Development of Bluewave: A Wireless Protocol for Industrial Automation

There is a growing trend in developing the wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communication for factory automation. Currently, most wireless protocols for infrastructureless mobile ad-hoc networks focus on the mobility issue and are mainly suitable for narrowband radio devices. The mechanisms for route update and discovery that work well for wireless mobile ad-hoc networks prove to be redundant and instead add to processing overheads in a static wireless factory setting. This paper presents the development and implementation of a new wireless routing protocol, Bluewave, that caters specifically to wireless communication between machines in a factory setting. Bluewave utilizes features of Bluetooth technology when performing the route setup. The merits of the proposed protocol, in terms of shorter initialization time and route setup time, are duly discussed. A case study illustrating the application of Bluewave to an online condition-based maintenance scenario is presented. Experimental results obtained are furnished to show the viability of Bluewave in industrial automation     

Direct Growth of Germanene at Interfaces between Van der Waals Materials and Ag(111)

Germanene, a 2D honeycomb germanium crystal, is grown at graphene/Ag(111) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)/Ag(111) interfaces by segregating germanium atoms. A simple annealing process in N₂ or H₂/Ar at ambient pressure leads to the formation of germanene, indicating that an ultrahigh-vacuum condition is not necessary. The grown germanene is stable in air and uniform over the entire area covered with a van der Waals (vdW) material. As an important finding, it is necessary to use a vdW material as a cap layer for the present germanene growth method since the use of an Al₂O₃ cap layer results in no germanene formation. The present study also proves that Raman spectroscopy in air is a powerful tool for characterizing germanene at the interfaces, which is concluded by multiple analyses including first-principles density functional theory calculations. The direct growth of h-BN-capped germanene on Ag(111), which is demonstrated in the present study, is considered to be a promising technique for the fabrication of future germanene-based electronic devices.     

An Extensible Code for Correcting Multiple Cell Upset in Memory Arrays

As the microelectronics technology continuously advances to deep submicron scales, the occurrence of Multiple Cell Upset (MCU) induced by radiation in memory devices becomes more likely to happen. The implementation of a robust Error Correction Code (ECC) is a suitable solution. However, the more complex an ECC, the more delay, area usage and energy consumption. An ECC with an appropriate balance between error coverage and computational cost is essential for applications where fault tolerance is heavily needed, and the energy resources are scarce. This paper describes the conception, implementation, and evaluation of Column-Line-Code (CLC), a novel algorithm for the detection and correction of MCU in memory devices, which combines extended Hamming code and parity bits. Besides, this paper evaluates the variation of the 2D CLC schemes and proposes an additional operation to correct more MCU patterns called extended mode. We compared the implementation cost, reliability level, detection/correction rate and the mean time to failure among the CLC versions and other correction codes, proving the CLCs have high MCU correction efficacy with reduced area, power and delay costs.     

Oscillation of the scattering time in a 2D electron system with oval antidots

Electron scattering by a single barrier is predicted to reveal singularities as the magnetic field is changed, because the number of electron collisions with the barrier dramatically increases as chaotic orbits around the barrier are changed into periodic orbits. To test this experimentally we have measured the magnetoresistance of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with a two-dimensional electron gas and a lateral lattice containing a macroscopic number of oval-shaped antidots fabricated using electron lithography. Reproducible fluctuations in the magnetoresistance are observed at low field, which are due to the oscillations of the number of electron collisions with the antidots. The number of collisions N before the electron escapes from the antidot has been calculated as a function of B in an electric field. The position of the maxima in N(B) obtained from calculations and experiment are in reasonable agreement.     

Interregional and interannual variability of ethanol site-specific deuterium content in Italian wines

The site-specific natural isotope fractionationnuclear magnetic resonance (SNIF-NMR)²H analysis is at present the reference method for determining the origin of ethanol and has been successfully applied for analysing all grape products. The method has also been used to identify the origin of wines and the aim of this study was to verify this application. In all, 3309 samples belonging to the Italian wines data bank were analysed from all 20 Italian regions to study the possibilities of determining and controlling the exact origin and year of the product. The dependency of the deuterium/hydrogen ratio of the methyl site (D/H_I) with latitude was confirmed but this was not the case for the D/H ratio of the methylene site (D/H_II) and the parameter R [2(D/H_II)/(D/H_I)] did not add any additional information. The frequency distribution of the NMR parameters follows a regular North-South gradient but they are not sufficiently different in each region to allow unique characterisation. The lack of effectiveness of the method, when applied to identification, depends on interannual and interregional variability. As a consequence, all but some very different regions overlap. The SNIF-NMR method is particularly suitable for detecting simple adulterations but, in the Italian situation, seems not to be so useful for solving problems of geographical origin. For this, it could be helpful to use other isotopic parameters and to ameliorate the sampling technique, to improve the effectiveness of the method.

---

Regionale und jährliche Variabilität des Ethanolgebundenen Deuteriumgehaltes italienischer Weine

Zusammenfassung Die SNIF-NMR²H-Analytik wird derzeit als Referenzmethode zur Bestimmung der Herkunft des Ethanols bei Produkten aus Weintrauben erfolgreich angewandt. Die Methode wird auch zur Ermittlung der geographischen Herkunft von Wein eingesetzt. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, die Brauchbarkeit dieser Analysenmethode zur Bestimmung des geographischen Ursprungs italienischer Weine zu überprüfen. Dazu wurden Analysenergebnisse von 3309 Weinen aus allen 20 Weinbaugebieten Italiens im Rahmen einer Datenbank des D/H-Verhältnisses gesammelt. Während für die D/H_I-Werte eine deutliche Abhängigkeit von der geographischen Breite bestätigt werden konnte, zeigten die D/H_II-Werte keinen derartigen Zusammenhang. Auch der Parameter R erbrachte keine weiteren Informationen. Die Häufigkeits-Verteilung der NMR-Werte folgt deutlich einem Nord-Süd-Gradienten, aber sie sind nicht in jeder Region so unterschiedlich, daß eine signifikante Differenzierung möglich ist. Dies resultiert aus den jahrgangs- und gebietsabhängigen Schwankungen. Die SNIF-NMR Methode ist zur Aufklärung bestimmter Verfälschungen (Zuckerzusatz) gut geeignet, bei italienischen Weinen ist jedoch mit dieser Methode das Problem der Bestimmung der geographischen Herkunft nicht lösbar. Durch Messung weiterer stabiler Isotopen sowie durch eine Verbesserung der Probennahme kann eine Erhöhung der Effizienz zum Nachweis der geographischen Herkunft erzielt werden.

     

Handover management in integrated WLAN and mobile WiMAX networks [recent advances and evolution of WLAN and WMAN standards]

Recently there has been much effort, in both academia and industry, to integrate a plethora of wireless technologies in order to provide ubiquitous broadband access to mobile users. Handover management is still one of the most challenging issues to be solved for seamless integration of wireless networks. This article addresses the integration of IEEE 802.11 WLANs and IEEE 802.16 WMANs, focusing mainly on the handover management aspects. First, we describe architectures, futuristic application scenarios such as the envisioned heterogeneous multihop wireless networks (HMWNs) and moving networks, as well as the related research issues. Second, we present IEEE 802.21, a new emerging standard aimed at providing a framework for media-independent handover (MIH) among heterogeneous networks. Finally, we discuss how the MIH framework can help handover management for the integrated network.     

Thermodiffusion‐Assisted Pyroelectrics—Enabling Rapid and Stable Heat and Radiation Sensing

Sensors for monitoring temperature, heat flux, and thermal radiation are essential for applications such as electronic skin. While pyroelectric and thermoelectric effects are suitable candidates as functional elements in such devices, both concepts show individual drawbacks in terms of zero equilibrium signals for pyroelectric materials and small or slow response of thermoelectric materials. Here, these drawbacks are overcome by introducing the concept of thermodiffusion‐assisted pyroelectrics, which combines and enhances the performance of pyroelectric and ionic thermoelectric materials. The presented integrated concept provides both rapid initial response upon heating and stable synergistically enhanced signals upon prolonged exposure to heat stimuli. Likewise, incorporation of plasmonic metasurfaces enables the concept to provide both rapid and stable signals for radiation‐induced heating. The performance of the concept and its working mechanism can be explained by ion–electron interactions at the interface between the pyroelectric and ionic thermoelectric materials.     

Thermal-lens and photo-acoustic methods for the determination of SiC thermal properties

In this paper we report the use of photothermal techniques such as Thermal lens (TL) spectrometry, Photoacoustic and heat capacity, ρc_p, to determine the thermo-optical parameters, such as thermal conductivity (K), thermal diffusivity (D), specific heat (c_p) and the optical path dependence with temperature (ds/dT), of an undoped polycrystalline 3C-SiC. To our knowledge, this is the first time that Thermal lens technique is used for wide band-gap systems. Results obtained for the polycrystalline sample with TL technique indicates that ds/dT is negative at room temperature. Moreover, the obtained values of thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity are in good agreement with that found in the literature, indicating that the phototermal techniques can be used to obtain the referred parameters in circumstances where other techniques cannot be used, for example, in harsh environments.     

A visible-light and infrared video database for performance evaluation of video/image fusion methods

Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing - In general, the fusion of visible-light and infrared images produces a composite representation where both data are pictured in a single image. The...     

Dynamical diseases of brain systems: different routes to epileptic seizures

In this overview, we consider epilepsies as dynamical diseases of brain systems since they are manifestations of the property of neuronal networks to display multistable dynamics. To illustrate this concept we may assume that at least two states of the epileptic brain are possible: the interictal state characterized by a normal, apparently random, steady-state electroencephalography (EEG) ongoing activity, and the ictal state, that is characterized by paroxysmal occurrence of synchronous oscillations and is generally called, in neurology, a seizure. The transition between these two states can either occur: 1) as a continuous sequence of phases, like in some cases of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE); or 2) as a sudden leap, like in most cases of absence seizures. In the mathematical terminology of nonlinear systems, we can say that in the first case the system's attractor gradually deforms from an interictal to an ictal attractor. The causes for such a deformation can be either endogenous or external. In this type of ictal transition, the seizure possibly may be anticipated in its early, preclinical phases. In the second case, where a sharp critical transition takes place, we can assume that the system has at least two simultaneous interictal and ictal attractors all the time. To which attractor the trajectories converge, depends on the initial conditions and the system's parameters. An essential question in this scenario is how the transition between the normal ongoing and the seizure activity takes place. Such a transition can occur either due to the influence of external or endogenous factors or due to a random perturbation and, thus, it will be unpredictable. These dynamical changes may not be detectable from the analysis of the ongoing EEG, but they may be observable only by measuring the system's response to externally administered stimuli. In the special cases of reflex epilepsy, the leap between the normal ongoing attractor and the ictal attractor is caused by a well-defined external perturbation. Examples from these different scenarios are presented and discussed.