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Search results for: SIZE REDUCTION
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Nontoxic Goiter (NTG) and Radioiodine: What Do Patients Think About It? Quality of Life in Patients with NTG Before and After 131-I Therapy
PublicationObjective Despite numerous publications regarding nontoxic goiter (NTG) treatment and an increasing interest in patients’ quality of life, few studies present the outcome of 131-I treatment from the patients’ perspective. Our study’s main aim was to verify whether there is any improvement in life quality following 131-I treatment. Materials and methods Thirty-five patients with NTG qualified to participate in the study. All patients...
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Slow-wave resonant structures in branch-line coupler miniaturization: a case study
PublicationA case study of novel slow-wave resonant structures dedicated to efficient microstrip branch-line coupler size reduction has been presented. A compact 3-dB branch-line coupler has been designed to mimic the performance of its conventional counterpart, simultaneously demonstrating a substantial 88% surface area reduction. The vital usefulness of the approach in the process of microstrip line abbreviation has been experimentally...
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An Experimentally Aided Operational Virtual Prototyping to Obtain the Best Spindle Speed during Face Milling of Large-Size Structures
PublicationAbstract: The paper presents an original method concerning the problem of vibration reduction in the general case while milling large-size and geometrically complex details with the use of an innovative approach to the selection of spindle speed. A computational model is obtained by applying the so-called operational approach to identify the parameters of the workpiece modal model. Thanks to the experimental modal analysis results,...
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Multi-objective design optimization of antennas for reflection, size, and gain variability using kriging surrogates and generalized domain segmentation
PublicationCost-efficient multi-objective design optimization of antennas is presented. The framework exploits auxiliary data-driven surrogates, a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm for initial Pareto front identification, response correction techniques for design refinement, as well as generalized domain segmentation. The purpose of this last mechanism is to reduce the volume of the design space region that needs to be sampled in order...
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Low-cost multi-criterial design optimization of compact microwave passives using constrained surrogates and dimensionality reduction
PublicationDesign of contemporary microwave circuits is a challenging task. Typically, it has to take into account several performance requirements and constraints. The design objectives are often conflicting and their simultaneous improvement may not be possible; instead, compromise solutions are to be sought. Representative examples are miniaturized microwave passives where reduction of the circuit size has a detrimental effect on its electrical...
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Chitosan pyrolysis in the presence of a ZnCl2/NaCl salts for carbons with electrocatalytic activity in oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solutions
PublicationThe one-step carbonization of low cost and abundant chitosan biopolymer in the presence of salt eutectics ZnCl2/NaCl results in nitrogen-doped carbon nanostructures (8.5 wt.% total nitrogen content). NaCl yields the spacious 3D structure, which allows external oxygen to easily reach the active sites for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) distinguished by their high onset potential and the maximum turnover frequency of 0.132 e...
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Design of a compact planar transmission line for miniaturized rat-race coupler with harmonics suppression
PublicationThis paper presents an elegant yet straightforward design procedure for a compact rat-race coupler (RRC) with an extended harmonic suppression. The coupler’s conventional λ/4 transmission lines (TLs) are replaced by a specialized TL that offers significant size reduction and harmonic elimination capabilities in the proposed approach. The design procedure is verified through the theoretical, circuit, and electromagnetic (EM) analyses,...
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Exergy Losses in the Szewalski Binary Vapor Cycle
PublicationIn this publication, we present an energy and exergy analysis of the Szewalski binary vapor cycle based on a model of a supercritical steam power plant. We used energy analysis to conduct a preliminary optimization of the cycle. Exergy loss analysis was employed to perform a comparison of heat-transfer processes, which are essential for hierarchical cycles. The Szewalski binary vapor cycle consists of a steam cycle bottomed with...
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Morphology, Photocatalytic and Antimicrobial Properties of TiO2 Modified with Mono- and Bimetallic Copper, Platinum and Silver Nanoparticles
PublicationNoble metal nanoparticles (NMNPs) enhanced TiO2 response and extended its activity under visible light. Photocatalytic activity of TiO2 modified with noble metal nanoparticles strongly depends on the physicochemical properties of NMNPs. Among others, the differences in the size of NMNPs seems to be one of the most important factors. In this view, the effect of the metal’s nanoparticles size, type and amount on TiO2 photocatalytic...
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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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N-doped mesoporous carbon nanosheets obtained by pyrolysis of a chitosan–melamine mixture for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media.
PublicationBy simple thermal decomposition of low-cost precursors (chitosan, melamine) in an inert atmosphere, nitrogen-doped porous carbonaceous materials were prepared. The samples pyrolyzed at 700 C are composed of mainly mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets and partially graphitized carbon. The nanosheets contain a disordered area due to the strain imposed by the presence of nitrogen and/or oxygen groups in their structure. Some...
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Interventions reducing car usage: Systematic review and meta-analysis
PublicationThis systematic literature review aimed to investigate the extent to which transport-related interventions induced a reduction in car use. Both qualitative synthesis and meta-analysis were employed. The synthesis included 31 original studies, while the meta-analysis included 21. Of the qualitatively synthesised studies, 74 % demonstrated that interventions were effective in reducing car use. The pooled estimates of the effects...
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Feedline Alterations for Optimization-Based Design of Compact Super-Wideband MIMO Antennas in Parallel Configuration
PublicationThis letter presents a technique for size reduction of wideband multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antennas. Our approach is a two-stage procedure. At the first stage, the antenna structure is modified to improve its impedance matching. This is achieved through incorporation of an n-section tapered feedline, followed by reoptimization of geometry parameters. Reducing the maximum in-band reflection well beyond the acceptance...
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Novel structure and EM-driven design of miniaturized microstrip rat-race coupler
PublicationIn this paper, a novel structure and design procedure of a miniaturized microstrip rat-race coupler (RRC) is described. Small size of the RRC is achieved by folding the transmission lines of the conventional circuit into its interior, as well as by implementation of the structure on three layers. The final size of the coupler realized for the operating frequency of 1 GHz is only 220 mm2, which gives over 95% footprint reduction...
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Small Antenna Design Using Surrogate-Based Optimization
PublicationIn this work, design of small antennas using efficient numerical optimization is investigated. We exploit variable-fidelity electromagnetic (EM) simulations and the adaptively adjusted design specifications (AADS) technique. Combination of these methods allows us to simultaneously adjust multiple geometry parameters of the antenna structure of interest in a computationally feasible manner, leading to substantial reduction of the...
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Nanoparticles preparation using microemulsion systems
PublicationMetallic nanoparticles become of current interests because they exhibit unique properties compared with those of metal atoms or bulk metal due to the quantum size effect and their large surface area, which make them attractive for applications in optics, electronics, catalysis biology and medicine. TiO2 has been used for environmental remediation purposes such as in the purification of water and air and also solar-to chemical energy...
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Nano-structured Pt embedded in acidic salts of heteropolymolybdate matrices: MS EXAFS study
PublicationA structural study of Pt nano-catalysts is presented in the paper. The innovation in the case of the considered catalytic materials resides in the use a meso-microporous inorganic matrix of heteropolyacid salt of composition X2.5H0.5YMo12O40 where X = Rb, Cs and Y = P, Si as a catalyst support. Metallic nanoparticles were created by platinum ions reduction in a hot H2/Argon stream and were mainly located into matrix pores. As the...
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Experimental study and numerical simulation on porosity dependent direct reducibility of high-grade iron oxide pellets in hydrogen
PublicationThe transition to more environmentally friendly steel production methods has intensified research into hydrogen-based direct reduction (HyDR) of iron oxide pellets. The aim of this study is to systematically investigate the kinetics of the reduction process, the evolution of porosity and the resulting microstructural changes on the reduction behavior of high-quality pellets during HyDR of iron ore at different temperatures. A modified...
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Reduced-cost constrained miniaturization of wideband antennas using improved trust-region gradient search with repair step
PublicationIn the letter, an improved algorithm for electromagnetic (EM)-driven size reduction of wideband antennas is proposed. Our methodology utilizes variable-fidelity EM simulation models, auxiliary polynomial regression surrogates, as well as multi-point response correction. The constraint handling is implicit, using penalty functions. The core optimization algorithm is a trust-region gradient search with a repair step added in order...
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Influence of nitrogen and organic matter fractions on wastewater treatment in treatment wetland
PublicationMunicipal wastewater contains both biodegradable and non-degradable pollutants. Moreover, they are present in dissolved, colloidal and particulate forms. These fractions are characterised by various decomposition rates, hence their bioavailability during microbial respiration. It was confirm that biological degradation rate in terms of COD reduction is influenced by particle size speciation. Therefore, the objective of the study...
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Improved-Efficacy EM-Based Antenna Miniaturization by Multi-Fidelity Simulations and Objective Function Adaptation
PublicationThe growing demands for integration of surface mount design (SMD) antennas into miniatur-ized electronic devices have been continuously imposing limitations on the structure dimen-sions. Examples include embedded antennas in applications such as on-board devices, picosatel-lites, 5G communications, or implantable and wearable devices. The demands for size reduction while ensuring a satisfactory level of the electrical and field...
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Series Passive Compensation of Common Mode Voltage in Multilevel Inverter Drives
PublicationThis paper presents an approach to the problem of a magnetic saturation of CM chokes that accompanies the method of passive compensation of a common mode (CM) voltage in an inverter drive system. Measurements have been provided in a drive system including multilevel inverters and the filter having sinusoidal output voltages and zero CM voltage. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the problem with magnetic...
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Multilevel Converters
PublicationThe newest Special Section is intended to focus on recent research and trends in application of multilevel converters. Multilevel converters have been extensively developed over the last two decades and show several important advantages of power electronic circuits, such as: operation at high voltages, harmonics reduction, higher efficiency, modularity, smaller size and lower cost. Also, thanks to increasing interest in renewable...
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Multi-objective optimization for assessment of topological modification in UWB antennas
PublicationThis paper addresses an issue of systematic and rigorous assessment of effects of topological modifications on the performance of compact UWB antennas. Application of fast surrogate-assisted multi-objective optimization procedures allows us for obtaining, in a practically acceptable timeframe, a set of designs representing the best possible trade-offs between conflicting objectives (here, antenna size minimization and reduction...
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Surrogate-assisted EM-driven miniaturization of wideband microwave couplers by means of co-simulation low-fidelity models
PublicationThis article proposes a methodology for rapid design optimization of miniaturized wideband couplers. More specifically, a class of circuits is considered, in which conventional transmission lines are replaced by their abbreviated counterparts referred to as slow-wave compact cells. Our focus is on explicit reduction of the structure size as well as on reducing the CPU cost of the design process. For the sake of computational feasibility,...
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Clays as Inhibitors of Polyurethane Foams’ Flammability
PublicationPolyurethanes are a very important group of polymers with an extensive range of applications in different branches of industry. In the form of foams, they are mainly used in bedding, furniture, building, construction, and automotive sectors. Due to human safety reasons, these applications require an appropriate level of flame retardance, often required by various law regulations. Nevertheless, without the proper modifications,...
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Analysis of circular polarization antenna design trade‐offs using low‐cost EM‐driven multiobjective optimization
PublicationCircular polarization (CP) antennas are vital components of modern communication systems. Their design involves handling several requirements such as low reflection and axial ratio (AR) within the frequency range of interest. Small size is an important criterion for antenna mobility which is normally achieved as a by‐product of performance‐oriented modifications of the structure topology. In this work, multiobjective optimization...
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Optimization of Hydrogen Utilization and Process Efficiency in the Direct Reduction of Iron Oxide Pellets: A Comprehensive Analysis of Processing Parameters and Pellet Composition
PublicationThe article deals with the H2 consumption for different processing conditions and the composition of the processed pellets during the direct reduction process. The experiments are carried out at 600–1300 °C, with gas pressures of 1–5 bar, gas flow rates of 1–5 L min−1, and basicity indices of 0 to 2.15. Pellets with different compositions of TiO2, Al2O3, CaO, and SiO2 are analyzed. The gas flow rate is crucial, with 0–10 L min−1...
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Slow-wave fractal-shaped compact microstrip resonant cell
PublicationA novel fractal-shaped compact microstrip resonant cell (CMRC) featuring a strong slow-wave effect has been presented. Its vital usefulness in the process of microstrip line miniaturisation has been proved and experimentally validated on the basis of a compact 3-dB branch-line coupler illustrating the possibilities of the approach. A prototype example structure has been designed to mirror the characteristics of a conventional device,...
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Looking for a minimum exergy destruction in hierarchical cycle
PublicationThe paper presents results of energy analysis, complemented with an exergy balance, of hierarchical thermodynamic cycle. Proposed cycle is a binary vapour cycle based on a model of real supercritical steam power plant. Energy analysis is used to preliminary optimization of the cycle and the exergy losses analysis is proposed to perform optimization of heat transfer processes, which are essential for hierarchical cycles. Proposed...
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Experimental and analytical analysis of punching shear in flat slabs supported on column topped with concrete head
PublicationAn experimental laboraatory test of the two series of slab-column elements topped with drop panels of varying sizes is described in this paper. The scope of the paper is to investigate the influence of the drop panel size and stiffness on the behaviour of the connection between the flat slab and the column topped by the concrete head. The impact of the head size and stiffness is analysed analytically and experimentally. The experimental...
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Optimization-based antenna miniaturization using adaptively-adjusted penalty factors
PublicationThe continuing trend for miniaturization of electronic devices necessitates size reduction of the comprising components and circuitry. Specifically, integrated circuit-antenna modules therein require compact radiators in applications such as 5G communications, implantable and on-body devices, or internet of things (IoT). The conflict between the demands for compact size and elec-trical and field performance can be mitigated by...
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Design and experimental verification of multi-layer waveguide using pin/hole structure
PublicationThis study presents a novel technique for minimizing RF leakage in metallic hollow waveguides fabricated using the multilayer split-block method. By integrating a pin/hole wall into the split-block multilayers, a substantial reduction of RF leakage can be achieved while reducing the circuit size and mitigating the performance variations. To validate the proposed approach, a slot antenna fed by single ridge waveguide has been prototyped...
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Study of the atomic structure and morphology of the Pt3Co nanocatalyst
PublicationThe local structure and chemical disorder of a commercially available Pt3Co nanocatalyst supported on high surface area carbon were investigated. High-quality XAFS spectra were collected at the ELETTRA synchrotron XAFS 11.1 beamline. XAFS spectra analysis have been performed accounting for the reduction of the coordination number and degeneracy of three-body configurations, resulting from transmission electron microscopy (TEM)...
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Synthesis and Characterization of Monometallic (Ag, Cu) and Bimetallic Ag-Cu Particles for Antibacterial and Antifungal Applications
PublicationIn this paper, the experimental studies are concerned with the effect of the synthesis parameters on the formation of monometallic Ag and Cu nanoparticles (NPs). We consider the synthesis strategies verification for the bimetallic core-shell and alloy particles preparation. It was successfully obtained by chemical reduction method. The obtained colloidal solution is characterized by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with...
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Miniaturization of ESPAR Antenna Using Low-Cost 3D Printing Process
PublicationIn this paper, the miniaturized electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna is presented. The size reduction was obtained by embedding its active and passive elements in polylactic acid (PLA) plastic material commonly used in low-cost 3D printing. The influence of 3D printing process imperfections on the ESPAR antenna design is investigated and a simple yet effective method to...
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Sustainable upcycling of brewers’ spent grain by thermo-mechanical treatment in twin-screw extruder
PublicationThermo-mechanical treatment of brewers’ spent grain (a by-product of beer manufacturing) was successfully performed via the extrusion process. The impact of temperature (from 30 to 180 °C), throughput (from 1 to 5 kg/h) and screw speed (from 75 to 375 rpm) on particle size, color, chemical structure, antioxidant activity and thermal stability of resulting material, as well as correlations between particular properties, were investigated....
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Miniaturized Metal-Mountable U-shaped Inductive-Coupling-Fed UHF RFID Tag Antenna with Defected Microstrip Surface
PublicationThis study presents a novel miniature ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) tag for metallic objects. Its arrangement includes a U-shaped feeder, which is inductively coupled to two E-type connected patches. Size reduction is achieved by means of utilizing the U-shaped feeder, and introducing a defection in the connection between the two E-type patches. The defection in the connection area between the...
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EM‐driven constrained miniaturization of antennas using adaptive in‐band reflection acceptance threshold
PublicationNumerical optimization of geometry parameters is a critical stage of the design process of compact antennas. It is also challenging because size reduction is constrained by the necessity of fulfilling imposed electrical performance requirements. Furthermore, full‐wave electromagnetic (EM) analysis needs to be used for reliable performance evaluation of the antenna structure, which is computationally expensive. In this paper, an...
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The influence of polypropylene-block/graft-polycaprolactone copolymers on melt rheology, morphology, and dielectric properties of polypropylene/polycarbonate blends
PublicationThe paper discusses the relationship between rheology and morphology of immiscible polypropylene (matrix))/polycarbonate (dispersed phase) blends compatibilized with novel polypropylene-polycaprolactone block and graft copolymers. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments revealed uniform droplet morphologies and a reduction of the average size of the dispersed phase upon addition of the compatibilizer. The results suggested...
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Optimization-Based High-Frequency Circuit Miniaturization through Implicit and Explicit Constraint Handling: Recent Advances
PublicationMiniaturization trends in high-frequency electronics have led to accommodation challenges in the integration of the corresponding components. Size reduction thereof has become a practical necessity. At the same time, the increasing performance demands imposed on electronic systems remain in conflict with component miniaturization. On the practical side, the challenges related to handling design constraints are aggravated by the...
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On geometry parameterization for simulation-driven design closure of antenna structures
PublicationFull-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools have become ubiquitous in antenna design, especially final tuning of geometry parameters. From the reliability standpoint, the recommended realization of EM-driven design is through rigorous numerical optimization. It is a challenging endeavor with the major issues related to the high computational cost of the process, but also the necessity of handling several objectives and constraints...
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Hybrid Modulation for Modular Voltage Source Inverters with Coupled Reactors
PublicationThis paper proposes and discusses a concept of a hybrid modulation for the control of modular voltage source inverters with coupled reactors. The use of coupled reactors as the integrating elements leads to significant reduction in the size and weight of the circuit. The proposed modulation combines novel coarsely quantized pulse amplitude modulation (CQ-PAM) and innovative space-vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM). The former...
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In Vitro and In Vivo Imaging-Based Evaluation of Doxorubicin Anticancer Treatment in Combination with the Herbal Medicine Black Cohosh
PublicationAs a substitution for hormone replacement therapy, many breast cancer patients use black cohosh (BC) extracts in combination with doxorubicin (DOX)-based chemotherapy. In this study, we evaluated the viability and survival of BC- and DOX-treated MCF-7 cells. A preclinical model of MCF-7 xenografts was used to determine the influence of BC and DOX administration on tumor growth and metabolism. The number of apoptotic cells after...
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Experimental Research on the Energy Efficiency of a Parallel Hybrid Drive for an Inland Ship
PublicationThe growing requirements for limiting the negative impact of all modes of transport on the natural environment mean that clean technologies are becoming more and more important. The global trend of e-mobility also applies to sea and inland water transport. This article presents the results of experimental tests carried out on a life-size, parallel diesel-electric hybrid propulsion system. The eciency of the propulsion system was...
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Structural properties of superconducting PrBa 2Cu 3O 7−δ single crystals
PublicationThe influence of high-temperature reduction/oxidation treatment on the structural properties of superconducting PrBa2Cu3O7−δ (PrBCO) single crystals was examined. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis has shown that even the short-lasting exposure to the oxygen-deficient atmosphere leads to creation of regular-shaped crystallites of PrBaO3 and BaCuO2 phases with the size of 0.5 ÷ 2.0 μm on the smooth and flat crystal...
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Novel topology of compact coplanar waveguide resonant cell low-pass filter
PublicationIn this study, a novel pseudoelliptic function low-pass filter (LPF) constituted by a compact coplanar waveguide resonant cell has been designed and manufactured. The lumped-element seven-pole prototype has been adequately realized by using complementary perturbations located both in signal line and ground plane metallization. The fabricated uniplanar LPF offers a compact size of 5.6 x 9.8 mm2, return loss better than 26 dB over...
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A robust design of a numerically demanding compact rat-race coupler
PublicationA fast and accurate design procedure of a computationally expensive microwave circuit has been presented step-by-step and experimentally validated on the basis of a compact rat-race coupler (RRC) comprising slow-wave resonant structures (SWRSs). The final compact RRC solution has been obtained by means of a sequential optimization scheme exploiting the implicit space mapping (ISM) algorithm. A well-suited surrogate optimization...
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A novel concept of enhanced direct-contact condensation of vapour- inert gas mixture in a spray ejector condenser
PublicationAn analytical model of direct steam condensation (DCC) in the novel idea of spray ejector condenser (SEC) in the presence of inert gas has been developed. It is based on continuity, momentum and energy equations for the steam-carbon dioxide mixture and direct contact condensation mechanisms due to heat transfer and concentration. Crucial in the process of DCC is atomisation of the motive fluid in the ejector. The effect of atomised...
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Direct Constraint Control for EM-Based Miniaturization of Microwave Passives
PublicationHandling constraints imposed on physical dimensions of microwave circuits has become an important design consideration over the recent years. It is primarily fostered by the needs of emerging application areas such as 5G mobile communications, internet of things, or wearable/implantable devices. The size of conventional passive components is determined by the guided wavelength, and its reduction requires topological modifications,...