Pricing schemes for digital content with DRM mechanisms

In this paper, utilizing game-theoretic model, we examine the impact of collaborative structure, content quality, and network environment on the development of pricing scheme and DRM protection policy of digital content. DRM protection level decreases and pirating activities becomes relatively tolerable as the content provider and platform provider operate collaboratively. Depending on the market structure, higher content quality may strengthen or weaken the adoption of DRM. However, it would seem that, as the network environment becomes more decentralized and uncontrolled, weaker DRM protection should be a better strategy.     

A Signed Array Multiplier with Bypassing Logic

A low power digital signed array multiplier based on a 2-dimensional (2-D) bypassing technique is proposed in this work. When the horizontally (row) or the vertically (column) operand is zero, the corresponding bypassing cells skip redundant signal transitions to avoid unnecessary calculation to reduce power dissipation. An 8×8 signed multiplier using the 2-D bypassing technique is implemented on silicon using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process to verify power reduction performance. The power-delay product of the proposed 8×8 signed array multiplier is measured to be 31.74 pJ at 166 MHz, which is significantly reduced in comparison with prior works.     

Predictive maintenance of abnormal wind turbine events by using machine learning based on condition monitoring for anomaly detection

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - The predictive maintenance of wind turbines has become a critical issue with the rapid development of wind power generation. The early detection of...     

Assessment of affective state in distance learning based on image detection by using fuzzy fusion

Distance learning can solve the limitations of time and space in learning. However, due to the distance, teachers cannot manage students learning behaviors, i.e. they do not know whether a student is attentive, drowsy or absent. Teachers can overcome difficulties in students’ management by knowing the affective states of the students. This study adopts image recognition to capture face images of students when they are learning, and analyzes their face features to evaluate their affective states by fuzzy integrals. Test results indicate that the bad affective states are accurately identified. Teachers can monitor the students’ affective states from the detection results on the system interface.     

Microwave dielectric properties of (Ca0.8Sr0.2)(SnxTi1−x)O3 ceramics

In this paper, we study the behavior of the B-site behavior with the incorporation of Sn⁴⁺ ion in (Ca_0.8Sr_0.2)TiO₃ ceramics. An excess of Sn⁴⁺ resulted in the formation of a secondary phase of CaSnO₃ and SrSnO₃ affecting the microwave dielectric properties of the (Ca_0.8Sr_0.2)(Sn_xTi_1?x)O₃ ceramics. The dielectric properties of the (Ca_0.8Sr_0.2)(Sn_xTi_1?x)O₃ ceramics were improved because of the solid solution of Sn⁴⁺ substitution in the B-site. The temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τ_f) of the (Ca_0.8Sr_0.2)(Sn_xTi_1?x)O₃ ceramics also improved with increasing Sn content.     

A Distributed Query Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, query execution over a specific geographical region is an essential function for collecting sensed data. However, sensor nodes deployed in sensor networks have limited battery power. Hence, the minimum number of connected sensor nodes that covers the queried region in a sensor network must be determined. This paper proposes an efficient distributed protocol to find a subset of connected sensor nodes to cover the queried region. Each node determines whether to be a sensing node to sense the queried region according to its priority. The proposed protocol can efficiently construct a subset of connected sensing nodes and respond the query request to the sink node. In addition, the proposed protocol is extended to solve the k-coverage request. Simulation results show that our protocol is more efficient and has a lower communication overhead than the existing protocol.     

Luminescence properties of sol–gel derived Sr2(Ce1−xSnx)O4 blue phosphors

Monophasic Sr₂(Ce_1?xSn_x)O₄ phosphors (x = 0–0.07) were prepared via the sol–gel process. A broad excitation band ascribed to the Ce⁴⁺–O^2? transition was observed in the range of 200–450 nm. With doping Sn⁴⁺ ions into the host, the intensity of the low-energy peak enhanced remarkably due to a decrease in crystal field. The intensity ratio of the low-energy peak to the high-energy peak increased with the amount of Sn⁴⁺ ions doped. Moreover, the red shift of the excitation peaks was observed due to an increase in the bond length of Ce–O. Upon excitation at around 346 nm, the intensity of the blue emission peak peaking at 483 nm was enhanced with doping Sn⁴⁺ ions. The doping of tin ions was found to significantly improve the luminescence characteristics of the prepared phosphors when they were excited under UV light.     

Improving an LDMOST by variation of lateral doping on epitaxial-layer drift region

Variation of lateral doping (VLD) is applied to the epitaxial-layer drift region in LDMOSTs, resulting in non-uniform doping concentration. In addition to a decrease in on-resistance, it improves electric field distribution on the surface of drift region, and thus increases the breakdown voltage. We studied the condition of using the VLD technique, and compared it with the conventional technique of optimizing the epitaxial-layer uniform concentration. Results from TSPUREM 4 and MEDICI simulations indicate that when the epitaxial-layer doping concentration is 1.5 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻³, applying VLD to the drift region increases the breakdown voltage by as much as 34% (187-251 V), while the specific on-resistance is lowered by 55% (49-22 mΩ cm²), which are remarkable improvements. On the other hand, if the doping concentration of epitaxial-layer is already high, the improvement of applying VLD is limited.     

An optimal solution to a dock door assignment problem

This paper addresses issues at the shipping/receiving dock of a shipping company, where trucks arrive from vendors to have their shipments unloaded, sorted, and reloaded onto trucks going to the customers. The assignment of dock doors to incoming and outgoing trucks determines the efficiency of the dock operation. A bilinear programming model is proposed to solve the assignment problem.