The New Boundaries of 3D-Printed Clay Bricks Design: Printability of Complex Internal Geometries

The building construction sector is undergoing one of the most profound transformations towards the digital transition of production. In recent decades, the advent of a novel technology for the 3D printing of clay opened up new sustainable possibilities in construction. Some architectural applications of 3D-printed clay bricks with simple internal configurations are being developed around the world. On the other hand, the full potential of 3D-printed bricks for building production is still unknown. Scientific studies about the design and printability of 3D-printed bricks exploiting complex internal geometries are completely missing in the related literature. This paper explores the new boundaries of 3D-printed clay bricks realized with a sustainable extrusion-based 3D clay printing process by proposing a novel conception, design, and analysis. In particular, the proposed methodological approach includes: (i) conception and design; (ii) parametric modeling; (iii) simulation of printability; and (iv) prototyping. The new design and conception aim to fully exploit the potential of 3D printing to realize complex internal geometry in a 3D-printed brick. To this aim, the research investigates the printability of internal configuration generated by using geometries with well-known remarkable mechanical properties, such as periodic minimal surfaces. In conclusion, the results are validated by a wide prototyping campaign.

Melodic-prosodic duality of the syllable

Implicit in all current theories of the syllable is some assumption of the internal configuration. Prevalent among these are the onset-rime (OR) and the moraic (μ) models, both supported by rather different types of evidence. The OR model favors an interpretation where constituency is exhaustive until the level of the segment which itself is a temporal unit with which melodic features associate. The μ-model distinguishes only what is non-moraic from what is moraic so that sub-syllabic constituency is an accidental result of projecting to/from the same mora. This paper postulates a more fundamental segment-melody complex that projects into two different dimensions: melody and prosody, thus capturing the insights of both the OR and μ-models through the separation of constituency issues with prosodic ones. This approach has direct applications in figuring out two long-standing conundrums in Chinese: the status of the medial glide and the prosodic properties of tonelessness. The segment-melody complex also predicts mismatches in moraicity and syllabicity as well as the mediating effect of the skeletal slots between the melodic root nodes and their moraic status.

Up-conversion photoluminescence specificity of a hybrid sponge nanostructures

Over the past decades, silicon is proved to be as a promising material for the development of devices in the fields of nanophotonics and optoelectronics. However, the material so popular at the current time did not find its application in nanoscale radiation sources due to the indirect bandgap of the semiconductor, which leads to low quantum efficiency. This work represents experimental results on the features of the silicon up-conversion photoluminescence enhanced by the optical resonances of the plasmonic nanosponge. The internal configuration of the nanostructure was confirmed by scanning transmission electron microscopy. The optical characterisation was provided by the dark-field spectroscopy, up-conversion photoluminescence generation and life-time measurements. The such new nanostructure type is promising for the development of nanoscale sources of broadband radiation and other applications of silicon photonics.

Application of Configuration Force to Dynamic Crack of Shale under Hydration

The natural microdefects of shale and the expansion of microcracks under hydration and overlying rock loadings are important for the wellbore stability. According to the conservation of energy, the force of the microdefects and microcracks under finite deformation is studied by the method of configuration force through the migrating control volume in the spatial observer. Under the hydration stress and rock pressure, the equation of hydration stress and its work in reference configuration has been obtained, and the equations of configuration forces and configuration moment have been established as a consequence of invariance under changes. The relationship between the configuration and deformation forces is determined by the second law. The energy dissipation equation of the crack tip has been deduced, which shows that the projection of the concentrated internal configuration body force at the crack tip in the opposite direction of the crack is equal to the energy dissipation of the crack tip per unit length. The inertial and internal parts of the concentrated configuration body force at the crack tip have been derived; it is indicated that the internal configuration force plays a leading role in the irreversible fracture process. Moreover, the energy release rate of shale under hydration is proved to depend on constitutive responses and hydration stress. In the theoretical system of configuration force, the migrating control volume at the crack tip contains inclusions, microcracks, microvoids, and heterogeneity of the rock itself. We use the configuration force theory to solve the problem of rock crack propagation and rock fracture. The factors considered are more comprehensive, which can better reflect the actual situation and provide a theoretical basis for the study of wellbore stability.

Laser DAF Cut: A Breakthrough Approach of Die Attach Film Singulation for Thin Wafers

Today, semiconductor world is becoming more inclined to thinner Integrated Circuit (IC) packages. IC packages will require thinning of the internal configuration of the package, which involves the die or the wafer and the adhesive material, which is the Die Attach Film (DAF). Aligned to this, as wafers goes thinner it becomes more of a challenge in process development especially during its preparatory stages, such as wafer back grinding and sawing processes. As the die becomes smaller and thinner wafer sawing process should have minimum effect on the mechanical integrity of the silicon so as not to alter its quality. New technologies were introduced so as to adopt to this development trend, one of this is the Dicing Before Grinding (DBG). Compared to the normal wafer preparation process that is wafer back grinding before wafer sawing, DBG flow is wafer sawing first prior wafer back grinding processes. The application of DBG technology eliminates the mechanical draw backs of the conventional wafer sawing process. In addition, with the use of DAF for thinner packages, DBG was developed together with the Die Attach Film (DAF) cutting solution, which is Laser DAF Cutting. DAF are separated using Laser as a cutting medium to address potential processability problems that may occur on the conventional mechanical blade saw. The paper discuss the Laser DAF cut development that covers the Design of Experiments (DoE) to understand the different characteristics of Laser DAF solution and be validated through actual simulation and wafer processing. The paper will also cover the interaction of different DAF thicknesses and Laser DAF parameters in order to define the critical characteristics so as to understand the behavior of different laser DAF parameters in achieving optimal DAF cutting process responses.

Linguistic Awareness of the Prepositional Phrase Complexities in the English as a Foreign Language Context

This essay focuses on a description of the complexities of Prepositional Phrases (PPs) and their challenges for EFL learners. The rationale is to raise language awareness of the multifaceted nature of the PP in teachers and students. The grammatical explanations offered in the literature review are based on Functional Grammar. Moreover, previous research conducted addressing the issues of EFL learners facing problems with PPs are proposed in four configurations: semantic, syntactic, lexical and socio-cultural. Such configurations address scenarios for the identification of multiple meanings, different syntactic functions and structures, regional variations, typology, formal and informal language usage, among others, which represent obstacles and difficulties in the comprehension of the topic by EFL learners. Finally, we conclude that the limited use of syntactic functions, poor internal configuration of PPs, as well as the high frequency of errors reported by previous research indicate PPs are complex to use. Thereby, explicitly reinforcing the teaching of all the configurations of PPs is suggested.

VR-ZYCAP: A Versatile Resourse-Level ICAP Controller for ZYNQ SOC

Hybrid architectures integrating a processor with an SRAM-based FPGA fabric—for example, Xilinx ZynQ SoC—are increasingly being used as a single-chip solution in several market segments to replace multi-chip designs. These devices not only provide advantages in terms of logic density, cost and integration, but also provide run-time in-field reconfiguration capabilities. However, the current reconfiguration capabilities provided by vendor tools are limited to the module level. Therefore, incremental run-time configuration memory changes require a lengthy compilation time for off-line bitstream generation along with storage and reconfiguration time overheads with traditional vendor methodologies. In this paper, an internal configuration access port (ICAP) controller that provides a versatile fine-grain resource-level incremental reconfiguration of the programmable logic (PL) resources in ZynQ SoC is presented. The proposed controller implemented in PL, called VR-ZyCAP, can reconfigure look-up tables (LUTs) and Flip-Flops (FF). The run-time reconfiguration of FF is achieved through a reset after reconfiguration (RAR)-featured partial bitstream to avoid the unintended state corruption of other memory elements. Along with versatility, our proposed controller improves the reconfiguration time by 30 times for FFs compared to state-of-the-art works while achieving a nearly 400-fold increase in speed for LUTs when compared to vendor-supported software approaches. In addition, it achieves competitive resource utilization when compared to existing approaches.

FPGA-Based Reliable Fault Secure Design for Protection against Single and Multiple Soft Errors

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are increasingly used in industry (e.g., biomedical, space, and automotive industries). FPGAs are subjected to single, as well as multiple event upsets (SEUs and MEUs), due to the continuous shrinking of transistor dimensions. These upsets inevitably decrease system lifetime. Fault-tolerant techniques are often used to mitigate these problems. In this research, penta and hexa modular redundancy, as well as dynamic partial reconfiguration (DPR), are used to increase system reliability. We show, depending on the relative rates of the SEUs and MEUs, that penta modular redundancy has a higher reliability than hexa modular redundancy, which is a counter-intuitive result in some cases since increasing redundancy is expected to increase reliability. Focusing on penta modular redundancy, an error detection and recovery mechanism (voter) is designed. This mechanism uses the internal configuration access port (ICAP) and its associated controller, as well as DPR to mitigate SEUs and MEUs. Then, it is implemented on Xilinx Vivado tools targeting the Kintex7 7k410tfbg676 device. Finally, we show how to render this design fault secure in the event that SEUs or MEUs affect the voter itself. This fault secure voter either produces the correct output or gives an indication that the output is incorrect.

Understanding Human Movement Patterns within Cislunar Habitats

In preparation for testing five Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) commercial cislunar habitat designs, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) embarked on a yearlong in-house training program. This consisted of in-house testing for subject matter experts (SMEs) and crew to informed and ensure evaluation data collection techniques for each of the contractor options. Many evaluation techniques were tested with some continuing forward. Two-test conditions were employed - 1) habitat centric functions with one space element and 2) distributed functions across two or more space elements. This paper will look at one of these techniques—human circulation patterns—to assess a spacecraft habitat’s internal configuration while the crew is working a three day simulated cislunar mission. Real time tracking of the crew was accomplished using the AllTraq© system of ultra- wideband frequency (UWB) receivers and radio frequency identification tags (RFID). Heat maps, Zone Time Histograms, Zone Time Utilizations Tables and Task/Time Density Tables were constructed from the collected data. Results indicated distributing functions across elements decreased crew interference and task wait times. Additionally, areas of underutilization were located, which lead to interior layout design changes.

ANALYSIS OF CONTACT STRESSES AND SLIP IN POWER SHIFT GEARINGS USING MULTI -CRITERION OPTIMISATION

The work analysed contact stresses and slippage occurring in specific toothed pairs of two power shift gearings with eight ratios. The analysed gearings have ratios of identical values. Differences in contact stresses and slippage values within individual toothed pairs of both gearings (at same values of input torque and engine speed) result from the internal configuration of the kinematic chains created by the toothed gears within individual gear ratios. The analysis included 5 characteristic contact points within the tooth engagement area. They were selected analytically depending on geometrical parameters of gears that constitute the toothed pair. Using computer-assisted design works that employ multi-criterion optimisation, it is possible to minimize slippage and take reasonable advantage of the fatigue contact durability of the material that was used for producing the toothed gears.