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In this paper, seven groups of sheet insulation for use in liquid nitrogen immersed power transformers have been tested under three different standard electrodes from ASTM D149-97a. The seven groups consist of three different types of paper/film, nonadhesive Kapton 100 HN (Kapton), THERNOMID 14.20 paper (NMN), and Nomex 410 paper (Nomex). The porous paper, Nomex 410, is found to have ac dielectric strength of 62–68 kV/mm, which is likely to be independent from its thickness. The nonporous film, Kapton, shows the dielectric strength of 288 kV/mm, whereas NMN paper has a dielectric strength of 74–78 kV/mm, larger than Nomex with similar thickness. Liquid nitrogen gaps near the triple junction of electrodes as well as liquid nitrogen pockets between the fibers are the main sources of partial discharge (PD) for NMN and Nomex. For Kapton, PDs are more likely to occur in the cavities filled with liquid nitrogen, either on the surface of the electrode or around the impurities on the surface of the film. Electrodes with a small stressed volume are more appropriate for dielectric tests of thin paper/film insulation, such as Kapton, due to the lower influence of cavities on the electrode surface. In contrast, electrodes with a large stressed volume and uniform electric field distribution are suitable for the papers such as Nomex and NMN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special Feature that lists the names of people involved in the review of technical papers for the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications and Industry Applications Magazine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the nature of thermally upgraded Kraft electrical insulating papers and their characterization by measurement of nitrogen content is discussed. A historical context and explanation of the basics of the various chemical methods used to measure nitrogen content in electrical papers is presented. The Kjeldahl and Dumas methods for quantifying nitrogen content were compared using six insulating papers in different laboratories in an effort to correlate the results obtained with both techniques. The results provide an insight into the viability of the Dumas combustion method as a proposed industry standard test for measuring the nitrogen content of paper. Moreover, data on the accuracy, reproducibility, and repeatability of the Dumas method is provided for the analysis of thermally upgraded electrical papers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper the accelerated aging experiments of oil-paper insulation are carried out to simulate the oil-paper aging process under normal thermal aging process. On the basis of the results of accelerated aging experiments, how the deviation degree of aging status change under the same aging factors is studied, and a method to calculate the failure probability due to the loss of mechanical strength of the insulation is put forward. This paper presents an approach for economic assessment on insulation diagnosis through accelerated aging experiments. The foundation of this approach for economic assessment on insulation diagnosis is to establish condition simulation method of triple relationships between condition status, aging time and failure probability according to data from accelerated aging experiments. The conclusions are made that the economic and technical factors can affect the optimum life cycle cost of each maintenance strategy, which consequently affects the economic feasibility of condition-based maintenance strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voltage rise caused by high levels of distributed generation is manifesting as voltage regulation challenges for many electricity network service providers. In this environment it would be ideal to reduce supply voltage magnitudes, however, many network operators are hesitant to do so due to concerns related to consumer appliance performance at reduced supply voltage magnitudes. Voltage regulation requirements are defined by network standards and network service providers must ensure voltages remain within specified limits. Through an evaluation of domestic appliance performance when supplied at various voltage magnitudes, this paper examines the impact of varying voltage levels on residential appliances. Equipment energy demand, operation and actuation were monitored for each applied voltage magnitude. While no equipment failures were recorded, appliance behaviour varied significantly with applied voltage magnitude. Individual appliance conservation voltage reduction (CVR) factors have also been established. The results highlight the importance of good voltage regulation and provide substantiated appliance performance figures for future studies. The outcomes of this paper allow electricity network service providers to understand the implications of supply voltage magnitude on domestic appliance performance, whether it be understating of the impact of higher voltage magnitudes caused by distributed generation or implications of reducing voltage magnitudes to provide headroom for distributed generation integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest 2011 edition of the IEEE C57.100 standard introduced a new sealed tube accelerated aging test (STAAT) procedure and methodology for evaluating the thermal index (TI) of liquid-immersed transformer insulation systems. The application of this standard becomes increasingly important, as new insulating materials (both solid and liquid) have been developed, and their thermal performance shall be qualified. The experimental work presented in this article investigated the effects of different test parameters on the aging test results and data interpretation. The new findings on the dependence of the aging process on the ratio and type of materials in the system, as well as on the selected aging criteria provide a better understanding of the accelerated aging and interpretation of the data along with practical recommendations for the improvement of the test procedure. In parallel, for the first time, the TI of the Transformerboard, as a component of the so-called industry-proven insulation system, was investigated and defined based on the standard industry test. The results confirmed that the Transformerboard’s thermal class is, at least, 120 °C; this validates an empirically based application of this material as a part of the 120 °C class insulation system in both power and distribution transformers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To satisfy the requirement of quality control in printing and packaging industry, a sheet counting apparatus is developed, which adopts a line-scan camera to image the fringes of sheet stack and is able to provide a real-time and noncontact measurement of their quantity. With a brief introduction of the system architecture, our main work focuses on the sheet counting algorithms. The basic principle is to identify each sheet profile from the 1-D image with a robust ridge strength measurement. First, a multiscale bi-Gaussian ridge likelihood measurement and a ridge-valley descriptor are utilized to improve adjacent objects detection by increasing local contrast around sheet fringes. Then, a sheet recognition scheme, which integrates a peak detection algorithm and the ridge region criteria for verification, is proposed to discriminate true sheets from the obtained ridgeness measure. According to experiments and tests in real production lines, our apparatus can reach a very high measuring accuracy for printing papers or cards with a thickness not <0.2 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This issue of the Communications Standards Supplement includes updated versions of selected papers from the seventh International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Kaleidoscope Academic Conference. The conference took place in Barcelona, Spain, 9-11 December 2015, as part of the celebration of the ITU's 150th anniversary. The topic of the conference was "Trust in the Information Society", and the event was technically co-sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Communication Society, and the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers of Japan (IEICE). The conference host was the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this special section we bring you a practice and experience effort in reproducibility for large-scale computational science at SC20. This section includes nine critiques, each by a student team that reproduced results from a paper published at SC19, during the following year’s Student Cluster Competition. The paper is also included in this section and has been expanded upon, now including an analysis of the outcomes of the students’ reproducibility experiments. Lastly, this special section encapsulates a variety of advances in reproducibility in the SC conference series technical program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the overview and rationale behind the Decoder-Side Depth Estimation (DSDE) mode of the MPEG Immersive Video (MIV) standard, using the Geometry Absent profile, for efficient compression of immersive multiview video. A MIV bitstream generated by an encoder operating in the DSDE mode does not include depth maps. It only contains the information required to reconstruct them in the client or in the cloud: decoded views and metadata. The paper explains the technical details and techniques supported by this novel MIV DSDE mode. The description additionally includes the specification on Geometry Assistance Supplemental Enhancement Information which helps to reduce the complexity of depth estimation, when performed in the cloud or at the decoder side. The depth estimation in MIV is a non-normative part of the decoding process, therefore, any method can be used to compute the depth maps. This paper lists a set of requirements for depth estimation, induced by the specific characteristics of the DSDE. The depth estimation reference software, continuously and collaboratively developed with MIV to meet these requirements, is presented in this paper. Several original experimental results are presented. The efficiency of the DSDE is compared to two MIV profiles. The combined non-transmission of depth maps and efficient coding of textures enabled by the DSDE leads to efficient compression and rendering quality improvement compared to the usual encoder-side depth estimation. Moreover, results of the first evaluation of state-of-the-art multiview depth estimators in the DSDE context, including machine learning techniques, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Series presents selected papers from the ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference that convened in Kyoto, Japan from the 22nd to 24th of April 2013. The topic of the conference was "Building Sustainable Communities," in recognition of the challenges that Japan is facing after the Great East Earthquake. The hosts were the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication (MIC) of Japan and Kyoto University. Kyoto University is the second oldest Japanese national university after the University of Tokyo. It was founded in 1897 following the Meiji Restoration, which adopted various western systems to build a modern state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge accumulation is considered a crucial factor for generating sustained economic growth. Therefore, both knowledge spillovers and externalities are considered drivers of economic development. Standardization is a vital feature of technological progress. It involves triggering adoptions of innovation by reducing market uncertainty between consumers and producers. Standards cannot be implemented without using technology covered by the claims of patents. This paper investigates knowledge spillover through the inward and outward knowledge flow from technology standards. Studies have investigated the quantitative and qualitative effects of technological standards. However, there still exists a lack of understanding regarding the knowledge spillover and externality that results from technological standardization. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap in the literature by elucidating the codified knowledge spillover that underlies patented technologies at the technical, organizational, and industrial standard levels. This paper explores the characteristic patterns of knowledge spillover associated with technology standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New methods for extending the tunability range in second-order voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) with quadrature outputs are presented and compared in this paper. Linear dependence is the most common type of relation between frequency of oscillations (FO) and control voltage (or current) in communication subsystems (VCOs). However, there are other nonlinear types of dependencies that are advantageous (quadratic and cubic) and should be further studied. Positions of controllable blocks within the structure of the oscillator (providing parameters influencing time constants of integrators) in two scenarios are studied together. The impact of controllable parameters of these additional elements on FO as well as on produced output signal levels is evaluated. The simulation and experimental results are shown to confirm expected behavior of solutions in the case of the quadratic type of control of FO. Nowadays, standard linear control offers a tunability ratio 10:1 (for the same ratio of parameters that control the FO) only. However, in this paper, the experimental tests yield a tunability ratio 80:1 (50 kHz–4 MHz) for dc control voltage within the range 0.175–1.75 V (10:1). The presented approach is very beneficial for low supply voltage systems requiring a wide range of tunability and also for utilizing active devices having limited range of adjustability of their controllable parameters while still requiring wide tunability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many modern navigation systems and map-based services do not only provide the fastest route from a source location $s$ s to a target location $t$ t but also provide a few alternative routes to the users as more options to choose from. Consequently, computing alternative paths has received significant research attention. However, it is unclear which of the existing approaches generates alternative routes of better quality because the quality of these alternatives is mostly subjective. Motivated by this, in this paper, we present a user study conducted on the road networks of Melbourne, Dhaka and Copenhagen that compares the quality (as perceived by the users) of the alternative routes generated by four of the most popular existing approaches including the routes provided by Google Maps. We also present a web-based demo system that can be accessed using any internet-enabled device and allows users to see the alternative routes generated by the four approaches for any pair of selected source and target. We report the average ratings received by the four approaches and our statistical analysis shows that there is no credible evidence that the four approaches receive different ratings on average. We also discuss the limitations of this user study and recommend the readers to interpret these results with caution because certain factors may have affected the participants’ ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In embedded real-time virtualized systems (ERTVS), the ARINC 653 standard specifies a cyclic scheduling policy to guarantee the real-time performance of tasks in multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) residing on shared hardware. Based on this policy, the Regularity-based Resource Partitioning (RRP) model defines an efficient interface specification to hierarchically partition and assign resource slices among VMs. Although this model has received plenty of attention recently, three major pieces remain missing for applying this model in ERTVS. (1) Embedded systems are more sensitive to resource utilization efficiency since this may drastically affect their deployment cost for including additional cores. Therefore, this paper proposes an optimal and an approximate RRP resource scheduler for multi-core platforms. (2) A resource reconfiguration is required when an embedded system has to switch between operating modes, resulting in the current cyclic schedule being replaced by another pre-configured and verified cyclic schedule. This paper formalizes a new One-Hop Reconfiguration (OHR) problem tailored for mode-switch-capable embedded systems and introduces a corresponding optimal solution. (3) No RRP-based toolset is currently available for embedded systems. This paper thus presents an optimized RRP toolset tailored for embedded systems. Numerous experiments are conducted to evaluate the efficacy of this toolset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchrophasor estimators are nowadays evaluated with the Total Vector Error (TVE) using the synchrophasor representations of the few benchmark signals. This synchrophasor dependence prevents its application to power signals of real events. A new method to obtain the synchrophasor of real signals is proposed in this paper. A finite impulse response (FIR) filter, designed with the nonic O-spline is proposed to obtain phasor estimates asymptotically close to those of an ideal bandpass filter. The phasor estimation accuracy of one or several Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) can be then assessed using the standard. In addition, it is possible to design two FIR differentiators to obtain frequency and ROCOF estimates close enough to those of ideal differentiator filters, and largely compliant with the standard. This new set of filters opens the way to apply the synchrophasor standard to assess estimates of PMUs of different brands when they process the same signals of a power system event. In this paper, the erratic phasor and frequency estimates produced by a SEL-351 A PMU from a real distributed generation system are assessed to corroborate that the synchrophasor standard can be opened to this new application based on real signals from the field, previously considered as impossible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a nonlinear dynamic simulation model of an ultracapacitor (UC) bank and the associated control system. The control system at hand consists of two levels: the lower level controls the inverter of the UC bank, while the upper control level is responsible for providing charging/discharging active power set points to be followed by the lower control level. This paper focuses on the development of the upper control level for frequency control. Specifically, two simulation case studies are developed so as to assess the performance of the proposed control framework. In the first case study the upper control level is developed using a classical Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. In the second case study the upper control level is devised using a Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithm based on internal linear prediction model of a nonlinear UC bank. In both cases, a nonlinear UC bank simulation model is used. The simulation case studies are modelled and tested in Matlab/Simulink. The response of the MPC-controlled UC bank is compared to the 3 existing PID-control algorithms for frequency control. The simulation results show that the MPC algorithm outperforms the conventional PID controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locked-rotor testing is a common end-of-the-line check performed on most motors used in the petrochemical industry. Despite its popularity as a verification of rotor integrity and to confirm the current draw and torque produced at zero speed, there can be much ambiguity in how the test is performed. This test is not required by the National Electrical Manufactures Association Motors and Generators Standard (NEMA MG1) or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standard 112 (IEEE 112). IEEE 112 contains a locked-rotor test method, but there can be variations in the results based upon the test conditions (duration of voltage application and magnitude of applied voltage, for instance). The purpose of this paper is to describe how the test procedure employed affects the locked-rotor test results for both current and torque. Model and test data are presented to illustrate the variations possible depending on the test technique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The new generation of the high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) video coding standard has improved compression performance and brought considerable coding complexity. Therefore, reducing the perception redundancy of video to obtain a better compression effect is the new direction of video development at present. In this paper, the HEVC is improved and enhanced from the aspects of a video saliency algorithm based on an attention mechanism and a video compression algorithm based on perception priority. In terms of video saliency, this paper proposes a spatial saliency algorithm based on a convolutional neural network and a temporal saliency algorithm based on motion vector. The saliency algorithm can combine the motion estimation results of each block during the HEVC compression on the basis of convolutional neural network and carry out adaptive dynamic fusion of the two, to complete the saliency map of the input video. In the aspect of the video compression algorithm with perception priority, this paper proposes a more flexible QP selection method, which selects its corresponding QP according to the saliency value of CU. At the same time, we propose a new rate-distortion optimization algorithm, which integrates the current block’s saliency feature into the traditional rate-distortion calculation method, to guide the allocation of bits and achieve the purpose of perception priority. The experimental results proved the superiority of the proposed method over the state-of-the-art perceptual coding algorithms in terms of saliency detection and perceptual compression quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closed-form determination of fault current limiter (FCL) impedance for symmetrical faults was reported previously using a mathematically rigorous method. In this paper, extensions of the method to asymmetrical faults are presented. Single line-to-ground faults and line-to-line faults are studied. As shown in this paper, although the material corresponding to asymmetric faults use the same basic concepts described before, the different nature of asymmetrical faults and application of symmetrical components theory lead to a different formulation. Also, the graphical representation of asymmetrical faults is as contour plots instead of the circle diagrams for three-phase faults. A three-bus and the IEEE 39-bus systems are used to illustrate the virtues of the method for the proper selection of FCLs impedance. Results demonstrate that the FCL designed, as shown in this paper, works properly for asymmetrical faults. The new formulation and graphical representation for asymmetrical faults are compatible with traditional power system short-circuit analysis software. An example with both symmetrical and asymmetrical faults is presented to illustrate how a full FCL impedance design can be achieved with the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers guidelines for authors for submitting manuscripts for presentation at an Industry Applications Society-sponsored Technical Conferences and possible publication in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions Magazine.

This paper studies on polarization beam splitter (PBS) in high-index-contrast waveguides based on sinusoidally driven directional coupler (SDDC), and offers new insights to realize compact and low-loss PBS with high fabrication tolerance. The PBS based on SDDC has advantage that power shift to an adjacent waveguide can be suppressed or totally banned by satisfying coherent destruction of tunneling (CDT) condition. However, in practical implementation, the PBS based on SDDC has trade-off relation between cross-talk of TE-like wave and loss of TM-like one. This paper investigates characteristics of the SDDC numerically, and shows possibility that cross-talk and loss can be suppressed, and small footprint can be achieved by position shift of DC-gap maintaining high fabrication tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern Medical Information Systems very often comprise Medical Devices and governed by regulations which require stringent Risk Management activities to be implemented to minimize the occurrence of safety risks. Currently, the reference standard adopted by manufacturers for Risk Management is ISO 14971, which, however, was devised for traditional (mostly hardware) Medical Devices and does not either take into account the peculiarities of modern Medical Information Systems, or define a formal methodology to conduct Risk Assessment. Moreover, the approaches currently implemented by manufacturers typically aims at obtaining qualitative Risk Assessment results. Within the so-delineated application scenario, this paper proposes a methodology for the Dynamic Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Medical Information Systems, by specifically looking at medical devices that are intended as one of the most relevant components in such systems. The methodology complies with ISO 14971 and improves current practices because it allows the analyst to conduct a quantitative analysis, also taking into account the temporal dimension. It relies on a Probabilistic Risk Model, defined as a set of Markov Models, which is model-checked to obtain quantitative information about the risks. The proposed methodology is also adopted to improve definitively the Medical Device post-market surveillance, which is currently implemented as a ”wait for an incident” activity. In other words, currently a manufacturer sets up a service that has to ”react” to an incident by starting an investigation activity. Instead, the methodology proposes the adoption of risk models defined during the development phase also to re-assess periodically the risks related to the product during the post-market surveillance. This may prevent some incidents because risks are assessed using data collected in the field (no longer guesstimated as during the development phase) and taking into account the temporal effects on probability distributions (such as the deterioration of hardware/software components over the time). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of non-convexities in electricity markets has been an active research area for about two decades. The — inevitable under current marginal cost pricing — problem of guaranteeing that no market participant incurs losses in the day-ahead market is addressed in current practice through make-whole payments a.k.a. uplift. Alternative pricing rules have been studied to deal with this problem. Among them, Convex Hull (CH) prices associated with minimum uplift have attracted significant attention. Several US Independent System Operators (ISOs) have considered CH prices but resorted to approximations, mainly because determining exact CH prices is computationally challenging, while providing little intuition about the price formation rationale. In this paper, we describe the CH price estimation problem by relying on Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition and Column Generation, as a tractable, highly paralellizable, and exact method — i.e., yielding exact, not approximate, CH prices — with guaranteed finite convergence. Moreover, the approach provides intuition on the underlying price formation rationale. A test bed of stylized examples provide an exposition of the intuition in the CH price formation. In addition, a realistic ISO dataset is used to support scalability and validate the proof-of-concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses demonstrated results from the electrical safety improvement strategy documented in the paper, Creating a Continuous Improvement Environment for Electrical Safety, presented at the 1992 IEEE Industry Applications Society Petroleum and Chemical Industry Conference. Two of the original authors present this follow-up paper with a critique of the continuous improvement strategy outlined in the original paper and discussion of lessons learned from its implementation. The paper shows how this strategy is aligned with leading edge developments in advanced safety management of hazards with high potential for fatality and includes a discussion on applying this strategy to these other hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Non-uniform constellation (NUC) is an advanced technology in digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DTTB) systems to reduce the shapping gap of BICM capacity to Shannon theoretical limit and provide performance gain. Two-dimensional NUC (2D-NUC) is a kind of NUC providing more gain but bringing higher demapping complexity at the receiver, which hinders its application prospects, especially in power limited systems. This paper proposes three novel demapping algorithms with reduced complexity for low to medium code rate 2D-NUCs in Advanced Television Systems Committee 3rd Generation (ATSC 3.0) standard. The proposed algorithms are based on the introduction of virtual points, the strategy of condensed symbols reduction and some reasonable approximations. There is a trade-off between the demapping complexity and performance. These three algorithms have different degrees of reduction in complexity and performance degradation, so they accommodate for different practical requirements. Theoretical analysis and simulation results are also given in this paper to prove the efficiency of the proposed demapping algorithms with reduced complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in the field of non-local attention (NLA) have led to a renewed interest in self-similarity-based single image super-resolution (SISR). Researchers usually use the NLA to explore non-local self-similarity (NSS) in SISR and achieve satisfactory reconstruction results. However, a surprising phenomenon that the reconstruction performance of the standard NLA is similar to that of the NLA with randomly selected regions prompted us to revisit NLA. In this paper, we first analyzed the attention map of the standard NLA from different perspectives and discovered that the resulting probability distribution always has full support for every local feature, which implies a statistical waste of assigning values to irrelevant non-local features, especially for SISR which needs to model long-range dependence with a large number of redundant non-local features. Based on these findings, we introduced a concise yet effective soft thresholding operation to obtain high-similarity-pass attention (HSPA), which is beneficial for generating a more compact and interpretable distribution. Furthermore, we derived some key properties of the soft thresholding operation that enable training our HSPA in an end-to-end manner. The HSPA can be integrated into existing deep SISR models as an efficient general building block. In addition, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the HSPA, we constructed a deep high-similarity-pass attention network (HSPAN) by integrating a few HSPAs in a simple backbone. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that HSPAN outperforms state-of-the-art approaches on both quantitative and qualitative evaluations. Our code and a pre-trained model were uploaded to GitHub (https://github.com/laoyangui/HSPAN) for validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Versatile Video Coding (VVC) was finalized in 2020 and offered promising coding efficiency with a bitrate reduction of about 50% for same video quality as High Efficiency Video Coding. However, its high encoding complexity is a heavy burden on real-time applications. In particular, the very high complexity in intra coding can be a big barrier into market entry. This paper presents an efficient low-complexity intra coding scheme, which employs downsampling and upsampling processes. The downsampling is simply performed by reducing the resolution of an original video in both horizontal and vertical directions. In the upsampling, convolutional neural network based super-resolution is used to increase the resolution of the reconstructed video. In addition, this paper thoroughly analyzes the performance and complexity of all intra coding tools in VVC. Experimental results demonstrate that the significantly high reduction of the encoding complexity can be achieved with acceptable video quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Versatile video coding (VVC) is the next generation video coding standard released in July 2020. VVC introduces new coding tools enhancing the coding efficiency compared to its predecessor high efficiency video coding (HEVC). These new tools have a significant impact on the VVC software decoder with a complexity estimated to two times HEVC decoder complexity. In particular, the adaptive loop filter (ALF) introduced in VVC as an in-loop filter increases both the decoding complexity and memory usage. These concerns need to be carefully addressed regarding the design of an efficient hardware implementation of a VVC decoder. In this paper, we present an efficient hardware implementation of the ALF tool for VVC decoder. The proposed solution establishes a novel scanning order between Luma and Chroma components that reduces significantly the ALF memory. The design takes advantage of all ALF features and establishes an unified hardware module for all ALF filters. The design uses 26 regular multipliers in a pipelined architecture with a fixed throughput of 2 pixels/cycle and fixed system latency regardless of the selected filter. This design operates at 600 MHz frequency enabling to decode on ASIC platform a 4K video at 30 frames per second in 4:2:2 chroma sub-sampling format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights an immediate need for renewable generation developers, manufacturers, utilities and industry standardization institutes to jointly address a challenge of capacitor switching transient immunity in inverter-based wind or solar farms. The need was identified from wide-area operation records which showed partial or full generation loss in coincidence with routine utility-owned capacitor switching. The lack of a clear industry guideline has caused confusion to all involved parties. This paper recommends all entities to address this challenge collaboratively through enhanced equipment specification, design, and test before a well-defined industry guideline becomes available. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper yields a systematic scientific foundation for the evaluation of responsibility of utility and customer to the harmonic distortions at the point of common coupling (PCC). In this regard, this paper proposes a technical process for the evaluation of harmonic distortions. This technical process provides a way to answer some technical questions related to harmonic issues based on the following aim: identifying the dominant side, determining the responsibility of each side to harmonic distortions, determining the influence of the utility on harmonic current distortions at the PCC, and determining the influence of the customer on harmonic voltage distortions at the PCC. This paper deciphers these technical questions in the concrete “relevant factors” for the evaluation of harmonic distortions. These “relevant factors” are systematically classified based on the equivalent circuits of utility and customer side for harmonic studies. In this regard, six well-defined “relevant factors” for the Thevenin equivalent circuit and six analogue “relevant factors” for the Norton equivalent circuit are formulated. Some of these “relevant factors” are proposed, for the first time, in this paper. Furthermore, this paper explains the relations between the “relevant factors” to ascertain their interdependence. In addition, the usefulness of the “relevant factors” to answer the technical questions related to the harmonic issues is illustrated using a calculation example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a novel reconfigurable ferroelectric FET (R-FEFET), which can reconfigure its operation between volatile and nonvolatile modes during run-time by dynamically modulating its hysteresis. The R-FEFET comprises of two gates with ferroelectric (FE) in both the gate stacks. One of these terminals serves as a regular gate, while the other is used as a control to introduce reconfigurability. Employing Landau–Khalatnikov equation-based FEFET model, we extensively analyze the device characteristics in both FinFET and planar technologies. We show that by changing the control voltage between 0 and 1 V, the hysteresis width (HW) can be modulated between 1.1 and 0.3 V. In addition, we show the device characteristics and advantages that R-FEFETs possess to overcome the drawbacks encountered with gate leakage in standard FEFETs. The hold margins in the nonvolatile mode of R-FEFETs increase by ~ $10\times $ with respect to standard FEFETs, and the drive current strengths in the volatile mode show 13% improvements when compared to standard FETs. Using the proposed R-FEFETs, we examine a low-power nonvolatile memory design in Part II of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the problem of source coding with side information at the decoder, also called Slepian–Wolf source coding scheme. In practical applications of this coding scheme, the statistical relation between the source and the side information can vary from one data transmission to another, and there is a need to adapt the coding rate depending on the current statistical relation. In this paper, we propose a novel rate-adaptive code construction based on LDPC codes for the Slepian–Wolf source coding scheme. The proposed code design method allows to optimize the code degree distributions at all the considered rates, while minimizing the amount of short cycles in the parity check matrices at all rates. Simulation results show that the proposed method greatly reduces the source coding rate compared to the standard low density parity check accumulated (LDPCA) solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instability of amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) under ultraviolet (UV) light was thoroughly investigated in this paper. Unlike in a darkened state, an off-state leakage current can be found in the dual-sweep I–V transfer curve of a-IGZO TFTs under UV light illumination. Furthermore, despite the same UV light condition, the forward sweep and reverse sweep show different I–V curves, representing two different physical mechanisms. First, the subthreshold swing degradation and threshold voltage shift to the negative direction in the forward sweep are due to the total channel barrier lowering and can be confirmed by changing the light exposure region. Second, in the reverse sweep, the suggested back-channel leakage current can be controlled by dual-gate TFTs. UV light exposure of the metal–insulator–semiconductor–metal structure verifies that the off-state leakage current passes through the back channel in a reverse sweep. Finally, the physical mechanism links between forward and reverse sweeps have comprehensive interpretation in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents two main contributions toward efficient very large scale integration circuits mapped with simple cells: 1) a complete synthesis flow to provide good-quality circuits mapped only with simple cells; and 2) an area-oriented, level-aware buffering algorithm based on inverter trees to fix cell fanout violations. An effective pattern-based algorithm to identify XORs/XNORs on and-inverter graphs is also presented. We show that efficient implementations in terms of inverter count, transistor count, area, power, and delay can be generated from circuits with a reduced number of both simple cells and inverters, combined with XOR/XNOR-based optimizations. The proposed buffering algorithm can handle all unfeasible fanout occurrences, while: 1) optimizing the number of added inverters and 2) assigning cells to the inverter tree based on their level criticality. When comparing with academic and commercial approaches, we are able to simultaneously reduce the average number of inverters, transistors, area, power dissipation, and delay up to 48%, 4%, 8%, 14%, and 16%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video coding standards are primarily designed for efficient lossy compression, but it is also desirable to support efficient lossless compression within video coding standards using small modifications to the lossy coding architecture. A simple approach is to skip transform and quantization, and simply entropy code the prediction residual. However, this approach is inefficient at compression. A more efficient and popular approach is to skip transform and quantization but also process the residual block in some modes with differential pulse code modulation (DPCM), along the horizontal or vertical direction, prior to entropy coding. This paper explores an alternative approach based on processing the residual block with integer-to-integer (i2i) transforms. I2i transforms can map integer pixels to integer transform coefficients without increasing the dynamic range and can be used for lossless compression. We focus on lossless intra coding and develop novel i2i approximations of the odd type-3 discrete sine transform (ODST-3). Experimental results with the high efficiency video coding (HEVC) reference software show that when the developed i2i approximations of the ODST-3 are used along the DPCM method of HEVC, an average 2.7% improvement of lossless intra frame compression efficiency is achieved over HEVC version 2, which uses only the DPCM method, without a significant increase in computational complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the simultaneous partial-inverse problem (SPI) for polynomials and develops its application to decoding interleaved Reed–Solomon codes beyond half the minimum distance. While closely related both to standard key equations and to well-known Padé approximation problems, the SPI problem stands out in several respects. First, the SPI problem has a unique solution (up to a scale factor), which satisfies a natural degree bound. Second, the SPI problem can be transformed (monomialized) into an equivalent SPI problem where all moduli are monomials. Third, the SPI problem can be solved by an efficient algorithm of the Berlekamp–Massey type. Fourth, decoding interleaved Reed–Solomon codes (or subfield-evaluation codes) beyond half the minimum distance can be analyzed in terms of a partial-inverse condition for the error pattern: if that condition is satisfied, then the (true) error locator polynomial is the unique solution of a standard key equation and can be computed in many different ways, including the well-known multi-sequence Berlekamp–Massey algorithm and the SPI algorithm of this paper. Two of the best performance bounds from the literature (the Schmidt–Sidorenko–Bossert bound and the Roth–Vontobel bound) are generalized to hold for the partial-inverse condition and thus to apply to several different decoding algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the performance of a magnetic lead screw (MLS) equipped with skewed arc magnets. Skewed arc magnets are adopted to approximate the helical ones, because the latter is hard to realize. Although similar method had been proposed in the previous literature, discussion about the parameters of the skewed arc magnets was insufficient and little attention was paid to the gear ratio of the resultant MLS. In this paper, the principle of approximation by skewed arc magnets is proposed and discussed, and the performance of the MLS with skewed arc magnets is evaluated and compared with the ideal MLS in terms of thrust force, torque, and gear ratio. It is highlighted that the gear ratio is the fundamental indicator of the MLS’s performance, besides the thrust force and torque. It is shown that the gear ratio of MLS is mainly affected by the reference angle and the arc angle of skewed arc magnets, and optimal values for the two angles are obtained. In addition, the effects of the magnet magnetization on thrust force and torque are analyzed. Finally, dovetail budge and groove are introduced between the adjacent magnet segments for simpler fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forced ventilated underground installations are challenging to design due to the complex mathematics of turbulent fluid flow. Previous methods have tackled this problem, but only recently, the effect of confinement on a single cable has been considered. In this paper, the effect of cable confinement on the practical case of ventilated trefoil installations is investigated. The complete Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) problem is solved using Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations and then validated by laboratory experiments using pipes. FEM simulations are then used to vary the current, the wind velocity, and the distance of the trefoil from the tunnel wall to get a comprehensive picture of the phenomena. This data is used to create a new empirical equation for the Nusselt number for a wide range of operating conditions. The principle of similitude is validated for a scaled-down model of a large tunnel and then used to analyze the thermal rating of tunnels. The new equation improves the IEC standard equations by accounting for the effect of cable confinement on trefoil installations. An important finding of this paper is that a lower maximum permissible current rating is obtained, which if ignored can present a serious risk for thermal damage. It was also found that the cables must be installed three cable diameters away from the wall to prevent the derating effect of confinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supporting parallel multi-priority data streams is vital for maintaining the quality of service (QoS) in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. Hence, the European telecommunications standard institute (ETSI) has defined four packet types, with varying priority levels, to be used as broadcast packets in such communication. This paper studies the medium access control (MAC) layer performance of IEEE 802.11p and cellular-V2X (C-V2X) Mode 4 using discrete-time Markov chain (DTMC) based models, while considering parallel multi-priority data streams. The overall model consists of four queue models with their respective traffic generators, which are appropriately linked with the DTMCs modeling the MAC layer operations of IEEE 802.11p and C-V2X Mode 4. Closed-form solutions for the steady-state probabilities of the models are obtained, which are then utilized to derive expressions for key performance indicators at the MAC layer. Numerical results are provided to draw insights on the MAC layer performance of the two technologies. IEEE 802.11p is comparatively superior in average delay, and at maintaining fairness among multi-priority data streams, whereas C-V2X Mode 4 exhibits better collision resolution, which leads to its higher throughput. The paper also includes design insights on possible performance enhancements for future releases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When solving eddy-current problems containing topologically non-trivial conductors with formulations using the magnetic scalar potential in the insulators, cohomology generators are necessary to obtain a well-defined problem. The Dłotko–Specogna (DS) algorithm is a simple and efficient tool to compute the lazy generators of the first cohomology group of the insulator that can be used in such potential design. This paper introduces an upgrade in the DS algorithm that speeds up the execution for very complicated geometries. Moreover, this paper provides, for the first time, a detailed comparison of computational resources needed for the topological pre-processing by our toolbox and by the tool to compute a standard cohomology basis available in the mesh generator GMSH. In addition, we make our implementation of DS algorithm available for download on request for non-profit use as a Topoprocessor package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about deriving lower bounds on the error exponents for the two-user interference channel under the random coding regime for several ensembles. Specifically, we first analyze the standard random coding ensemble, where the codebooks are comprised of independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.) codewords. For this ensemble, we focus on optimum decoding, which is in contrast to other, suboptimal decoding rules that have been used in the literature (e.g., joint typicality decoding, treating interference as noise, and so on). The fact that the interfering signal is a codeword, rather than an i.i.d. noise process, complicates the application of conventional techniques of performance analysis of the optimum decoder. In addition, unfortunately, these conventional techniques result in loose bounds. Using analytical tools rooted in statistical physics, as well as advanced union bounds, we derive single-letter formulas for the random coding error exponents. We compare our results with the best known lower bound on the error exponent, and show that our exponents can be strictly better. Then, in the second part of this paper, we consider more complicated coding ensembles and find a lower bound on the error exponent associated with the celebrated Han–Kobayashi random coding ensemble, which is based on superposition coding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial petrochemical facilities have predominantly used high-intensity discharge light sources and installation practices unchanged for several decades. Today, new light-emitting diode (LED)-based products are being developed, and there appear to be many advantages to this technology; however, caution is advised in its application. This paper examines LED lighting technology, standards, and available products along with design and application considerations. Moreover, presented are case studies of LED luminaire retrofits in existing facilities. This paper discusses the results of the studies as they relate to safety, environment impacts, capital and operating costs, design implications, and installation improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an extensive review of the most up-to-date papers on microwave Doherty power amplifiers is presented. The main applications are discussed, together with the employed semiconductor technologies. The different research trends, all aimed to improve the advantages of the Doherty scheme and to solve its inherent drawbacks, are presented. The first considered topic is the maximization of efficiency and/or linearity, where analog and digital techniques are exploited. Another important trend is the bandwidth enlargement of the Doherty architecture, that involves a large number of papers. Multi-band, multi-mode solutions are also considered, using either fixed or reconfigurable solutions. The final section is dedicated to the most significant Doherty integrated implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) is one of the most popular brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigms, with high information transmission rate and signal-to-noise ratio. Many calibration-free and calibration-based approaches have been proposed to improve the performance of SSVEP-based BCIs. This paper considers a quick calibration scenario, where there are plenty of data from multiple source subjects, but only a small number of calibration trials from a subset of stimulus frequencies for the new subject. We propose small data least-squares transformation (sd-LST) to solve this problem. Experiments on three publicly available SSVEP datasets demonstrated that sd-LST outperformed several classical or state-of-the-art approaches, with only about 10 calibration trials for 40-target SSVEP-based BCI spellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes a novel block-wise prediction paradigm based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for lossless video coding. A deep neural network model which follows a multi-resolution design is employed for block-wise prediction. Several contributions are proposed to improve neural network training. A first contribution proposes a novel loss function formulation for an efficient network training based on a new approach for patch selection. Another contribution consists in replacing all HEVC-based angular intra-prediction modes with a CNN-based intra-prediction method, where each angular prediction mode is complemented by a CNN-based prediction mode using a specifically trained model. Another contribution consists in an efficient adaptation of the CNN-based intra-prediction residual for lossless video coding. Experimental results on standard test sequences show that the proposed coding system outperforms the HEVC standard with an average bitrate improvement of around 5%. To our knowledge, the paper is the first to replace all the traditional HEVC-based angular intra-prediction modes with an intra-prediction method based on modern Machine Learning techniques for lossless video coding applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In prior work, we have shown how the basic concepts and terms of quantum mechanics relate to factorizations and marginals of complex-valued quantum mass functions, which are generalizations of joint probability mass functions. In this paper, using quantum mass functions, we discuss the realization of measurements in terms of unitary interactions and marginalizations. It follows that classical measurement results strictly belong to local models, i.e., marginals of more detailed models. Classical variables that are created by marginalization do not exist in the unmarginalized model, and different marginalizations may yield incompatible classical variables. These observations are illustrated by the Frauchiger–Renner paradox, which is analyzed (and resolved) in terms of quantum mass functions. Throughout, the paper uses factor graphs to represent quantum systems/models with multiple measurements at different points in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near-optimal unit commitment (UC) scheduling is a practical reality in wholesale electricity markets. This paper revisits previous work that has found that minor differences in cost among near-optimal schedules can result in a large redistribution of market payments (i.e., changes in generator profits and consumer surplus). It has been believed that this instability is unavoidable, but previous studies have only calculated prices using what we call the Restricted pricing model. This paper compares previous results to three additional models that are based on integer relaxation, and which we call the Partial, Tight, and Loose Dispatchable pricing models. Results are presented for a suite of test cases, including four ISO-scale cases. Similar to previous findings, the Restricted and Partial Dispatchable models both result in large payment redistributions among alternative solutions. In contrast, theoretical and experimental results for the Tight and Loose Dispatchable models show that pricing models with unconditional integer relaxation will have bounded payment redistributions, and, further, this bound can become quite small by tightening the UC problem's convex relaxation. In the presence of market power, stable financial outcomes may improve market efficiency by reducing incentives to bid strategically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we modify the graph model for conflict resolution (GMCR) to model interactive unawareness of decision makers (DMs) about the options available to them in the conflict. More specifically, we consider a GMCR with two DMs, where a DM, in some given state, can be unconscious about some of his options, or about the options of his opponent, and therefore, may have only a partial knowledge of the state space. By interactive unawareness, it is meant that a DM can reason about the awareness level of the other DM and about the awareness level of the other DM regarding his or her own awareness level and so on. We generalize standard solution concepts for this model and illustrate its usefulness by means of a hypothetical war conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An additive white Gaussian noise energy-harvesting channel with an infinite-sized battery is considered. The energy arrival process is modeled as a sequence of independent and identically distributed random variables. The channel capacity $\frac {1}{2}\log (1+P)$ is achievable by the so-called best-effort and save-and-transmit schemes where $P$ denotes the battery recharge rate. This paper analyzes the save-and-transmit scheme whose transmit power is strictly less than $P$ and the best-effort scheme as a special case of save-and-transmit without a saving phase. In the finite blocklength regime, we obtain new non-asymptotic achievable rates for these schemes that approach the capacity with gaps vanishing at rates proportional to $1/\sqrt {n}$ and $({(\log n)/n})^{1/2}$ respectively where $n$ denotes the blocklength. The proof technique involves analyzing the escape probability of a Markov process. When $P$ is sufficiently large, we show that allowing the transmit power to back off from $P$ can improve the performance for save-and-transmit. The results are extended to a block energy arrival model where the length of each energy block $L$ grows sublinearly in $n$. We show that the save-and-transmit and best-effort schemes achieve coding rates that approach the capacity with gaps vanishing at rates proportional to $\sqrt {L/n}$ and $({\max \{\log n, L\}/n})^{1/2}$ , respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]