High-voltage portable pulsed power supply fed by low voltage source

This article proposes a new structure of voltage multiplier for portable pulsed power applications. In this configuration, which is based on capacitor-diode voltage multiplier, the capacitors are charged by low AC input voltage and discharge through the load in series during pulse generation mode. The proposed topology is achieved by integrating of solid-state switches with conventional voltage multiplier, which can increase the low input voltage step by step and generate high-voltage high-frequency pulsed power across the load. After some discussion, simulations and experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed topology.     

Morphological,Electrical, and Chemical Changes in Cyclically Contacting Polycrystalline Silicon Surfaces Coated with Perfluoroalkylsilane Self-Assembled Monolayer

The evolution of morphology, electrical properties, and chemical composition has been studied in cyclically contacting polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) surfaces coated with perfluoroalkylsilane self-assembled monolayer (SAM). The microinstrument used is a MEMS cantilever that is repeatedly actuated out-of-plane to impact a landing pad and is then moved in-plane to enable nondestructive in situ inspection of the impacted area. Analyses show that a device with a monolayer coating exhibits signs of surface degradation after a much higher number of cycles than its uncoated counterpart. A sharp increase in contact resistance between the cantilever and landing pad is observed at ~10 billion cycles for a coated device, versus ~25 million cycles for an uncoated device. Likewise, the onset of grain fracture in the landing pad occurs at ~25 billion cycles for the SAM-coated device, versus ~3 billion cycles for its uncoated counterpart. The effectiveness of the monolayer coating diminishes after more than 100 billion contact cycles as the SAM layer is removed, and the polysilicon substrate becomes susceptible to adhesive wear.     

Real-time face detection and lip feature extraction using field-programmable gate arrays.

This paper proposes a new technique for face detection and lip feature extraction. A real-time field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation of the two proposed techniques is also presented. Face detection is based on a naive Bayes classifier that classifies an edge-extracted representation of an image. Using edge representation significantly reduces the model's size to only 5184 B, which is 2417 times smaller than a comparable statistical modeling technique, while achieving an 86.6% correct detection rate under various lighting conditions. Lip feature extraction uses the contrast around the lip contour to extract the height and width of the mouth, metrics that are useful for speech filtering. The proposed FPGA system occupies only 15050 logic cells, or about six times less than a current comparable FPGA face detection system.     

An epidemic of scurvy in Afghanistan: assessment and response

In March 2002, there were reports of a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in western Afghanistan. It was later confirmed that the hemorrhagic symptoms and increased mortality were actually due to scurvy. Most aid workers did not include scurvy in the initial differential diagnosis because it is uncommon throughout the world and has mainly been reported in refugee populations in recent times. A rapid assessment confirmed the cases clinically, estimated a prevalence rate of 6.3% (a severe public health problem), and determined that the attack rates peaked each year in January and February (the end of the winter). Many Afghans have limited dietary diversity due to isolated locations, lengthy winters, the continuing drought of the last four years, asset depletion, and loss of livelihood. After numerous food and fortification options to prevent future outbreaks had been considered, vitamin C tablet supplementation was selected because of the relatively rapid response time as compared with other prevention methods. A three-month course of vitamin C tablets was distributed to 827 villages in at-risk areas. The tablets were acceptable and compliance was good. No cases of scurvy were reported for the winter of 2002-03. The case study from Afghanistan demonstrates that scurvy can occur in nonrefugee or nondisplaced populations; vitamin C supplementation can be an effective prevention strategy; there is an urgent need to develop field-friendly techniques to diagnose micronutrient-deficiency diseases; food-security tools should be used to assess and predict risks of nutritional deficiencies; and the humanitarian community should address prevention of scurvy in outbreak-prone areas.     

Comparison of deposition models for a TEOS LPCVD process

We present a comparison of models describing the pyrolytic deposition of SiO₂ with a low pressure chemical vapor deposition process. In order to meet industrial simulation requirements, e.g. accuracy and fast delivery of results, we present an overview of established and new models, their use within TCAD applications, and their best results which have been obtained by calibrations according to SEM measurements.     

Robust stochastic moment control via genetic-pole placement in communication network parameter setting

In this paper, the problems of stochastic robust approximate covariance assignment and robust covariance feedback stabilization, which are applied to variable parameters of additive increase/multiplicative decrease (AIMD) networks, are considered. The main idea of the developed algorithm is to use the parameter settings of an AIMD network congestion control scheme, where parameters may assign the desired network’s window covariance, with respect to the current network conditions. The aim is to search for the optimal AIMD parameters of a feedback gain matrix such that the objective functions defined via appropriate robustness measures and covariance assignment constraints can be optimized using an adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA). It is shown that the results can be used to develop tools for analyzing the behavior of AIMD communication networks. Quality of service (QoS) and other performance measures of the network have been improved by using the proposed congestion control. The accuracy of the controller is demonstrated by using MATLAB and NS software programs.     

Developing economic order quantity model for non-instantaneous deteriorating items in vendor-managed inventory (VMI) system

This paper develops an economic order quantity model for non-instantaneous deteriorating items with and without shortages to investigate the performance of the vendor-managed inventory (VMI) system. This model is developed for a two-level supply chain consisting of a single supplier and single retailer with a single non-instantaneous deteriorating item. A numerical example and sensitivity analysis are provided to illustrate how increasing or reducing the related parameters change the optimal values of the decision variables of the two proposed models. The results show that VMI works better and charges lower cost in all conditions.     

An alternative measure of the ICT-Opportunity Index

We developed an alternative approach for measuring information and communication technology (ICT), applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) using data from the International Telecommunications Union as a sample of 183 economies. We compared the ICT-Opportunity Index (ICT-OI) with our DEA-Opportunity Index (DEA-OI) and found a high correlation between the two. Our findings suggest that both indices are consistent in their measurement of digital opportunity, though differences still exist in different regions. Our new DEA-OI offers much more than the ICT-OI. Using our model, the target and peer groups for each country can be identified.     

Dendritic macromolecules containing several types of functional groups

Dendritic macromolecules containing several types of functional groups were successfully synthesized through divergent method. Poly(ethylene glycol) was functionalized using cyanuric chloride and it was reacted with p‐toluidine at room temperature and a macromolecule containing chloride and methyl functional groups (PEG‐Cl₂‐Me₂) was obtained. Substitution of chloride functional groups of PEG‐Cl₂‐Me₂ by hydroxyl functional groups led to a macromolecule containing methyl and hydroxyl functional groups (PEG‐Me₂‐OH₄). Hydroxyl functional groups of PEG‐Me₂‐OH₄ were reacted with cyanuric chloride and PEG‐Me₂‐Cl₈ was obtained. Finally, PEG‐Me₂‐Cl₈ was reacted with p‐aminophenol at room temperature and a macromolecule containing methyl, hydroxyl, and chloride functional groups (PEG‐Me₂‐(PhOH)₄‐Cl₄) was obtained. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010