Search results for: competitive energy market.

Authors: Yasaman Zeinali, Farid Khosravikia

Abstract:

This paper presents a multi-objective framework for sustainable urban development. The proposed framework aims to address different aspects of sustainability in urban development planning. These aspects include, but are not limited to education, health, job opportunities, architecture, culture, environment, mobility, energy, water, waste, and so on. Then, the proposed framework is applied to the Brackenridge Tract (an area in downtown Austin, Texas), to redevelop that area in a sustainable way. The detail of the implementation process is presented in this paper. The ultimate goal of this paper is to develop a sustainable area in downtown Austin with ensuring that it locally meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental, health as well as cultural aspects. Moreover, it helps the city with the population growth problem by accommodating more people in that area.

Keywords: Environmental impacts of human activities, sustainability, urban planning.

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Authors: Martha C. Orazulume, Jibril D. Jiya

Abstract:

Flexible satellites are equipped with various appendages which vibrate under the influence of any excitation and make the attitude of the satellite to be unstable. Therefore, the system must be able to adjust to balance the effect of these appendages in order to point accurately and satisfactorily which is one of the most important problems in satellite design. Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) Controller is simple to design and computationally efficient to implement which is used to stabilize the effect of these flexible appendages. However, manual turning of the PID is time consuming, waste energy and money. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to tune the parameters of PID Controller. Simulation results obtained show that PSO tuned PID Controller is able to re-orient the spacecraft attitude as well as dampen the effect of mechanical resonance and yields better performance when compared with manually tuned PID Controller.

Keywords: Attitude control, flexible satellite, particle swarm optimization, PID controller.

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Authors: C. Chahin, M. C. Hsu, Y. H. Lin, C. Y. Huang

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Electronics Products that achieve high levels of integrated communications, computing and entertainment, multimedia features in small, stylish and robust new form factors are winning in the market place. Due to the high costs that an industry may undergo and how a high yield is directly proportional to high profits, IC (Integrated Circuit) manufacturers struggle to maximize yield, but today-s customers demand miniaturization, low costs, high performance and excellent reliability making the yield maximization a never ending research of an enhanced assembly process. With factors such as minimum tolerances, tighter parameter variations a systematic approach is needed in order to predict the assembly process. In order to evaluate the quality of upcoming circuits, yield models are used which not only predict manufacturing costs but also provide vital information in order to ease the process of correction when the yields fall below expectations. For an IC manufacturer to obtain higher assembly yields all factors such as boards, placement, components, the material from which the components are made of and processes must be taken into consideration. Effective placement yield depends heavily on machine accuracy and the vision of the system which needs the ability to recognize the features on the board and component to place the device accurately on the pads and bumps of the PCB. There are currently two methods for accurate positioning, using the edge of the package and using solder ball locations also called footprints. The only assumption that a yield model makes is that all boards and devices are completely functional. This paper will focus on the Monte Carlo method which consists in a class of computational algorithms (information processed algorithms) which depends on repeated random samplings in order to compute the results. This method utilized in order to recreate the simulation of placement and assembly processes within a production line.

Keywords: Monte Carlo simulation, placement yield, PCBcharacterization, electronics assembly

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Authors: N. A. Salim, M. M. Othman, I. Musirin, M. S. Serwan

Abstract:

Over the past few decades, power system industry in many developing and developed countries has gone through a restructuring process of the industry where they are moving towards deregulated power industry. This situation will lead to competition among the generation and distribution companies to provide quality and efficient production of electric energy, which will reduce the price of electricity. Therefore it is important to obtain an accurate value of the available transfer capability (ATC) and transmission reliability margin (TRM) in order to ensure the effective power transfer between areas during the occurrence of uncertainties in the system. In this paper, the TRM and ATC is determined by taking into consideration the uncertainties of the system operating condition and system cascading collapse by applying the bootstrap technique. A case study of the IEEE RTS-79 is employed to verify the robustness of the technique proposed in the determination of TRM and ATC.

Keywords: Available transfer capability, bootstrap technique, cascading collapse, transmission reliability margin.

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Authors: D. G. Jung, J. B. Lim, J. H. Kim, J. J. Kim

Abstract:

The international society focuses on the environment protection and natural energy sources control for the global cooperation against weather change and sustainable growth. The study presents the overview of the water shortage status and the necessity of wastewater reuse facility in military facilities and for the possibility of the introduction, compares the economics by means of cost-benefit analysis. The military features such as the number of users of military barracks and the water use were surveyed by the design principles by facility types, the application method of wastewater reuse facility was selected, the feed water, its application and the volume of reuse volume were defined and the expectation was estimated, confirming the possibility of introducing a wastewater reuse possibility by means of cost-benefit analysis.

Keywords: military barracks, wastewater reuse facility, cost-benefit analysis

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Authors: Emine Teke, Soner Kuşlu, Sabri Çolak, Turan Çalban

Abstract:

The aim of the present study was to investigate the dissolution kinetics of ulexite in sodium dihydrogen phosphate in a mechanical agitation system and also to declare an alternative reactant to produce the boric acid. Reaction temperature, concentration of sodium dihydrogen phosphate, stirring speed, solid-liquid ratio, and ulexite particle size were selected as parameters. The experimental results were successfully correlated by using linear regression and a statistical program. Dissolution curves were evaluated in order to test the shrinking core models for solid-fluid systems. It was observed that increase in the reaction temperature and decrease in the solid/liquid ratio causes an increase in the dissolution rate of ulexite. The activation energy was found to be 36.4 kJ/mol. The leaching of ulexite was controlled by diffusion through the ash (or product) layer.

Keywords: Sodium dihydrogen phosphate, leaching kinetics, ulexite.

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Authors: Sam Rasoulzadeh, Atefeh Mousavi

Abstract:

Fluidized bed reactors are known as highly exothermic and endothermic according to uniformity in temperature as a safe and effective mean for catalytic reactors. In these reactors, a wide range of catalyst particles can be used and by using a continuous operation proceed to produce in succession. Providing optimal conditions for the operation of these types of reactors will prevent the exorbitant costs necessary to carry out laboratory work. In this regard, a hydrodynamic analysis was carried out with heat transfer in the solid-gas fluidized bed reactor for solar thermal applications. The results showed that in the fluid flow the input of the reactor has a lower temperature than the outlet, and when the fluid is passing from the reactor, the heat transfer happens between cylinder and solar panel and fluid. It increases the fluid temperature in the outlet pump and also the kinetic energy of the fluid has been raised in the outlet areas.

Keywords: Heat transfer, solar reactor, fluidized bed reactor, CFD.

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Authors: A. Kardi, R. Zagrouba, M. Alqahtani

Abstract:

The Internet of Everything (IoE) presents today a very attractive and motivating field of research. It is basically based on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in which the routing task is the major analysis topic. In fact, it directly affects the effectiveness and the lifetime of the network. This paper, developed from recent works and based on extensive researches, proposes a taxonomy of routing protocols in WSNs. Our main contribution is that we propose a classification model based on nine classes namely application type, delivery mode, initiator of communication, network architecture, path establishment (route discovery), network topology (structure), protocol operation, next hop selection and latency-awareness and energy-efficient routing protocols. In order to provide a total classification pattern to serve as reference for network designers, each class is subdivided into possible subclasses, presented, and discussed using different parameters such as purposes and characteristics.

Keywords: WSNs, sensor, routing protocols, survey.

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Authors: Labiba I. Hussein, Maher Z. Elsabee, Eid A. Ismail, Hala F. Naguib, Hilda A. Aziz, Moataz A. Elsawy

Abstract:

Jojoba oil-wax is extracted from the seeds of the jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis Link Schneider), a perennial shrub that grows in semi desert areas in Egypt and in some parts of the world. The main uses of jojoba oil-wax are in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry, but new uses could arise related to the search of new energetic crops. This paper summarizes a process to convert the jojoba oil-wax to biodiesel by transesterification with ethanol and a series of aliphatic alcohols using a more economic and energy saving method in a domestic microwave. The effect of time and power of the microwave on the extent of the transesterification using ethanol and other aliphatic alcohols has been studied. The separation of the alkyl esters from the fatty alcohols rich fraction has been done in a single crystallization step at low temperature (−18°C) from low boiling point petroleum ether. Gas chromatography has been used to follow up the transesterification process. All products have been characterized by spectral analysis.

Keywords: Jojoba oil, transesterification, microwave, gas chromatography jojoba esters, Jojoba alcohol.

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Authors: Pawel P. Czapski, Andrzej Sluzek

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This paper presents preliminary results regarding system-level power awareness for FPGA implementations in wireless sensor networks. Re-configurability of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) allows for significant flexibility in its applications to embedded systems. However, high power consumption in FPGA becomes a significant factor in design considerations. We present several ideas and their experimental verifications on how to optimize power consumption at high level of designing process while maintaining the same energy per operation (low-level methods can be used additionally). This paper demonstrates that it is possible to estimate feasible power consumption savings even at the high level of designing process. It is envisaged that our results can be also applied to other embedded systems applications, not limited to FPGA-based.

Keywords: Power optimization, FPGA, system-level designing, wireless sensor networks.

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Authors: Muhammad Y.K. Barozai, Ifthikhar A. Baloch, M. Din

Abstract:

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding and regulatory RNAs about 20 to 24 nucleotides long. Their conserved nature among the various organisms makes them a good source of new miRNAs discovery by comparative genomics approach. The study resulted in 21 miRNAs of 20 pre-miRNAs belonging to 16 families (miR156, 157, 158, 164, 165, 168, 169, 172, 319, 390, 393, 394, 395, 400, 472 and 861) in evergreen spruce tree (Picea). The miRNA families; miR 157, 158, 164, 165, 168, 169, 319, 390, 393, 394, 400, 472 and 861 are reported for the first time in the Picea. All 20 miRNA precursors form stable minimum free energy stem-loop structure as their orthologues form in Arabidopsis and the mature miRNA reside in the stem portion of the stem loop structure. Sixteen (16) miRNAs are from Picea glauca and five (5) belong to Picea sitchensis. Their targets consist of transcription factors, growth related, stressed related and hypothetical proteins.

Keywords: BLAST, Comparative Genomics, Micro-RNAs, Spruce

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Authors: Jin Myoung Kim, Tae Ho Cho

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor networks have a wide spectrum of civil and military applications that call for secure communication such as the terrorist tracking, target surveillance in hostile environments. For the secure communication in these application areas, we propose a method for generating a hierarchical key structure for the efficient group key management. In this paper, we apply A* algorithm in generating a hierarchical key structure by considering the history data of the ratio of addition and eviction of sensor nodes in a location where sensor nodes are deployed. Thus generated key tree structure provides an efficient way of managing the group key in terms of energy consumption when addition and eviction event occurs. A* algorithm tries to minimize the number of messages needed for group key management by the history data. The experimentation with the tree shows efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: Heuristic search, key management, security, sensor network.

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Authors: K. Laoubi, M. Yamao

Abstract:

In Algeria, liberalization reforms undertaken since the 1990s have resulted in negative effects on the development and management of irrigation schemes, as well as on the conditions of farmers. Reforms have been undertaken to improve the performance of irrigation schemes, such as the national plan of agricultural development (PNDA) in 2000 and the water pricing policy of 2005. However, after implementation of these policies, questions have arisen with regard to irrigation performance and its suitability for agricultural development. Hence, the aim of this paper is to provide insight into the profitability of irrigation during the transition period under current irrigation agricultural policies in Algeria. By using the method of farm crop budget analysis in the East Mitidja irrigation scheme, the returns from using surface water resources based on farm typology were found to vary among crops and farmers- groups within the scheme. Irrigation under the current situation is profitable for all farmers, including both those who benefit from subsidies and those who do not. However, the returns to water were found to be very sensitive to crop price fluctuations, particularly for non-subsidized groups and less so for those whose farming is based on orchards. Moreover, the socio-economic environment of the farmers contributed to less significant impacts of the PNDA policy. In fact, the limiting factor is not only the water, but also the lack of land ownership title. Market access constraints led to less agricultural investment and therefore to low intensification and low water productivity. It is financially feasible to recover the annual O&M costs in the irrigation scheme. By comparing the irrigation water price, returns to water, and O&M costs of water delivery, it is clear that irrigation can be profitable in the future. However, water productivity must be improved by enhancing farmers- income through farming investment, improving assets access, and the allocation of activities and crops which bring high returns to water; this could allow the farmers to pay more for water and allow cost recovery for water systems.

Keywords: Irrigation schemes, agricultural irrigation policy, farm crop budget analysis, water productivity, Algeria.

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Authors: M. Arockia Jaswin, D. Mohan Lal

Abstract:

Cryogenic treatment is the process of cooling a material to extremely low temperatures to generate enhanced mechanical and physical properties. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of cryogenic treatment on the impact behavior of En 52 and 21-4N valve steels. The valve steels are subjected to shallow (193 K) and deep cryogenic treatment (85 K), and the impact behavior is compared with the valve steel materials subjected to conventional heat treatment. The impact test is carried out in accordance with the ASTM E 23-02a standard. The results show an improvement of 23 % in the impact energy for the En 52 deep cryo-treated samples when compared to that of the conventionally heat treated samples. It is revealed that during cryogenic treatment fine platelets of martensite are formed from the retained austenite, and these platelets promote the precipitation of fine carbides by a diffusion mechanism during tempering.

Keywords: Cryogenic treatment, valve steel, Fractograph, carbides, impact strength.

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Authors: Thomas Paris, Vincent Bruyere, Patrick Namy

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A numerical model is developed to simulate gas blowdowns through a thin tube and a filter (porous media), separating a high pressure gas filled reservoir to low pressure ones. Based on a previous work, a one-dimensional approach is developed by using the finite element method to solve the transient compressible flow and to predict the pressure and temperature evolution in space and time. Mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations are solved in a fully coupled way in the reservoirs, the pipes and the porous media. Numerical results, such as pressure and temperature evolutions, are firstly compared with experimental data to validate the model for different configurations. Couplings between porous media and pipe flow are then validated by checking mass balance. The influence of the porous media and the nature of the gas is then studied for different initial high pressure values.

Keywords: Fluid mechanics, compressible flow, heat transfer, porous media.

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Authors: D. V. Sreekanth, M. Sreenivasa Rao

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Abrasive jet machining is one of the promising non-traditional machining processes which uses mechanical energy (pressure and velocity) for machining various materials. The process parameters that influence the metal removal rate are kerfs, surface finish, depth of cut, air pressure, and distance between nozzle and work piece, nozzle diameter, abrasive type, abrasive shape, and mass flow rate of abrasive particles. The abrasive particles coming out with high pressure not only hits work surface but also passes through the nozzle resulting in erosion. This paper focuses mainly on the effect of different parameters on the erosion of nozzle in Abrasive jet machining. Three different types of nozzles made of sapphire, tungsten carbide, and high carbon high chromium steel (HCHCS) are used for machining glass and the erosion of these nozzles are calculated. The results are shown in tabular form and graphical representation.

Keywords: AJM, nozzle, sapphire, tungsten carbide, chrome steel.

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Authors: Pablo Ampuero, Claudia Labarca

Abstract:

The current research paper assesses how the narrative of Chilean businesspeople about China shapes a new Orientalism Analyses on the role of non-state actors in foreign policy that have hitherto theorized about Orientalism as a narrative of hegemonic power. Hence, it has been instrumental to the efforts of imperialist powers to justify their mission civilisatrice. However, such conceptualization can seldom explain new complexities of international interactions at the height of globalization. Hence, we assessed the case of Chile, a small Latin American country, and its relationship with China, its largest trading partner. Through a discourse analysis of interviews with Chilean businesspeople engaged in the Chinese market, we could determine that Chile is building an Orientalist image of China. This new business Orientalism reinforces a relation of alterity based on commercial opportunities, traditional values, and natural dispositions. Hence, the perception of the Chinese Other amongst Chilean business people frames a new set of representations as part of the essentially commercial nature of current bilateral relations. It differs from previous frames, such as the racial bias frame of the early 20^th century, or the anti-communist frame in reaction to Mao’s leadership. As in every narrative of alterity, there is not only a construction of the Other but also a definition of the Self. Consequently, this analysis constitutes a relevant case of the role of non-state actors in asymmetrical bilateral relations, where the non-state actors of the minor power build and act upon an Orientalist frame, which is not representative of its national status in the relation. This study emerges as a contribution on the relation amongst non-state actors in asymmetrical relations, where the smaller power’s business class acts on a negative prejudice of its interactions with its counterpart. The research builds upon the constructivist approach to international relations, linking the idea of Nation Branding with Orientalism in the case of Chile-China relations.

Keywords: New business Orientalism, small power, framing, Chile-China relations.

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Authors: Benjamin Anderson-Sackaney, Amr Abdel-Dayem

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This paper presents a comprehensive survey of recent source camera identification (SCI) systems. Then, the performance of various sensor pattern noise (SPN) estimators was experimentally assessed, under common photo response non-uniformity (PRNU) frameworks. The experiments used 1350 natural and 900 flat-field images, captured by 18 individual cameras. 12 different experiments, grouped into three sets, were conducted. The results were analyzed using the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves. The experimental results demonstrated that combining the basic SPN estimator with a wavelet-based filtering scheme provides promising results. However, the phase SPN estimator fits better with both patch-based (BM3D) and anisotropic diffusion (AD) filtering schemes.

Keywords: Sensor pattern noise, source camera identification, photo response non-uniformity, anisotropic diffusion, peak to correlation energy ratio.

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Authors: A. Elnady

Abstract:

This paper presents an improved Direct Power Control (DPC) scheme applied to the multilevel inverter that forms a Distributed Generation Unit (DGU). This paper demonstrates the performance of active and reactive power injected by the DGU to the smart grid. The DPC is traditionally operated by the hysteresis controller with the Space Vector Modulation (SVM) which is applied on the 2-level inverters or 3-level inverters. In this paper, the DPC is operated by the PI controller with the Phase-Disposition Pulse Width Modulation (PD-PWM) applied to the 5-level diode clamped inverter. The new combination of the DPC, PI controller, PD-PWM and multilevel inverter proves that its performance is much better than the conventional hysteresis-SVM based DPC. Simulations results have been presented to validate the performance of the suggested control scheme in the grid-connected mode.

Keywords: Direct power control, PI controller, PD-PWM, and power control.

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Authors: Nemat Abazari, Ilgin Sager

Abstract:

In this paper smooth trajectories are computed in the Lie group SO(2, 1) as a motion planning problem by assigning a Frenet frame to the rigid body system to optimize the cost function of the elastic energy which is spent to track a timelike curve in Minkowski space. A method is proposed to solve a motion planning problem that minimize the integral of the square norm of Darboux vector of a timelike curve. This method uses the coordinate free Maximum Principle of Optimal control and results in the theory of integrable Hamiltonian systems. The presence of several conversed quantities inherent in these Hamiltonian systems aids in the explicit computation of the rigid body motions.

Keywords: Optimal control, Hamiltonian vector field, Darboux vector, maximum principle, lie group, Rigid body motion, Lorentz metric.

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Authors: Valery Vodovozov, Zoja Raud, Tõnu Lehtla

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This paper describes the design considerations of an experimental setup for research and exploring the drives of batteryfed electric vehicles. Effective setup composition and its components are discussed. With experimental setup described in this paper, durability and functional tests can be procured to the customers. Multiple experiments are performed in the form of steady-state system exploring, acceleration programs, multi-step tests (speed control, torque control), load collectives or close-to-reality driving tests (driving simulation). Main focus of the functional testing is on the measurements of power and energy efficiency and investigations in driving simulation mode, which are used for application purposes. In order to enable the examination of the drive trains beyond standard modes of operation, different other parameters can be studied also.

Keywords: Electric drive, electric vehicle, propulsion, test bench.

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Authors: Hardik Vaghela, Mamta Khosla, Balwindar Raj

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In this paper, we present and investigate a double gate PN diode based tunnel field effect transistor (DGPNTFET). The importance of proposed structure is that the formation of different drain doping is not required and ambipolar effect in OFF state is completely removed for this structure. Validation of this structure to behave like a Tunnel Field Effect Transistor (TFET) is carried out through energy band diagrams and transfer characteristics. Simulated result shows point subthreshold slope (SS) of 19.14 mV/decade and ON to OFF current ratio (I_ON / I_OFF) of 2.66 × 10¹⁴ (I_ON at V_GS=1.5V, V_DS=1V and I_OFF at V_GS=0V, V_DS=1V) for gate length of 20nm and HfO₂ as gate oxide at room temperature. Which indicate that the DGPNTFET is a promising candidate for nano-scale, ambipolar free switch.

Keywords: Ambipolar effect, double gate PN diode based tunnel field effect transistor, high-κ dielectric material, subthreshold slope, tunnel field effect transistor.

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Authors: Jasna Prester, Ivana Rašić Bakarić, Božidar Matijević

Abstract:

Innovations not only contribute to competitiveness of the company but have also positive effects on revenues. On average, product innovations account to 14 percent of companies’ sales. Innovation management has substantially changed during the last decade, because of growing reliance on external partners. As a consequence, a new task for purchasing arises, as firms need to understand which suppliers actually do have high potential contributing to the innovativeness of the firm and which do not. Proper organization of the purchasing function is important since for the majority of manufacturing companies deal with substantial material costs which pass through the purchasing function. In the past the purchasing function was largely seen as a transaction-oriented, clerical function but today purchasing is the intermediate with supply chain partners contributing to innovations, be it product or process innovations. Therefore, purchasing function has to be organized differently to enable firm innovation potential. However, innovations are inherently risky. There are behavioral risk (that some partner will take advantage of the other party), technological risk in terms of complexity of products and processes of manufacturing and incoming materials and finally market risks, which in fact judge the value of the innovation. These risks are investigated in this work. Specifically, technological risks which deal with complexity of the products, and processes will be investigated more thoroughly. Buying components or such high edge technologies necessities careful investigation of technical features and therefore is usually conducted by a team of experts. Therefore it is hypothesized that higher the technological risk, higher will be the centralization of the purchasing function as an interface with other supply chain members. Main contribution of this research lies is in the fact that analysis was performed on a large data set of 1493 companies, from 25 countries collected in the GMRG 4 survey. Most analyses of purchasing function are done by case study analysis of innovative firms. Therefore this study contributes with empirical evaluations that can be generalized.

Keywords: Purchasing function organization, innovation, technological risk, GMRG 4 survey.

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Authors: Igor Astrov, Mikhail Pikkov

Abstract:

This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the neural control of depth flight of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Constant depth flight is a challenging but important task for AUVs to achieve high level of autonomy under adverse conditions. With the SA strategy, we proposed a multirate neural control of an AUV trajectory using neural network model reference controller for a nontrivial mid-small size AUV "r2D4" stochastic model. This control system has been demonstrated and evaluated by simulation of diving maneuvers using software package Simulink. From the simulation results it can be seen that the chosen AUV model is stable in the presence of high noise, and also can be concluded that the fast SA of similar AUV systems with economy in energy of batteries can be asserted during the underwater missions in search-and-rescue operations.

Keywords: Autonomous underwater vehicles, multirate systems, neurocontrollers, situational awareness.

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Authors: Mohit Tyagi, Pradeep Kumar

Abstract:

The objective of this research work is to identify and analyze the significant corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices with an aim to improve the supply chain performance of automobile industry located at National Capital Region (NCR) of India. To achieve the objective, 6 CSR practices have been considered and analyzed using expert’s preference rating (EPR) approach. The considered CSR practices are namely, Top management and employee awareness about CSR (P₁), Employee involvement in social and environmental problems (P₂), Protection of human rights (P₃), Waste reduction, energy saving and water conservation (P₄), Proper visibility of CSR guidelines (P₅) and Broad perception towards CSR initiatives (P₆). The outcomes of this research may help mangers in decision making processes and framing polices for SCP implementation under CSR context.

Keywords: Supply chain performance, corporate social responsibility, CSR practices, expert’s preference rating approach.

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Authors: M. Battira, R. Bessaih

Abstract:

We numerically study the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) stability of oscillatory natural convection flow in a rectangular cavity, with free top surface, filled with a liquid metal, having an aspect ratio equal to A=L/H=5, and subjected to a transversal temperature gradient and a uniform magnetic field oriented in x and z directions. The finite volume method was used in order to solve the equations of continuity, momentum, energy, and potential. The stability diagram obtained in this study highlights the dependence of the critical value of the Grashof number Grcrit , with the increase of the Hartmann number Ha for two orientations of the magnetic field. This study confirms the possibility of stabilization of a liquid metal flow in natural convection by application of a magnetic field and shows that the flow stability is more important when the direction of magnetic field is longitudinal than when the direction is transversal.

Keywords: Natural convection, Magnetic field, Oscillatory, Cavity, Liquid metal.

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Authors: T. Tambovceva, A. Tambovcevs

Abstract:

The activities which are mostly related to the environmental performance need to be pointed, especially how logistics systems influence on environmental performance. This paper analyses how company could lead the initiative in this area by incorporating environmental management principles into their daily activities. The analysis is based on literature review about logistics and environment, the information from company R website as well as face-to-face interviews. A case study is given to show how they can turn practices into green while simultaneously meet the efficiency objectives. The research results show that the adoption of EMS and ISO 14001 certification is an effective tool for the logistics management. Such practices simultaneously reduce the negative contribute to better company performance. The results also show that the emissions to air and water, and energy consumption are the main logistics impacts to the environment.

Keywords: environmental management system, green logistics, information technology, information systems.

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Authors: N. A. Salim, M. M. Othman, I. Musirin, M. S. Serwan

Abstract:

Uncertainty of system operating conditions is one of the causative reasons which may render to the instability of a transmission system. For that reason, accurate assessment of transmission reliability margin (TRM) is essential to ensure effective power transfer between areas during the occurrence of system uncertainties. The power transfer is also called as the available transfer capability (ATC) which is the information required by the utilities and marketers to instigate selling and buying the electric energy. This paper proposes a computationally effective approach to estimate TRM and ATC by considering the uncertainties of system cascading collapse and transmission line outages. In accordance to the results that have been obtained, the proposed method is essential for the transmission providers which could help the power marketers and planning sectors in the operation and reserving transmission services based on the ATC calculated.

Keywords: Available transfer capability, System cascading collapse, Transmission line outages, Transmission reliability margin.

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Authors: J. Hroudova, J. Zach, L. Vodova

Abstract:

When insulation and rehabilitation of structures is important to use quality building materials with high utility value. One potentially interesting and promising groups of construction materials in this area are advanced, thermally insulating plaster silicate based. With the present trend reduction of energy consumption of building structures and reducing CO₂ emissions to be developed capillary-active materials that are characterized by their low density, low thermal conductivity while maintaining good mechanical properties.

The paper describes the results of research activities aimed at the development of thermal insulating and rehabilitation material ongoing at the Technical University in Brno, Faculty of Civil Engineering. The achieved results of this development will be the basis for subsequent experimental analysis of the influence of thermal and moisture loads developed on these materials.

Keywords: Insulation materials, rehabilitation materials, lightweight aggregate, fly ash, slag, hemp fibers, glass fibers, metakaolin.

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Authors: Niveditha Domse, Kris Kumar, K. N. Balasubramanya Murthy

Abstract:

The more recent satellite projects/programs makes extensive usage of real – time embedded systems. 16 bit processors which meet the Mil-Std-1750 standard architecture have been used in on-board systems. Most of the Space Applications have been written in ADA. From a futuristic point of view, 32 bit/ 64 bit processors are needed in the area of spacecraft computing and therefore an effort is desirable in the study and survey of 64 bit architectures for space applications. This will also result in significant technology development in terms of VLSI and software tools for ADA (as the legacy code is in ADA). There are several basic requirements for a special processor for this purpose. They include Radiation Hardened (RadHard) devices, very low power dissipation, compatibility with existing operational systems, scalable architectures for higher computational needs, reliability, higher memory and I/O bandwidth, predictability, realtime operating system and manufacturability of such processors. Further on, these may include selection of FPGA devices, selection of EDA tool chains, design flow, partitioning of the design, pin count, performance evaluation, timing analysis etc. This project deals with a brief study of 32 and 64 bit processors readily available in the market and designing/ fabricating a 64 bit RISC processor named RISC MicroProcessor with added functionalities of an extended double precision floating point unit and a 32 bit signal processing unit acting as co-processors. In this paper, we emphasize the ease and importance of using Open Core (OpenSparc T1 Verilog RTL) and Open “Source" EDA tools such as Icarus to develop FPGA based prototypes quickly. Commercial tools such as Xilinx ISE for Synthesis are also used when appropriate.

Keywords: RISC MicroProcessor, RPC – RISC Processor Core, PBX – Processor to Block Interface part of the Interconnection Network, BPX – Block to Processor Interface part of the Interconnection Network, FPU – Floating Point Unit, SPU – Signal Processing Unit, WB – Wishbone Interface, CTU – Clock and Test Unit

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