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Comparison of High Performance Liquid Chromatography Methods with Different Detectors for Determination of Steroid Hormones in Aqueous Matrices
PublicationThis paper presents the development and comparison of procedures for the qualitative and quantitative determination of five estrogenic compounds (17-a-ethynylestradiol, estrone, estradiol, estriol, and progesterone) in drinking water and wastewater samples. Five extraction columns and two disks were tested for their efficiency. The C18 columns were superior on the basis of cost for solid phase extraction of drinking water or sewage....
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Chemical, thermal and laser processes in recycling of photovoltaic silicon solar cells and modules
PublicationIn recent years, photovoltaic power generation systems have been gaining unprecedented attention as an environmentally beneficial method to solve the energy problem. From the economic point of view the pure silicon, which can be recapture from the used cells, is the most important material due to its cost and shortage. In the paper selected methods of used or damaged module and cells recycling and experimental results are presented....
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Smartphone application supporting independent movement of the blind
PublicationImproving comfort of life of blind people is a problem of great importance. Neither a white canenor a guide dog, although both very useful, can be considered as a tool for achieving fullindependence in everyday movement around the city. On the market there are some navigation toolsinspired by car navigation systems, but they have many flaws, ranging from positioninginaccuracies to high prices. The authors present their own solution...
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A Developer's View of Application Servers Interoperability
PublicationThe paper describes analysis of application servers interoperability that considers both the available level of integration and the required level of development complexity. Development complexity ranges from simple GUI operations to changes of undocumented features in configuration files. We verify if an integration can be established on a given level of development complexity, rather than verify if it is objectively feasible....
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Supervisory Control System for Adaptive Phase and Work Cycle Management of Sequencing Wastewater Treatment Plant
PublicationThe paper presents the design of the integrated control system applied to Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) in a biological Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Swarzewo, which operates under activated sludge technology. Based on the real data records, ASM2d biological processes model and aeration system model, hierarchical control system for dissolved oxygen tracking and cycle management is designed. Internal Model Controller (IMC)...
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Rapid multi-objective antenna design using point-by-point Pareto set identification and local surrogate models
PublicationAntenna design is inherently a multicriterial problem.Determination of the best possible tradeoffs between conflicting objectives (a so-called Pareto front), such as reflection response, gain, and antenna size, is indispensable from the designer’s point of view, yet challenging when high-fidelity electromagnetic (EM) simulations are utilized for performance evaluation. Here, a novel and computationally...
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Parallel implementation of background subtraction algorithms for real-time video processing on a supercomputer platform
PublicationResults of evaluation of the background subtraction algorithms implemented on a supercomputer platform in a parallel manner are presented in the paper. The aim of the work is to chose an algorithm, a number of threads and a task scheduling method, that together provide satisfactory accuracy and efficiency of a real-time processing of high resolution camera images, maintaining the cost of resources usage at a reasonable level. Two...
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Optoelectronic device for hematocrit measurements
PublicationAn optoelectronic system for measurements of hematocrit level (HCT) in the whole human blood is presented. Proposed system integrates a dedicated optoelectronic sensor, a microcontroller and a small LCD display in a low cost, battery-powered, handheld device. Chosen method for determining blood hematocrit level is based on optical properties of whole blood in visible and NIR wavelength range. Measurements with the use of proposed...
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Accelerated simulation-driven design optimisation of compact couplers by means of two-level space mapping
PublicationIn this study, the authors discuss a robust and efficient technique for rapid design of compact couplers. The approach exploits two-level space mapping (SM) correction of an equivalent circuit model of the coupler structure under design. The first SM layer (local correction) is utilised to ensure good matching between the equivalent circuit and the electromagnetic model at the component level. Subsequent global correction allows...
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Friction and Lubrication of Large Tilting-Pad Thrust Bearings
PublicationFluid film bearings have been extensively used in the industry because of their unbeatable durability and extremely low friction coefficient, despite a very low coefficient of friction dissipation of energy being noticeable, especially in large bearings. Lubricating systems of large tilting pad thrust bearings utilized in large, vertical shaft hydrogenerators are presented in this paper. A large amount of heat is generated due...
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UE ETS: an in-depth descriptive analysis.
PublicationThe European Emission Trading System (EU ETS) plays a pivotal role in the EU’s strategy to address climate change, serving as a fundamental instrument for cost-effective reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, it inaugurated the word’s first major carbon market and it continues to the largest one. Chapter 1 provides an in-depth examination of the EU ETS, spanning from its inception in 2005 to 2020. After providing a descriptive...
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Performance Comparison of Automatically Generated Topologically Agnostic Patch Antennas
PublicationReal-world antenna design typically relies on empirical methods, where the development starts with structure synthesis followed by its iterative adjustments to achieve the desired performance. Although the outlined approach proved to be successful, it is also dependent on engineering experience. Alternatively, development can be performed automatically based on the specifications. In this work, an unsupervised design of topologically...
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Simplified approach to assess the dynamic response of a container ship subjected to bow slamming load
PublicationSimplified approach to assess the dynamic response of a container ship subjected to the bow slamming load, resulting in a transient vibratory response, typically called a 'whip-ping', is presented. The accurate numerical modelling is very complex and involves cou-pling of the hydrodynamic and structural solution at every time step, leading to huge com-putational and workload cost. Thus, the one-way coupling methodology is adopted,...
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Metamaterial-Based Sub-Microwave Electromagnetic Field Energy Harvesting System
PublicationThis paper presents the comprehensive analysis of the sub-microwave, radio frequency band resonant metastructures’ electromagnetic properties with a particular emphasis on the possibility of their application in energy harvesting systems. Selected structures based on representative topologies of metamaterials have been implemented in the simulation environment. The models have been analyzed and their substitute average electromagnetic...
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Integration of the sulfate reduction and anammox processes for enhancing sustainable nitrogen removal in granular sludge reactors
PublicationThe Anammox and Sulfate Reduction Ammonium Oxidation processes were compared in two granular sequencing batch reactors operated for 160 days under anammox conditions. It was hypothesized that increasing the concentration of SO42− may positively influence the rate of N removal under anaerobic conditions and it was tested whether SO42− reduction and anammox occur independently or are related to each other. The cooperation of N-S...
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Ecology In Tribology: Selected Problems of Eliminating Natural Oil-Based Lubricants from Machine Friction Couples
PublicationThe elimination of mineral oil-based lubricants from machines has multiple beneficial effects on the natural environment. Firstly – these lubricants are a direct threat to the environment in the event of leaks; secondly – their elimination reduces the demand for crude oil from which they are obtained. In addition, in many cases, e.g. when replacing traditional lubricants with water, friction losses in the bearings can also be reduced...
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Acoustic Detector of Road Vehicles Based on Sound Intensity
PublicationA method of detecting and counting road vehicles using an acoustic sensor placed by the road is presented. The sensor measures sound intensity in two directions: parallel and perpendicular to the road. The sound intensity analysis performs acoustic event detection. A normalized position of the sound source is tracked and used to determine if the detected event is related to a moving vehicle and to establish the direction of movement....
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A nontargeted approach to determine the authenticity of Ginkgo biloba L. plant materials and dried leaf extracts by liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) and chemometrics
PublicationThe lack of stringent regulations regarding raw materials for herbal supplements used for medicinal purposes has been a constant challenge in the industry. Ginkgo biloba L. leaf extracts attract consumers because of the supposed positive effect on mental performance and memory. Supplements are produced using dried leaf materials and standardized leaf extracts such as EGb 761. Adulteration of Ginkgo biloba L. plants and extracts...
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Hybrid Finite Element Method Development for Offshore Structures’ Calculation with the Implementation of Industry Standards
PublicationIn the design process of offshore steel structures, it is typical to employ commercial calculation codes in which simulation and evaluation of results are performed on the basis of the available standards (e.g. API, DNV, Lloyds). The modeling and solution rely on finite element methods and cover the simulation of the structure’s properties along with the influence of the marine environment – sea currents, wave and wind loading,...
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Ionic liquids in extraction techniques: Determination of pesticides in food and environmental samples
PublicationThe intensive use of pesticides in agricultural practices has promoted the appearance of environmentaland public health problems. Due to that, scientists face challenges with developing simple, fast, sensitive,selective, and low-cost methods dedicated to determining pesticide residues in food and environmentalsamples. Following thefifth principle of Green Analytical Chemistry, chemists are searching for greeneralternatives for...
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A state of the art review on the use of fungi in biofiltration to remove volatile hydrophobic pollutants
PublicationThe physical/chemical abatement of gas pollutants creates many technical problems, is costly and entails significant environmental impacts. Biological purification of off-gases is a cheap and ecologically safe way of neutralization of gas pollutants. Despite the recent advances, the main technological challenge nowadays is the purification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of hydrophobic character due to their low solubility...
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Microporous N-Doped Carbon Obtained from Salt Melt Pyrolysis of Chitosan toward Supercapacitor and Oxygen Reduction Catalysts
PublicationThe direct carbonization of low-cost and abundant chitosan biopolymer in the presencesalt eutectics leads to highly microporous, N-doped nanostructures. The microporous structureeasily manufactured using eutectic mixture (ZnCl2 -KCl) and chitosan. Potassium ions here can act as an intercalating agent, leading to the formation of lamellar carbon sheets, whereas zinc chloride generates significant porosity. Here, we present an efficient...
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Evaluation of organic coating systems for corrosion protection of industrial equipment using impedance spectroscopy
PublicationThe high economic impact of corrosion can be reduced by enhanced corrosion management and prevention based on appropriate means. This applies in particular to the protection of structures with organic protective coatings. Steel is subject to corrosion that reduces its service life and leads to destruction in most severe cases. The application of paints to metallic objects for corrosion control has been known for a long time and...
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Big Data Analytics for ICT Monitoring and Development
PublicationThe expanded growth of information and communication technology has opened new era of digitization which is proving to be a great challenge for researchers and scientists around the globe. The utmost paradigm is to handle and process the explosion of data with minimal cost and discover relevant hidden information in the least amount of time. The buzz word “BIG DATA” is a widely anticipated term with the potential to handle heterogeneous,...
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Electronic noses: Powerful tools in meat quality assessment
PublicationMain factors that are considered by consumers when choosing meat products are colour and aroma, of which the latter is a more reliable indicator of quality. However, a simple sensory evaluation of hedonistic qualities is often not sufficient to determine whether protein is past its shelf life, and consumption of spoiled meat can lead to serious health hazards. Some volatile compounds can be used as spoilage indicators, and so a...
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Wybrane zagadnienia optymalizacji organizacji ruchu kolejowego w celu minimalizacji kosztów energii elektrycznej
PublicationW artykule przedstawiono podział kosztów w transporcie kolejowym z uwzględnieniem kosztów wewnętrznych przedsiębiorstwa, do których zaliczają się między innymi koszty dostępu do infrastruktury, czy koszty energii. Stwierdzono, że przy odpowiedniej organizacji ruchu pociągów na sieci kolejowej, bez ponoszenia dodatkowych nakładów na infrastrukturę i specjalistyczne urządzenia, można znacznie ograniczyć zużycie energii, a co za tym...
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Analiza wyników monitoringu odbieraków prądu w warunkach ruchowych na linii kolejowej
PublicationOmówiono metodę ciągłego monitorowania stanu odbieraków prądu na linii kolejowej w oparciu o pomiar uniesienia przewodów jezdnych sieci trakcyjnej w czasie przejazdu pociągu. Omówiono zasadę działania wdrożonego stanowiska monitoringu. Opisano algorytmy analizy danych pomiarowych - w szczególności oszacowania siły statycznej odbieraka prądu - i przyjęte kryteria oceny odbieraka. W analizie bierze się pod uwagę także prędkość pociągu...
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Effects of Addictive Substances During Pregnancy and Infancy and Their Analysis in Biological Materials
PublicationThe use of addictive substances during pregnancy is a serious social problem, not only because of effects on the health of the woman and child, but also because drug or alcohol dependency it detracts from childcare and enhances the prospect of child neglect and family breakdown. Developing additive substance abuse treatment programs for pregnant women is socially important and can help ensure the health of babies, prevent subsequent...
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Multi-agent graph searching and exploration algorithms
PublicationA team of mobile entities, which we refer to as agents or searchers interchangeably, starting from homebases needs to complete a given task in a graph.The goal is to build a strategy, which allows agents to accomplish their task. We analyze strategies for their effectiveness (e.g., the number of used agents, the total number of performed moves by the agents or the completion time).Currently, the fields of on-line (i.e., agents...
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Optimal Placement of Phasor Measurement Unit in Power System using Meta-Heuristic Algorithms
PublicationThe phasor measurement units (PMUs) play an important and vital role in power system monitoring and controlling, since they provide the power system phasors stamped with a common real time reference through a global positioning system (GPS). Indeed, from economical point of view it is not possible to set PMUs in all system buses due to the high cost and the requirement of more complex communication...
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Fast service restoration under shared protection at lightpath level in survivable WDM mesh grooming networks
PublicationW artykule zaproponowano nowe podejście do optymalizacji rozdziału zasobów w przeżywalnych sieciach optycznych z agregacją strumieni ruchu. Zaproponowana metoda bazuje na wierzchołkowym kolorowaniu grafu konfliktów. Jest pierwszym podejściem, dedykowanym sieciom optycznym z agregację strumieni ruchu z pełną zdolnością do konwersji długości fal, która nie powoduje wydłużenia ściezek zabezpieczjących, a więc zapewnia szybkie odtwarzanie...
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Knowledge Sharing and Creativity: Individual and Organizational Perspective
PublicationThe flow of knowledge between employees contributes to the knowledge development which in turn influences individual and organizational creativity. However knowledge sharing by employees is not a simplistic and homogeneous behaviour. Basing on the literature review in the area of intraorganizational knowledge sharing and creativity, the author aims to explain the relation between giving knowledge and individual (giver) creativity,...
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Recovery and re-use of photovoltaic solar cells from crystalline silicon
PublicationCrystalline silicon-type PV modules consist, in order of mass, of glass, an aluminium frame, an EVA coating, solar cells, a terminal box, back film and tapping screws. From the economic point of view, pure silicon, recoverable from spent cells, is the most important material owing to its cost and shortage. For crystalline, silicon-based PV cells, the following chemical treatments were performed: removal of the metal coating, followed...
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Progress in development of molecularly imprinted polymers as sorbents for sample preparation
PublicationSample preparation has been one of the most often investigated steps in analytical procedures.These investigations are focused on problems such as isolation of analytes from the sample matrix, matrix implification, analyte enrichment to the level above the detection limit of the instrumentation used, and the removal of interfering species to improve the final determination. Techniques based on solid (adsorption) and pseudo liquid...
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Quantifying Contextuality
PublicationContextuality is central to both the foundations of quantum theory and to the novel information processing tasks. Despite some recent proposals, it still faces a fundamental problem: how to quantify its presence? In this work, we provide a universal framework for quantifying contextuality. We conduct two complementary approaches: (i) the bottom-up approach, where we introduce a communication game, which grasps the phenomenon of...
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A Review of Recent Advances in Human-Motion Energy Harvesting Nanogenerators, Self-Powering Smart Sensors and Self-Charging Electronics
PublicationIn recent years, portable and wearable personal electronic devices have rapidly developed with increasing mass production and rising energy consumption, creating an energy crisis. Using batteries and supercapacitors with limited lifespans and environmental hazards drives the need to find new, environmentally friendly, and renewable sources. One idea is to harness the energy of human motion and convert it into electrical energy...
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Integrated Photocatalytic Advanced Oxidation System (TiO2/UV/O3/H2O2) for Degradation of Volatile Organic Compounds
PublicationSeveral advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) including photocatalytic processes were studied for effective treatment of complex model wastewater containing a wide variety of VOCs. The studies revealed synergistic effects of TiO2 based processes for improved degradation of the VOCs. A peroxone combined with TiO2/UV system (TiO2/UV/O3/H2O2) with a ratio between the oxygen source from the oxidant to chemical oxygen demand (COD) of...
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Multi-Fidelity Local Surrogate Model for Computationally Efficient Microwave Component Design Optimization
PublicationIn order to minimize the number of evaluations of high-fidelity (“fine”) model in the optimization process, to increase the optimization speed, and to improve optimal solution accuracy, a robust and computational-efficient multi-fidelity local surrogate-model optimization method is proposed. Based on the principle of response surface approximation, the proposed method exploits the multi-fidelity coarse models and polynomial interpolation...
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Rapid redesign of multiband antennas with respect to operating conditions and material parameters of substrate
PublicationThis work addresses geometry parameter scaling of multi-band antennas for Internet of Things applications. The presented approach is comprehensive and permits re-design of the structure with respect to both the operating frequencies and material parameters of the dielectric substrate. A two-step procedure is developed with the initial design obtained from an inverse surrogate model constructed using a set of appropriately prepared...
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Towards improved energy efficiency of future smart ships by application of advanced CFD simulations – case study
PublicationThe international trade plays crucial role in today’s globally developed world’s economy. Many people are unaware of the unimaginable volume of cargo being transported every year by oceans and seas. For most of the time invisible from land the shipping industry preserves its strong position of the most cost-efficient and environmental friendly mean of transport. However during last years the shipping industry is under great pressure...
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Experience-Based Decisional DNA (DDNA) to Support Product Development
PublicationKnowledge and experience are important requirements for product development. The aim of this paper is to propose a systematic approach for industrial product development. This approach uses smart knowledge management system comprising of Set of Experience Knowledge Structure and Decisional DNA (DDNA) along with Virtual Engineering Tools (Virtual engineering object, Virtual engineering process, and Virtual engineering factory)....
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Explicit Size-Reduction-Oriented Design of a Compact Microstrip Rat-Race Coupler Using Surrogate-Based Optimization Methods
PublicationIn this paper, an explicit size reduction of a compact rat-race coupler implemented in a microstrip technology is considered. The coupler circuit features a simple topology with a densely arranged layout that exploits a combination of high- and low-impedance transmission line sections. All relevant dimensions of the structure are simultaneously optimized in order to explicitly reduce the coupler size while maintaining equal power...
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Inverse modeling for fast design optimization of small-size rat-race couplers incorporating compact cells
PublicationIn the paper, a framework for computationally-efficient design optimization of compact rat-race couplers (RRCs) is discussed. A class of hybrid RRCs with variable operating conditions is investigated, whose size reduction is obtained by replacing ordinary transmission lines with compact microstrip resonant cells (CMRCs). Our approach employs a bottom-up design strategy leading to the development of compact RRCs through rapid design...
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Evaluation of the Commercial Electrochemical Gas Sensors for the Monitoring of CO in Ambient Air
PublicationAir pollution is a growing concern of civilized world, which has a significant impact on human health and the environment. Recent studies highlight that the exposure to polluted air can increase the incidence of diseases and deteriorate the quality of life. Hence, it is necessary to develop tools for real-time air quality monitoring. For air pollution monitoring a wide range of stationary gas and particulate analysers can be used....
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Framework for Structural Health Monitoring of Steel Bridges by Computer Vision
PublicationThe monitoring of a structural condition of steel bridges is an important issue. Good condition of infrastructure facilities ensures the safety and economic well-being of society. At the same time, due to the continuous development, rising wealth of the society and socio-economic integration of countries, the number of infrastructural objects is growing. Therefore, there is a need to introduce an easy-to-use and relatively low-cost...
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In-Situ Processing of Biocomposites via Reactive Extrusion
PublicationLaw regulations, economic and environmental factors are the main causes for the rapidly growing interests in biocomposites’ research, conducted currently in a number of academic and industrial scientific centers. However, weak polymer matrix/filler interactions, common in biocomposites, result in unsatisfactory mechanical properties, which limit their practical applications. From many attempts performed to solve this problem, in-situ...
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Cancer-selective, single agent chemoradiosensitising gold nanoparticles
PublicationTwo nanometre gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), bearing sugar moieties and/or thiol-polyethylene glycol-amine (PEG-amine), were synthesised and evaluated for their in vitro toxicity and ability to radiosensitise cells with 220 kV and 6 MV X-rays, using four cell lines representing normal and cancerous skin and breast tissues. Acute 3 h exposure of cells to AuNPs, bearing PEG-amine only or a 50:50 ratio of alpha-galactose derivative and...
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Three levels of fail-safe mode in MPI I/O NVRAM distributed cache
PublicationThe paper presents architecture and design of three versions for fail-safe data storage in a distributed cache using NVRAM in cluster nodes. In the first one, cache consistency is assured through additional buffering write requests. The second one is based on additional write log managers running on different nodes. The third one benefits from synchronization with a Parallel File System (PFS) for saving data into a new file which...
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Pose-Invariant Face Detection by Replacing Deep Neurons with Capsules for Thermal Imagery in Telemedicine
PublicationAbstract— The aim of this work was to examine the potential of thermal imaging as a cost-effective tool for convenient, non- intrusive remote monitoring of elderly people in different possible head orientations, without imposing specific behavior on users, e.g. looking toward the camera. Illumination and pose invariant head tracking is important for many medical applications as it can provide information, e.g. about vital signs, sensory...
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Performance‐driven modeling of compact couplers in restricted domains
PublicationFast surrogate models can play an important role in reducing the cost of EM-driven design closure of miniaturized microwave components. Unfortunately, construction of such models is challenging due to curse of dimensionality and wide range of geometry parameters that need to be included in order to make it practically useful. In this letter, a novel approach to design-oriented modeling of compact couplers is presented. Our method...