Integrated Inductors Modeling for Library Development and Layout Generation

In this work we propose a modification to the conventional lumped equivalent circuit model for integrated inductors. Also the widely used parametric model is modified. The proposed models expand the frequency range where the integrated inductor behavior is accurately predicted. They are useful in developing automatic tools to assist the designers in selecting and automatically laying-out integrated inductors [1]. This work is based on measurements from integrated inductors fabricated in a standard silicon process.     

Dosage individualization of erythropoietin using a profile-dependent support vector regression

The external administration of recombinant human erythropoietin is the chosen treatment for those patients with secondary anemia due to chronic renal failure in periodic hemodialysis. The objective of this paper is to carry out an individualized prediction of the EPO dosage to be administered to those patients. The high cost of this medication, its side-effects and the phenomenon of potential resistance which some individuals suffer all justify the need for a model which is capable of optimizing dosage individualization. A group of 110 patients and several patient factors were used to develop the models. The support vector regressor (SVR) is benchmarked with the classical multilayer perceptron (MLP) and the Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) model. We introduce a priori knowledge by relaxing or tightening the epsilon-insensitive region and the penalization parameter depending on the time period of the patients' follow-up. The so-called profile-dependent SVR (PD-SVR) improves results of the standard SVR method and the MLP. We perform sensitivity analysis on the MLP and inspect the distribution of the support vectors in the input and feature spaces in order to gain knowledge about the problem.     

CO2 emission trading within the European Union and Annex B countries: the cement industry case

The cement industry is the third largest carbon emitting industrial sector in the EU. This article presents the foreseeable technological evolution of the cement industry under business as usual circumstances, and examines the effects on the sector of carbon trading. For those purposes a global dynamic simulation model of the cement industry (CEMSIM) has been developed. The model is composed of a series of interconnected modules on cement consumption and production, international trade and capacity planning. This study quantifies the benefits achieved from emission trading in different markets (EU15, EU27 and Annex B), derived both from the revenues of emission trading, and from the lower compliance costs. The magnitude of the potential carbon leakage effect is also assessed.     

Free convection performance of circular cavities having two active curved vertical sides and two inactive curved horizontal sides

A detailed review of the archival reveals that the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of circular cavities have not been investigated so far and of course their physical features are not understood. A prominent application of these cavities arises in the miniaturized packaging of electronic components that are subject to strict constraints. This paper addresses primarily steady-state laminar natural convection of air in a circular cavity of diameter H inscribed in a square cavity of side H where the corresponding sides are in contact at four points. A third cavity, an arc–square cavity whose shape lies between the square and circular cavity shapes is included in the analysis. The finite volume method is used to perform the numerical simulations. The methodology takes into account the second-order-accurate QUICK scheme for the discretization of the convective term, whereas the pressure–velocity coupling is handled with the SIMPLE scheme. Since the air is not assumed a Boussinesq gas, it was decided to take all thermophysical properties as temperature-dependent. In the end, it has been demonstrated that the circular cavity possesses a superior balance between heat transfer enhancement and size in cross-section area in comparison with the standard square cavity. The side of the square cavity is similar to the diameter of the circular cavity.     

Study of the glucide fraction in ropy wines

Gas chromatography was used to study the polysaccharides present in samples that exhibited significant microbially induced viscosity values. Alterations in the media considered were related to the percentage glucose content and the total polysaccharide content.     

An Evolutionary Method for Synthesizing Low-Sensitivity Lossless Matching Networks

Whereas the present practice of designing matching networks for antennas is limited to conventional topologies, requiring a significant amount of domain knowledge, evolutionary algorithms can be used for automatically identifying unconventional designs that are more effective than would otherwise be developed. In this work, an automatic method to design lossless matching networks driven by an evolutionary algorithm (EA) that considers the sensitivities of the network parameters during the synthesis process is presented. To this end, a closed-form expression for the transducer power gain (TPG) sensitivity with respect to the component values is employed in such a way that the effects of the components tolerance on the matching network performance can easily be quantified. A 3D data structure based on the adjacency matrix is conveniently used to represent any type of network topologies. The proposed EA employs a novel set of topology variation operators, tailored for changing the circuit topology, and an association step, with the aim of reducing the number of nodes of the matching circuit. The efficiency of the proposed EA is tested in the synthesis of an impedance matching network for a VHF monopole whip antenna. This study’s results indicate a matching bandwidth improvement, a more uniformly distributed TPG along the operation frequency band and a more stable TPG regarding the components tolerance compared to the results obtained by previous approaches.     

Multicast deflector

Technological evolution is leading telecommunications toward all-IP scenarios, where multiple services are transported as IP packets. Among these services is the broadcast of video. A possible mechanism for broadcasting multiple video channels over IP is to use IP multicast, and let each client decide about the reception of a channel. The secure IP multicast specified by the IETF MSEC working group is a candidate solution for securing these broadcast services. In this paper we propose a new solution for supporting the broadcast of multiple video channels which can be accessed only by authorized users; besides, when a video channel is not visualized in the last mile its transmission is temporarily suspended, so that the cable can be used for other services such as standard Internet access.     

Very Low Voltage MOS Translinear Loops Based on Flipped Voltage Followers

A novel technique for operating MOS Translinear loops at very low supply voltages is described, based on the use of Flipped Voltage Followers for biasing the loops. The resulting topologies, suited to standard CMOS processes, can be successfully applied to a varied repertory of low-voltage analog circuits, such as squarers, multipliers, filters, oscillators, and RMS-DC converters. Measurement results for a geometric-mean and a squarer/divider circuit demonstrate on silicon the usefulness of this technique.     

利用KPI调试和优化UMTS网络

从语音到视频到网上游戏,UMTS网络提供了各种客户服务,对移动网络运营商来说,调试或优化网络正变得越来越复杂.网络运营商一直把传统网络的主要性能指标(KPI)看作理解和调试网络性能的工具.     

A distributed data storage protocol for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks with mobile sinks

This paper presents ProFlex, a distributed data storage protocol for large-scale Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks (HWSNs) with mobile sinks. ProFlex guarantees robustness in data collection by intelligently managing data replication among selected storage nodes in the network. Contrarily to related protocols in the literature, ProFlex considers the resource constraints of sensor nodes and constructs multiple data replication structures, which are managed by more powerful nodes. Additionally, ProFlex takes advantage of the higher communication range of such powerful nodes and uses the long-range links to improve data distribution by storage nodes. When compared with related protocols, we show through simulation that Proflex has an acceptable performance under message loss scenarios, decreases the overhead of transmitted messages, and decreases the occurrence of the energy hole problem. Moreover, we propose an improvement that allows the protocol to leverage the inherent data correlation and redundancy of wireless sensor networks in order to decrease even further the protocol’s overhead without affecting the quality of the data distribution by storage nodes.