused an artifactual scattering tail that falsely generated a signal in the CC structural layer but the underlying flow could not be detected. Similarly, CaD also caused an artifactual scattering tail and prevented the penetration of light into the choroid, resulting in en face hypotransmission defects and an inability to detect blood flow within the choriocapillaris. Upon resolution of the CaD, the CC perfusion became detectable. The high scattering property of CaD leads to a scattering tail under these drusen that gives the illusion of a quantifiable optical coherence tomography angiography signal, but this signal does not contain the angiographic information required to assess CCFDs. For this reason, CCFDs cannot be reliably measured under CaD, and CaD must be identified and excluded from macular CCFD measurements.

Impedance analysis of voltage prediction compensation scheme for DC-link oscillation suppression in cascade drive system

The dc-link voltage oscillation caused by the negative impedance characteristic of the constant power load is a significant issue in the series LC branch-permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) cascade system. To this end, this paper proposes a voltage prediction compensation (VPC) strategy to suppress the dc-link voltage oscillation by adding a voltage stability constraint term to the finite control set model predictive current control (FCS-MPCC). First, the linearized q-axis reference voltage is obtained by taking the derivation of the cost function of the VPC, thereby deriving the input impedance of the inverter-permanent magnet motor system. Then, the impedance matching criterion and Nyquist stability criterion are used to theoretically prove that the proposed strategy can effectively improve system stability, and the robustness of the proposed method to changes in motor parameters is analyzed. Finally, experimental verification was conducted on a 1 kW motor platform. The results show that when the motor is running under rated working conditions, after adding the stability constraint, the dc-link voltage fluctuation drops from 40 V to 7 V; the q-axis current pulsation rate also drops to 3.8 %. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the VPC strategy can effectively suppress the dc-link voltage oscillation of the cascade drive system.

Object azimuth measurement based on optical orbital angular momentum phase spectrum under tilted irradiation condition

In optical remote sensing, a beam carrying orbital angular momentum can be used to identify the azimuth of an object. However, most of the studies reported currently require the beam to be illuminated vertically to the surface of the object, and the general case of tilted irradiation for the beam has not been fully discussed. In this paper, an object azimuth measurement method based on orbital angular momentum phase spectrum under tilted irradiation condition is proposed. We analyze the relationship between the measurement error caused by the beam oblique irradiation and the angle of tilt and propose an error compensation method. In the experiment, the orbital angular momentum phase spectrum of the Laguerre-Gaussian beam is obtained by a four-step phase-shifting method, and the error caused by tilt modulation is measured. After implementing the error compensation scheme, the maximum absolute error in azimuth measurement under tilted irradiation conditions is maintained within 2.15°. Across all tilt angles, the average absolute error remains below 0.73°. The method proposed in this paper has a certain reference value for expanding the practical application of orbital angular momentum beams in the field of remote sensing.

Improved results for T-S fuzzy systems with two additive time-varying delays via an extended binary quadratic function negative-determination lemma

This paper is concerned with the stability and stabilization problems for T-S fuzzy systems with two additive time-varying delays. Firstly, a novel Lyapounov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) is constructed by delay-product-type functional method together with the state vector augmentation. In order to handle time-delay square terms introduced into the derivative of LKF, an extended binary quadratic function negative-determination lemma is proposed. A less conservative delay-dependent stability condition is developed since not only some new bounding technologies are employed to deal with integral terms, but also the proposed lemma is employed to dispose nonlinear time-delay terms in derivative of constructed function. Then, the corresponding controller design method for closed-loop delayed fuzzy system is derived based on parallel distributed compensation scheme. Finally, four numerical examples are given to illustrate the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed criteria.

Size-Effect-Based Dimension Compensations in Wet Etching for Micromachined Quartz Crystal Microstructures.

Microfabrication technology with quartz crystals is gaining importance as the miniaturization of quartz MEMS devices is essential to ensure the development of portable and wearable electronics. However, until now, there have been no reports of dimension compensation for quartz device fabrication. Therefore, this paper studied the wet etching process of Z-cut quartz crystal substrates for making deep trench patterns using Au/Cr metal hard masks and proposed the first quartz fabrication dimension compensation strategy. The size effect of various sizes of hard mask patterns on the undercut developed in wet etching was experimentally investigated. Quartz wafers masked with initial vias ranging from 3 μm to 80 μm in width were etched in a buffered oxide etch solution (BOE, HF:NH4F = 3:2) at 80 °C for prolonged etching (>95 min). It was found that a larger hard mask width resulted in a smaller undercut, and a 30 μm difference in hard mask width would result in a 17.2% increase in undercut. In particular, the undercuts were mainly formed in the first 5 min of etching with a relatively high etching rate of 0.7 μm/min (max). Then, the etching rate decreased rapidly to 27%. Furthermore, based on the etching width compensation and etching position compensation, new solutions were proposed for quartz crystal device fabrication. And these two kinds of compensation solutions were used in the fabrication of an ultra-small quartz crystal tuning fork with a resonant frequency of 32.768 kHz. With these approaches, the actual etched size of critical parts of the device only deviated from the designed size by 0.7%. And the pattern position symmetry of the secondary lithography etching process was improved by 96.3% compared to the uncompensated one. It demonstrated significant potential for improving the fabrication accuracy of quartz crystal devices.

Combined translational and rotational perturbations of standing balance reveal contributions of reduced reciprocal inhibition to balance impairments in children with cerebral palsy.

Balance impairments are common in cerebral palsy. When balance is perturbed by backward support surface translations, children with cerebral palsy have increased co-activation of the plantar flexors and tibialis anterior muscle as compared to typically developing children. However, it is unclear whether increased muscle co-activation is a compensation strategy to improve balance control or is a consequence of reduced reciprocal inhibition. During translational perturbations, increased joint stiffness due to co-activation might aid balance control by resisting movement of the body with respect to the feet. In contrast, during rotational perturbations, increased joint stiffness will hinder balance control as it couples body to platform rotation. Therefore, we expect increased muscle co-activation in response to rotational perturbations if co-activation is caused by reduced reciprocal inhibition but not if it is merely a compensation strategy. We perturbed standing balance by combined backward translational and toe-up rotational perturbations in 20 children with cerebral palsy and 20 typically developing children. Perturbations induced forward followed by backward movement of the center of mass. We evaluated reactive muscle activity and the relation between center of mass movement and reactive muscle activity using a linear feedback model based on center of mass kinematics. In typically developing children, perturbations induced plantar flexor balance correcting muscle activity followed by tibialis anterior balance correcting muscle activity, which was driven by center of mass movement. In children with cerebral palsy, the switch from plantar flexor to tibialis anterior activity was less pronounced than in typically developing children due to increased muscle co-activation of the plantar flexors and tibialis anterior throughout the response. Our results thus suggest that a reduction in reciprocal inhibition causes muscle co-activation in reactive standing balance in children with cerebral palsy.