Applied Sciences, Volume 8, Issue 1

The advent of ultrafast X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) opens the tantalizing possibility of the atomic-resolution imaging of reproducible objects such as viruses, nanoparticles, single molecules, clusters, and perhaps biological cells, achieving...

Experiments and numerical simulations demonstrate that when a silver nanowire is placed on a dielectric multilayer, but not the commonly used bare glass slide, the effective refractive index of the propagating surface plasmons along the silver nanowi...

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technique is used to extract maximum power from the photovoltaic system. This paper involves working on an enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based MPPT method for the photovoltaic (PV) system integrated th...

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an effective non-invasive neuroimaging technique for measuring hemoglobin concentration in the cerebral cortex. Owing to the nature of fNIRS measurement principles, measured signals can be contaminated...

It is essential to monitor and to diagnose faults in rotating machinery with a high thrust–weight ratio and complex structure for a variety of industrial applications, for which reliable signal measurements are required. However, the measured values...

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have been applied to diverse machine learning tasks for different modalities of raw data in an end-to-end fashion. In the audio domain, a raw waveform-based approach has been explored to directly learn hierarchical...

This research presents results of the estimation of temporal variability of the hydroacoustic noise probability density function (PDF) in shallow waters within the frequency band of 0.03–3.3 kHz; the studies were conducted near the Primorsky Aquarium...

Digital holography (DH) is a promising technique for modern three-dimensional (3D) imaging. Coherent holography records the complex amplitude of a 3D object holographically, giving speckle noise upon reconstruction and presenting a serious drawback i...

The remarkable ability of humans to perform jump maneuvers greatly contributes to the improvements of the obstacle negotiation ability of humans. The paper proposes a jumping control scheme for a bipedal robot to perform a high jump. The half-body of...

Vortex generators (VGs) are increasingly used in the wind turbine manufacture industry as flow control devices to improve rotor blade aerodynamic performance. Nevertheless, VGs may produce excess residual drag in some applications. The so-called sub-...

In recent years there has been an increasing need to improve satellite attitude control performance in terms of agility and attitude accuracy in large-angle attitude maneuvers. To achieve such control performance, single-gimbal control moment gyros (...

In this paper, we consider the problem of developing a model for traffic signal control with transit priority using Hierarchical Colored Petri nets (HCPN). Petri nets (PN) are useful for state analysis of discrete event systems due to their powerful...

The large resistance contrast between amorphous and crystalline states of phase change materials (PCM) makes them a promising candidate for data-storage applications. Germanium telluride (GeTe), an early member of the PCM family, shows ~6 orders of m...

This paper aims to provide an experimental support on seismic performance evaluation of the steel braced truss-RC (reinforced concrete) column hybrid structure, which could be applied as the air-cooled supporting structural system in large-capacity t...

A 25.78-Gbit/s × 4-ch active optical cable (AOC) with an ultra-compact form factor is proposed. The size of the proposed AOC is 5.2 cm³, which is 55% smaller than the standard form factor of Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable (QSFP28), and 45% smaller...

Using Pareto optimization in Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning (MORL) leads to better learning results for network defense games. This is particularly useful for network security agents, who must often balance several goals when choosing what ac...

Peer review is an essential part in the publication process, ensuring that Applied Sciences maintains high quality standards for its published papers [...]

Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) have poor outcomes. Docetaxel (DTX)-based therapy is a current standard treatment for patients with mCRPC. Approaches combining conventional chemotherapeutic agents and nanoparticl...

In this paper, we report on a free-hand motion capture study in which 32 participants ‘traced’ 16 melodic vocal phrases with their hands in the air in two experimental conditions. Melodic contours are often thought of as correlated with vertical move...

In order to achieve high punching precision, good operational reliability and low manufacturing cost, the structural optimization of a high-speed press in the presence of a set of available alternatives comprises a heterogeneous multiple-attribute de...

This paper presents an in-situ inspection and experimental investigation on the pore solution pH of concrete cover for the corrosion initiation of rebars under a long-term natural carbonation reaction. A 77-year-old steel mill was inspected, and 35 c...

In a low-frequency ultrasonic guided wave dual-probe flaw inspection of a square steel bar with a finite length boundary, the flaw reflected pulse wave cannot be identified using conventional time monitoring when the flaw is located near the reflecti...

The review considers the influence of Bloch surface waves on the optical and magneto-optical effects observed in photonic crystals; for example, the Goos–Hänchen effect, the Faraday effect, optical trapping and so on. Prospects for using Bloch surfac...

Virtual control surfaces for the optimization of steady and unsteady airloads on a compressor cascade are assessed numerically. The effects of mechanical surfaces are realized with plasma actuators, located both on the pressure and on the suction sid...

(Bi_0.5Na_0.5)_0.94Ba_0.06TiO₃ dense ceramics were obtained from autocombustion sol-gel synthesized nanopowders and sintered at 1050 °C for 1–2 h for the study of the electromechanical anisotropy. Measurement of the complex impedance spectrum was carried...

This paper deals with a Power Electronic Transformer (PET) topology for a 3-phase AC distribution grid. In the discussed topology, a Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) and a Full-Bridge converter are employed for the medium voltage (MV) and the low v...

The fractional step method is a technique that results in a computationally-efficient implementation of Navier–Stokes solvers. In the finite element-based models, it is often applied in conjunction with implicit time integration schemes. On the other...

There is currently a renewed interest in the development of experimental methods to achieve the elastic characterization of thin films, multilayers and acoustic resonators operating in the GHz range of frequencies. The potentialities of surface Brill...

Biped climbing robots are considered good assistants and (or) substitutes for human workers carrying out high-rise truss-associated routine tasks. Flexible locomotion on three-dimensional complex trusses is a fundamental skill for these robots. In pa...

In this work, a multiple speech source separation method using inter-channel correlation and relaxed sparsity is proposed. A B-format microphone with four spatially located channels is adopted due to the size of the microphone array to preserve the s...

This paper presents the design of a legged robot with gecko-mimicking mechanism and mushroom-shaped adhesive microstructure (MSAMS) that can climb surfaces under reduced gravity. The design principle, adhesion performance and roles of different toes...

The centroid and moment of inertia directly affect the dynamic characteristics of aircraft, and accurate mass characteristic measurements are crucial to adequately control aircraft attitude. This paper proposes a new measurement method for determinin...

The vibration and noise of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) are mainly caused by unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP). This paper aims to investigate nonlinear vibration in PMSMs. Firstly, the analytical model of the air-gap magnetic field with a...

The issue of detecting objects bottoming on the sea floor is significant in various fields including civilian and military areas. The objective of this study is to investigate the logistic regression model to discriminate the target from the clutter...

A new self-powered magnetorheological (MR) damper control system was developed to mitigate cable vibration. The power source of the MR damper is directly harvested from vibration energy through a rotary permanent magnet direct current (DC) generator....

The pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) is a novel vibration control device that can be used for many different structures. The PTMD utilizes a viscoelastic delimiter to enhance its vibration control effectiveness and robustness though pounding between...

The present work is aimed at studying the structural health status of Hunan Road Bridge, which is currently the widest concrete self-anchored suspension bridge in China. The monitoring data included the structural deformations, internal forces, and v...

Advancements in embedded computer platforms have allowed data to be collected and shared between objects—or smart devices—in a network. While this has resulted in highly functional outcomes in fields such as automation and monitoring, there are also...

This work deals with the study of the convergence ratio of the exponential matrix method used in the 3D static analysis of functionally graded structures subjected to harmonic loads. The equilibrium equations are written in mixed orthogonal curviline...

The effect of the laser pulse width on the production of nanoparticles by laser fragmentation was investigated. Laser pulse widths of 164 fs, 5 ps, 4 ns, 36 ns, 64 ns, and 100 ns were used. To assess the effect of the laser pulse width on the energy...

To tailor the properties of nanoparticles and nanocomposites, precise control over particle size is of vital importance. Real-time monitoring of particle size during bottom-up synthesis in liquids would allow a detailed study of particle nucleation a...

Serialized tracing provides the ability to track and trace the lifecycle of the products and parts. Unlike barcodes, Radio frequency identification (RFID), which is an important building block for internet of things (IoT), does not require a line of...

Attitude error models play an important role in analyzing the characteristics of navigation error propagation for the design and operation of strapdown inertial navigation systems (SINS). However, the majority of existing attitude error models focus...

Spatial impulse response analysis techniques are commonly used in the field of acoustics, as they help to characterise the interaction of sound with an enclosed environment. This paper presents a novel approach for spatial analyses of binaural impuls...

Bolts support have become a major active support method in coal mine roadways to control roadway roof failure and improve surrounding rock structure stability. The traditional bolt force status monitoring (BFSM) method has poor anti-interference perf...

Commercially available radiochromic films are primarily designed for clinical X-ray dosimetry. These films change color upon exposures to radiation as a result of solid-state polymerization (SSP). Built on a previous model developed for SSP upon expo...

The paper presents two new approaches to artefact-free real-time updates of the impulse response in convolution. Both approaches are based on incremental updates of the filter. This can be useful for several applications within digital audio processi...

Heterogeneous characteristics of a big data system for intelligent power distribution and utilization have already become more and more prominent, which brings new challenges for the traditional data analysis technologies and restricts the comprehens...

Honeycomb cordierite-based Mn–Ce/Al₂O₃ catalysts were prepared by the impregnation method and used for low-temperature selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO_x with NH₃, with and without SO₂ and/or H₂O in a homemade fixed-bed tubular reactor. The c...

This paper derives a modal solution to the displacement field of a finite length rod whose area varies with respect to its length. This new method facilitates a solution to any problem where the area and derivative of the area can be represented as a...