Macro Stage Research Articles

A Positioning and Tracking Performance–Enhanced Composite Control Algorithm for the Macro–Micro Precision Stage

In the macro–micro composite motion process, the macro stage achieves rapid motion in a large workspace, while the micro stage realizes precise positioning within a small displacement. The large-stroke and high-speed motion of the macro stage is influenced by nonlinear friction, overshooting, and vibrations, making it challenging to achieve rapid stabilization within the travel range of the micro stage, thereby impacting equipment operation efficiency. This paper proposes a composite controller structure designed to solve the fast point-to-point positioning of the macro stage driven by a linear motor and enhance the trajectory tracking performance of the stage. The proposed composite control algorithm (CCA) includes velocity feed-forward, gain-scheduled proportional integral differential (PID) control, and a plug-in repetitive control method. By employing a tracking differentiator, velocity feed-forward, and a gain-scheduled PID controller, the control algorithm can realize rapid stabilization and positioning for the macro stage. Through velocity feed-forward, gain-scheduled PID control, and a plug-in repetitive controller, the control algorithm can reduce the trajectory tracking error of the stage. Simulations and experimental studies of point response and sinusoidal trajectory tracking are carried out on a macro–micro stage to verify the effectiveness of the composite controller for the linear motor. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed composite controller effectively reduces the macro stage’s settling time and overshoot, and improves the accuracy of sinusoidal trajectory tracking, which lays a foundation for submicron positioning accuracy in high-speed macro–micro motion stages.

Enhancing the Thai Film Industry Through Virtual Learning: A Sustainable Approach to Language Skill Development and Soft Power Expansion

In an era of globalization, countries and people are progressively interconnected with soft power playing a crucial role in expanding influence through collaboration and cultural exchange. The Thai film industry, despite its global recognition, encounters challenge due to limited English language proficiency among its professionals, which hampers its potential for international engagement and actions. This study intends a virtual learning model designed to enhance language skills and support the growth of soft power within the Thai film industry. Employing technologies such as the Metaverse, the model integrates learning across all stages of film production—pre-production, production, and post-production. Lining up with SDG 4 and national policies, the study adopts an action research approach to gauge the impact of this model on industry professionals. Ultimately, this research aims to provide a sustainable framework for developing language skills and flourishing Thailand's soft power, driving the future growth of the Thai film industry on the macro stage.

Relationship between Disintegration Characteristics and Intergranular Suction in Red Soil

Red soil is widely distributed in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia (approximately between the 30° S and 30° N latitudes). These soils are typically formed by the weathering of carbonate or other rocks rich in iron and aluminium oxides in hot-humid climates and susceptible to a large reduction in disintegration upon wetting or other conditions. This paper provides a state-of-the-art review on the red soil disintegration mechanism and intergranular suction with reference to red soil. The present paper reviews the research progress that has been made regarding the disintegration characteristics and testing methods of the intergranular suction of red soil, including (1) influencing factors of disintegration and the mechanism of action, (2) advantages and disadvantages of each intergranular suction testing method and (3) the intrinsic relationship between disintegration and intergranular suction. The study indicated that the research on the disintegration mechanism of red soil is still in the macro stage, involving the different moisture contents, temperatures and other directly influential conditions. Soil disintegration characteristics have not been extensively analysed from the micro perspective (including pore structure and distribution, fracture development degree and particle arrangements). When these problems are solved, disintegration studies of red soil will be advanced. Some limitations of the previous research are highlighted at the end of the paper, and suggestions are made for future research.

Behavioral Patterns of Supply and Demand Sides of Health Services for the Elderly in Sustainable Digital Transformation: A Mixed Methods Study.

The aging transformation of digital health services faces issues of how to distinguish influencing factors, redesign services, and effectively promote measures and policies. In this study, in-depth interviews were conducted, and grounded theory applied to open coding, main axis coding, and selective coding to form concepts and categories. Trajectory equifinality modeling clarified the evolution logic of digital transformation. Based on the theory of service ecology, a digital health service aging model was constructed from the “macro–medium–micro” stages and includes governance, service, and technology transformation paths. The macro stage relies on organizational elements to promote the institutionalization of management and guide the transformation of governance for value realization, including the construction of three categories: mechanism, indemnification, and decision-making. The meso stage relies on service elements to promote service design and realize service transformation that is suitable for aging design, including the construction of three categories: organization, resources, and processes. The micro stage relies on technical elements to practice experiencing humanization, including the construction of three categories: target, methods, and evaluation. These results deepen the understanding of the main behaviors and roles of macro-organizational, meso-service, and micro-technical elements in digital transformation practice and have positive significance for health administrative agencies to implement action strategies.

A Bandwidth-Balanced RMLSA Solution for Static Elastic Optical Network: A Two Stages Approach

This paper addresses one of the main tasks in transparent static elastic optical networks (EONs), known as the routing, modulation level, and spectrum assignment (RMLSA) problem. We present, for the first time, a two-stage RMLSA solution, focusing on reducing spectrum consumption (or network capacity). The first macro stage, called least demand bandwidth balance (LDBB), relies on a physical layer impairment (PLI) model to jointly compute the connections’ route and modulation level (RML). We use a new balancing criterion that effectively distributes each network link’s frequency slot unit (FSU) demands, exemplifying three different balancing functions based on the maximum number of FSUs on the links and the total number of FSUs demanded and the cost of the route. In the last macro stage, using all connections chosen paths, we perform the spectrum assignment (SA) process using two specific connections prioritization criteria. We propose two SA algorithms, called sliding-fit (SF) and parcel-fit (PF), reducing the spectrum consumption. These algorithms change the SA paradigm by searching connections for a given subset of the frequency spectrum, contrary to the search of FSUs for a given connection in standard approaches. In all cases, our solution exhibited a lower total network capacity than the commonly used strategies found in the literature, with an average network capacity reduction of 5.7 % FSUs. In addition, our proposal may be used to easily dimension network capacity and determine how many extra resources may be needed to attend to all network users.

Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture by Derritt Mason

Reviewed by: Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture by Derritt Mason Jonathan Alexander (bio) Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture. By Derritt Mason. University Press of Mississippi, 2020. Over a hundred years ago, psychologist G. Stanley Hall identified adolescence as a period of “storm and stress,” borrowing the phrase “Sturm und Drang” from German romanticism. Whatever the psychic and physiological realities of this period of human maturation, adolescence has been popularly and persistently—even romantically— figured as a turbulent time. The contemporary boom in young adult (YA) literature has capitalized on such anxieties by offering readers a range of narratives of young people struggling to find their way in the world, and sometimes, in the case of dystopian YA, raging against the machinery of adult oppression not just on a micro (familial) level but on a macro (political) stage as well. When marginalized identities become part of the story, the pressures of adolescent anxieties assume particular shape as befitting the personal, cultural, and social nuances of identities and accompanying bigotries and prejudices. Derritt Mason, in Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture, turns our attention to the anxious specifics of queer YA and, in doing so, underscores how anxiety is never just a thematic of YA, especially of queer YA, but an often-unnamed pressure in the production and critical reception of YA. Mason forcefully makes his claim early in his study, asserting that we should embrace YA “as an anxious genre” (6). The case of queer YA affords him a specific purchase on what he means by “anxious genre,” particularly as he invites us to see how “the longer history of anxiety and adolescence collide[s] with contemporary concerns about queer youth and the content of texts for young people” (6). Not only is YA about the anxieties of adolescence; it itself, as a genre, is the product of anxieties about young people, with anxieties about queer young people offering a rich set of flashpoints for revealing and critically analyzing what we are so often anxious about. For instance, in depicting the lives of queer young [End Page 330] people, writers and publishers (and readers) often have to grapple with the problem of authenticity and voice: “what is an ‘authentic’ and ‘original’ GLBTQ voice? What constitutes ‘fresh insight’ into queer lives?” (5). In a way, the problem of voice is the problem of all YA; how can an adult writer capture and represent the voices of young people, as such voices embody their cares, concerns, struggles, and hopes? When the anxieties of queer youth are central to the story, the anxieties seem compounded by the representation of queer identities in homophobic and transphobic cultures. For Mason, the compounding assumes the form of both the pressure to represent a group of young people facing particular problems and the pressure of such works potentially to serve as a remedy for such problems. As Mason eloquently puts it, “Queer YA and cultural texts that seek to address queer youth proliferate as both an anxiety management strategy (a potential antidote to the fact that queer youth are in crisis) and a producer of additional anxiety (what if this address fails in its mission?)” (9). Such anxieties serve to mirror, perhaps metonymically, larger, literary anxieties about YA as a genre. Mason quotes Peter Hunt on this issue: critics of YA often worry over “what is good for the child socially, intellectually, and educationally, and what we, really, honestly think is a good book” (13). Borrowing from the theoretical energies of affect theory, Mason sets up his book as a series of case studies about the contours of such anxieties in queer YA. His central claims are, on one hand, hopeful and, on the other, critical: “[D]oes it not inspire at least a bit of hope that anxiety about the well-being of queer youth and the status of their representation in popular texts seems to connect so many of us? It may be that, in centering affect in our analysis of queer YA, we might better attune ourselves to the structures of feeling that attend adolescent queerness and those moments when our own anxieties, as adults, tend to...

On the deformation mechanism of re-entrant honeycomb auxetics under inclined static loads

The present study focuses on the deformation mechanisms of re-entrant honeycomb auxetic structures under inclined loading. An auxetic finite element prototype is compressed by a rigid plate during a static Riks analysis. Analysing the deformation response of the structure has revealed that a new transitional deformation stage emerges that highly restricts the elastic response. This new macro stage consists of consecutive micro stages of plateau-densification (yielding-hardening) that corresponds to a highly localised deformation mode, and alters the mechanical response in the following macro stages.

Dual-Stage Control Structure for Multilevel Voltage Source Inverters

This work proposes an alternative for total harmonic distortion (THD) attenuation in power inverters by combining two different circuit stages. The Macro stage comprises of a Neutral-Point-Clamped (NPC) multilevel inverter operating in high voltage and low switching frequency. The Micro stage is a two-level three-phase inverter, which is faster and more accurate due to its higher frequency and limited voltage. In this dual-stage approach, the opposite characteristics of the converters lead the Micro stage to correct the distortions of the Macro. It is possible to work with small values of filtering components, lower than the ones needed in a one-stage approach. This way, the presented proposal aims to reduce the physical size of the converter and its costs. The NPC inverter works in open loop with its switching signals generated by optimized pulse patterns (OPP). For correct THD filtering, a resonant control strategy with a Notch filter is designed in the frequency domain, as well as a feedforward structure designed in time domain. Simulation results show that the proposed system keeps voltage THD in acceptable levels for IEEE Standards.

Anti-diabetic (AD) and hardness profile of 12-(4-Chlorophenyl)-9,9- Dimethyl-9,10-Dihydro-8H-benzo[a]xanthen-11(12H)-one –(CPDDHBXH) – Comparative analysis of macro and nano crystals

As the CPDDHBXH full scale and nano crystals are having gargantuan effect on opto-electronic applications, stage coordinating, recurrence coordinating and power transmission and different sorts of utilities in bio and with drug store fields, it is the extent of the physicists and electronic friends to create and consider the exceptional capacities like nano tribological factors and different utilities. Full scale crystals have littlest sum pertinent relationships by estimation disparity to nano outline of CPDDHBXH equipped by mill recital. The nano form of CPDDHBXH crystals are of 22 nm respectively, the XRD data reveals the macro crystals are having the formula C25H21ClO2 are of a = 10.293 Å, b = 11.621 Å, c = 16.447 Å, β = 90.04°, monoclinic with space group P21 /n, the macro level NLO is nearly 2 times higher than that of typical KDP. Here, both the macro and nano crystals are undergone with AD work and hardness profile studies and reported, CPDDHBXH are best for electronic filters and for frequency converters stand on their macro stage NLO-SHG efficiency.

Design of rigid motion and elastic deformation parallel driven based macro-micro compounded positioning stage

High-speed precision positioning is highly demanded in electronic manufacturing, and the mechanical friction is the key factor affecting positioning accuracy. Currently, sub-micron positioning can only be achieved by using high-cost frictionless guiding system. A new parallel driven macro-micro compounded positioning stage design, which eliminates the saturation problem of micro actuator, is proposed by combining the long-stroke direct-driven stage and frictionless guiding mechanism based on flexure hinge. Two sets of driving and measuring systems are included in the macro-micro motion stage in order to control the macro and micro stages connected by flexure hinge separately. The high-speed and long-stroke movement is achieved by the rigid mechanical connection system of macro stage, and the flexible connection system of micro stage based on flexure hinge is used to quickly compensate the positioning error of macro stage. The above rigid-flexible motion scheme enables the long-stroke, high-speed and high-precision positioning. A new motion profile planning method based on the dynamic response optimization is also proposed to reduce the residual vibration of motion stage. Due to the faster response and lower tracking error performance of micro stage compared to the macro one, the macro/micro driving force is superimposed to realize the fast motion during the high-acceleration motion period and the micro-actuator can generate the inverse force to quickly compensate the motion error of macro stage during the constant-speed and low-speed positioning motion periods. Experimental results verified that the proposed macro-micro compounded stage design can effectively reduce the complexity of the control system through the innovation of the mechanism and realize high-precision and rapid positioning. It provides a new way for the design of sub-micron high speed positioning stage for micro-photoelectron manufacturing equipment.

The effect of stress fracture interventions in a single elite infantry training unit (1983–2015)

Stress fractures can be seen as an undesired byproduct of demanding physical training. The threshold value of stress that places an individual bone at high risk for stress fracture has not been identified. In a prospective study of stress fractures in 1983, a 31% incidence was found during demanding Israeli infantry basic training by bone scan criteria. Within a subgroup of these recruits, an elite infantry unit was found to have a 40% incidence. Since then and until 2015, eight additional induction companies of the same elite infantry unit were prospectively monitored for stress fractures during their basic training. In all of the studies, stress fracture surveillance and the examining orthopedist were the same.A retrospective review of all nine studies and of eight training changes was performed to look for a temporal trend in stress fracture incidence and to see if these might be related to training changes. There was a statistically significant trend for lower radiological proven stress fractures (p=0.0001) and radiological proven stress fractures plus clinical stress fractures (p=0.0013), as well as lower stress fracture severity by radiological criteria (p=0.0001) between 1983 and 2015.The only training change that was associated, by multivariate logistic regression, with a decreased incidence of stress fracture was restricting training to the authorized training protocol (odds ratio, 3874; 95% CI, 1.526 to 9.931; p=0.004). Increased recruit weight was found by multivariate analysis to be associated with lower stress fracture incidence (odds ratio 1.034; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.070; p=0.051). Moving the training to a base with flatter terrain and reducing the formal marching distance by 1/3 was associated with a decrease in high grade stress fractures (odds ratio, 10.03; 95% CI, 3.5 to 28.4; p=0.0001). Neither the combined changes of enforcing a seven hour a night sleep regimen, training in more comfortable boots and adding a physical therapist to the unit nor stopping specific running exercises and adding lower body strengthening exercises were associated with a decrease in stress fracture. 67% of recruits who sustained stress fractures and 69% who did not sustain stress fracture finished their military service as combat soldiers in the unit (p=0.87).There are no magic bullets to prevent stress fractures. Stress cannot be lowered beyond the level which compromises the training goals. It is a problem that can be managed by awareness that identifies and treats stress fractures while they are still in the micro stage and not in the more dangerous macro stage.

ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА ПРОФЕССИОНАЛИЗМА В ГЕНЕТИЧЕСКОМ АСПЕКТЕ

The current need of this work lies in the necessity of developing professional skills of the staff in nuclear industry. The essential characteristic of the personnel structure of the nuclear branch is the professionalism of each worker, engineers in particular. Professionalism should, therefore, be the main anticipated result of training in a higher educational institution and be an integral indicator of education quality. To describe a nuclear engineers’ professionalism in its genetic aspect, various approaches to the periodization of professional development presented in psychological and pedagogical literature were analyzed. This analysis formed the basis of professionalism development periodization, i.e. the characteristics of the genesis of nuclear engineers professionalism in terms of system approach, and in the long term, the development of a technique for defining the condition of professionalism at a macro stage of formation as an element to provide support for nuclear engineers’ formation. The periodization is given taking into account the restriction introduced regarding progressiveness in development.

Liquid-phase synthesis of mercaptans and sulfides in the reaction of hydrogen sulfide with alkylene oxide: Estimating catalyst efficiency

A method for the synthesis of β-hydroxypropyl mercaptans and β-hydroxyalkyl sulfides based on the reaction of liquefied hydrogen sulfide with alkylene oxides is proposed. Our technique allows (1) the use of the maximum possible concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the reaction mixture, (2) the process to be performed within a broad range of temperatures, (3) the use of various catalytic additives, and (4) requires no solvent. Kinetic dependencies of the reaction of hydrogen sulfide with alkylene oxides, particularly propylene oxide, are investigated under conditions that allow the reaction components to exist in the liquefied state. In the case of propylene oxide, an excess in the reaction mixture of two consecutive macroscopic stages is observed: the first macro stage includes the formation of 2-hydroxypropane-1-thiol followed by formation of 1,1′-di(2-hydroxypropane) sulfide at the second stage. Staging the accumulation of mercaptan and sulfide allows us to control the process, directing the reaction toward the quantitative production of either mercaptan or sulfide under certain conditions. For example, the use of an excessive amount of hydrogen sulfide results primarily in the formation of 2-hydroxypropane-1-thiol. In addition, the activity of 14 homogenous and heterogeneous catalysts, including activated carbon, ion-exchange resins, metal oxides, water, and triethylamine, is studied. A principle for evaluating the efficiency of catalytic additives based on our mathematical model of the process is proposed. Triethylamine is found to be the most efficient catalyst, raising the reaction rate by a factor of more than 100; i.e., the reaction time without the catalyst was ∼50 h, while in the presence of small amounts of triethylamine, the reaction ceased within a few minutes.

Control Analysis of Point-to-Point Positioning Based on Macro-Micro Stage

Macro-micro stage can achieve large travel range and high precision positioning. The macro stage is driven by voice coil motor (VCM). The micro stage is actuated by the piezoelectric (PZT). The positioning theory of macro-micro stage is described. In this paper, the compensating method of point-to-point (PTP) positioning is divided into two types: compensation before steady state (CBS) and compensation after steady state (CAS). The different control strategies are applied to meet CAS and CBS. Because of the structure of macro-micro stage and the saturation of micro stage, switching control plays an important role in realizing high precision PTP motion. When the error of the macro stage is less than the threshold and also the system meets the switching conditions, the compensation signal is sent to the PZT control loop for high resolution compensation. Finally, the numerical simulation results show that the positioning accuracy of dual stage is higher than single macro stage and can reach nanometer scale.

Emerging Interaction of Political Processes

The emerging interaction of political processes sets the stage for the level of macro uncertainty and specific risk events that may occur in an international relationship. Strongly defined social control in Cuba, formal and informal, dominates the dynamics of the relationship, while simultaneously government, formal, action in the U.S. dominates the ability of American individuals to further the relationship. This study examines the development of a long-term relationship between two universities from the U.S. and Cuba. Over a period of eight years the relationship changes considerably as events on the macro stage play out and the environment for détente shifts. The key focus of this relationship lies with developing the study abroad program, taking students from the U.S. to Cuba.