Broadband cloaking with volumetric structures composed of two-dimensional transmission-line networks

The cloaking performance of two microwave cloaks, both based on the recently proposed transmission-line approach, are studied using commercial full-wave simulation software. The cloaks are shown to be able to reduce the total scattering cross sections of metallic objects of some restricted shapes and sizes. One of the studied cloaks is electrically small in diameter, and the other is electrically large, with the diameter equal to several wavelengths.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Impedance-matched microwave lens

A microwave lens with highly reduced reflectance, as compared to conventional dielectric lenses, is proposed. The lens is based on two-dimensional or three-dimensional transmission-line networks that can be designed to have an effective refractive index larger than one, while having almost perfect impedance matching with free space. The design principles are presented and an example lens is studied using commercial simulation software.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Balancing between freedom and control - Leadership roles of a new product development project leader at different phases of innovation process

Research Objectives In the success of innovation, leadership plays an important role. Project leader is usually responsible in managing the innovation process as well as the people in the team. The innovation process consists of phases that are very different by nature and hence, leadership practices applicable for the development phase may not be applicable for the front end phase. Thus, leaders of an innovative team need to balance between different kinds of roles and functions during the innovation process. Although the importance of leadership to innovation success has been discussed, the importance of different leadership functions and roles of a project leader at certain phases of innovation process have received only little attention. The aim of this study is to recognize and describe the leadership functions and roles of a project leader during the front end and development phase. Methodology This study was conducted as a qualitative research and data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. A total of seven interviews were conducted for the study. Interviews consisted of upper management and project leaders of three Finnish companies. The companies were a manufacturer of office furniture, a manufacturer of elevators and escalators, and a manufacturer of heavy duty cargo transportation platforms. The study analysis was done by thematic analysis. Research Results The results of the study support the existing discussion of the importance of a project leader in the context of new product development. Furthermore, the results support earlier studies about the necessity of conducting various leadership functions and leadership roles along the innovation process. According to the findings of the study, team builder leadership role is the most important role of the project leader during the front end of innovation. In the development phase, on the other hand, in addition to the team builder role, also communicator and planner leadership roles were seen as essential for the success of the project

Vaihtelu nivhin kielen konsonanttialternaatiossa

Nivhin kieli on Venäjän Kaukoidässä puhuttava isolaattikieli. Kieli on vakavasti uhanalainen, eikä se enää siirry lapsille. Arviot nykyisestä puhujamäärästä vaihtelevat joistakin kymmenistä satoihin. Tutkielmassa kartoitettiin nivhin kielelle ominaista alkukonsonanttien alternaatiota (Consonant Mutation) ja siinä esiintyvää vaihtelua. Alternaatio tapahtuu samapaikkaisten klusiilien ja frikatiivien välillä, esim. cus pəɲx ’lihakeitto’ mutta cʰo vəɲx ’kalakeitto’. Fonologisen ympäristön lisäksi alternaatio vaatii tietyn morfosyntaktisen kontekstin. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää alternaation säännönmukaisuutta nykyisten nivhin puhujien kielessä. Omien kenttätyöhavaintojeni perusteella oli syytä epäillä, että nykyisillä puhujilla alternaatiot eivät toteudu yhtä johdonmukaisesti kuin kirjallisuudessa on tavallisesti esitetty. Tukea tälle hypoteesille oli löydettävissä kelttiläisten kielten vastaavankaltaisissa alternaatioissa havaitusta kehityksestä kielen käytön vähentyessä. Lisäksi oli ennalta tiedossa, että resonanttien jälkeisessä ympäristössäalternaatiossa on runsaasti vaihtelua. Aineistona oli kahdeksan vuosina 2002–2013 ilmestynyttä Sound Materials of the Nivkh Language -sarjan julkaisua, jotka sisälsivät yhteensä noin viisi ja puoli tuntia nivhinkielisiä keskusteluja transkriptioineen. Näistä poimittiin kaikkiaan yli 2 300 konsonanttialternaatiokontekstia, jotka tallennettiin tietokantaan laajempaa tarkastelua varten. Alternaation toteutumista vertailtiin puhujakohtaisesti, erilaisissa syntaktisissa rakenteissa ja eri äänteiden välillä. Tutkimus vahvistaa resonanttien jälkeisen alternaation heikon ennustettavuuden. Muissa tapauksissa yleisten sääntöjen vastaisia muotoja oli vajaat 7 prosenttia, joista osalle löytyi mahdollisia selittäviä tekijöitä, kuten leksikaalisia poikkeuksia. Vaille selitystä tapauksista jäivät sen verran harvat, että niiden osalta pienessä, normittamattomassa kielessä esiintyvää luontaista variaatiota voidaan pitää todennäköisempänä selittävänä tekijänä kuin kielen attritiota, vaikka nuorimpien puhujien kohdalla tätäkään ei voida sulkea pois.Nikvh is a language isolate spoken in the Russian Far East. The language is severely endangered and it is no longer transmitted to children. Estimates on the current number of speakers vary from tens to hundreds. The study examines the alternation of initial consonants in Nivkh (Consonant Mutation, CM) and the variation occurring in it. Consonant Mutation takes place between homorganic plosives and fricatives, e.g. cus pəɲx ’meat soup’ but cʰo vəɲx ’fish soup’. In addition to the phonological environment, it also requires a certain morphosyntactic context. The aim of the study was to determine the regularity of CM in the speech of the current Nivkh speakers. My own fieldwork results had led me to suppose that the modern speakers would not exhibit CM as regularly as it has been traditionally described in the literature. Developments observed in similar alternations in obsolescent Celtic languages gave support to this hypothesis. It had also been documented that in Nivkh CM, variation is abundant in post-sonorant environments. My data consisted of eight volumes of the series Sound Materials of the Nivkh Language, published between 2002 and 2013. Altogether they contained about five and a half hours of conversations in Nivkh and their transcriptions. From these, more than 2 300 contexts of CM were retrieved and saved to a database for further analysis. The realization of CM was compared between speakers, in different syntactic structures, and for different alternating sounds. The study confirms the weak predictability of post-sonorant CM. In other cases, less than 7 % of forms were at odds with the traditional rules, and even some of these could be attributed to explaining factors such as lexical exceptions. Some anomalies were left unexplained, but their frequency was low enough to conclude that the natural variation occurring in a small language without a prestige norm is a more probable explanation than language attrition, even though the latter may contribute to the variation in case of the youngest speakers

Strengthening Your Service Delivery by Offering Assistive Technology

In this fun and interactive session participants will learn about how Assistive Technology that can be used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of people with disabilities in all aspects of life, including at school, at work, at home, and in the community. Assistive Technology ranges on a continuum from low tech (walkers and bath benches) to high tech (tele-presence, AAC Communication Devices, Smart phone apps). Learn more about how the Area Agencies on Aging in Georgia are using assistive technology options to help meet the needs of the elderly and disabled in their communities instead of placing people on waiting list for services they may never receive