1,720,963 research outputs found
Ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation systems: industrial application issues
No full textThis book covers the practical implementation of ultrasonic NDT techniques in an industrial environment, discussing several issues that may emerge and proposing strategies for addressing them successfully. It aims to bridge advanced academic research results and their application to industrial procedures. The topics covered in the text range from the basic operation of an ultrasonic NDT system to the simulation of the measurement operations; from the choice and generation of the signals energizing the system to the different ways of exploiting the probes and their output signals; and from quality assessment evaluation to the use of soft computing techniques for classification. Throughout the text, an effort is made to embrace a system view where the physical and technological aspects of sensing are addressed together with higher abstraction levels, such as signal and information processing. Consequently, the book aims at guiding the reader through the various tasks requested for developing a complete ultrasonic imaging system for nondestructive testing, up to the perspective goal of automatic classification of the outputs of a production line. The presentation is reinforced by many applicable examples, proposed in the last chapters. The content of this book is the result of the common effort of four University Research Groups that focused their research activities for two years on this specific objective, working in direct conjunction with primary industrial firms, in a research project funded by the Italian government as a Strategic Research Project. · Discusses the cycle from signal generation, propagation, collection by sensors, and data analysis · Covers the implementation of ultrasonic NDT techniques in the perspective of a complete system setup including classification of product line output · Presents recent theoretical advances and fundamental issues for their practical implementatio
Electrostatic field in terms of geometric curvature in membrane MEMS devices
No full textAbstract
In this paper we present, in a framework of 1D-membrane Micro-Electro-Mechanical- Systems (MEMS) theory, a formalization of the problem of existence and uniqueness of a solution related to the membrane deformation u for electrostatic actuation in the steady- state case. In particular, we propose a new model in which the electric field magnitude E is proportional to the curvature of the membrane and, for it, we obtain results of existence by Schauder-Tychono's fixed point application and subsequently we establish conditions of uniqueness. Finally, some numerical tests have been carried out to further support the analytical results. </jats:p
Excitations and signal processing for multiprobe setups
No full textThe possibility of taking advantage of multiprobe setups for ultrasound non-destructive testing (NDT) is introduced with reference to its physical and signal processing aspects. Preliminarily, a major distinction is made between phased-arrays and actual multi-transducer configurations. Then, most of the chapter is devoted to the latter type of setup. In this framework, the previously introduced channel model developed for single-probe operation, is extended to setups featuring multiple transmitting transducers (TXs) and receiving transducers (RXs) meant to be employed simultaneously in a so-called multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) configuration. It is also illustrated how this configuration relates to multi-user communication networks. Proper merit factors suitable for characterizing the performances of multiprobe systems are presented by taking advantage of the probabilistic system view introduced for single-probe systems. Finally, various classes of signals that can be adopted in MIMO NDT systems are described. These excitations may be designed according to random or deterministic approaches. In better detail, special techniques based on tessellation of the time-frequency (TF) plane are developed to design excitation signals capable of joining assuring contextually the good degree of appropriateness for MIMO setups and the good signal-to-noise (SNR) and resolution properties of chirps
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Excitation and deconvolution in ultrasound nondestructive testing systems
No full textThe pulse-echo (PuE) model based on short pulses is introduced as a starting point. Its limits in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are reviewed, together with the tradeoff between the excitation energy and the time resolution. It is shown how signal processing can improve the overall performance in terms of system sensitivity and resolution as long as the exciting waveform is chosen taking into account the system characteristics and is in agreement with the adopted processing techniques. The degrees of freedom on which one can operate are the time evolution law of the excitation signal and the processing technique adopted on the receiving end. In their exploitation, the designer should consider the physical characteristics of the hardware devices being employed in order to optimize the overall performance. The importance of introducing merit factors is discussed. By offering a quantitative measure of system performance, they are indispensable tools to drive formal optimization strategies and for comparing different approaches. Application-related merit factors are introduced for trying to overcome some current limitations and to prepare the ground for the extension of ultrasonic techniques to multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems, which are considered in the following chapter
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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