A study on the improvement of the cam phase control performance of an electric continuous variable valve timing system using a cycloid reducer and BLDC motor

This paper discusses the control performance improvement for an electric-continuous variable valve timing (E-CVVT) system using a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor and cycloid reducer. Each component of the E-CVVT system was implemented with mathematical analysis, and the response performance of the E-CVVT system was determined based on the mathematical model of the cam shaft motion, cam profile, cycloid reducer, BLDC motor, and controller. To control the intake valve timing of the engine, a cycloid speed reducer with a high reduction ratio capable of amplifying the output torque of a small BLDC motor was implemented. The change in valve speed due to the rotation of the cam shaft was represented by the curves described by the vertical movement of the valve using the cam profile. A control performance test apparatus was constructed and the torque of the intake cam shaft was measured and applied to the analysis so that the phase of the cam shaft could be changed using the E-CVVT system. To analyze the operating characteristics of the E-CVVT system, the BLDC motors were modeled using Simulink. The E-CVVT system controls the phase angle of the intake cam shaft. When the E-CVVT system sets the target phase angle, the motor controller generates the optimal motor speed command. The intake cam phase response speed depends on the setting of each PID parameter that changes the phase of the cam shaft. Through analysis and vehicle-based experiments, we confirmed the improvement of the E-CVVT system response performance according to the change of the PID parameter.

     

Direct transmission detection of tunable mechanical resonance in an individual carbon nanofiber relay

A direct on-chip transmission measurement of the resonance frequency of an individual singly clamped carbon nanofiber relay is reported. The experimental results are in good agreement with a small signal model and show the expected tuning of the resonance frequency with changing bias voltage.     

Ultrafast Electrochemical Synthesis of Defect-Free In2Se3 Flakes for Large-Area Optoelectronics

Because of its thickness-dependent direct bandgap and exceptional optoelectronic properties, indium(III) selenide (In₂Se₃) has emerged as an important semiconductor for electronics and optoelectronics. However, the scalable synthesis of defect-free In₂Se₃ flakes remains a significant barrier for its practical applications. Here, a facile electrochemical strategy is presented for the ultrafast delamination of bulk layered In₂Se₃ crystals in nonaqueous media, resulting in high-yield (83%) production of defect-free In₂Se₃ flakes with large lateral size (up to 26 µm). The intercalation of tetrahexylammonium (THA⁺) ions mainly creates stage-3 intercalated compounds in which every three layers of In₂Se₃ are occupied by one layer of THA molecules. The subsequent exfoliation leads to a majority of trilayer In₂Se₃ nanosheets. As a proof of concept, solution-processed, large-area (400 µm × 20 µm) thin-film photodetectors embedded with the exfoliated In₂Se₃ flakes reveal ultrafast response time with a rise and decay of 41 and 39 ms, respectively, and efficient responsivity (1 mA W⁻¹). Such performance surpasses most of the state-of-the-art thin-film photodetectors based on transition metal dichalcogenides.     

Embedded bandwidth scalable wideband codec using hybrid matching pursuit harmonic/CELP scheme

Recent advances in speech coding have made wideband coding feasible at the bit-rates sufficient for mobile communication. Here we propose a novel hybrid harmocic Code Excited Linear Prediction (CELP) scheme for highband coding of band-split scalable wideband codec, where the low-band (0–4?kHz) is critically subsampled and coded selectively using existing narrowband codecs such as 5.4 kbps and 6.3 kbps G.723.1, 8 kbps G.729, and 11.8 kbps G.729E. The high-band signal is divided into stationary mode (SM) and non-stationary mode (NSM) components based on its unique characteristics. In the SM portion, the high-band signal is compressed using a multi-stage coding that combines the sinusoidal model and CELP. The first stage coding applies the damping factor matching pursuit (MP) algorithm without either the Over-Lap-Add (OLA) or smoothly interpolative synthesis schemes and the second stage utilizes CELP with the circular codebook. In the NSM portion, the high-band signals are coded by CELP with both pulse and circular codebooks by applying the complexity-reduced algorithm. To ensure scalability in highband coding, two enhancement layers are used to increase the number of pulses and control the quantizing sinusoidal parameter numbers. This paper describes the new algorithm and discuses novel techniques for efficient bandwidth wideband speech coding and subjective quality performance. For efficient bit allocation and enhanced performance, the pitch of the high-band codec is estimated using the quantized pitch parameter in low-band codec. An informal listening test, rated the subjective speech quality as comparable to that obtainable with G.722.2 as the fullband wideband codec and G.722.2 as the highband codec, the recent standardized band-split wideband codec.     

Sol-gel derived nanoporous compositions for entrapping small molecules and their outlook toward aptamer screening

This paper reports for the first time the application of sol-gel microarrays for immobilizing nonsoluble small chemicals (Bisphenol-A; BPA). Also, known problems of sol-gel adhesion to conventional microtiter well plate substrates are circumvented by anchoring the sol-gel microspots to a porous silion surface so-called, PS-SG chips. We confirmed low molecular weight chemical immobilization inside a sol-gel network using fluorescein. BPA and the BPA specific aptamer were utilized as a model pair to verify the affinity specific interaction in the PS-SG selection system. The aptamer interacted specifically with BPA in the sol-gel spots, as shown in microarrays forming the letters "L", "U", "N", and "D". Moreover, the bound aptamer was released by heat, recovered, and verified by gel electrophoresis. The developed PS-SG chip platform will be used for screening aptamers against numerous small molecules such as toxins, metabolites, or pesticide residues.     

SOx Monitoring and Neural Net Classification in the Power Plant

In this paper, we propose a prediction method of the pollutant and a synchronous classification of the current state of SOx emission in the power plant. We use the autoregressive with exogeneous (ARX) model as a predictor of SOx emission and use the neural network (NN) as a pattern classifier. The ARX modeling scheme is implemented using the recursive least-squares method to update the model parameters adaptively. The capability of SOx emission monitoring is utilized with the application of the NN classifier, where genetic algorithms are used to decide the structure such as the number of hidden nodes of a NN classifier. Experimental results show that the ARX model can predict the SOx emission concentration well and the ARX modeling parameters can be a good feature for the state monitoring. In addition, its validity has been verified through the power spectrum analysis. Consequently, the NN classifier in combination with the ARX model is quite adequate for monitoring the state of SOx emission.     

Thiophene‐Bridged Donor–Acceptor sp2‐Carbon‐Linked 2D Conjugated Polymers as Photocathodes for Water Reduction

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water reduction, converting solar energy into environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel, requires delicate design and synthesis of semiconductors with appropriate bandgaps, suitable energy levels of the frontier orbitals, and high intrinsic charge mobility. In this work, the synthesis of a novel bithiophene‐bridged donor–acceptor‐based 2D sp²‐carbon‐linked conjugated polymer (2D CCP) is demonstrated. The Knoevenagel polymerization between the electron‐accepting building block 2,3,8,9,14,15‐hexa(4‐formylphenyl) diquinoxalino[2,3‐a:2′,3′‐c]phenazine (HATN‐6CHO) and the first electron‐donating linker 2,2′‐([2,2′‐bithiophene]‐5,5′‐diyl)diacetonitrile (ThDAN) provides the 2D CCP‐HATNThDAN (2D CCP‐Th). Compared with the corresponding biphenyl‐bridged 2D CCP‐HATN‐BDAN (2D CCP‐BD), the bithiophene‐based 2D CCP‐Th exhibits a wide light‐harvesting range (up to 674 nm), a optical energy gap (2.04 eV), and highest energy occupied molecular orbital–lowest unoccupied molecular orbital distributions for facilitated charge transfer, which make 2D CCP‐Th a promising candidate for PEC water reduction. As a result, 2D CCP‐Th presents a superb H₂‐evolution photocurrent density up to ≈7.9 µA cm^?2 at 0 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, which is superior to the reported 2D covalent organic frameworks and most carbon nitride materials (0.09–6.0 µA cm^?2). Density functional theory calculations identify the thiophene units and cyano substituents at the vinylene linkage as active sites for the evolution of H₂.