Formalising the Fisherman's Folly puzzle

This paper investigates the challenging problem of encoding the common sense knowledge involved in the manipulation of spatial objects from a reasoning about actions and change perspective. In particular, we propose a formal solution to a puzzle composed of non-trivial objects (such as holes and strings) assuming a version of the Situation Calculus written over first-order Equilibrium Logic, whose models generalise the stable model semantics.     

Electrical Conductivity Measurement Through the Loaded Q Factor of a Resonant Cavity

We present a method for measuring the electrical conductivity of metallic materials that relies on the ratio of two loaded Q factors, Q_R/Q_X, with Q_R corresponding to a TE₀₁₁-mode reference cavity made of aluminum, and Q_X the Q that results upon replacing the aluminum plate with the one fabricated from the material to be examined. Electrical conductivity is mathematically inferred from the ratio Q_R/Q_X where the loaded Q factors are measured by using the transmission-type method. Within a 3.0 percent accuracy, conductivities determined at 8.7 GHz for electrolytic copper (5.6 times 10⁷ S/m) and brass (1.6 times 10⁷ S/m) show to be in good agreement with those reported in the literature.     

Editorial: Security and Privacy in Internet of Things

Mobile Networks and Applications -     

Gyroid‐Structured 3D ZnO Networks Made by Atomic Layer Deposition

3D continuous ZnO morphologies with characteristic feature sizes on the 10 nm length scale are attractive for electronic device manufacture. However, their synthesis remains a challenge because of the low crystallization temperature of ZnO. Here, we report a method for the robust and reliable synthesis of fully crystalline 3D mesoporous ZnO networks by means of atomic layer deposition (ALD) of ZnO into a self‐assembled block copolymer template. By carefully optimizing the processing conditions we are able to synthesize several‐micrometer‐thick layers of mesoporous ZnO networks with a strut width of 30 nm. Two 3D mesoporous morphologies are manufactured: a periodic gyroid structure and a random worm‐like morphology. Exploiting the ALD property to conformally coat complex surfaces of high aspect ratio, the channel network of a 3D continuous channel network of a self‐assembled block copolymer is replicated into ZnO. X‐ray photoemission spectroscopy and x‐ray diffraction measurements reveal that the chemical composition of the mesoporous structures is uniform and consists of wurtzite‐ZnO throughout the film. Scanning electron microscopy reveals an average pore dimension of 30 nm. The potential of this material for a hybrid photovoltaic application is demonstrated by the manufacture of a poly(3‐hexylthiophene)/ZnO solar cell.     

Avoiding trap states in poly(n-vinylcarbazole) thin films

Optical properties of poly(n-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) thin films are revisited. Steady-state emission spectra put in evidence a strong red band whose intensity increases with decreasing temperature when the solid state PVK film is excited by a continuous 375 nm laser line. This red band is assigned to the emission from PVK aggregate states which act as trap states for the monomeric PVK triplet high energy (blue) excitons. At the same low temperatures, these trap states can be avoided when the excitation of the PVK film is made by a 355 nm pulsed laser line with 10 Hz repetition rate. The red band was also observed to compete with the emission of guest poly(3-octadecylthiophene) (PODT) molecules in a PVK/PODT sequential bilayer structure. Different optical geometries enabled us to show that the exciton energy transfer effect from PVK donor to PODT acceptor states dominates the scenario in the bilayer structure, suppressing almost completely the trap state emissions.     

Experimental Study of a Ka-Band Cylindrical Open Resonator

A study of the electrodynamical properties of a Ka-band gyrotron open resonator was experimentally conducted. Experiments were accomplished to measure resonant frequencies and their respective loaded quality factors for TE modes in the frequency range from 26 to 40 GHz. In particular, a perturbation technique was used to determine the axial, radial and azimuthal electric field profiles, as an identification method of the TE₀₂₁ mode operating around 35 GHz. In any experimental event, good agreement with the values predicted by theory was found.     

Energy Management Fuzzy Logic Supervisory for Electric Vehicle Power Supplies System

This paper introduces an energy management strategy based on fuzzy logic supervisory for road electric vehicle, combining a fuel cell power source and two energy storage devices, i.e., batteries and ultracapacitors. The control strategy is designed to achieve the high-efficiency operation region of the individual power source and to regulate current and voltage at peak and average power demand, without compromising the performance and efficiency of the overall system. A multiple-input power electronic converter makes the interface among generator, energy storage devices, and the voltage dc-link bus. Classical regulators implement the control loops of each input of the converter. The supervisory system coordinates the power flows among the power sources and the load. The paper is mainly focused on the fuzzy logic supervisory for energy management of a specific power electronic converter control algorithm. Nevertheless, the proposed system can be easily adapted to other converters arrangements or to distributed generation applications. Simulation and experimental results on a 3-kW prototype prove that the fuzzy logic is a suitable energy management control strategy.     

A Simplified Internet Routing Architecture

This paper studies the effect of disaggregation on the size of the routing table in the Internet’s Default Free Zone (DFZ). Current practises for traffic balancing and protection against prefix hijacking in the Internet are based in disaggregating prefixes that cause an increase in size of the Internet’s core routing table. I propose an algorithm to assess their effect on the table size of these techniques. This algorithm is applied on routing tables collected by the RIPE’s Routing Repository between January 2001 and February 2011. The results show that before 2010, the IPv4 addressing space was gradually getting more fragmented. This trend is slowing down since the beginning of 2010, possibly as the result of the economic downturn. In the second part of this paper, I propose an alternative architecture that allows local Traffic Engineering configurations but keeps their effects from spreading over the Internet and outline an implementation for this architecture on a Linux platform.     

Lethal effect of electric fields on isolated ventricular myocytes

Defibrillator-type shocks may cause electric and contractile dysfunction. In this study, we determined the relationship between probability of lethal injury and electric field intensity ($E$ ) in isolated rat ventricular myocytes, with emphasis on field orientation and stimulus waveform. This relationship was sigmoidal with irreversible injury for $E ≫ hbox{50 V/cm}$ . During both threshold and lethal stimulation, cells were twofold more sensitive to the field when it was applied longitudinally (versus transversally) to the cell major axis. For a given $E$, the estimated maximum variation of transmembrane potential ( $Delta V_{max }$) was greater for longitudinal stimuli, which might account for the greater sensitivity to the field. Cell death, however, occurred at lower maximum $Delta V_{max }$ values for transversal shocks. This might be explained by a less steep spatial decay of transmembrane potential predicted for transversal stimulation, which would possibly result in occurrence of electroporation in a larger membrane area. For the same stimulus duration, cells were less sensitive to field-induced injury when shocks were biphasic (versus monophasic). Ours results indicate that, although significant myocyte death may occur in the $E$ range expected during clinical defibrillation, biphasic shocks are less likely to produce irreversible cell injury.      

Pruning the Volterra Series for Behavioral Modeling of Power Amplifiers Using Physical Knowledge

This paper presents an efficient and effective approach to pruning the Volterra series for behavioral modeling of RF and microwave power amplifiers. Rather than adopting a pure "black-box" approach, this model pruning technique is derived from a physically meaningful block model, which has a clear linkage to the underlying physical behavior of the device. This allows all essential physical properties of the PA to be retained, but significantly reduces model complexity by removing unnecessary coefficients from the general Volterra series. A reduced-order model of this kind can be easily extracted from standard time/frequency-domain measurements or simulations, and may be simply implemented in system-level simulators. A complete physical analysis and a systematic derivation are presented, together with both computer simulations and experimental validations