Parallel Combination Research Articles

Structural and impedance spectroscopic investigations of eco-friendly alkali phosphoborate glass-ceramics containing zirconium ion.

Glass-ceramics with novel composition xZrO2.7P2O5.19CaO.24Na2O.(50-x)B2O3 (x = 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8mol%) have been synthesized using melt quench technique. The synthesized compositions were characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, infrared absorption, and impedance spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction profiles of prepared samples confirm the existence of phases corresponding to Na3Ca6(PO4)5 crystal (with crystallite size ~ 23nm). Infrared absorbance spectra reveal the presence of phosphate and borate units (PO3, PO4, BO3, BO4) in the glass matrix. Different dielectric parameters such as dielectric loss, electric modulus, and tangent loss were evaluated. Their variations with temperature and frequency confirm the non- Debye relaxation behavior of prepared samples. A phenomenal description of the capacitive behavior was studied by considering the circuit having a parallel combination of constant phase element and bulk resistance. The conduction is found to be governed by overlapping large polaron tunneling (OLPT) and follow OLPT model. The results indicate that ZrO2 substituted alkali phosphoborate glass-ceramics can be used as eco-friendly and safe dielectric materials.

Highly Ordered Supramolecular Assembled Networks Tailored by Bioinspired H-Bonding Confinement for Recyclable Ion-Transport Materials

Highly Ordered Supramolecular Assembled Networks Tailored by Bioinspired H-Bonding Confinement for Recyclable Ion-Transport Materials

Az Arany Háromszög felemelkedése és hanyatlása

The paper examines the rise and fall of the Golden Triangle opium-producing region, by focusing on local economic and social conditions, as well as international factors that have affected opium production in Myanmar (formerly Burma), Laos, and Thailand. By 1970, the Golden Triangle countries produced 70 percent of the world’s opium, but even in the late 1990s, the figure remained 66 percent, and only today has the region become less significant, as a result of the combination of parallel but non-interacting processes. Along with the reasons for the region’s rise, its decline and prospective trends are examined.

Research for stability of food products and functional foods

The study uses rapid aging and real-condition methods to assess the stability of frozen meat, yogurt and functional foods. The method of real conditions is applied to frozen meat and yogurt with the following factors being: temperature: -20°C ± 2°C; humidity: 100% for frozen meat and temperature: 4°C ± 2°C; humidity: > 80% for yogurt. The accelerated aging method is applied to functional foods in conditions: 35 ± 2°C, 45 ± 2°C, 55 ± 2°C, and humidity: 70 ± 5% in parallel assessment combination with real-time monitoring at 25 ± 2°C, and humidity 70 ± 5%. The results showed that the yogurt sample reached stability until the 45th day and did not reach from the 47th day due to layering and deposits at the bottom of the box. The frozen meat sample remained stable when monitored until the 12.6 months with all indicators. Functional food samples were estimated to reach stability of up to 40.3 months when using the Van't Hoff formula, 32.0 months when using the Q10 coefficient, and 36.8 months when monitored in real conditions. The results of the study indicate that the less stable criteria on each sample background are the basis for selecting evaluation criteria for subsequent studies that contribute to reducing the cost of monitoring. The difference in the time it takes to estimate the stability of the product when using different methods also helps manufacturers consider the appropriate evaluation method for their products.

The Combination Clinical Value of Plasma Brain Natriuretic Peptide and Serum HbAlc in the Diagnosis of Chronic Pulmonary Heart Disease.

Objective To analyze the combination clinical value of plasma brain natriuretic peptide and serum glycated hemoglobin (HbAlc) in chronic pulmonary heart disease. Methods A total of 200 patients with chronic pulmonary heart disease admitted to our hospital from January 2021 to January 2022 were selected as the observation group, and 200 healthy subjects were selected as the control group during the same period. All subjects were examined by an ECG vector map and plasma BNP, and HbAlc levels were detected to analyze the value and clinical significance of each index in single diagnosis and combined diagnosis. Results Plasma BNP and HbAlc levels in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). There were 154 BNP positive, 146 HbAlc positive, 164 parallel combined diagnosis positive, and 132 serial combined diagnosis positive. Sensitivity of series combination diagnosis was significantly higher than other indexes (P < 0.05); especially, parallel combination diagnosis was significantly higher than other indexes (P < 0.05). Besides, area under the ROC curve of parallel combination diagnosis and series combination diagnosis was significantly higher than that of each index alone diagnosis (P < 0.05). Conclusion In the diagnosis of chronic pulmonary heart disease, the combination of plasma BNP and HbAlc can effectively improve the diagnostic specificity and sensitivity, as well as improve the area under the ROC curve.

Modeling and simulation of high energy density lithium-ion battery for multiple fault detection

Lithium-ion battery, a high energy density storage device has extensive applications in electrical and electronic gadgets, computers, hybrid electric vehicles, and electric vehicles. This paper presents multiple fault detection of lithium-ion battery using two non-linear Kalman filters. A discrete non-linear mathematical model of lithium ion battery has been developed and Unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is employed to estimate the model parameter. Occurrences of multiple faults such as over-charge, over-discharge and short circuit faults between inter cell power batteries, affects the parameter variation of system model. Parallel combinations of some UKF (bank of filters) compare the model parameter variation between the normal and faulty situation and generates residual signal indicating different fault. Simulation results of multiple numbers of statistical tests have been performed for residual based fault diagnosis and threshold calculation. The performance of UKF is then compared with Extended Kalman filter (EKF) with same battery model and fault scenario. The simulation result proves that UKF model responses better and quicker than that of EKF for fault diagnosis.

Semisupervised Game Player Categorization From Very Big Behavior Log Data

Extracting the specific category of the players, such as the malignant Bot, from the huge log data of the massive multiplayer online role playing games, denoted as MMORPGs, is an important basic task in game security and personal recommendation. In this article, we propose a parallel semisupervised framework to categorize specific game players with a few label-known target samples, which are denoted as bait players. Our approach first presents a feature representation model based on the players' level granularity, which can acquire aligned feature representations in the lower dimensional space from the players' original action sequences. Then, we propose a semisupervised clustering method, extended from the bisecting k-means model, to extract the specified players with the help of those bait players. Due to massive amounts of game log data, the computation complexity is an extreme challenge to implement our feature representation and semisupervised extraction approaches. We also propose a hierarchical parallelism framework, which allows the data to be computed horizontally and vertically simultaneously and enables varied parallel combinations for the steps of our semisupervised categorization approach. The comparable experiments on real-world MMORPGs' log data, containing more than 465 Gbytes and million players, are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed approach compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

Evaluation of Conducting and Tensile Properties of Reduced Graphene Oxide/ Polybutylene Adipate Terephthalate (Rgo/Pbat) Nanocomposites

This study was focused on evaluation of conducting and tensile properties of rGO/ Polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) nanocomposite intended to use in electronic applications which require biodegradability. This study was also considered to be worthwhile since very little work has been done in this regard so far. PBAT was specifically selected for the study as it is an extensively used biodegradable polymer for variety of applications. The solvent casting method was employed to prepare rGO/PBAT nanocomposites where rGO was dispersed in a solution of PBAT by ultrasonication followed by evaporation of the solvent components. Electrical conductivity (σ) of rGO/PBAT nanocomposites showed a percolation behavior as rGO content was increased from the 0.5 % to 1.5 % (σ increased drastically with the increase of rGO content). The percolation threshold was approximately 0.0045, (i.e., 0.75 w/w % of rGO). The average critical exponent (t) related to the percolation theory was 1.49 ± 0.19 which is well within the expected range 1&lt; t &lt; 2. According to impedance studies, the electrical impedance of GO/PBAT composites decreased with the increasing rGO content, which agreed well with the behavior of the electrical conductivity investigated previously. The same equivalent circuit was shown by each composite except the values for constant phase element CPE and resistor R; the equivalent electrical circuit was a parallel combination of CPE and R. The dielectric analysis of the composites indicated that dielectric parameters ϵ”, ϵ’ and dissipation factor increased significantly with increasing rGO content. The tensile strength of the composites was better than that of neat PBAT up to 1.5 % of rGO loading and decreased on further increasing of rGO. However, their tensile strain at break decreased with increasing rGO content. The results indicated that PBAT/rGO polymer composite is promising candidate for various electronic applications.

A novel main drive system for the servo press: Combination of integrated motor and symmetrically toggle booster mechanism

At present, the servo press is developing vigorously. This paper focuses on the main drive system of the servo press. Different from conventional main drive systems (single-sided output servo motor; unilateral bias fixed installation; large belt wheel or large gear transmission), the novel main drive system adopts a two-side output integrated servo motor (floating and central installation). The integrated servo motor is connected with the symmetrical toggle booster mechanism through a planetary roller screw pair, making full use of the resources of the integrated motor and transmission structure. By removing the large belt wheel, the moment of inertia of the novel main drive system can be greatly reduced. Furthermore, the novel main drive system has excellent mechanical and motion characteristics (Low-speed forging, high-speed return). More importantly, the novel main drive system through simple mechanical combination in parallel, constituting multiple sets of the novel main drive system, can be applied to servo presses of different tonnages (small, medium, and large). It facilitates the standardization and serialization of the main drive system, and it has the characteristics of large-scale industrialization and low-cost manufacturing. Accordingly, theoretical analysis and simulation are carried out for the novel main drive system, and a new servo press synchronously driven by two sets of the novel main drive systems is designed and manufactured for motion characteristics experiments and sheet blanking tests. The results manifest that the novel main drive system can achieve the above objectives and has feasibility and practicability.

A 32-MHz, 34-μW Temperature-Compensated RC Oscillator Using Pulse Density Modulated Resistors

Highly stable on-chip frequency references offer the possibility of replacing crystal oscillators in many cost-and form-factor-constrained applications. However, achieving good frequency stability in a power-efficient manner across process, voltage, and temperature variations possess many design challenges. This article describes these challenges and presents a method for improving the integrated RC oscillator’s frequency accuracy by overcoming them. We show that the impact of resistor temperature coefficient (TC) on the accuracy of output frequency can be mitigated by using a parallel combination of two switched resistors that are digitally controlled by pulse-density modulated sequences. By trimming at only two temperatures, a prototype frequency-locked loop (FLL)-based 32-MHz oscillator fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process achieves an inaccuracy of 530 ppm (8.4 ppm/°C), 80-ppm/V voltage sensitivity, 2.5-ppm Allan deviation, and 1- <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> /MHz power efficiency.

A Hybrid CNN for Image Denoising

Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with strong learning abilities have been used in the field of image super-resolution. However, some CNNs depends on a single deep network to training an image super-resolution model, which will have poor performance in complex screens. To address this problem, we propose a hybrid denoising CNN (HDCNN). HDCNN is composed of a dilated block (DB), RepVGG block (RVB) and feature refinement block (FB), a single convolution. DB combines a dilated convolution, batch normalization (BN), common convolutions, activation function of ReLU to obtain more context information. RVB uses parallel combination of convolution and BN, ReLU to extract complementary width features. FB is used to obtain more accurate information via refining obtained feature from the RVB. A single convolution collaborates a residual learning operation to construct a clean image. These key components make the HDCNN have good performance in image denoising. Experiment shows that the proposed HDCNN enjoys good denoising effect in public datasets.

Modified Reliability Assessment Method for Analysis of Cyber-Physical System Consisting IEEE 24 Bus System Parallel with Cyber Network

ABSTRACT With the transformation from a traditional, rural, and agrarian society to a secular, urban, and industrial society and competitive environment, the rise in the power demand and supply makes it difficult to meet the customer’s expectations and needs. It has become necessary that the electric utility industry make sure they have accurate information about system performance and reliability. The paper presents four different cases through which the reliability of the electric distribution system is studied by calculating customer-oriented indices and load-oriented indices. The assessment is carried out using Modified Reliability Assessment Method (MRAM) on IEEE 24 bus system using MATLAB simulation, and the indicators of reliability analysis such as System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SIAFI), System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI), Average Service Availability Index (ASAI), Average Service Unavailability Index (ASUI), Energy Not Supplied index (ENS), Average Energy Not Supplied (AENS), Annual Customer Interruptions (ACI), and Customer Interruption Duration (CID) are evaluated. Moreover, the impact of the inclusion of cyber networks in the traditional system is also taken into consideration to determine the system’s reliability. Also, the result shows that the parallel combination is more superior to the other one.

A diagnostic test: combined detection of heparin-binding protein, procalcitonin, and C-reactive protein to improve the diagnostic accuracy of bacterial respiratory tract infections.

BackgroundRespiratory tract infection (RTI) is one of the most common diseases worldwide, and its incidence is rising year by year due to environmental pollution. Sputum culture remains the gold standard for RTI diagnosis, but its performance is limited by difficulties related to the sampling and testing of the sputum specimens. Heparin-binding protein (HBP), procalcitonin (PCT), and C-reaction protein (CRP) are Inflammatory markers. They have the advantage of being fast, accurate and reproducible, but limited by their sensitivity and specificity. We explored the clinical value of the combined detection of them in the diagnosis of bacterial RTIs.MethodsPatients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected as the case group, healthy age- and sex-matched subjects were enrolled as a control group. The subjects’ HBP, PCT, and CRP levels were detected. The case group was further divided into two groups according to the bacterial culture results, and the differences in the markers were statistically analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn, and the areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) were calculated to analyze the diagnostic values of each marker and their combination in parallel for bacterial RTIs.ResultsThe plasma HBP, PCT, and CRP levels of patients in the bacterial and non-bacterial infection groups were significantly higher than those of patients in the healthy control group, and were positively correlated to the severity of the disease. for HBP with an AUC of 0.785 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.686–0.884], a sensitivity of 0.821, a specificity of 0.771; PCT with an AUC of 0.767 (95% CI: 0.664–0.870), a sensitivity of 0.773, a specificity of 0.791, and CRP with an AUC of 0.748 (95% CI: 0.642–0.854), a sensitivity of 0.839, a specificity of 0.696 in the bacterial and non-bacterial infection groups. The combined detection of HBP + CRP had the optimal diagnostic performance, with an AUC of 0.797 (95% CI: 0.698–0.895; P<0.001), a sensitivity of 0.809, a specificity of 0.800.ConclusionsThe combined detection of HBP and CRP is valuable for diagnosing bacterial RTIs and may guide the development of reasonable treatment protocols in clinical settings.

Low-noise amplification of voltage response for thermopile optical detectors

A technique is presented to amplify the voltage response of thermopile optical detectors. It is based on the parallel combination of multiple operational amplifiers. The background noise of the voltage response has been deceased, which significantly improves the repeatability of the measurement results. Thus, this technique enables the same detector to measure weaker optical power or irradiance at the same precision level. The corresponding amplifying circuit is designed and fabricated. For the same detector, the experimental results show that the standard deviation of the background noise of the combined n op-amps is about lower comparing with the conventional single op-amp scheme, which is consistent with the theoretical expectations. Furthermore, the lasers of 10 μW and 1μW were also measured by the specific detector and the amplifier circuit. For a 10 μW response, the measurement repeatability of the 8-combined op-amps is about 1.4%, which is better than the 3.3% of a single op-amp. For 1 μW laser, the measurement result of voltage response of the 8-combined op-amps can be precisely quantified; however, the result of the single op-amp is hardly distinguished. The presented technique based on multiple op-amps is practical and can be potential in many applications. We hope this technique could offer help for expanding the measurement ranges of thermopile optical detectors at weaker optical power and irradiance.

Polarized superlocalization in magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia

Magnetic hyperthermia is an adjuvant therapy for cancer where injected magnetic nanoparticles are used to transfer energy from the time-dependent applied magnetic field into the surrounding medium. Its main importance is to be able to increase the temperature of the human body locally. This localization can be further increased by using a combination of static and alternating external magnetic fields. For example, if the static field is inhomogeneous and the alternating field is oscillating then the energy transfer and consequently, the heat generation is non-vanishing only where the gradient field is zero, which results in superlocalization. Our goal here is to study theoretically and experimentally whether the perpendicular or parallel combination of static and oscillating fields produce a better superlocalization. A considerable polarization effect in superlocalization for small frequencies and large field strengths is found, which is of great importance for practical applications.

In asthma positive phase III slopes can result from structural heterogeneity of the bronchial tree.

We have previously identified bronchial generations 5-7 as the locus of maximum contribution to the convective portion of the phase III slope in computed tomography (CT)-based lung models of patients with asthma. In the present study, we examined how phase III slope is generated locally, by specifically interrogating at individual branch points, the necessary condition for a phase III slope to occur: some degree of convective flow sequencing between any two daughter branches that have a heterogeneity in gas washout concentration between them. Flow sequencing at individual branch points showed a wide range of values, including branch points where flow sequencing was such that phase III slopes were negative locally. Yet, the net effect in the 24 bronchial trees that we studied was that flow sequencing between pairs of less and better ventilated units most frequently drove positive phase III slopes in generations 5-7. By investigating the link of local flow sequencing between any two daughter branches to the corresponding heterogeneity of mechanical lung properties, heterogeneity of compliance was seen to be a major determinant of flow sequencing. In these bronchial structures, compliance heterogeneity was essentially brought about by volume asymmetry resulting from terminating pathways within the three-dimensional (3-D) confines of the lung contours. We conclude that the serial and parallel combination of lung mechanical properties at individual branch points in an asymmetrical branching network generates flow sequencing in mid-range conductive airways, leading to a positive at-mouth phase III slope.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Conceptually, the simplest way to obtain a sloping phase III during a washout exhalation is when there is convective flow sequencing between two lung units, such that the better ventilated unit contributes relatively more to exhaled flow at the beginning of phase III in the exhalation. Here, we show how compliance heterogeneity across the serial and parallel arrangement of branch points in bronchial trees of patients with asthma leads to flow sequencing, and thus phase III slopes of positive sign at the patient's mouth.

Edge tokamak transport in regimes with high collisionality

AbstractIn the strongly detached regimes, especially in future tokamak reactors, plasma in the divertor and in some special regions like vicinity of highly radiating X‐point is strongly collisional. Ion gyrofrequency becomes less than Coulomb collision frequency and might be of the order of ion‐neutral collision frequency. For such parameters, parallel and perpendicular ion diffusion and mobility caused by ion‐neutral collision becomes important and can to large extent determine density profiles and currents distribution in the divertor. In the present article, plasma profiles in the vicinity of divertor plates were analysed. It is demonstrated that density profiles are determined by combination of parallel and perpendicular ambipolar diffusion. Results of analytic calculations are compared with Particle‐In‐Cell Monte‐Carlo Collisions (PIC MCC) simulations of magnetized plasma and collisional transport of magnetized ions from quasi‐neutral region to the material surface. Analytic expressions are compared with the results of particle in cell simulations done for different angles between magnetic field and material surface and different plasma parameters. Impact of velocity of neutral particles on ion fluxes and currents is also investigated. Consequences for divertor plasma typical for ITER and other future tokamak‐reactors are discussed.

Safe Motion Planning and Learning for Unmanned Aerial Systems

To control unmanned aerial systems, we rarely have a perfect system model. Safe and aggressive planning is also challenging for nonlinear and under-actuated systems. Expert pilots, however, demonstrate maneuvers that are deemed at the edge of plane envelope. Inspired by biological systems, in this paper, we introduce a framework that leverages methods in the field of control theory and reinforcement learning to generate feasible, possibly aggressive, trajectories. For the control policies, Dynamic Movement Primitives (DMPs) imitate pilot-induced primitives, and DMPs are combined in parallel to generate trajectories to reach original or different goal points. The stability properties of DMPs and their overall systems are analyzed using contraction theory. For reinforcement learning, Policy Improvement with Path Integrals (PI2) was used for the maneuvers. The results in this paper show that PI2 updated policies are a feasible and parallel combination of different updated primitives transfer the learning in the contraction regions. Our proposed methodology can be used to imitate, reshape, and improve feasible, possibly aggressive, maneuvers. In addition, we can exploit trajectories generated by optimization methods, such as Model Predictive Control (MPC), and a library of maneuvers can be instantly generated. For application, 3-DOF (degrees of freedom) Helicopter and 2D-UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) models are utilized to demonstrate the main results.

Performance based design of a new hybrid passive energy dissipation device for vibration control of reinforced concrete frames subjected to broad-ranging earthquake ground excitations

This paper evaluates a new hybrid passive device that comprises two different passive energy dissipation categories, namely, viscoelastic damper and friction damper. The device operates as a synergic unit using a novel locking mechanism. The hybrid passive device offsets the drawbacks of individual devices and facilitates improving the performance of structures for multiple excitation vibration levels due to wind and seismic events. Both devices are connected in a parallel combination using locking mechanisms and exhibit distinct hysteretic characteristics under small and significant deformation. The viscoelastic damper alone will be activated for extreme winds and minor to moderate earthquakes, and both devices will work simultaneously for strong earthquakes. Considering the advantages of such a new device, this article presents a new seismic design method structures equipped with a hybrid passive dampers device using the energy-balance concept. The method accounts for the structural member's inelastic behaviour, phase transformation of the stiffness and the energy dissipation capacity of the energy devices to achieve the intended performance level under the design earthquake hazard. The proposed method has been applied on a six- and a twelve-storied reinforced concrete building. The seismic performance is verified through nonlinear time history analysis using a set of near and far-field ground motions. Numerical results are investigated in terms of the inter-story drifts, the residual drifts, the floor acceleration and the yield mechanisms. The structure's performance corresponds well with the target performance levels.

Principle component analysis-based optimized feature extraction merged with nonlinear regression model for improved state-of-health prediction

The state-of-health (SOH) estimation and prediction is critical for battery energy storage systems (BESS) to detect poor battery performance. The BESS consists of a high-energy battery pack with series and parallel connections. Unlike unit cells, battery packs with series and parallel combinations must account for cell-to-cell imbalance. The cell-to-cell imbalance indicates deviations in voltage, state-of-charge (SOC), and temperature. A serious imbalance in battery packs can hamper their capacity, power, and efficiency. However, conventional methods of SOH estimation and prediction only consider one or two degradation features. To improve the SOH prediction performance of a battery pack, more features than those used for a unit cell must be considered. In this study, an optimal regression model is used to propose a feature extraction method for reflecting new degradation features. Feature extraction based on principal component analysis takes into account various degradation features. The proposed method can highlight various BESS degradation features and improve SOH prediction performance through combination of the principal component analysis and optimal regression model.