Assessment of the Electromagnetic Radiation Exposure at EV Charging Facilities

As the number of electric vehicles (EV) increases, the number of EV chargers also increases. Charging infrastructure will be built into our close environment. Because of this, the assessment of the electromagnetic field exposure generated from the charger is an important issue. This paper valuates the electromagnetic field exposure of six EV chargers. To assess the level of exposure of EV chargers, the electromagnetic fields from six chargers were measured and analyzed. In addition, measured electromagnetic field exposure levels were evaluated against ICNIRP guidelines. Higher electromagnetic fields were measured with standard chargers than with fast chargers. For the fast charger in the charging state, the magnetic field increased with the charging current. Electromagnetic field exposures for all six chargers did not exceed standard limits. The results of the assessment of the electromagnetic field exposure of the six EV chargers will contribute to the establishment of standards for the evaluation of the electromagnetic field exposure of the EV chargers in the future

Resonant-Based Wireless Power Transfer System Using Electric Coupling for Transparent Wearable Devices and Null Power Points

This study provides information on the transfer efficiency of four-plate-structured copper plate and metal mesh sheet couplers, the cause of null-power point. The couplers are compared based on the equivalent circuit model analysis, experimental results of fabricated couplers, and simulation results of the High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) tool. It was confirmed that the metal mesh material exhibits the same performance as the existing copper plate and can be fully used as a coupler material for the electrical resonance wireless power transfer system. In addition, the null-power point phenomenon is only determined by the main coupling and cross coupling between the transmitter and receiver, which are most dominantly affected by the coupler structure

Characteristics analysis of resonance-based wireless power transfer using magnetic coupling and electric coupling

This study analyses the wireless power transfer of the resonance-based magnetic coupling method and resonance-based electric coupling method and provides information about the characteristics of each. To compare the characteristics of each method, the power transfer efficiency was analysed according to the transfer alignment and misalignment distance between the transceivers. More specifically, they were theoretically analysed through equivalent circuit models, and the results were verified through electromagnetic numerical analysis simulation and the fabrication and experimental results of a wireless power transfer coupler. Although both methods differ according to the coupling method, in terms of power transfer efficiency, it was found that they are determined by the same physical phenomena. Furthermore, in both methods, a null-power point occurred during misalignment between the transceivers. The misalignment distance within which the null-power point occurred is intrinsically determined by the structure of the resonant coupler

Loan relation with foreign banks and information asymmetry: evidence from earnings management by local firms in Korea

Previous research shows that foreign (domestic) banks rely more on ‘hard’ (‘soft’) information in their lending decisions and such approaches may give a motivation for the local firms to improve their credit scores by, for example, overstating earnings. The paper develops a theoretical model and empirically tests the model using actual data from Korea. The model predicts that local firms tend to overstate earnings when they increase the loan relations with foreign banks and the proportion of local firms with earnings management increases as the recoverability of foreign banks decreases (increases) in the higher (lower) level of recoverability. The results of the empirical test are consistent with the predictions by the model. We also discuss the implications of the study and an extension for the future study

Fiber composite slices for multiplexed immunoassays

Fabrication methods for the development of multiplexed immunoassay platforms primarily depend on the individual functionalization of reaction chambers to achieve a heterogeneous reacting substrate composition, which increases the overall manufacturing time and cost. Here, we describe a new type of low-cost fabrication method for a scalable immunoassay platform based on cotton threads. The manufacturing process involves the fabrication of functionalized fibers and the arrangement of these fibers into a bundle; this bundle is then sectioned to make microarray-like particles with a predefined surface architecture. With these sections, composed of heterogeneous thread fragments with different types of antibodies, we demonstrated quantitative and 7-plex immunoassays. We expect that this methodology will prove to be a versatile, low-cost, and highly scalable method for the fabrication of multiplexed bioassay platforms. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLCope

An Efficient Approach to Consolidating Job Schedulers in Traditional Independent Scientific Workflows

The current research paradigm is one of data-driven research. Researchers are beginning to deploy computer facilities to produce and analyze large amounts of data. As requirements for computing power grow, data processing in traditional workstations is always under pressure for efficient resource management. In such an environment, a tremendous amount of data is being processed using parallel computing for efficient and effective research results. HTCondor, as an example, provides computing power for data analysis for researchers. Although such a system works well in a traditional computing cluster environment, we need an efficient methodology to meet the ever-increasing demands of computing using limited resources. In this paper, we propose an approach to integrating clusters that can share their computing power on the basis of a priority policy. Our approach makes it possible to share worker nodes while maintaining the resources allocated to each group. In addition, we have utilized the historical data of user usage in order to analyze problems that have occurred during job execution due to resource sharing and the actual operating results. Our findings can provide a reasonable guideline for limited computing powers shared by multiple scientific groups

Application of Microwave 3D SAR Imaging Technique for Evaluation of Corrosion in Steel Rebars Embedded in Cement-Based Structures

This paper presents and discusses the attributes and results of using wideband microwave 3D SAR-based imaging technique for evaluation of reinforced cement-based structures. The technique was used to detect corrosion and thinning of reinforcing steel bars and its potential was demonstrated through experiments for different bar sizes, depth of rebar locations, and spacing between rebars. The results of a limited and preliminary investigation in which thinning of rebars with and without rust in two mortar samples were obtained at three frequency bands covering the frequency range from 8.2 GHz - 26.5 GHz

Biomimetic microfingerprints for anti-counterfeiting strategies

An unclonable, fingerprint-mimicking anti-counterfeiting strategy is presented that encrypts polymeric particles with randomly generated silica film wrinkles. The generated wrinkle codes are as highly unique as human fingerprints and are technically irreproducible. Superior to previous physical unclonable functions, codes are tunable on demand and generable on various geometries. Reliable authentication of real-world products that have these microfingerprints is demonstrated using optical decoding methods. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim159621sciescopu

Potentiometric Multichannel Cytometer Microchip for High-throughput Microdispersion Analysis

The parallelization of microfluidic cytometry is expected to lead to considerably enhanced throughput enabling point-of-care diagnosis. In this article, the development of a microfluidic potentiometric multichannel cytometer is presented. Parallelized microfluidic channels sharing a fluid path inevitably suffer from interchannel signal crosstalk that results from electrical coupling within the microfluidic channel network. By employing three planar electrodes within a single detection channel, we electrically decoupled each channel unit, thereby enabling parallel analysis by using a single cytometer microchip with multiple microfluidic channels. The triple-electrode configuration is validated by analyzing the size and concentration of polystyrene microbeads (diameters: 1.99, 2.58, 3, and 3.68 μm; concentration range: ∼2 × 10⁵ mL^–1 to ∼1 × 10⁷ mL^–1) and bacterial microdispersion samples (<i>Bacillus subtilis</i>, concentration range: ∼4 × 10⁵ CFU mL^–1 to ∼3 × 10⁶ CFU mL^–1). Crosstalk-free parallelized analysis is then demonstrated using a 16-channel potentiometric cytometer (maximum cross-correlation coefficients |<i>r</i>|: < 0.13 in all channel combinations). A detection throughput of ∼48 000 s^–1 was achieved; the throughout can be easily increased with the degree of parallelism of a single microchip without additional technical complexities. Therefore, this methodology should enable high-throughput and low-cost cytometry

A Flexible Semantic Ontological Model Framework and Its Application to Robotic Navigation in Large Dynamic Environments

Advanced research in robotics has allowed robots to navigate diverse environments autonomously. However, conducting complex tasks while handling unpredictable circumstances is still challenging for robots. The robots should plan the task by understanding the working environments beyond metric information and need countermeasures against various situations. In this paper, we propose a semantic navigation framework based on a Triplet Ontological Semantic Model (TOSM) to manage various conditions affecting the execution of tasks. The framework allows robots with different kinematics to perform tasks in indoor and outdoor environments. We define the TOSM-based semantic knowledge and generate a semantic map for the domains. The robots execute tasks according to their characteristics by converting inferred knowledge to Planning Domain Definition Language (PDDL). Additionally, to make the framework sustainable, we determine a policy of maintaining the map and re-planning when in unexpected situations. The various experiments on four different kinds of robots and four scenarios validate the scalability and reliability of the proposed framework