Search results for: COMPLEMENTARY RESONATOR, CALIBRATION, DIELECTRIC CHARACTERIZATION, HIGH SENSITIVITY, MICROWAVE SENSOR
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Low temperature processed MnCo2O4 and MnCo1.8Fe0.2O4 as effective protective coatings for solid oxide fuel cell interconnects at 750 °C
PublicationIn this study two materials, MnCo2O4 and MnCo1.8Fe0.2O4 are studied as potential protective coatings for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell interconnects working at 750 °C. First powder fabrication by a modified Pechini method is described followed by a description of the coating procedure. The protective action of the coating applied on Crofer 22 APU is evaluated by following the area specific resistance (ASR) of the scale/coating for 5500...
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Expectation-Maximization Model for Substitution of Missing Values Characterizing Greenness of Organic Solvents
PublicationOrganic solvents are ubiquitous in chemical laboratories and the Green Chemistry trend forces their detailed assessments in terms of greenness. Unfortunately, some of them are not fully characterized, especially in terms of toxicological endpoints that are time consuming and expensive to be determined. Missing values in the datasets are serious obstacles, as they prevent the full greenness characterization of chemicals. A featured...
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Chestnut-Derived Activated Carbon as a Prospective Material for Energy Storage
PublicationIn this work, we present the preparation and characterization of biomass-derived activatedcarbon (AC) in view of its application as electrode material for electrochemical capacitors. Porouscarbons are prepared by pyrolysis of chestnut seeds and subsequent activation of the obtainedbiochar. We investigate here two activation methods, namely, physical by CO2and chemical usingKOH. Morphology, structure and specific surface area (SSA)...
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Polarimetric studies of L-arginine-doped potassium dihydrogen phosphate single crystals
PublicationConoscopic interference patterns, channelled spectra and polarimetric techniques have been used for the characterization of pure and doped (with L-arginine amino acid) potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) single crystals. Experimental polarimetric data have been obtained for the frequently used wavelength of 633 nm and for two close wavelengths of 532 and 543 nm in a high-accuracy dual-wavelength polarimeter. The measurement of...
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Synergistic effect of multi walled carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxides in natural rubber for sensing application
PublicationUtilizing the electrical properties of polymer nanocomposites is an important strategy to develop high performance solvent sensors. Here we report the synergistic effect of multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) in regulating the sensitivity of the naturally occurring elastomer, natural rubber (NR). Composites were fabricated by dispersing CNTs alone and together with exfoliated RGO sheets (thermally...
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NONLINEAR VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF BEAM AND PLATE WITH CLOSED CRACK: A REVIEW
PublicationThe effect of nonlinearity is high sensitivity in damage detection, especially for closed cracks and delamination. This review illustrates the results of several researchers dealing with nonlinear effects caused by the closure of cracks in the structure, i.e., beam and plate structures. Early detection of damage is an important aspect for the structure and, therefore, continuous progress is being made in developing new and effective...
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Chemical pollution and toxicity of water samples from stream receiving leachate from controlled municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill
PublicationThe present study was aimed to determine the impact of municipal waste landfill on the pollution level of surface waters, and to investigate whether the choice and number of physical and chemical parameters monitored are sufficient for determining the actual risk related to bioavailability and mobility of contaminants. In 2007–2012, water samples were collected from the stream flowing through the site at two sampling locations,...
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Toxoplasma gondii Tetravalent Chimeric Proteins as Novel Antigens for Detection of Specific Immunoglobulin G in Sera of Small Ruminants
PublicationThe detection of Toxoplasma gondii infection in small ruminants has important significance for public health and veterinary medicine. This study, for the first time, describes the reactivity of four tetravalent chimeric proteins (AMA1N-SAG2-GRA1-ROP1, AMA1C-SAG2-GRA1-ROP1, AMA1-SAG2-GRA1-ROP1, and SAG2-GRA1-ROP1-GRA2) containing immunodominant regions from the AMA1 (apical membrane antigen 1), SAG2 (surface antigen 2), GRA1 (dense...
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RecA Proteins from Deinococcus geothermalis and Deinococcus murrayi - Cloning, Purification and Biochemical Characterisation
PublicationEscherichia coli RecA plays a crucial role in recombinational processes, the induction of SOS response and mutagenic lesion bypasses. It has also been demonstrated that RecA protein is indispensable when it comes to the reassembly of shattered chromosomes in gamma-irradiated Deinococcus radiodurans, one of the most radiation-resistant organisms known. Moreover, some functional differences between E. coli and D. radiodurans RecA...
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High temperature linear impedance of 35P2O5-30Fe2O3-27.5Nb2O5-7.5TiO2
Open Research DataThe high temperature electrical properties of phosphate-iron glasses containing niobium were investigated. Glass samples of the composition of 35P2O5-30Fe2O3-27.5Nb2O5-7.5TiO2 (in %mol) were prepared by the conventional melt quenching technique. Appropriate amounts of reagents ((NH4)2HPO4 (≥99.9%, POCH), Fe2O3 (≥99.9%, POCH), Nb2O5 (≥99.9%, PLUKA AG)...
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High temperature linear impedance of 35P2O5-30Fe2O3-25Nb2O5-15TiO2
Open Research DataThe high temperature electrical properties of phosphate-iron glasses containing niobium and titanium were investigated. Glass samples of the composition of 35P2O5-30Fe2O3-20Nb2O5-15TiO2 (in %mol) were prepared by the conventional melt quenching technique. Appropriate amounts of reagents ((NH4)2HPO4 (≥99.9%, POCH), Fe2O3 (≥99.9%, POCH), Nb2O5 (≥99.9%,...
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High temperature linear impedance of 35P2O5-30Fe2O3-35Nb2O5
Open Research DataThe high temperature electrical properties of phosphate-iron glasses containing niobium were investigated. Glass samples of the composition of 35P2O5-30Fe2O3-35Nb2O5 (in %mol) were prepared by the conventional melt quenching technique. Appropriate amounts of reagents ((NH4)2HPO4 (≥99.9%, POCH), Fe2O3 (≥99.9%, POCH), Nb2O5 (≥99.9%, PLUKA AG) and TiO2...
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Optimization of a Fabry-Perot Sensing Interferometer design for an optical fiber sensor of hematocrit level
PublicationContinuous measurement of the hemato crit level in blo o d can p otentially b e p erformed using optical bre sensors. The FabryPerot interferometric sensors are a promising candidate in this application. The most imp ortant step in the design of the sensor is design of the sensing interferometer. Adequate cavity length and high interference contrast are two most imp ortant requirements in this application. The design metho d of...
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Efficient algorithm for blinking LED detection dedicated to embedded systems equipped with high performance cameras
PublicationThis paper presents the concept and implementation of an efficient algorithm for detection of blinking LED or similar signal sources. Algorithm is designed for embedded devices equipped with high performance cameras being a part of an indoor positioning embedded system. An algorithm to be implemented in such a system should be efficient in terms of computational power what is hard to be achieved when large amount of data from camera...
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The electrical, morphological and optical properties of heavily boron-doped diamond sheets as a function of methane concentration in the gas phase
PublicationBoron-doped diamonds (BDD) are known for their excellent properties such as high thermal conductivity, high mobility, low absorption in visible light, and biocompatibility. In this work, we investigated the electrical, morphological and optical properties of heavily boron-doped diamond thin sheets as a function of methane concentration in the gas phase. Free-standing diamond sheets were fabricated using a microwave plasma-assisted...
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Integrated controller for ultra high frequency technique laboratory
PublicationDepartment of Microwave and Antenna Engineering decided to modernize the laboratory of Ultra High Frequency Techniques. The main change was to replace measurement of the field distribution inside rectangular waveguides by analysing the fields around striplines. This involved the need to overcome several technical and conceptual problems. Precise positioning of the probe and reading the field distribution near the stripline is important...
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Carnivorous plants used for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity
PublicationIn this study, we exploit the anti-oxidative potential of four carnivorous plants to produce uniform and biologically active silver nanoparticles. The use of polyvinylpyrrolidone promoted syn-thesis of quasi-spherical nanoparticles characterized by stability and high uniformity. Their activity was tested against three human pathogens and three species of plant pathogenic bacteria. The study demonstrates the influence of synthesis...
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A novel microstrip dual-layer rat-race coupler with compact size and enhanced bandwidth
PublicationMicrowave hybrid couplers are crucial components of mixers, phase shifters, amplifiers and other high-frequency systems. Conventional couplers are characterized by large size which limits their usefulness in modern applications. In this work, a novel compact rat-race coupler with enhanced bandwidth has been proposed. The structure consists of six compact microstrip resonant cells. It is implemented on two separate layers which permits...
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Gigantic electro-chemo-mechanical properties of nanostructured praseodymium doped ceria
PublicationSome oxygen defective fluorites are non-Newnham electrostrictors, i.e., the electromechanical response does not depend on their dielectric properties. Here, we show gigantic electrostriction in nanocrystalline 25 mol% praseodymium doped ceria (PCO) bulk ceramics. The material was fabricated with a fieldassisted spark plasma sintering (SPS) process from high-purity nanoscale PCO powders (<20 nm). The SPS process consolidates the...
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Dissociative ionization dynamics of dielectric gas C3F7CN
PublicationFluoronitrile C3F7CN is a promising candidate for the replacement of SF6 dielectric gas in high-voltage insulation. We present a combined experimental and theoretical study on its ionization dynamics probed in the 0-100 eV energy range. We exploited the total ion collection technique to determine the absolute ionization cross section, mass spectrometry to determine the fragment branching ratios and ab initio nonadiabatic molecular...
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Local impedance imaging of boron-doped polycrystalline diamond thin films
PublicationLocal impedance imaging (LII) was used to visualise surficial deviations of AC impedances in polycrystalline boron-doped diamond (BDD). The BDD thin film electrodes were deposited onto the highly doped silicon substrates via microwave plasma-enhanced CVD. The studied boron dopant concentrations, controlled by the [B]/[C] ratio in plasma, ranged from 1 × 1016 to 2 × 1021 atoms cm−3. The BDD films displayed microcrystalline structure,...
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Editorial for the special issue on advances in forward and inverse surrogate modeling for high-frequency design
PublicationThe design of modern‐day high‐frequency devices and circuits, including microwave/RF, antenna and photonic components, historically has relied on full‐wave electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools. Initially used for design verification, EM simulations are nowadays used in the design process itself, for example, for finding optimum values of geometry and/or material parameters of the structures of interest. In a growing number of...
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Development of a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometryprocedure for determination of endocrine disrupting compounds infish from Mediterranean rivers
PublicationA new, sensitive and rapid method based on QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe)approach followed by ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spec-trometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) was developed for the determination of nineteen endocrine disruptors (EDCs)and related compounds belonging to different classes in various fish species. Matrix effect on the analyti-cal performance was evaluated,...
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A derivatisation agent selection guide
PublicationThe development of new tools for providing high quality information in a cost-effective and expeditious way is one of the main aims of analytical chemistry. Remarkably, the introduc- tion of the 12 principles of green chemistry paved the way forward for the development of analytical methodologies that are, ideally, inherently safe for the operator and the environ- ment, with the least possible consumption of energy and chemicals,...
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Blood concentrations of a new psychoactive substance 4-chloromethcathinone (4-CMC) determined in 15 forensic cases
PublicationPurpose: The 4-chloromethcathinone (4-CMC) is a synthetic derivative of cathinone and belongs to new psychoactive substances. Neither data on the effects of 4-CMC on the human body, nor on nontoxic, toxic and lethal concentrations in biological materials have been published in the literature. This paper describes the results of an analysis of the blood concentrations of 4-CMC determined in 15 forensic cases related to nonfatal...
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Metal nanoparticles-assisted early diagnosis of diseases
PublicationEarly diagnosis is essential for the effective illness treatment, but traditional diagnostic approaches inevitably have major downsides. Recent advancements in nanoparticle-based biosensors have created new opportunities for accelerating diagnosis. High surface area, exceptional sensitivity, high specificity, and optical characteristics of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles have made it possible to detect a variety of health conditions...
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Excitation-independent constant conductance isfet driver
PublicationA new constant conductance driver for ISFETs sensors has been developed. The proposed circuit maintains the sensor operating point at constant drain-source conductance. The combination of a simple, self-balancing resistance bridge and the subtraction half (or similar fraction) of source-drain voltage from the gate-source voltage provides the independence of output signal from current and voltage drivers instability. The use of...
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Optimal ECG lead for deriving respiratory signal
PublicationEDR is an interesting measuring technique that allows an indirect assessment of respiratory activity. This is an alternative solution to direct methods that are based on the measurement of air flow, which require a specialized sensor or even a system. However, due to inter-personal anatomical differences, the optimal ECG lead (placement of the electrodes) ensuring the best EDR signal quality is not fixed. An influence of ECG lead...
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Structure and hyperfine interactions in Bi1−xNdxFeO3 solid solutions prepared by solid-state sintering
PublicationThe series of polycrystalline ceramic powders, Bi1xNdxFeO3 (x = 0.11) was successfully synthesized by mixed oxide method followed by pressureless sintering. X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy were used as complementary methods to study structure and hyperfine interactions of the samples. It was found that with an increase of Nd content, within the range of x = 0.20.3 a structural phase transition from rhombohedral to...
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DETERMINING THE TIME CONSTANT USING TWO METHODS AND DEFINING THE THERMOCOUPLE RESPONSE TO SINE EXCITATION OF GAS TEMPERATURE
PublicationThis paper describes the two methods of determining the time constant of type K thermocouple, for two construction solutions: the exposed weld and the mantle fillet weld. This is an important parameter indicating the response time of the thermocouple on the recorded signal. The first method consists of determining the value of τ in the way of numerical simulation of heat exchange between the thermocouple and the current of gas...
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Comparison of 3D Point Cloud Completion Networks for High Altitude Lidar Scans of Buildings
PublicationHigh altitude lidar scans allow for rapid acquisition of big spatial data representing entire city blocks. Unfortunately, the raw point clouds acquired by this method are largely incomplete due to object occlusions and restrictions in scanning angles and sensor resolution, which can negatively affect the obtained results. In recent years, many new solutions for 3D point cloud completion have been created and tested on various objects;...
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Ultrasound-Assisted Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction Using Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) for Neutral Red Dye Spectrophotometric Determination
PublicationDeep eutectic solvents (DES), which have low toxicity and are low cost, biodegradable, and easily synthesized, were used for the extraction of neutral red (NR) dye before its spectrophotometric analysis. DES, containing choline chloride as a hydrogen bond acceptor and phenol as a hydrogen bond donor with a molar ratio of 1:2, was used for the extraction of NR dye from aqueous media. The possible interaction of different DESs with...
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DUAL CONSTELLATION GPS/GALILEO MOBILE SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING NAVIGATION OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED IN AN URBAN AREA
PublicationIt is well known by users of Portable Navigation Device (PND) and other GPS-based devices that positioning suffers from (local) significant decreases of accuracy in partially obscured environments like urbanized areas, where buildings (especially high buildings), trees or terrain block large portions of the sky. In such areas, GPS receiver performance is usually deteriorated by the reduced number of currently available satellite...
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DESIGN OF THE DUAL CONSTELLATION GPS/GALILEO MOBILE DEVICE FOR IMPROVING NAVIGATION OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED IN AN URBAN AREA
PublicationIt is well known by users of Personal Navigation Device (PND) and other GPS-based devices that positioning suffers from (local) significant decreases of accuracy in partially obscured environments like urbanized areas, where buildings (especially high buildings), trees or terrain block large portions of the sky. In such areas, GPS receiver performance is usually deteriorated by the reduced number of currently available satellite...
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High gain/bandwidth off‑chip antenna loaded with metamaterial unit‑cell impedance matching circuit for sub‑terahertz near‑field electronic systems
PublicationAn innovative off-chip antenna (OCA) is presented that exhibits high gain and efficiency performance at the terahertz (THz) band and has a wide operational bandwidth. The proposed OCA is implemented on stacked silicon layers and consists of an open circuit meandering line. It is shown that by loading the antenna with an array of subwavelength circular dielectric slots and terminating it with a metamaterial unit cell, its impedance...
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Mapping of Flood-Prone Areas Utilizing GIS Techniques and Remote Sensing: A Case Study of Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
PublicationOne of the most common types of natural disaster, floods can happen anywhere on Earth, except in the polar regions. The severity of the damage caused by flooding can be reduced by putting proper management and protocols into place. Using remote sensing and a geospatial methodology, this study attempts to identify flood-vulnerable areas of the central district of Duhok, Iraq. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique was...
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Design and Optimization of Metamaterial-based Highly-isolated MIMO Antenna with High Gain and Beam Tilting Ability for 5G Millimeter Wave Applications
PublicationThis paper presents a wideband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna with high gain and isolation, as well as beam tilting capability, for 5G millimeter wave (MMW) applications. A single bow-tie antenna fed by a substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) is proposed to cover the 28 GHz band (26.5–29.5 GHz) with a maximum gain of 6.35 dB. To enhance the gain, H-shaped metamaterial (MM)-based components are incorporated into the...
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Carbon nanowalls: A new versatile graphene based interface for laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry detection of small compounds in real samples.
PublicationCarbon nanowalls, vertically aligned graphene nanosheets, attract attention owing to their tunable band-gap, high conductivity, high mechanical robustness, high optical absorbance and other remarkable properties. In this paper, we report for the first time, the use of hydrophobic boron-doped carbon nanowalls (CNWs) for laser desorption/ionization of small compounds and their subsequent detection by mass spectrometry (LDI-MS). The...
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The Concept of Accuracy Analysis of the Vertical Displacements Gained from the Hydrostatic Levelling Systems’ Measurements
PublicationAbstract: Nowadays, hydrostatic levelling is a widely used method for the vertical displacements’ determinations of objects such as bridges, viaducts, wharfs, tunnels, high buildings, historical buildings, special engineering objects (e.g., synchrotron), sports and entertainment halls. The measurements’ sensors implemented in the hydrostatic levelling systems (HLSs) consist of the reference sensor (RS) and sensors located on the...
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Amperometric sensing of chemical oxygen demand at glassy carbon and silicon electrodes modified with boron-doped diamond
Publication.A boron-doped diamond (BDD) sensor is proposed for effective detection of chemical oxygen demand (COD) by means of amperometric technique. Boron-doped diamond thin films, acting as active sensors, were deposited on both silicon wafer and glassy carbon (GC) substrates by microwave plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition. SEM micrographs showed that BDD–Si displays triangle-faceted crystallites ca. 0.5–3 μm in size, while BDD–GC...
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3D polypyrrole structures as a sensing material for glucose detection
PublicationIn this work, 3D polypyrrole (PPy) structures as material for glucose detection is proposed. Polypyrrole was electrochemically polymerized on platinum screen-printed electrode from an aqueous solution of lithium perchlorate and pyrrole. The growth mechanism of such PPy structures was studied by ex-situ scanning electron microscopy. Preliminary studies show that studied here PPy film is a good candidate as a sensing material for...
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Machine-Learning-Based Global Optimization of Microwave Passives with Variable-Fidelity EM Models and Response Features
PublicationMaximizing microwave passive component performance demands precise parameter tuning, particularly as modern circuits grow increasingly intricate. Yet, achieving this often requires a comprehensive approach due to their complex geometries and miniaturized structures. However, the computational burden of optimizing these components via full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulations is substantial. EM analysis remains crucial for circuit...
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An Optimized Ka-Band Low Profile Dual-Polarized Transmitarray Antenna With 2D Beam Switching
PublicationThis article presents an optimized dual-polarized transmitarray antenna (TA) designed for MIMO applications at the Ka-band, capable of switching beams in two directions. The antenna aperture uses a small unit cell with three layers of Taconic RF-35 dielectric substrates, which can be easily fabricated using PCB technology. The unit cell achieved a 360-degree phase shift and a transmission magnitude exceeding –0.4 dB at 28 GHz....
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Fast surrogate-assisted simulation-driven design of compact microwave hybrid couplers
PublicationThis work presents a robust methodology for expedited simulation-driven design optimization of compact microwave hybrid couplers. The technique relies on problem decomposition, and a bot-tom–up design strategy, starting from the level of basic building blocks of the coupler, and finishing with a tuning procedure that exploits a fast surrogate model of the entire structure. The latter is constructed by cascading local response surface...
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Low-cost EM-Simulation-based Multi-objective Design Optimization of Miniaturized Microwave Structures
PublicationIn this work, a simple yet reliable technique for fast multi-objective design optimization of miniaturized microwave structures is discussed. The proposed methodology is based on point-by-point identification of a Pareto-optimal set of designs representing the best possible trade-offs between conflicting objectives such as electrical performance parameters as well as the size of the structure of interest. For the sake of computational...
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Deflated Preconditioned Solvers for Parametrized Local Model Order Reduction
PublicationOne of steps in the design of microwave filters is numerical tuning using full-wave simulators. Typically, it is a time-consuming process as it uses advanced computational methods, e.g. the finite-element method (FEM) and it usually requires multiple optimization steps before the specification goals are met. FEM involves solving a large sparse system of equations at many frequency points and therefore its computational cost is...
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Inverse Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problem Framework for the Synthesis of Coupled-Resonator Filters With Nonresonant Nodes and Arbitrary Frequency-Variant Reactive Couplings
PublicationA novel, general circuit-level description of coupledresonator microwave filters is introduced in this article. Unlike well-established coupling-matrix models based on frequency-invariant couplings or linear frequency-variant couplings (LFVCs), a model with arbitrary reactive frequencyvariant coupling (AFVC) networks is proposed. The engineered formulation is more general than prior-art ones—with the only restriction that the coupling...
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Laser-Induced Graphitization of Polydopamine on Titania Nanotubes
PublicationSince the discovery of laser-induced graphite/graphene, there has been a notable surge of scientific interest in advancing diverse methodologies for their synthesis and applications. This study focuses on the utilization of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser to achieve graphitization of polydopamine (PDA) deposited on the surface of titania nanotubes. The partial graphitization is corroborated through Raman and XPS spectroscopies and supported...
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an intelligent image processing sensor - the algorithm and the hardware implementation
PublicationW artykule przedstawiono algorytm przeznaczony do rozpoznawania obiektów ruchomych w obrazie do celu analizy ruchu pojazdów. Algorytm został zrealizowany w układzie FPGA.Ang.: This paper describes the idea and theimplementation of the robust algorithm dedicated toextraction of moving vehicles from real-time cameraimages for the evaluation of traffic parameters, suchas the number of vehicles, their direction of movementand their...
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Low-Profile ESPAR Antenna for RSS-Based DoA Estimation in IoT Applications
PublicationIn this paper, we have introduced a low-profile electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna that can successfully be used to estimate the direction-of-arrival (DoA) of incoming signals in wireless sensor network (WSN) applications, in which the height of the complete antenna has to be low. The proposed antenna is over three times lower than high-profile ESPAR antenna designs currently available in the literature...