Search results for: particle size distribution

Authors: Ameur Abdelkader, Abed Bouarfa Hafida

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Since its inception, predictive analysis has revolutionized the IT industry through its robustness and decision-making facilities. It involves the application of a set of data processing techniques and algorithms in order to create predictive models. Its principle is based on finding relationships between explanatory variables and the predicted variables. Past occurrences are exploited to predict and to derive the unknown outcome. With the advent of big data, many studies have suggested the use of predictive analytics in order to process and analyze big data. Nevertheless, they have been curbed by the limits of classical methods of predictive analysis in case of a large amount of data. In fact, because of their volumes, their nature (semi or unstructured) and their variety, it is impossible to analyze efficiently big data via classical methods of predictive analysis. The authors attribute this weakness to the fact that predictive analysis algorithms do not allow the parallelization and distribution of calculation. In this paper, we propose to extend the predictive analysis algorithm, Classification And Regression Trees (CART), in order to adapt it for big data analysis. The major changes of this algorithm are presented and then a version of the extended algorithm is defined in order to make it applicable for a huge quantity of data.

Keywords: Predictive analysis, big data, predictive analysis algorithms. CART algorithm.

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Authors: Guowei Hou, Lixin Yu, Wei Zhuang, Hui Qin, Xue Yang

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Formal verification is proposed to ensure the correctness of the design and make functional verification more efficient. As cache plays a vital role in the design of System on Chip (SoC), and cache with Memory Management Unit (MMU) and cache memory unit makes the state space too large for simulation to verify, then a formal verification is presented for such system design. In the paper, a formal model checking verification flow is suggested and a new cache memory model which is called “exhaustive search model” is proposed. Instead of using large size ram to denote the whole cache memory, exhaustive search model employs just two cache blocks. For cache system contains data cache (Dcache) and instruction cache (Icache), Dcache memory model and Icache memory model are established separately using the same mechanism. At last, the novel model is employed to the verification of a cache which is module of a custom-built SoC system that has been applied in practical, and the result shows that the cache system is verified correctly using the exhaustive search model, and it makes the verification much more manageable and flexible.

Keywords: Cache system, formal verification, novel model, System on Chip (SoC).

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Authors: Rafat Alshorman, Walter Hussak

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In mobile environments, unspecified numbers of transactions arrive in continuous streams. To prove correctness of their concurrent execution a method of modelling an infinite number of transactions is needed. Standard database techniques model fixed finite schedules of transactions. Lately, techniques based on temporal logic have been proposed as suitable for modelling infinite schedules. The drawback of these techniques is that proving the basic serializability correctness condition is impractical, as encoding (the absence of) conflict cyclicity within large sets of transactions results in prohibitively large temporal logic formulae. In this paper, we show that, under certain common assumptions on the graph structure of data items accessed by the transactions, conflict cyclicity need only be checked within all possible pairs of transactions. This results in formulae of considerably reduced size in any temporal-logic-based approach to proving serializability, and scales to arbitrary numbers of transactions.

Keywords: multi-step transactions, serializability, directed graph.

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Authors: Piotr Ciuman, Barbara Lipska

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The aim of presented research was to improve numerical predictions of air parameters distribution in the actual natatorium by the selection of calculation formula of mass flux of moisture emitted from the pool. Selected correlation should ensure the best compliance of numerical results with the measurements' results of these parameters in the facility. The numerical model of the natatorium was developed, for which boundary conditions were prepared on the basis of measurements' results carried out in the actual facility. Numerical calculations were carried out with the use of ANSYS CFX software, with six formulas being implemented, which in various ways made the moisture emission dependent on water surface temperature and air parameters in the natatorium. The results of calculations with the use of these formulas were compared for air parameters' distributions: Specific humidity, velocity and temperature in the facility. For the selection of the best formula, numerical results of these parameters in occupied zone were validated by comparison with the measurements' results carried out at selected points of this zone.

Keywords: Experimental validation, indoor swimming pool, moisture emission, natatorium, numerical calculations, CFD, thermal and humidity conditions, ventilation.

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Authors: Hyun-Woo Cho, Jae-Heum Moon, Jang-Hwa Lee

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In order to supplement the brittle property of concrete, fibers are added into concrete mixtures. Compared to general concrete, various characteristics such as tensile strength, bending strength, bending toughness, and resistance to crack are superior, and even when cracks occur, improvements on toughness as well as resistance to shock are excellent due to the growth of fracture energy. Increased function of steel fiber reinforced concrete can be differentiated depending on the fiber dispersion, and sand percentage can be an important influence on the fiber dispersion. Therefore, in this research, experiments were planned on sand percentage in order to apprehend the influence of sand percentage on the bending properties and direct tension of SFRC and basic experiments were conducted on bending and direct tension in order to recognize the properties of bending properties and direct tension following the size of the aggregates and sand percentage.

Keywords: Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Bending Toughness, Direct tension.

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Authors: Bintao Wu, Xiangfang Xu, Yugang Miao, Duanfeng Han

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Joining of 1mm thick aluminum 6061 to titanium TC4 was conducted using Bypass-current MIG welding-brazed, and stable welding process and good bead appearance were obtained. The Joint profile and microstructure of Ti/Al joints were observed by optical microscopy and SEM and then the structure of the interfacial reaction layers were analyzed in details. It was found that the intermetallic compound layer at the interfacial top is in the form of columnar crystal, which is in short and dense state. A mount of AlTi were observed at the interfacial layer near the Ti base metal while intermetallic compound like Al3Ti, TiSi3 were formed near the Al base metal, and the Al11Ti5 transition phase was found in the center of the interface layer due to the uneven distribution inside the weld pool during the welding process. Tensile test results show that the average tensile strength of joints is up to 182.6 MPa, which reaches about 97.6% of aluminum base metal. Fracture is prone to occur in the base metal with a certain amount of necking.

Keywords: Bypass-current MIG welding-brazed, Al alloy, Ti alloy, joint characteristics, mechanical properties.

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Authors: Zeljana Aljinovic Barac, Marina Granic, Tina Vuko

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Study investigates the level and extent of voluntary disclosure practice in Croatia. The research was conducted on the sample of 130 medium and large companies. Findings indicate that two thirds of the companies analyzed disclose below-average number of additional information. The explanatory analyses has shown that firm size, listing status and industrial sector significantly and positively affect the level and extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual report of Croatian companies. On the other hand, profitability and ownership structure were found statistically insignificant. Unlike previous studies, this paper deals with level of voluntary disclosure of medium and large companies, as well as companies whose shares are not listed on the organized capital market, which can be found as our contribution. Also, the research makes contribution by providing the insights into voluntary disclosure practices in Croatia, as a case of macro-oriented accounting system economy, i.e. bank oriented economy with an emerging capital market.

Keywords: Annual report, Croatian companies, Disclosure index, Voluntary disclosure.

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Authors: Wei-Han Wang, Hsiang-Yu Yu, Mau-Sun Hua

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Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to infer another’s mental state. With appropriate ToM, one can behave well in social interactions. A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) may damage ToM by affecting on regions of the underlying neural network of ToM. However, the question of whether there is cerebral laterality for ToM functions remains open. This study aimed to examine whether there is cerebral lateralization for ToM abilities in TLE patients. Sixty-seven adult TLE patients and 30 matched healthy controls (HC) were recruited. Patients were classified into right (RTLE), left (LTLE), and bilateral (BTLE) TLE groups on the basis of a consensus panel review of their seizure semiology, EEG findings, and brain imaging results. All participants completed an intellectual test and four tasks measuring basic and advanced ToM. The results showed that, on all ToM tasks, (1) each patient group performed worse than HC; (2) there were no significant differences between LTLE and RTLE groups; and (3) the BTLE group performed the worst. It appears that the neural network responsible for ToM is distributed evenly between the cerebral hemispheres.

Keywords: Cerebral lateralization, social cognition, temporal lobe epilepsy, theory of mind.

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Authors: E. Gnapowski, S. Gnapowski

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This study examined the effect of porous dielectric silica gel the discharge ignition voltage and input power in a plasma reactor. For the experiment was used a plasma reactor with two mesh electrodes made of stainless steel with a mesh size of 0.1x0.1mm. The study analyzed and compared with parameters such as power, ignition and operation voltage of the reactor for two dielectrics a porous and glass. During experiment were observed several new phenomena conducted for porous dielectric. The first phenomenon was the reduction the ignition voltage discharge to volume around few hundred volts. Second it was increase input power six times more compared with power those obtained for the glass dielectric. Thirdly difference it is ΔV between ignition voltage V_i and operating voltage reactor V_m for porous dielectric it was 11%, while ΔV for the glass dielectric it was 60%. Also change the discharge characteristics from DBD for glass dielectric to the streamer resistance discharge for the porous dielectric.

Keywords: Input power, mesh electrodes, onset voltage, porous dielectric.

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Authors: Ali F. Al-Baz, Mohsen M. Al-Husaini, James M. Bishop

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Intertidal fixed stake net trap (Hadrah) is one of the oldest fishing gears used throughout the Arabian Gulf countries since the 1800s and also one of most the efficient methods of capturing fish from the intertidal area. This study describes the hadrah fishery in Kuwait.

From October 2001 to December 2002, more than 37,372 specimens representing 95 species (89 fish, 2 mollusks and 4 crustaceans) were measured from hadrah, located in three different areas along Kuwait's coast. In Kuwait Bay, catch rates averaged 62 kg/sir-day (from 14 kg/sir-day in February to 160 kg/sir-day in October 2002). Commercial species accounted for 41% of the catches. Catches from Failakah Island averaged 96 kg/sir-day from June to September, with 61% of the catch being commercial species. In the southern area, catches averaged only 32 kg/sir-day and only 34% were commercially important.

Forty percent of the hadrah catches were juveniles, which shows that Kuwait’s shallow intertidal waters, particularly in Kuwait Bay, served as prime nursery habitat,. To maintain ecosystem biodiversity and recruitment success of the fishes, we recommended that all hadrah should be removed from Kuwait Bay. In the future, removal of hadrah from other locations should be considered.

Keywords: Catch and effort, Hadrah, Intertidal Fixed stake net, Kuwait, Species composition.

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Authors: Harshit Mehrotra, Gaurav Agrawal, M.C. Srivastava

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Computerized lip reading has been one of the most actively researched areas of computer vision in recent past because of its crime fighting potential and invariance to acoustic environment. However, several factors like fast speech, bad pronunciation, poor illumination, movement of face, moustaches and beards make lip reading difficult. In present work, we propose a solution for automatic lip contour tracking and recognizing letters of English language spoken by speakers using the information available from lip movements. Level set method is used for tracking lip contour using a contour velocity model and a feature vector of lip movements is then obtained. Character recognition is performed using modified k nearest neighbor algorithm which assigns more weight to nearer neighbors. The proposed system has been found to have accuracy of 73.3% for character recognition with speaker lip movements as the only input and without using any speech recognition system in parallel. The approach used in this work is found to significantly solve the purpose of lip reading when size of database is small.

Keywords: Contour Velocity Model, Lip Contour Tracking, LipReading, Visual Character Recognition.

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Authors: Suwimon Saneewong Na Ayuttaya

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This paper presents a numerical investigation of electrically driven flow for enhancing convective heat transfer in a channel flow. This study focuses on the electrode arrangements, number of electrode and electrical voltage on Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) and effect of airflow driven on solid sample surface. The inlet airflow and inlet temperature are 0.35 m/s and 60 ^oC, respectively. High electrical voltage is tested in the range of 0-30 kV and number of electrode is tested in the range of 1-5. The numerical results show that electric field intensity is depended on electrical voltage and number of electrode. Increasing number of electrodes is increased shear flow, so swirling flow is increased. The swirling flows from aligned and staggered arrangements are affecting within the solid sample. When electrical voltage is increased, temperature distribution and convective heat transfer on the solid sample are significantly increased due to the electric force much stronger.

Keywords: Electrohydrodynamics, swirling flow, convective heat transfer, solid sample.

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Authors: F. Havas Beigi, E. Mohammadi, M.Vafaee Yeganeh

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Curriculum is one of the most important inputs in higher education system and for knowing the strong and weak spots of it we need evaluation. The main purpose of this study was to survey of the curriculum quality of Insurance Management field. Case: University of Allameh Taba Tabaee(according to view point of students,alumni,employer and faculty members).Descriptive statistics (mean, tables, percentages, frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (CHI SQUARE) were used to analyze the data. Six criterions considered for the Quality of curriculum: objectives, content, teaching and learning methods, space and facilities, Time, assessment of learning. objectives, teaching and learning methods criterions was desirable level, content criteria was undesirable level, space and facilities, time and assessment of learning were rather desirable level. The quality of curriculum of insurance management field was relatively desirable level.

Keywords: Quality, curriculum, insurance management, higher education.

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Authors: Y. Rathiranee, D. M. Semasinghe

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This study attempts to identify the factors influencing on women empowerment of rural area in Sri Lanka through micro finance services. Data were collected from one hundred (100) rural women involving self-employment activities through a questionnaire using direct personal interviews. Judgment and Convenience Random sampling technique was used to select the sample size from three Divisional Secretariat divisions of Kandawalai, Poonakari and Karachchi in Kilinochchi District. The factor analysis was performed on fourteen (14) variables for screening and reducing the variables to identify the influencing factors on empowerment. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify the relationship between the three empowerment factors and the impact of micro finance on overall empowerment of rural women. The result of this study summarized the variables into three factors namely decision making, freedom to mobility and family support and which are positively associated with empowerment. In addition to this the value of adjusted R2 is 0.248 indicates that all the variables extracted can be explained 24.8% of the variation in the women empowerment through microfinance. Independent variables of these three factors have positive correlation with women empowerment as well as significant values at 5 percent level.

Keywords: Influencing factors, Micro finance, rural women and women empowerment.

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Authors: Vaso K. Kapnopoulou, Piero Caridis

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The fatigue of ship structural details is of major concern in the maritime industry as it can generate fracture issues that may compromise structural integrity. In the present study, a fatigue analysis of the lower hopper knuckle connection of a bulk carrier was conducted using the Finite Element Method by means of ABAQUS/CAE software. The fatigue life was calculated using Miner’s Rule and the long-term distribution of stress range by the use of the two-parameter Weibull distribution. The cumulative damage ratio was estimated using the fatigue damage resulting from the stress range occurring at each load condition. For this purpose, a cargo hold model was first generated, which extends over the length of two holds (the mid-hold and half of each of the adjacent holds) and transversely over the full breadth of the hull girder. Following that, a submodel of the area of interest was extracted in order to calculate the hot spot stress of the connection and to estimate the fatigue life of the structural detail. Two hot spot locations were identified; one at the top layer of the inner bottom plate and one at the top layer of the hopper plate. The IACS Common Structural Rules (CSR) require that specific dynamic load cases for each loading condition are assessed. Following this, the dynamic load case that causes the highest stress range at each loading condition should be used in the fatigue analysis for the calculation of the cumulative fatigue damage ratio. Each load case has a different effect on ship hull response. Of main concern, when assessing the fatigue strength of the lower hopper knuckle connection, was the determination of the maximum, i.e. the critical value of the stress range, which acts in a direction normal to the weld toe line. This acts in the transverse direction, that is, perpendicularly to the ship's centerline axis. The load cases were explored both theoretically and numerically in order to establish the one that causes the highest damage to the location examined. The most severe one was identified to be the load case induced by beam sea condition where the encountered wave comes from the starboard. At the level of the cargo hold model, the model was assumed to be simply supported at its ends. A coarse mesh was generated in order to represent the overall stiffness of the structure. The elements employed were quadrilateral shell elements, each having four integration points. A linear elastic analysis was performed because linear elastic material behavior can be presumed, since only localized yielding is allowed by most design codes. At the submodel level, the displacements of the analysis of the cargo hold model to the outer region nodes of the submodel acted as boundary conditions and applied loading for the submodel. In order to calculate the hot spot stress at the hot spot locations, a very fine mesh zone was generated and used. The fatigue life of the detail was found to be 16.4 years which is lower than the design fatigue life of the structure (25 years), making this location vulnerable to fatigue fracture issues. Moreover, the loading conditions that induce the most damage to the location were found to be the various ballasting conditions.

Keywords: Lower hopper knuckle, high cycle fatigue, finite element method, dynamic load cases.

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Authors: Azin Shakibabarough, Mojtaba Valinejadshoubi, Ashutosh Bagchi

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Structural vibration means repetitive motion that causes fatigue and reduction of the performance of a structure. An earthquake may release high amount of energy that can have adverse effect on all components of a structure. Therefore, decreasing of vibration or maintaining performance of structures such as bridges, dams, roads and buildings is important for life safety and reducing economic loss. When earthquake or any vibration happens, investigation on parts of a structure which sustain the seismic loads is mandatory to provide a safe condition for the occupants. One of the solutions for reducing the earthquake vibration in a structure is using of vibration control devices such as dampers and base isolators. The objective of this study is to investigate the optimal positions of friction dampers and base isolators for better seismic response of 2D frame. For this purpose, a two bay and six story frame with different distribution formats was modeled and some of their responses to earthquake such as inter-story drift, max joint displacement, max axial force and max bending moment were determined and compared using non-linear dynamic analysis.

Keywords: Fast nonlinear analysis, friction damper, base isolator, seismic vibration control, seismic response.

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Authors: Chih-Cheng Chen, Meng-Lung Lin, Yung-Tan Lee Tsun-I Hsiao, Yi-Cheng Chen

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The Taiwan government has invested approximately 21 billion NT dollars in the construction of bicycle paths since bicycling has gained huge popularity as a healthy leisure and recreational activity. This study focuses on the behavior of recreational bicyclists in Danshuei and Bali, northern Taiwan. Data were collected from a field investigation carried out along the Danshuei bicycle path and Bali left-bank bicycle path. A total of 578 questionnaires were gathered for data analysis. Descriptive statistics and Chi-Square tests were used to assess bicyclists- behaviors. The frequency shows that, in these areas, Danshuei and Bali, most bicyclists rented bicycles, rode the bicycle path in the afternoon for about 2 hours. The used the bicycle path one time per week. For most, it was the first time to ride these bicycle paths. There were significant differences in distribution of bicycle ownership, time of day, duration of ride, ride frequency, and whether riding occurred on weekdays or weekends. Results indicated that most bicyclists in Danshuei and Bali were infrequent users.

Keywords: recreational bicyclist, bicyclist behaviors, NorthernTaiwan

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Authors: K. Krushnamurty, D. Rasmitha, I. Srikanth, K. Ramji, Ch. Subrahmanyam

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E-glass-epoxy laminated composites having different fiber volume fractions (40, 50, 60 and 70) were fabricated with and without the addition of nanoclay. Flexural strength and tensile strength of the composite laminates were determined. It was observed that, with increasing the fiber volume fraction (V_f) of fiber from 40 to 60, the ability of nanoclay to enhance the tensile and flexural strength of E-glass-epoxy composites decreases significantly. At 70V_f, the tensile and flexural strength of the nanoclay reinforced E-glass-epoxy were found to be lowest when compared to the E-glass-epoxy composite made without the addition of nanoclay. Based on the obtained data and microstructure of the tested samples, plausible mechanism for the observed trends has been proposed. The enhanced mechanical properties for nanoclay reinforced E-glass-epoxy composites for 40-60 V_f, due to higher interface toughness coupled with strong interfilament bonding may have ensured the homogeneous load distribution across all the glass fibers. Results in the decrease in mechanical properties at 70V_f, may be due to the inability of the matrix to bind the nanoclay and glass-fibers.

Keywords: E-glass-epoxy composite laminates, fiber volume fraction, e-glass fiber, mechanical properties, delamination.

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Authors: Bachir Chemani, Halima Chemani

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The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of adding coal to obtain insulating ceramic product. The preparation of mixtures is achieved with 04 types of different masse compositions, consisting of gray and yellow clay, and coal. Analyses are performed on local raw materials by adding coal as additive. The coal content varies from 5 to 20 % in weight by varying the size of coal particles ranging from 0.25mm to 1.60mm.

Initially, each natural moisture content of a raw material has been determined at the temperature of 105°C in a laboratory oven. The Influence of low-coal content on absorption, the apparent density, the contraction and the resistance during compression have been evaluated. The experimental results showed that the optimized composition could be obtained by adding 10% by weight of coal leading thus to insulating ceramic products with water absorption, a density and resistance to compression of 9.40 %, 1.88 g/cm³, 35.46 MPa, respectively. The results show that coal, when mixed with traditional raw materials, offers the conditions to be used as an additive in the production of lightweight ceramic products.

Keywords: Clay, coal, resistance to compression, insulating bricks.

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Authors: M. Tehranizadeh, E. Shoushtari Rezvani

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Seismic performance of steel moment-resisting frame structures is investigated considering nonlinear soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects. 10-, 15-, and 20-story planar building frames with aspect ratio of 3 are designed in accordance with current building codes. Inelastic seismic demands of the superstructure are considered using concentrated plasticity model. The raft foundation system is designed for different soil types. Beam-on-nonlinear Winkler foundation (BNWF) is used to represent dynamic impedance of the underlying soil. Two sets of pulse-like as well as no-pulse near-fault earthquakes are used as input ground motions. The results show that the reduction in drift demands due to nonlinear SSI is characterized by a more uniform distribution pattern along the height when compared to the fixed-base and linear SSI condition. It is also concluded that beneficial effects of nonlinear SSI on displacement demands is more significant in case of pulse-like ground motions and performance level of the steel moment-resisting frames can be enhanced.

Keywords: Soil-structure interaction, uplifting, soil plasticity, near-fault earthquake, tall building.

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Authors: Aliza Lee, Mark Wilt, John Bonk, Scott Floyd, Bradley Hoffman, Karen Uchmanowicz

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Bipartite medial cuneiforms are relatively rare but may play a significant role in biomechanical and gait abnormalities. It is believed that a bipartite medial cuneiform may alter the available range of motion due to its larger morphological variant, thus limiting the metatarsal plantarflexion needed to achieve adequate hallux dorsiflexion for normal gait. Radiographic and clinical assessment were performed on two patients who reported with foot pain along the first ray. Both patients had visible bipartite medial cuneiforms on MRI. Using gait plate and Metascan ™ analysis, both were noted to have four measurements far beyond the expected range. Medial and lateral heel peak pressure, hallux peak pressure, and 1st metatarsal peak pressure were all noted to be increased. These measurements are believed to be increased due to the hindrance placed on the available ROM of the first ray by the increased size of the medial cuneiform. A larger patient population would be needed to fully understand this developmental anomaly.

Keywords: Bipartite medial cuneiforms, cuneiform, developmental anomaly, gait abnormality.

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Authors: Tienfuan Kerh, Hsienchang Lu, Rob Saunders

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Shoreline erosion problems caused by global warming and sea level rising may result in losing of land areas, so it should be examined regularly to reduce possible negative impacts. Initially in this study, three sets of survey images obtained from the years of 1990, 2001, and 2010, respectively, are digitalized by using graphical software to establish the spatial coordinates of six major beaches around the island of Taiwan. Then, by overlaying the known multi-period images, the change of shoreline can be observed from their distribution of coordinates. In addition, the neural network approximation is used to develop a model for predicting shoreline variation in the years of 2015 and 2020. The comparison results show that there is no significant change of total sandy area for all beaches in the three different periods. However, the prediction results show that two beaches may exhibit an increasing of total sandy areas under a statistical 95% confidence interval. The proposed method adopted in this study may be applicable to other shorelines of interest around the world.

Keywords: Digitalized shoreline coordinates, survey image overlaying, neural network approximation, total beach sandy areas.

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Authors: Imana Shahrin Tania, Mohammad Ali

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The present study reports the synthesis, characterization and application of nano-sized zinc-oxide (ZnO) particles on a cotton fabric surface. The aim of the investigations is to impart the antimicrobial activity on textile cloth. Nanoparticle is synthesized by wet chemical method from zinc sulphate and sodium hydroxide. SEM (scanning electron micrograph) images are taken to demonstrate the surface morphology of nanoparticles. XRD analysis is done to determine the crystal size of the nanoparticle. With the conformation of nanoformation, the cotton woven fabric is treated with ZnO nanoparticle by mechanical thermo-fixation (pad-dry-cure) technique. To increase the wash durability of nano treated fabric, an acrylic binder is used as a fixing agent. The treated fabric shows up to 90% bacterial reduction for S. aureus (Staphylococcus aureus) and 87% for E. coli (Escherichia coli) which is appreciable for bacteria protective clothing.

Keywords: Nanoparticle, zinc oxide, cotton fabric, antibacterial activity, binder.

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Authors: Petter Eklund, Jonathan Sjölund, Sandra Eriksson, Mats Leijon

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The spoke type rotor can be used to obtain magnetic flux concentration in permanent magnet machines. This allows the air gap magnetic flux density to exceed the remanent flux density of the permanent magnets but gives problems with leakage fluxes in the magnetic circuit. The end leakage flux of one spoke type permanent magnet rotor design is studied through measurements and finite element simulations. The measurements are performed in the end regions of a 12 kW prototype generator for a vertical axis wind turbine. The simulations are made using three dimensional finite elements to calculate the magnetic field distribution in the end regions of the machine. Also two dimensional finite element simulations are performed and the impact of the two dimensional approximation is studied. It is found that the magnetic leakage flux in the end regions of the machine is equal to about 20% of the flux in the permanent magnets. The overestimation of the performance by the two dimensional approximation is quantified and a curve-fitted expression for its behavior is suggested.

Keywords: End effects, end leakage flux, permanent magnet machine, spoke type rotor.

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Authors: Summiya Moheuddin, Afzel Noore, Muhammad Choudhry

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This paper proposes a novel solution for optimizing the size and communication overhead of a distributed multiagent system without compromising the performance. The proposed approach addresses the challenges of scalability especially when the multiagent system is large. A modified spectral clustering technique is used to partition a large network into logically related clusters. Agents are assigned to monitor dedicated clusters rather than monitor each device or node. The proposed scalable multiagent system is implemented using JADE (Java Agent Development Environment) for a large power system. The performance of the proposed topologyindependent decentralized multiagent system and the scalable multiagent system is compared by comprehensively simulating different fault scenarios. The time taken for reconfiguration, the overall computational complexity, and the communication overhead incurred are computed. The results of these simulations show that the proposed scalable multiagent system uses fewer agents efficiently, makes faster decisions to reconfigure when a fault occurs, and incurs significantly less communication overhead.

Keywords: Multiagent system, scalable design, spectral clustering, reconfiguration.

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Authors: M. Veeresham

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The microstructure, texture, phase stability, and tensile properties of annealed Ta_0.5Nb_0.5Hf_0.5ZrTi_1.5 alloy have been investigated in the present research. The alloy was severely hybrid-rolled up to 93.5% thickness reduction, subsequently rolled samples subjected to an annealing treatment at 800 °C and 1000 °C temperatures for 1 h. Consequently, the rolled condition and both annealed temperatures have a body-centered cubic (BCC) structure. Furthermore, quantitative texture measurements (orientation distribution function (ODF) analysis) and microstructural examinations (analytical electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) maps) permitted to establish a good relationship between annealing texture and microstructure and universal testing machine (UTM) utilized for obtaining the mechanical properties. Impressive room temperature tensile properties combination with the tensile strength (1380 MPa) and (24.7%) elongation is achieved for the 800 °C heat-treated condition. The evolution of the coarse microstructure featured in the case of 1000 °C annealed temperature ascribed to the influence of high thermal energy.

Keywords: Refractory high entropy alloys, hybrid-rolling, recrystallization, microstructure, tensile properties.

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Authors: Aldan A. Sapargaliyev, Yerbol A. Sapargaliyev

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Since the invention, the electric machine (EM) can be defined as oEM – one-vector electric machine, as it works due to one-vector inductive coupling with use of one-vector electromagnet. The disadvantages of oEM are large size and limited efficiency at low and medium power applications. This paper describes multi-vector electric machine (mEM) based on multi-vector inductive coupling, which is characterized by the increased surface area of ​​the inductive coupling per EM volume, with a reduced share of inefficient and energy-consuming part of the winding, in comparison with oEM’s. Particularly, it is considered, calculated and compared the performance of three different electrical motors and their power at the same volumes and rotor frequencies. It is also presented the result of calculation of correlation between power density and volume for oEM and mEM. The method of multi-vector inductive coupling enables mEM to possess 1.5-4.0 greater density of power per volume and significantly higher efficiency, in comparison with today’s oEM, especially in low and medium power applications. mEM has distinct advantages, when used in transport vehicles such as electric cars and aircrafts.

Keywords: Electric machine, electric motor, electromagnet, efficiency of electric motor.

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Authors: Mountassar Maamoun, Mehdi Neggazi, Abdelhamid Meraghni, Daoud Berkani

Abstract:

This paper presents a VLSI design approach of a highspeed and real-time 2-D Discrete Wavelet Transform computing. The proposed architecture, based on new and fast convolution approach, reduces the hardware complexity in addition to reduce the critical path to the multiplier delay. Furthermore, an advanced twodimensional (2-D) discrete wavelet transform (DWT) implementation, with an efficient memory area, is designed to produce one output in every clock cycle. As a result, a very highspeed is attained. The system is verified, using JPEG2000 coefficients filters, on Xilinx Virtex-II Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device without accessing any external memory. The resulting computing rate is up to 270 M samples/s and the (9,7) 2-D wavelet filter uses only 18 kb of memory (16 kb of first-in-first-out memory) with 256×256 image size. In this way, the developed design requests reduced memory and provide very high-speed processing as well as high PSNR quality.

Keywords: Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Fast Convolution, FPGA, VLSI.

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Authors: J. Suwanprateeb, F. Thammarakcharoen

Abstract:

Calcium phosphate coating (CaP) has been employed for protein delivery, but the typical direct protein adsorption on the coating led to low incorporation content and fast release of the protein from the coating. By using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model protein, rapid biomimetic co-precipitation between calcium phosphate and BSA was employed to control the distribution of BSA within calcium phosphate coating during biomimetic formation on titanium surface for only 6 h at 50oC in an accelerated calcium phosphate solution. As a result, the amount of BSA incorporation and release duration could be increased by using a rapid biomimetic coprecipitation technique. Up to 43 fold increases in the BSA incorporation content and the increase from 6 h to more than 360 h in release duration compared to typical direct adsorption technique were observed depending on the initial BSA concentration used during coprecipitation (1, 10 and 100 μg.ml-1). From x-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies, the coating composition was not altered with the incorporation of BSA by this rapid biomimetic co-precipitation and mainly comprised octacalcium phosphate and hydroxyapatite. However, the microstructure of calcium phosphate crystals changed from straight, plate-like units to curved, plate-like units with increasing BSA content.

Keywords: Biomimetic, Calcium Phosphate Coating, Protein, Titanium.

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Authors: Eric Filiol, Edouard Franc, Alessandro Gubbioli, Benoit Moquet, Guillaume Roblot

Abstract:

Worm propagation profiles have significantly changed since 2003-2004: sudden world outbreaks like Blaster or Slammer have progressively disappeared and slower but stealthier worms appeared since, most of them for botnets dissemination. Decreased worm virulence results in more difficult detection. In this paper, we describe a stealth worm propagation model which has been extensively simulated and analysed on a huge virtual network. The main features of this model is its ability to infect any Internet-like network in a few seconds, whatever may be its size while greatly limiting the reinfection attempt overhead of already infected hosts. The main simulation results shows that the combinatorial topology of routing may have a huge impact on the worm propagation and thus some servers play a more essential and significant role than others. The real-time capability to identify them may be essential to greatly hinder worm propagation.

Keywords: Combinatorial worm, worm spreading, worm virulence, stealth worm, spreading simulation, vertex cover, networktopology, WAST simulator, SuWAST simulator.

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