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The breasts are mainly fatty and connective tissues with no muscles that directly support them, so wearing sports bras is one of the most effective means of alleviating the discomfort of breast movement and potential injury during vigorous physical exercise. However, the design and development processes of traditional sports bras are time-consuming and costly. Hence, a novel method of simulating the static contact pressure between a sports bra and women’s body based on the finite element (FE) and artificial neural network (ANN) models is developed in this study to contribute to the design considerations of sports bras.

Three-dimensional FE models of a female subject and sports bras with different fabric properties are developed to determine the amount of contact pressure exerted onto the body. The FE results are then verified by measuring the amount of pressure exerted by the sports bra on the skin with pressure sensors. The Taguchi technique is used to effectively reduce the number of trials from 625 to only 25 cases. These 25 results obtained through FE modelling are then used to provide the training set for the ANNs. Finally, a comparison between the FE and ANN results is carried out.

A novel model of the static contact pressure between a sports bra and human subject based on the FE and ANN methods is presented in this paper. The root mean square error values show that there is only a small difference between the FE and ANN results.

The ANN function established in this study can be used to predict the mechanical behaviours of breasts and has a fundamental impact on the computer-aided design of functional garments in general.

Emerging evidence regarding crowdfunding challenges long-standing “gender gap” views of traditional entrepreneurial financing and indicates that female entrepreneurs may have an advantage in crowdfunding. Yet, the literature primarily focuses on influences at the individual level, largely overlooking the interaction between gender and higher-level culture. Drawing on Hofstede's cultural dimensions, this paper aims to investigate the associations among entrepreneurs' gender, culture and crowdfunding performance, particularly in how entrepreneurs' gender and culture interact to affect crowdfunding performance.

Leveraging a sample of 21,730 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns and combining these data with data from Hofstede's study, the World Bank (WB) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), this study applies multilevel models to empirically investigate this question across 22 countries/regions.

This study confirms that the advantageous effect, that female entrepreneurs are likely to obtain better fundraising performance over their male counterparts, does exist in crowdfunding. Furthermore, the findings reveal that this advantageous effect of female entrepreneurs on crowdfunding performance would be reinforced when cultures of individualism and indulgence are high and culture of long-term orientation is low.

This study contributes to the literature on gender gaps in crowdfunding and entrepreneurial financing by adding an important culture-related boundary condition to the gender preference reported in earlier crowdfunding work. Moreover, the paper extends the knowledge about the impact of culture on crowdfunding performance and enlightens future research on leveraging multilevel modeling approach to examine the complex interplay between individuals and situations in crowdfunding.

This paper aims to propose the modeling of nanostructured memristor, and the circuit of amplitude modulator was designed and analyzed with memristor. The simulation results show that the nanostructured memristor can be utilized to implement the desired amplitude modulated signal.

The modeling of nanostructured memristor is proposed in this paper, and the circuit of amplitude modulator was designed and analyzed with memristor, amplifiers and BPF device. For measuring the modulated signal, the emulator circuit of memristor is designed. The simulation results show that the nanostructured memristor can be utilized to implement the desired amplitude modulated signal.

The innovations of this work are as follows: the AM modulator circuit using memristor has been proposed, analyzed and simulated. The emulator of memristor is given.

The innovations of this work are as follows: the AM modulator circuit using memristor has been proposed, analyzed and simulated. The emulator of memristor is given, and the results of this work demonstrate that the nonlinearity of the memristor can be used to generate the desired amplitude modulation free of harmonic sidebands, because of distortion of the modulating signal.

To solve the problem of meminductor in circuit design, this paper aims to describe a synthesis method and the mechanism in terms of constitutive relation of the gyrator for transforming nano memristor into meminductor.

The gyrator was designed to achieve memristor-meminductor transformation by using amplifiers and memristor.

The simulation results verify the flexibility of its operation.

This gyrator can be used in integrated circuit design such as filter, diplexer, and it has a simple and economical implementation.