Compact modeling of amorphous‐silicon thin‐film transistors with BSIM3

Abstract— A novel approach of modeling a‐Si:H TFTs with the industry‐standard BSIM3 compact model is presented. The described approach defines the a‐Si:H TFT drain current and terminal charges as explicit functions of terminal voltages using a minimum set of BSIM3 parameters. The set of BSIM3 parameters is chosen based on the electrical and physical characteristics of the a‐Si:H TFT and their values extracted from measured data. By using the selected BSIM3 model parameters, the a‐Si:H TFT is simulated inside SPICE to fit the simulated I‐V and C‐V curves with the measured results. Finally, the extracted BSIM3 model is validated by simulating the kickback voltage effect in an AMLCD pixel array.     

An integrated system solution for supply chain optimization in the chemical process industry

This paper considers a complex scheduling problem in the chemical process industry involving batch production. The application described comprises a network of production plants with interdependent production schedules, multi-stage production at multi-purpose facilities, and chain production. The paper addresses three distinct aspects: (i) a scheduling solution obtained from a genetic algorithm based optimizer, (ii) a mechanism for collaborative planning among the involved plants, and (iii) a tool for manual updates and schedule changes. The tailor made optimization algorithm simultaneously considers alternative production paths and facility selection as well as product and resource specific parameters such as batch sizes, and setup and cleanup times. The collaborative planning concept allows all the plants to work simultaneously as partners in a supply chain resulting in higher transparency, greater flexibility, and reduced response time as a whole. The user interface supports monitoring production schedules graphically and provides custom-built utilities for manual changes to the production schedule, investigation of various what-if scenarios, and marketing queries. RID="*" ID="*" The authors would like to thank Hans-Otto Günther and Roland Heilmann for helpful comments on draft versions of this paper.     

Experimental and numerical analysis of sodium-carbonate salt gradient solar-pond performance under simulated solar-radiation

The objective of this study is to investigate experimentally and theoretically whether sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃) salt is suitable for establishing a salinity gradient in a salt-gradient solar-pond (SGSP). For this purpose, a small-scale prismatic solar-pond was constructed. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory under the incident radiation from two halogen-lamps acting as a solar simulator. Furthermore, a one-dimensional transient mathematical model that describes the heat and mass transfer behaviour of the SGSP was developed. The differential equations obtained were solved numerically using a finite-difference method. It was found from the experiments that the density gradient, achieved using sodium carbonate salt, can suppress convection from the bottom to the surface of the pond.     

Knowledge-based manufacturability assessment: an object-oriented approach

To help the achievement of integrated product and process development, there is a need for tools that can assist designers in creating manufacturable parts with less design routines and tryouts. This paper presents a systematic approach to developing automated manufacturability assessment tools by identifying the functional and informational requirements and proposing an assessment model. The work presented in this paper includes: (1) identification of characteristics and tasks of design for the die-casting process; (2) determination of functional and informational requirements for automatic manufacturability assessment; (3) formalization and modularization of assessment knowledge; and (4) modeling of product definition data to support the assessment. Object-oriented techniques are employed to model the assessment knowledge and manage the complicated and diverse types of product definition data by taking advantage of data abstraction, modularity, inherent concurrence, and the concept of encapsulation and extendibility.     

Segment‐aware dynamic routing for DASH flows over software‐defined networks

Most of the video streaming applications running over the Internet send video data over HTTP and provide an architecture for video clients to adapt video quality during streaming. In HTTP adaptive streaming, a raw video is encoded at various qualities, each encoded video file is divided into small segments, and the clients may change the segment quality by sending requests for segments having different qualities over time. MPEG has standardized dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (MPEG‐DASH) due to this tendency. In this work, we focus on DASH over software‐defined networks (SDN), and we dynamically reroute DASH flows by considering the current network capacity, available bandwidth of the paths, and bitrate of the segments in order to provide high quality of experience (QoE) and fairness among DASH clients. Simulations performed under various network conditions show that the proposed study provides higher QoE and fairness compared with the max‐flow routing approach.     

Maximum Entropy Power Spectrum Estimation for 2-D Multirate Systems

This paper presents maximum entropy power spectrum estimation of a 2-D information signal given that multirate low-resolution observations are available. Since the exact calculation of the 2-D maximum entropy power spectrum is not practical, we propose an efficient method utilizing slices in the 2-D discrete Fourier transform (DFT) domain and the duality in convex programming. We investigate the properties of our solution and provide numerical examples to demonstrate the performance of the new method.     

Effect of thermal cycling on micro-tensile bond strength of composite restorations bonded with multimode adhesive

Objective: The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effect of thermal cycling on the micro-tensile bond strength (Mtbs) of multimode adhesive agents. Materials and methods: Eight freshly extracted caries-free human third molars were used. The flat dentin surfaces were prepared and polished with 600-grit SiC abrasive paper for standard smear layer formation. The teeth were restored using Single Bond Universal Adhesive [(total etch (G1, G2)/self etch (G3, G4)]?+?Filtek Z550 and All-Bond Universal Adhesive [(total etch (G5, G6)/self etch (G7, G8)]?+?Aelite all-purpose. The specimens in groups G1, G3, G5, and G7 were subjected to thermal cycling (1000 cycles at 5–55 °C, for a 30?s dwell time), while the specimens in other groups were not exposed to an aging procedure. The Mtbs test was determined in all procedures. Data were submitted to three-way ANOVA and post hoc tests. The significance level was set at?=?0.05. Results: Group five was highly affected by the thermal cycling following the total etch procedure, while group one was not significantly affected. Group seven was highly affected by thermal cycling, while group three was not significantly affected after the self etch procedure. Group eight exhibited a higher mean Mtbs value after the thermal cycling procedure. Conclusion: The bond strength of multimode (universal) adhesives was found to be material dependent. The total etch procedure showed a higher Mtbs value than the self etch procedure.     

Genotyping of the kappa‐casein and beta‐lactoglobulin genes in Anatolian water buffalo by PCR‐RFLP

The objective of this study was to identify allele and genotype frequencies of the κ‐CN and β‐LG genes in Anatolian water buffalo. A total of 126 water buffalos from Turkey were genotyped using the PCR‐RFLP method. For gene κ‐CN, only B allele and BB genotype were observed. And for gene β‐LG, two types of alleles (A and B) and three types of genotypes were observed. The genotype frequencies of AA, AB and BB of β‐LG in Anatolian water buffalo were 0.254, 0.698 and 0.048, respectively. Surprisingly, the frequency of allele A was higher than that of allele B in contrast to world buffalo breeds.     

An evaluation of the occupational accidents among logging workers within the boundaries of Trabzon Forestry Directorate,Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of occupational accidents among logging workers and the risk factors involved. Data for 378 out of 2994 members of 24 cooperatives engaged in logging in the study area were gathered using face-to-face questionnaires and anthropometric data via the free measurement method. The annual logging accident frequency rate was 30.4%, and the annual incidence of occupational accidents was 2052.9. The accident risk among workers using hookaroons was 2.14 times greater than the risk among those not using them. Five to six rest breaks a day increased the accident frequency rate by 0.37 times. The foot width, which was one of the variables among the measured anthropometric data, was observed to increase the accident risk 0.68 times. The likelihood of an employee suffering from an accident during the working year correlated with the handling of chainsaws, the use of hookaroons, smoking, the number of breaks taken while working, experience, shoulder and knee height, leg and arm length and hand and foot width.