Chapter 12 - Fault Handling

Chapter 6 - Instruction Usage Examples

The paper deals with the short circuit behavior of a new family of robust IGBT devices in several laboratory tests conditions. The transient behaviors in hard switching fault (HSF) and fault under load (FUL) have been determined by means of laboratory tests on inductive load. The IGBTs have been tested in several working conditions aiming to account for the different device characteristics, the differences in both the layout parasitic and the gate driving conditions. Also the temperature variation has been considered in the faulted behavior in order to fully evaluate the switching performances as function of the main involved parameters. Finally the characteristics of a smart IGBT device with increased short circuit ruggedness are discussed.

The need for highly accurate atmospheric wind observations is a high priority in the science community, and in particular numerical weather prediction (NWP). To address this requirement, this study leverages Aeolus wind LIDAR Level-2B data provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) to better characterize atmospheric motion vector (AMV) bias and uncertainty, with the eventual goal of potentially improving AMV algorithms. AMV products from geostationary (GEO) and low-Earth polar orbiting (LEO) satellites are compared with reprocessed Aeolus horizontal line-of-sight (HLOS) global winds observed in August and September 2019. Winds from two of the four Aeolus observing modes are utilized for comparison with AMVs: Rayleigh-clear (derived from the molecular scattering signal) and Mie-cloudy (derived from particle scattering). For the most direct comparison, quality controlled (QC’d) Aeolus winds are collocated with quality controlled AMVs in space and time, and the AMVs are projected onto the Aeolus HLOS direction. Mean collocation differences (MCD) and standard deviation (SD) of those differences (SDCD) are determined from comparisons based on a number of conditions, and their relation to known AMV bias and uncertainty estimates is discussed. GOES-16 and LEO AMV characterizations based on Aeolus winds are described in more detail. Overall, QC’d AMVs correspond well with QC’d Aeolus HLOS wind velocities (HLOSV) for both Rayleigh-clear and Mie-cloudy observing modes, despite remaining biases in Aeolus winds after reprocessing. Comparisons with Aeolus HLOSV are consistent with known AMV bias and uncertainty in the tropics, NH extratropics, and in the Arctic, and at mid- to upper-levels in both clear and cloudy scenes. SH comparisons generally exhibit larger than expected SDCD, which could be attributed to height assignment errors in regions of high winds and enhanced vertical wind shear. GOES-16 water vapor clear-sky AMVs perform best relative to Rayleigh-clear winds, with small MCD (-0.6 m s-1 to 0.1 m s-1) and SDCD (5.4–5.6 m s-1) in the NH and tropics that fall within the accepted range of AMV error values relative to radiosonde winds. Compared to Mie-cloudy winds, AMVs exhibit similar MCD and smaller SDCD (~4.4–4.8 m s-1) throughout the troposphere. In polar regions, Mie-cloudy comparisons have smaller SDCD (5.2 m s-1 in the Arctic, 6.7 m s-1 in the Antarctic) relative to Rayleigh-clear comparisons, which are larger by 1–2 m s-1. The level of agreement between AMVs and Aeolus winds varies per combination of conditions including the Aeolus observing mode coupled with AMV derivation method, geographic region, and height of the collocated winds. It is advised that these stratifications be considered in future comparison studies and impact assessments involving 3D winds. Additional bias corrections to the Aeolus dataset are anticipated to further refine the results.

Input-queued scheduling algorithms are designed to improve the throughput which use the input and output terminal in the router to obtain the maximum packets. And the length of the input queue is an important target, that can decides the superiority-inferiority about the capability of the input algorithm. With the existing algorithms, the main content about the scheduling algorithm are ensuring the packets’ high priority and low level. But most of these algorithms do not consider the length of queue. In this paper, we consider the change of queue length when the packets enter the input channel at the router, and put forward a shortest queue time-slot adapting algorithm (SQTA algorithm). First of all, SQTA algorithm can base the changes of transmittion time to control the packets’ sending time interval, and this action can make SQTA algorithm match the processing power about the router, and at the same time, this algorithm can reduce the length of the packets queue. Second, SQTA algorithm can control of a phenomenon that the packets may overflow when the length of queue is full, and that also make the packets transmitted more stable in network. The experimental result shows that this scheduling algorithm can control the length of queue effectively and reduce the waiting time with packets queue, It can be shorten the remaining service time, and can improve the network operation obviously.

The process undertaken to establish an initial pilot index for restorative dental treatment is described. Following consultation with a wide range of clinicians and others, an outline framework for the index was developed and comprised three main components: 1. Patient identified need for treatment: the data from the patient perceived need questionnaire were inconclusive; 2. Complexity of treatment (assessed by clinicians): this was found to be a practical tool capable of being used by a range of dentists. A booklet has been produced which describes the process of using the scoring system; 3. Priority for treatment (assessed by clinicians): three levels of priority were identified; the highest priority was assigned to patients with inherited or developmental defects that justify complex care (eg clefts of the lip and palate). The initial development of the index has had some success in a difficult area. The treatment complexity component is the most developed and may allow both referrers and commissioners of specialist restorative dentistry to determine appropriate use of skilled clinicians' expertise.

This paper discuss on how to develop a hard real-time machine control system with Microsoft Windows NT Operating System, where the respond must be within 0.5 milliseconds. The attempt to use a general-purpose operating system (Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation) is because there is abundance of Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Components (COTS), easily available tools (compilers, and 3 party tools) and need not to learn another operating system behavior. The most important factor is there is no single dominant operating system or tools vendor for real-time operating system. Since the no single dominant real-time operating system development under real-time operating system is riskier and more costly. Ideally codes must be portable between different operating system where it is apparent with Windows platforms, Windows 95/98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP or even Windows CE. Firstly study was done on how Microsoft Windows NT operating system works internally from materials from Microsoft Software Development Network (MSDN). Secondly study was done how to take advantage of the operating system to create a real time application. Microsoft Windows NT is a general purpose operating system that does not support real time application development, but it has all the vital elements that a real time operating system needs. The vital elements are priority-driven, preemptive scheduler, preemptive interrupt handler (for critical interrupts), deferred procedure calls (DPC) for non-critical (DPC executes after ISR), synchronization and deterministic response time. With these vital elements and some modification to application codes to enable it to execute in higher priority level, would result a real time application. This does not mean changing all the codes to higher priority is the solution, as it would cause system to malfunction as other device driver or low-level interface run at high priority too and this would lock up the system. With the combination of priority level, synchronization a complete real time solution can be implemented and this paper covers the concept. This concept also explains what was done to overcome the need of special hardware (as recommended) to accomplish hard real-time application with the response of 0.5 milliseconds.

Natural heritage (NH) is an important element of the natural capital of each country, and as such, represents key assets that deliver various benefits to the citizens. The rich and diverse NH of Bulgaria is a prerequisite for the development of various activities such as recreation and tourism, but these activities have also negative impact on some of the NH’s elements. The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has the potential for bridging the gap between the conservation and exploitation needs. In this paper, we propose an approach to prioritizing the ES provided by the natural heritage of Bulgaria for the needs of recreation and tourism. The approach is designed for the mapping of the NH but it can also support the overall process of mapping and assessment of ES. It is based on application of ES prioritization matrix (ESPM) and a five-step algorithm designed to differentiate ES into priority levels according to their significance to recreation and tourism. Through the application of the proposed approach we were able to sort out the ES into three groups (high, medium and low priority) according to their importance to recreation and tourism. The first group contains obligatory ES for each mapping and assessment activity from national to local level. The second group contains optional ES recommended for studies at regional level, while the services can be selected according to the specifics of the study. The low priority ES are recommended for local level studies in cases where the assessment requires high details and accuracy. The mapping of high priority ES at national level shows that the products of the approach can be easily adapted for various studies for assessment of NH and sustainable tourism practices using the conventional mapping methods.

The IEEE 802.6 standard for Metropolitan Area Networks does not provide multiple priority traffic for connectionless data services. A priority mechanism that was considered for the standard showed to be not effective. As of now, there exists no protocol for multiple access dual bus networks that is able to implement pre-emptive priorites and, at the same time, can satisfy minimal fairness requirements for transmissions at the highest priority level. In this study, a protocol with strictly pre-emptive priorities, i.e., a protocol that does not admit low priority traffic if the load from high priority traffic exceeds the capacity of the transmission channel, is presented. The protocol is derived from a unique bandwidth allocation scheme with a full utilization of the bus capacity, with a fair distribution of bandwidth respective to traffic from a particular priority level and with pre-emptive priorities. The performance of the presented protocol is compared to a priority mechanism that is based on the bandwidth balancing mechanism. It is shown that adopting the new protocol results in shorter access delays for high priority transmissions.

Wireless sensor networks are typically designed for condition monitoring applications and to conserve energy but not for time-critical applications with strict real-time constraints that can be found in the industrial automation and avionics domain. In this paper, we propose a novel medium access control (MAC) protocol defined as wireless arbitration (WirArb) which grants each user channel access based on their different priority levels. The proposed MAC protocol supports multiple users and each user is pre-assigned a specific arbitration frequency which decides the order of channel access. With this mechanism, we can ensure that the user with the highest priority will immediately gain channel access and we can guarantee a deterministic behavior. To evaluate the proposed MAC, we use a discrete-time Markov chain model to mathematically formulate the WirArb protocol. Our results show that the proposed protocol provides high performance to ensure deterministic real-time communication and bandwidth efficiency.

An emerging breakthrough paradigm shift in health industry and wearable devices, large scale and distributed mobile cloud computing technologies have led to new opportunities for medical healthcare systems. Telemedicine service selection and management of Medical-Quality of Service (m-QoS) in large-scale and distributed medical health system (e.g. medical data centers, hospitals, medical servers and medical clouds, etc.) is a key challenge for both industry and academia. The aim of this chapter is to improve and manage m-QoS by prioritizing Telemedicine service by using decisive and intelligent tool called Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This service will be provided on urgency basis from the pool of medical services with the help of AHP. In this connection, four telemedicine services are considered i.e. Tele-surgery, Tele-Consultation, Tele-Education and Tele-Monitoring. In this research, three m-QoS parameters are considered i.e. throughput, jitter and delay. These services are evaluated by potential doctors and patients. We propose an AHP based decision making algorithm for selecting urgent and important service for the fast and cost-effective treatment of the emergency patients at the remote location in the hospital, because AHP is the significantly fast decision making technique used to assess, select and manage the emergency services at various priority levels in large scale and distributed medical health systems. The comprehensive purpose is indicated in the first level of the strategy. The decisive entities are presented in the intermediate level and the target-based alternatives are located at the lowest level. MATLAB is used for experimental results to measure and evaluate goal, decision making parameters and options from both qualitative and quantitative aspect. The proposed AHP algorithm is simulated for three decision parameters and four different Telemedicine services in which highest priority is given to decision parameter, throughput and Telemedicine service, Tele-Surgery for large scale and distributed medical health systems.

A new secure 2PL real-time concurrency control algorithm (ES2PL)

In the current internet based applications, 3D video encoding needs the service quality improvement and transmission priority control for collaboration purpose. In the 3D video system, the capture stage provides the texture and depth images for encoding. In many scenario cases, the foreground moving objects need to be detected, quantized with refined step and transmitted with high priority. The distributed multimedia plays (DMP) provide the real time, near-natural size, collaboration, stereoscopic and multi-view experience. A novel collaboration-oriented 3D video encoding approach is presented in this paper for DMP, in which the integration calculus is introduced. Also, this approach is hardware oriented and friendly. Its process is in pipeline and parallel with other function modules in DMP system. The foreground objects with performing behavior could be detected efficiently and robustly. Their encoding quality and transmission priority level could be guaranteed accordingly. Experiments show this approach is global image processed and robust in the DMP application. Also, it is helpful for improving the quality of encoding and the depth image base rendering (DIBR) for 3D effect.

To establish how the Manchester Triage System can correctly prioritize patients admitted to the emergency department for transitory loss of consciousness in relation to their risk of presenting severe acute disease. A observational retrospective study. A total of 2291 patients who required a triage evaluation for a transitory loss of consciousness at the emergency department of Merano Hospital between 1January 2017 and 30June 2019 were considered. Transitory loss of consciousness was classified according to European Society of Cardiology guidelines. The baseline characteristics of the patients were collected and divided according to the priority level assigned at triage into two different study groups: high priority (red/orange) and low priority (blue/green/yellow). The composite outcome of the study was defined as the diagnosis of a severe acute disease. Of the patients enrolled, 17% (390/2291) had a high-priority code and 83% (1901/2291) received a low-priority code. Overall, a severe acute disease was present in 16.9% of patients (387/2291). The Manchester Triage System had a sensitivity of 42.4%, a specificity of 88.1% and an accuracy of 80.4% for predicting severe acute disease. The discriminatory ability had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.651 (CI 95%: 0.618-0.685). Despite the good specificity, the low sensitivity does not currently allow the Manchester Triage System to completely exclude patients with a severe acute disease who presented in the emergency department for a transitory loss of consciousness. Therefore, it is important to develop precise nursing tools or assessments that can improve triage performance. The assessment of a complex symptom can create difficulties in the stratification of patients in triage, assigning low-priority codes to patients with a severe disease. Additional tools are needed to allow the correct triage assessment of patients presenting with transitory loss of consciousness.

Recent technological developments indicate possible advancements in supply chain management (SCM). These innovations have attracted a lot of interest from industries including logistics, manufacturing, packaging, and transportation. The conventional systems, however, use centralised servers to control all operations, including the exchange of raw materials, making orders, dealing with buyers and sellers, and updating orders. The network’s supply chain may thus be insecure as a result of every activity being routed via centralised servers. The danger is additionally increased by a number of difficulties, including scalability, data integrity, security, and availability. Block chain technology may be used in these circumstances to decentralise transaction processing and eliminate the need for a centralised controller. In this approach, the performance of the resource-constrained supply chain network is improved by the effective use of edge computing and priority data access. The Intelligent K-Means (IKM) clustering algorithm is suggested across the edge nodes in the current research to categorise the priority level of each piece of data. This classifier determines if the edge node has received data that is high priority or low priority. Low priority data is recorded in the log files for future data analysis. Then, to allow safe data flow in the open block chain while excluding outside parties, the High Priority Access based Smart Contract (HPASC) technique is deployed. The whole experiment was conducted in a Python environment, and variables including scalability, reaction time, throughput, and accuracy were studied. Current systems’ constrained block sizes and fork creation lengthen the time transactions must wait before being processed. The suggested methodology is quicker and uses less storage space than current block chain systems. The results show that the suggested approach works better than current blockchain technology to raise the standard of supply chain management.

Fast Collision-Free Motion Planning for Robots by Using Direct Kinematic Solutions