Forward-looking Technology Research Articles

Low-temperature/room-temperature gas sensing application for NO2 gas by SnO2 and Ni doped SnO2 nanostructures synthesized by sol-gel method

Gas sensors are the attentive parts for the day-to-day applications in advanced manufacturing, chemical industries and advanced applications need the better performing materials. SnO2 (wide band gap-3.27eV, n-type semiconductor) and Ni-doped SnO2 are the suitable materials for gas sensing in the fields of forward-looking technology. Pure and Ni-doped SnO2 particles were synthesized by sol-gel method and started with 0.2 mol of SnCl2, added with 2 ml of acetic acid, and pH controlled by the addition of 8 mol NaOH, till pH reaches desired value and Ni is doped. Finally washed, dried, and calcined at 400° C. The prepared pure and Ni(0.02 and 0.04 mol)-doped SnO2 nanostructures were characterized by XRD, EDAX, DSC, and SEM techniques. Average crystallite size is calculated by XRD and varied from 8 to 5 nm. Morphology shows difference, while the Ni concentrations changed. Particle size is estimated by transmission electron microscope (TEM), found to be 8–12 nm and well correlated with XRD analysis. The Energy gap is calculated with the UV–Vis spectrometer, and values are 3.21, 3.60, and 3.56 eV. Finally, the application part was carried out for NO2 gas sensing at a low level of 7–19 parts per million (PPM) at 40 °C, response and recovery times are 6 and 9 min respectively for all PPMs. Sensitivity of the samples of pure and Ni doped samples have 99 to 99.9 and 80 %. Pure and 0.02 mol Ni doped samples have the good achievement for sensitivity and 0.04 mol Ni doping has increase in conductance.

Solvent-vapor-triggered crystallization of a ZIF-90 membrane with versatile separation properties towards light hydrocarbons

Membrane separation has been well acknowledged as a forward-looking technology for hydrocarbon separation. Zeolitic imidazole framework-90 (ZIF-90) with effective pore size of 5.0 Å is a promising membrane material for hydrocarbon separation. Owing to the enormous challenges facing the fabrication process, the research on the ZIF-90 polycrystalline membrane is fairly underexplored. Herein we report a solvent-vapor-triggered crystallization strategy for the production of ZIF-90 membranes. The resultant ZIF-90 membrane had a typical polycrystalline membrane structure where the regular ZIF-90 grains propagated inside the whole porous support. Intriguingly, the membrane displayed two obvious sharp cut-off regions falling between the C3H6/C3H8 and n-C4H10/i-C4H10 gas pairs, respectively. The ZIF-90 membrane achieved ultrafast and selective permeation of C3H6 from the C3H6/C3H8 mixture. The C3H6 flux was about 3.4 kg·m−2·h−1 which was comparable to the commercial NaA zeolite membrane for organic solvent dehydration. Further, the distinctive gas transport kinetic nature enabled the ZIF-90 membranes to exclude i-C4H10 and thus harvest unprecedented n-/i-C4H10 separation ability in high-temperature regions. As the temperature elevated from 25 to 150 °C, the n-C4H10 permeance was enhanced from 3.0 × 10−9 to 12 × 10−9 mol·m−2·s−1·Pa−1 and the n-C4H10/i-C4H10 separation factors was improved from 63 to 95, respectively. The high permeance and permselectivity at industrially relevant high temperatures and pressures make ZIF-90 membrane attractive for industrial light hydrocarbon separation.

Transforming Operations: A Comprehensive Analysis of Industry 4.0 Technologies in Operations Management

In the introductory part of this paper, we provide a brief overview of the research subject matter, research topic, research problem, thesis topic, research questions, and disposition of this paper. Background Industry 4.0 brings about a major transformation in automotive manufacturing. It is characterized by the use of advanced information analytics, networked machines, and digitalization within organizations. In addition, it is characterized by the integration of internet technologies with forward-looking technologies in the domain of "smart" objects. However, there is no single definition of the term "industry 4.0" in the literature, which restricts theory building and the comparability of research. However, Lasi (2014) argues that industry 4-0 is a "new paradigm shift" in industrial production because of the advanced digitalisation within factories. A paradigm shift is a significant change that occurs when the normal way of thinking or doing something changes to something new and different. In industry 4-0, emerging technologies integrate with each other to bring about a change in manufacturing processes.

A Performance and Reliability-Guaranteed Predictive Approach to Service Migration Path Selection in Mobile Computing

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is a forward-looking technology that provides services through resources to meet the needs of cloud-edge Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It provides computing and storage data facilities for IoT users and further renders services through resources in vicinity to fulfill the needs from IoT devices at the cloud edge. However, a major difficulty in guaranteeing reliable resource provisioning is mobility, which brings in chances of service migrations among difference distributed edge nodes and thus causes potential risks of service failures or disruptions. Existing solutions in this direction can be ineffective since they tend to consider that stability of inter-edge-node data transmission to be irrelevant to user mobility and are thus in lack of a comprehensive model for estimating effectiveness of migration paths selected. In this paper, instead, we consider that the effectiveness of migrations paths to be selected are highly dependent on user mobility as well as inter-edge-node stability propose a novel predictive and mobile track-aware approach to fault-tolerant service migration path selection in MEC (PTSM). It is capable of exploiting uses trajectories for accurate predictions of future tracks and selecting target servers as well as migration paths with guaranteed migration reliability and performance in terms of multiple metrics. We demonstrate with extensive simulations and numerical results that our proposed method outperforms its peers in terms of migration reliability and performance.

Analytical Review of the Software for Creating a City Information Model

Introduction. The article describes a forward-looking technology in the field of construction industry and urban management – CIM (City Information Modeling) – an information model of a city. Emergence of the information modelling have led to the possibility to create the 3D models not only of individual objects, but also of a city as a whole with its buildings, infrastructure, geological and environmental factors. But creation and maintenance of the city models require the software tools. The aim of the present research is to make a review of the available software, describe its properties and field of application. CIM application capacities are also defined. The tasks, which can be solved by means of such a model, are described. The result of using GIS technologies in creating a city information model with respect to the data on housing stock energy efficiency level is shown.Materials and Methods. Within the research, an analytical review of the existing software for creating an information model of a city was carried out, the works of the scientists, who contributed to the issue of urban modeling, were studied. The information sources useful for further research were identified. Geo-information systems ARC GIS 10.1 ESRI were used to create a city information model.Results. A city information model can be described as a replication of the historical and cultural, socio-economic and religious events and phenomena; the three-dimensional models, geo-information virtual systems created by means of the space-based processing and information technologies, including BIM (Building Information Modeling) and GIS (Geographic Information Systems). The software complexes, which function based on the analysis of the valid data and creation of design entities, are used to create the information models of the urban territories. The major companies importing the urban modeling software, Autodesk and Bentley, offer both BIM and CIM tools.Discussion and Conclusions. The term "Smart City" has become especially popular due to development of BIM technologies. This is an innovative approach based on the digital technologies application, which directly affects the activities and efficiency of provided services and rising the city living standard. For solving the thematic problems, there exist the focused technologies and tools of the modern urban environment development. The main task of the "Smart City" is enhancement of the comfort standard of the residents’ living. This task is solved by creating a city information model integrating the information about the terrain, buildings and structures, roads, green spaces, etc.

Latest Advances in Narrow‐Band Phosphors and Their Role in Color Management

Latest Advances in Narrow‐Band Phosphors and Their Role in Color Management

Warpage Estimation and Demonstration of Panel-Level Fan-Out Packaging With Cu Pillars Applied on a Highly Integrated Architecture

Fan-out panel-level packaging (FO-PLP) has become a critical forward-looking technology because it can meet the demands for small size, high input/output counts, and multi-chip functions. Moreover, a three-dimensional stacked architecture called packaging-on-packaging can be achieved using the interconnects of Cu pillars. However, the serious warpage issue of FO-PLP during the manufacturing process causes many problems, such as assembly difficulty, low device reliability, and poor product yield. To address these problems, this study presents a process-oriented finite element analysis method to estimate the variation of the whole warpage resulting from the mismatch among the coefficients of thermal expansion of dissimilar materials during the fabrication procedures. Notably, the model construction of the complex redistribution layer in the proposed FO-PLP encounters a serious challenge when the simulated estimation is performed. Consequently, an equivalent mechanical characteristic extracted through simulation is adopted to redefine the material properties of RDL and Cu pillars separately. Moreover, modified Timoshenko bi-layered theory is employed with the process-oriented FEA of FO-PLP to clarify the stress-free temperature of the equivalent RDL. An actual FO-PLP vehicle with Cu pillars is fabricated and measured to demonstrate the reliability of the proposed simulation methodology. An average deviation of less than 10% is obtained between the simulated prediction and experiments. The results of factorial design indicate that the mechanical properties of dielectrics and RDL are the dominant factors and have an interactive effect on the warpage magnitude of FO-PLP.

Data-driven prediction of soliton solutions of the higher-order NLSE via the strongly-constrained PINN method

We propose a strongly-constrained physics-informed neural network method with the derivative information to more suitably predict soliton dynamics of the nonlinear partial differential equation. We integrate more constrained physical information into the neural network, namely we add the derivative information of solutions for the nonlinear partial differential equation to the neural network structure, and introduce adaptive weight and flexible learning rate, to accelerate the convergence of the loss function of the network. As an example, we use this new method to predict a variety of soliton solutions of higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Moreover, we introduce the derivative of soliton solution to further reflect the stability of the data set. Results show that this new method can achieve the prediction in a wider solution area than the traditional method. Compared with results in previous literatures, the accuracy of the strongly-constrained physics-informed neural network method in predicting soliton dynamics is improved by 2-12 times. Therefore, this neural network is a forward-looking technology for scientific computing and automatic modeling.

Flower-like nickel phosphide catalyst for petroleum resin hydrogenation with enhanced catalytic activity, hydrodesulfurization ability and stability

The catalytic hydrogenation of petroleum resin (PR) to high value-added hydrogenated PR (HPR) represents a forward-looking technology for upgrading the pyrolysis petroleum by-product. Herein, flower-like and pure-phase supported nickel phosphide catalysts were controllably fabricated through a hydrotalcite strategy with red phosphorous as the P source. The PR hydrogenation activity of the catalysts followed the order of Ni2P/Al2O3 > NiP2/Al2O3 > Ni/Al2O3 > imp-Ni2P/Al2O3 catalysts (prepared by the impregnation method). Such enhanced performance of Ni2P/Al2O3 could be ascribed to small nickel phosphide particle size and rich active Niδ+ species. Notably, the sulfur contents of PR were effectively reduced from 55.4 (C5PR) and 72.3 ppm (C9PR) to 3.8 and 7.9 ppm after hydrogenation by Ni2P/Al2O3. Meanwhile, Ni2P/Al2O3 also exhibited good stability with the hydrogenation degree of HC5PR maintaining at 94.39 % after 100 h. Our work provides a promising nickel phosphide catalyst with outstanding hydrogenation activity, hydrodesulfurization ability, and stability toward PR hydrogenation.

Wireless Fronthaul for 5G and Future Radio Access Networks: Challenges and Enabling Technologies

Wireless networks have been evolving at a frenetic pace to meet the ever increasing demands for higher capacity, lower latency, and massive number of connections. In the fifth generation (5G) radio access networks (RANS), millimeter-wave and higher band radio are instrumental in achieving such stringent requirements. The network deployment must go through significant densification to meet the extremely high demand of data traffic. This imposes a big challenge to the network architecture as well as to the design of fronthaul transport links in the network. Fronthaul is generally referred to as the connection link between baseband units and remote radio units. Fiber-based connections have been conventionally the mainstream technology for fronthaul. However, fiber-based fronthaul may not scale in a cost-effective way to meet dense and flexible deployment requirements. Wireless fronthaul could be a viable solution and an attractive alternative to fiber for such deployments. In this article, we first provide an overview of emerging fronthaul interfaces and requirements. We then highlight the enabling technologies and solutions that can be applied in wireless fronthaul to meet future fronthaul capacity and latency requirements in a robust manner. The discussed technologies include performing fronthaul compression, leveraging new higher band spectrum, optimizing high rank line-of-sight multiple-input multiple-output (LoS-MIMO) and applying forward-looking technologies like reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. Wireless fronthaul has the advantages of flexibility, scalability, and low cost compared to fiber-based fronthaul. However, it also raises challenges in reliably delivering the required key performance indicators. Simulation results of wireless fronthaul for a wide range of distances and point-to-multipoint deployment scenarios show that robust and reliable performance can be achieved using high rank LoS-MIMO at high millimeter-wave bands. The analysis of this article indicates that wireless fronthaul can be designed to meet the requirements and be an attractive option for future disaggregated RAN deployments.

Understanding the Trends in Blockchain Domain Through an Unsupervised Systematic Patent Analysis

Patent analysis is crucial for technology monitoring, forecasting, and assessment, and facilitates entrepreneurs and different stakeholder groups to develop forward-looking technologies and business strategies. However, the speed and scale in the development of disruptive technologies, such as blockchain, present a challenge for analysts and experts. In this article, we propose an unsupervised systematic patent analysis framework that applies a mixture of cosine-based and density-based outlier analysis to the patent space. A sample of 13 393 blockchain-related patents published between January 2014 and June 2020 is used to test the proposed framework. Specifically, this framework merges cosine and density-based outlier detection methodologies to improve the identification of outliers within clusters of patents. The identified outliers are visualized through an age-outlier technology-opportunity analysis map that represents the different levels of novelty existing in each cluster of the patent sample. The map facilitates companies to better target their R&D efforts and maximize the return of technology investments. Benchmark results show that the proposed outlier detection method improves recall, precision, and f1 score. In addition, the results show that the cluster with a higher percentage of outliers represents the Internet of Things applications of blockchain technology.

Booming gas – A theory of endogenous technological change in resource extraction

This paper introduces endogenous technological change in a Hotelling-Herfindahl model of natural resource use to study the recent developments in the U.S. natural gas industry. We consider optimal forward-looking technology investments, and study implications for the order of extraction of conventional and shale gas, and a backstop technology, and characterize the development of gas prices. We find that technology investments increase during the extraction of conventional gas. Once production shifts towards shale gas, investments decline. Consistent with current trends, our theory explains how gas prices can follow a U-shaped path. The calibrated model suggests that U.S. shale gas production continues to grow and prices continue to decrease until 2050. We analytically and numerically show that the introduction of a carbon tax would reduce technology investments, and thus could drastically change the temporal patterns of U.S. shale gas extraction. The forward-looking behaviour of firms is crucial for such an effect, which does not occur in models that treat the improvement in extraction technology as an unanticipated shock to the industry.

Thread milling errors

The study shows that thread milling (including internal threads) is one of the most forward-looking technologies that offers max thread cutting performance. The reasons are the shortest cut-in path equal to the thread depth, and the full thread profile machining time equal to the period of one revolution of the workpiece. The paper highlights that thread milling is an efficient, general-purpose machining process. In this study, we solved the thread profile error estimation problem. Thread milling with parallel workpiece and cutter axis was investigated with a milling simulation model. The optimal thread milling tool parameters for internal thread machining were found. The method efficiency was proven by measuring undercuts and overcuts in pipe thread milling. For instance, the thread error (overcuts/undercuts measured flatwise to the thread profile) diametral compensation does not exceed 0.0268 mm while the pipe thread tolerance G1.25`` is 0.36 mm.

The creation of inclusive governance infrastructures through participatory agenda-setting

Though a stronger orientation of research and innovation with a focus on societal needs, demands, and preferences has recently become the main argument under the header of responsible research and innovation, the processes by which community members are included in studies of the future, as well as forward-looking science, technology, and innovation are underexplored. This paper explores the role of participatory agenda-setting in creating governance infrastructures that reflect community participation, boundary object creation, and experimental innovation for increased understanding of future decision tradeoffs. Drawing upon the authors’ leadership and participant observation of two participatory agenda-setting projects, this paper contributes to our understanding of what participatory agenda-setting looks like in practice at a boundary organization in higher education. Though not a traditional research study with control and experiment groups, we seek to share our insights and lessons learned from our leadership of two projects with inherent participatory agenda-setting components. The paper culminates in recommendations for future projects which seek to incorporate laypeople into future-oriented research.

Research on New Business Supply Chain Curriculum Under the Framework of School-enterprise Co-construction

The economic status of China's supply chain industry is increasing day by day, which is very important for the cultivation of talents in the supply chain industry. By discussing the core content of supply chain curriculum of school-enterprise co-construction and the basic path of new business supply chain curriculum reform, this paper suggests that Chinese universities need to carry out in-depth development of talents with school-enterprise co-construction from the perspectives of the supply chain, the reform of science and technology industry, the integration of global industrial system and the balanced development of global industry. Meanwhile, from the perspective of China, extension in three levels of strategic layout with high starting point, high-level strategic integration and forward-looking technology application, should be carried out so as to lay a solid foundation for the leap-forward development of the supply chain industry and provide important talent support for China's global competitiveness improvement.

Applying smarter commerce analysis for click and mortar of integration platform in the retail industry

In the recent years, business models of physical store and online store have become mature. Terminal services increase the numbers of consumers through the physical channels and internet. Effectively integrate and link between the internet and physical services will be a challenge for all channel business and e-commerce industry. E-commerce has developed rapidly by evolving from sales online only into the actual situation integration (online to offline, O2O). The industry will reshape the composition of the target customer, redefine marketing strategy and rethink interactive content and service depth. The goal of this paper provides a total solution with an interoperable interface, forward-looking technology, field deployment, and configuration flexibility from the development of business intelligence data collection and analyses services to support the operation development of business service in the retail industry.

Key Factors Influencing Consumers’ Purchase of Electric Vehicles

Although the rapid progress of the global economy and technology has advanced human civilization, it has also caused tremendous damage to the global ecological environment. Therefore, humans are thinking seriously about the environment and its sustainable development. One of the solutions to environmental problems is new energy vehicles. Since the promulgation of the “Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2012–2020)” by the General Office of the State Council, the Chinese government has determined a strategy of pure electric driving technology. The electric vehicle market in China has expanded rapidly, making China the largest electric vehicle market in the world. Hence, research on the situation of electric vehicles in China is highly necessary and of reference value for other countries to develop electric vehicles. As a result, it is a critical issue to develop low-carbon, energy-saving, and intelligent electric vehicles to reduce the environmental impact. This paper establishes a theoretical framework based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), technology acceptance model (TAM) and innovation diffusion theory (IDT), and explores the key factors influencing consumers’ purchase of electric vehicles. The results show that: The application of the key factor model constructed in this study to consumers’ behavioral intention regarding electric vehicle purchase is acceptable. According to the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis results, (1) In terms of behavioral intention: Consumers’ control over the resources required to purchase electric vehicles has the highest influence on their behavioral intention, while consultation opinions from consumers’ surroundings also significantly affect their behavioral intention to purchase electric vehicles. In addition, consumers’ environmental awareness and acceptance of technology products will also influence their behavioral intention. (2) In terms of attitude toward behavior: When consumers believe that electric vehicles are more beneficial at the individual, environment or national level, or they believe that the usage of electric vehicles is simpler and more convenient, they will show a more positive attitude towards the purchase of electric vehicles. Consumers consider electric vehicles as forward-looking technology products with similar driving operation and usage cost compared to traditional vehicles. (3) In terms of regulations: The opinions of consumers’ family members, friends, colleagues or supervisors do not significantly affect the attitude or behavior of consumers regarding electric vehicle purchase. The key factors influencing consumers’ purchase of electric vehicles are not only applicable to the design and development of electric vehicles that better suit consumer demands, but also serve as a theoretical basis for the popularization of electric vehicles, and provide a reference for consumers’ choice and purchase. Therefore, the government and relevant manufacturers need to consider increasing the publicity of electric vehicles and launch more attractive battery and charging schemes to attract consumers and promote the sustainable development of the automobile industry.

Simplified Energy-Balanced Alternative-Aware Routing Algorithm for Wireless Body Area Networks

Nowadays, the needs of healthcare for the elderly are growing rapidly. To provide continuous all-day medical monitoring and diagnoses at low cost, wireless body area networks (WBANs) have become a forward-looking technology since it is regarded as a potential solution for the remote collecting of physical and symptoms information. Because of its application characteristics, reliability and delay are the most important, as the energy consumption also needs to be considered. However, due to the limitation of the large propagation loss and the complicated channel conditions, the existing routing algorithms cannot completely address the above problems. To balance the node energy consumption and reduce the transmission delay, a simplified energy-balanced alternative-aware routing algorithm (SEAR) for WBANs is proposed in this paper. The residual energy and the current load of a candidate of the next hop destination are considered during the routing request forwarding procedures. The required information is exchanged during the improved routing request and routing request response procedures, and the routing cost is modified accordingly. To improve the compatibility and robustness, the added path is introduced as an alternative path in our algorithm. The simulation results show that SEAR achieves significantly higher network residual energy and network throughput, and end-to-end delay is also reduced. Therefore, the lifetime of the network is extended effectively.

Recording Heart Rate Variability of Dairy Cows to the Cloud-Why Smartphones Provide Smart Solutions.

In the last decades, there has been an increasing interest in animal protection and welfare issues. Heart rate variability (HRV) measurement with portable heart rate monitors on cows has established itself as a suitable method for assessing physiological states. However, more forward-looking technologies, already successfully applied to evaluate HRV data, are pushing the market. This study examines the validity and usability of collecting HRV data by exchanging the Polar watch V800 as a receiving unit of the data compared to a custom smartphone application on cows. Therefore, both receivers tap one signal sent by the Polar H7 transmitter simultaneously. Furthermore, there is a lack of suitable methods for the preparation and calculation of HRV parameters, especially for livestock. A method is presented for calculating more robust time domain HRV parameters via median formation. The comparisons of the respective simultaneous recordings were conducted after artifact correction for time domain HRV parameters. High correlations (r = 0.82–0.98) for cows as well as for control data set in human being (r = 0.98–0.99) were found. The utilization of smart devices and the robust method to determine time domain HRV parameters may be suitable to generate valid HRV data on cows in field-based settings.

E-social work and at-risk populations: technology and robotics in social intervention with elders. The case of Spain

ABSTRACTInformation and communication technologies are increasingly relevant. Finding a sphere of activity that is isolated from technological advancement proves increasingly difficult, and social work is no exception. Therefore, given the socio-demographic and technological context for this sector in Spain, we must face and tackle new challenges. Focusing exclusively on the elderly, e-social work highlights new skills and abilities that can be developed by means of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which are viewed as powerful tools that can guarantee egalitarian access to an improved life standard. Nevertheless, despite the digital divide growing smaller, its impact on people over 75 is still significant; hence, we need to use every tool at our disposal to reduce it to the bare minimum. With that purpose in mind, this article discusses usability, the causes of unequal access to ICTs, technological gerontological pedagogy and robotics as forward-looking technology. The aim is to technologically enable the senior population by adapting the necessary interfaces for an easier interaction; likewise, online intervention also aims for the utilization of alternative technologies. Technology has completely changed the world we live in pushing us to a new approach towards old age, fragility and chronicity. ICTs in social intervention must be a true source of opportunities to further social cohesion.