TEM in-situ deformation of magnesium-ytrium alloys

Yttrium (Y) addition is known to be effective in enhancing the formability of magnesium (Mg) alloys by reducing the plasticity anisotropy of the hexagonal crystal, viz. improving the ease of dislocation slip in relation to the dislocation slip. In this work, in-situ TEM compression test has been carried out to observe the nucleation and movement of dislocations in two Mg-Y binary alloys with different Y contents (0.4 wt.%Y versus 4 wt.%Y). The results have shown (Figure 1) that in the Mg-0.4Y alloy, the edge segments of dislocations are sessile. The increased Y content in the Mg-4Y alloy has shown (Figure 2) to increase the dislocation mobility and the cross-slip propensity. The results will be discussed with computer simulation results published. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Bargaining in Patent Licensing Negotiations under Stochastic Environments: An Experimental Study

Experiments of a bargaining game between licensors and licensees were conducted. The main treatment is to introduce a “second-chance” negotiation for licensors in a context of ultimatum game. The experimental results reveal that the introduction of the “second-chance” negotiation for licensors has significant impacts on behaviors of the licensors and licensees. This “second-chance” negotiation for licensors essentially increases the average offers made by the licensees, expected willingness-to-accept of the licensors, and offers accepted by the licensors. The market efficiency of patent transaction is improved since the rates of acceptance are strikingly raised. The licensors would be the main beneficiary with this additional opportunity

Energy Efficient Massive MIMO System Design for Smart Grid Communications

Communication technologies are critical in achieving potential advantages of smart gird (SG), as they enable electric utilities to interact with their devices and customers. This paper focuses on the integration of a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique into a SG communication architecture. Massive MIMO has the benefits of offering higher data rates, whereas operating a large number of antennas in practice could increase the system complexity and energy consumption. We propose to use antenna selection to preserve the gain provided by the large number of antennas, and investigate an energy efficient massive MIMO system design for SG communications. Specifically, we derive a closed-form asymptotic approximation to the system energy efficiency function in consideration of channel spatial correlation, which exhibits an excellent level of accuracy for a wide range of system dimensions in SG communication scenarios. Based on the accurate approximation, we propose a novel antenna selection scheme aiming at maximizing the system energy efficiency, using only the long-term channel statistics. Simulation results show that the proposed antenna selection scheme can always achieve an energy efficiency gain compared to other selection schemes or baseline systems without antenna selection, and thus is particularly valuable for enabling an energy efficient communication system of the SG

Acquisition of compound skills and learning costs for expanding competence sets

AbstractFor each decision problem, there is a competence set consisting of ideas, knowledge, information, and skills for solving that problem. When decision makers have not acquired the com petence set, it is more difficult for them to make decisions. In order to effectively acquire a needed competence set to cope with the problem they face, finding an appropriate learning sequence for acquiring needed single skills for decision makers, the so-called competence set expansion, is very necessary. A compound skill represents a collection of single skills that might be acquired, and some useful compound skills can be added to the needed competence set to help acquire some single skills. To effectively expand the competence set, effective acquisitions of compound skills and learning costs are both necessary. This paper thus proposes a data mining technique to extract potentially useful compound skills from single skills. Subsequently, an effective method is proposed to obtain the learning cost between any two skills. A computer simulation is employed to further show that it is feasible to use those potentially useful compound skills to facilitate the acquisition of single skills through a known integer programming method for expanding the competence set

Transactive Energy and Flexibility Provision in Multi-microgrids using Stackelberg Game

Aggregating the demand side flexibility is essential to complementing the inflexible and variable renewable energy supply in achieving low carbon energy systems. Sources of demand side flexibility, e.g., dispatchable generators, storages, and flexible loads, can be structured in a form of microgrids and collectively provided to utility grids through transactive energy in local energy markets. This paper proposes a framework of local energy markets to manage the transactive energy and facilitate the flexibility provision. The distribution system operator aims to achieve local energy balance by scheduling the operation of multi-microgrids and determining the imbalance prices. Multiple microgrid traders aim to maximise profits for their prosumers through dispatching flexibility sources and participating in localised energy trading. The decision making and interactions between a distribution system operator and multiple microgrid traders are formulated as the Stackelberg game-theoretic problem. Case studies using the IEEE 69-bus distribution system demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed model in terms of facilitating the local energy balance and reducing the dependency on the utility grids

A Study of the Talent Training Project Management for Semiconductor Industry in Taiwan: The Application of a Hybrid Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the training institution performance and to improve the management of the Manpower Training Project (MTP) administered by the Semiconductor Institute in Taiwan. Much literature assesses the efficiency of an internal training program initiated by a firm, but only little literature studies the efficiency of an external training program led by government. In the study, a hybrid solution of ICA-DEA and ICA-MPI is developed for measuring the efficiency and the productivity growth of each training institution over the period. The technical efficiency change, the technological change, pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change, and the total factor productivity change were evaluated according to five inputs and two outputs. According to the results of the study, the training institutions can be classified by their efficiency successfully and the guidelines for the optimal level of input resources can be obtained for each inefficient training institution. The Semiconductor Institute in Taiwan can allocate budget more appropriately and establish withdrawal mechanisms for inefficient training institutions