On the development of uniaxially‐oriented PET tapes for weaving,woven tape fabrics,and their applications

This article reports the development of weavable, uniaxially‐oriented PET tape, and woven‐tape fabric. Fabric from uniaxially‐oriented polypropylene (PP) tape has been commercially produced since the 1960s, and it is the dominant material for flexible industrial packaging, carpet backing, geotextiles and self‐reinforced composites. Attempts had been made over the same period to produce similar poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) tape fabric, knowing that it would offer superior performance over PP due to PET's higher stiffness and strength, lower creep, abrasion resistance, and higher temperature capability. However, these attempts could not be translated into industrial production because the PET tapes had a tendency to splinter when subjected to sudden pulls and twists in the weaving loom. This was solved here by blending polymeric additives such as 2% polycarbonate (PC) and 2% linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE). Transmission electron microscopy of the oriented tapes showed the 2% PC formed a profusion of nano ellipsoids that adhered well to the PET matrix, and these prevented axial cracks from running through in a brittle manner. The LLDPE formed larger domains with poorer adhesion, but it imparted resistance to splitting from twists and axial folding. The combination of PC and polyolefin imparted a synergistic toughening of the tape. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:E120–E132, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Short-term solar power prediction using multi-kernel-based random vector functional link with water cycle algorithm-based parameter optimization

Neural Computing and Applications - A new hybrid model combining the kernel functions along with the random vector functional link neural network (RVFLN) is proposed in this paper for an effective...     

P75 and S100 gene expression induced by cell-imprinted substrate and beta-carotene to nerve tissue engineering

Here we aimed to differentiate adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) to Schwann cells (SCs), as one of the major and instrumental cell sources in nerve regeneration, by synergistic application of imprinting method and β-carotene. Accordingly, the topography of Schwann cells was imprinted on poly dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) substrates via mold casting and human ADSCs seeded on substrates; moreover, β-carotene was added to induce hADSCs differentiation. Physiochemical evaluations of PDMS by FTIR spectra presented its silicon-methyl bond (Si CH₃) at 1260 cm⁻¹. Morphology analysis by crystal violet, picrosirus red staining, and SEM images illustrated that MSCs seeded on imprinted substrates have formed SC-like morphology. Furthermore, according to q-PCR and ICC evaluations, SCs specific markers; S100 and P75 in addition of 5 μl β-carotene (BC) were upregulated (p-value<0.001). Also, the expression was detected on the imprinted surfaces without β-carotene to a lesser degree. Our study revealed that Schwann cell imprinted substrates can mimic the morphology and topography of SCs and induce differentiation signals in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In addition, the potency of β-carotene as an organic substance in boosting and stimulating the neural differentiation was demonstrated. Relevantly, the reports have confirmed the synergistic pivotal roles of β-carotene and patterned surfaces in directing MSCs into SC-like cells differentiation without applying expensive and less safe chemical growth factors.     

An integrated NMT-based CAE environment — Part II: Applications to automated gating plan synthesis for injection molding

The focus of this paper is on the application of the integrated non-manifold-topology-based CAE environment described in the companion paper (Part I). The need for both a geometry-based and a feature-based environment is illustrated through the application of the features modeling utility to automate the procedure for injection mold design and, more specifically, gating design. The gating plan synthesis system described in this paper automatically determines an initial gating configuration based on a features representation of the part and a knowledge-base that captures some of the design rules used in practice. The Features Modeling Utility (FMU), a Topology And Geometry Utility System (TAGUS) and an automatic mesh generator, OCTREE, are used to identify and query features and to perform geometric reasoning about the part. The methodology used, implementation details and examples of test cases are presented.     

Why gulling software colleagues is popular

A few months ago, a 550-person software company in Oregon cut a significant part of its developer workforce to reduce expenses and align its salaries with industry averages. It had already streamlined its software development practices, which increased productivity and improved product reliability. During the year-long streamlining program, the company had mapped existing processes to make explicit exactly how software was being developed and then carefully refined the processes to reduce the cost and time required. Implementing these changes required people to relocate into multidisciplinary teams and eliminate tasks that added no value. The majority of staff, facilitated by consultants, participated in this process. At the end of these initiatives, our research team did a follow-up survey and investigation to gauge how well the company was now organized to let staff attain their corporate goals. We found room for more improvement, but also some interesting results regarding employees' attitudes toward staff reductions.     

On the Handling of Continuous-Valued Attributes in Decision Tree Generation

We present a result applicable to classification learning algorithms that generate decision trees or rules using the information entropy minimization heuristic for discretizing continuous-valued attributes. The result serves to give a better understanding of the entropy measure, to point out that the behavior of the information entropy heuristic possesses desirable properties that justify its usage in a formal sense, and to improve the efficiency of evaluating continuous-valued attributes for cut value selection. Along with the formal proof, we present empirical results that demonstrate the theoretically expected reduction in evaluation effort for training data sets from real-world domains.     

On power line carrier communication (PLC)

Power line carrier communication (PLC) provides significant services for the electric utilities in particular and to the industrial and consumer sectors in general. Since its inception in the early 1920's, PLC has been used for voice communication, protective relaying telemetry and supervisory control. Lately PLC has proved to render the most efficient means for distribution automation and load management. This paper is a review of literature related to PLC and its applications.     

Video compression using mosaic representations

We describe a technique for video compression based on a mosaic image representation obtained by aligning all frames of a video sequence, giving a panoramic view of the scene. We describe two types of mosaics, static and dynamic, which are suited for storage and transmission applications, respectively. In each case, the mosaic construction process aligns the images using a global parametric motion transformation, usually canceling the effect of camera motion on the dominant portion of the scene. The residual motions that are not compensated by the parametric motion are then analyzed for their significance and coded. The mosaic representation exploits large scale spatial and temporal correlations in image sequences. In many applications where there is significant camera motion (e.g., remote surveillance), it performs substantially better than traditional interframe compression methods and offers the potential for very low bit-rate transmission. In storage applications, such as digital libraries and video editing environments, it has the additional benefit of enabling direct access and retrieval of single frames at a time.     

Recovery of ego-motion using region alignment

A method for computing the 3D camera motion (the ego-motion) in a static scene is described, where initially a detected 2D motion between two frames is used to align corresponding image regions. We prove that such a 2D registration removes all effects of camera rotation, even for those image regions that remain misaligned. The resulting residual parallax displacement field between the two region-aligned images is an epipolar field centered at the FOE (Focus-of-Expansion). The 3D camera translation is recovered from the epipolar field. The 3D camera rotation is recovered from the computed 3D translation and the detected 2D motion. The decomposition of image motion into a 2D parametric motion and residual epipolar parallax displacements avoids many of the inherent ambiguities and instabilities associated with decomposing the image motion into its rotational and translational components, and hence makes the computation of ego-motion or 3D structure estimation more robust     

A 0.9–5.4 GHz wideband fast settling frequency synthesizer for 5G based consumer services

In this paper, a frequency synthesizer, based on a type-2, third order phase locked loop (PLL), covering the frequency range of 0.9–5.4 GHz using three voltage controlled oscillators, is implemented using a 0.13-\(\upmu \hbox {m}\) CMOS technology. The PLL has three modes of operation—a high bandwidth mode, a low bandwidth mode and a dynamic mode, in which the bandwidth dynamically changes from a low to a high value, during a frequency jump, and reverts back to low value, once the PLL settles. With a proper choice of bandwidth and timing synchronization during a frequency jump, a worst-case settling time of 3-\(\upmu \hbox {s}\) has been obtained, which is one of the lowest in reported literature. The input clock of the PLL is set to 100 MHz, but it can go as low as 25 MHz without having any effect on its settling time. The PLL consumes 24 mW of power and occupies 0.8 mm\(^2\) of active area.This PLL is expected to be specially useful in wide-bandwidth cognitive radios that require large and fast transitions in the frequency of operation.