Search results for: Frequency response function

Authors: R. Biondi, G. Dys, G. Ferone, T. Renard, M. Zysman

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This paper describes an automated implementable system for impulsive signals detection and recognition. The system uses a Digital Signal Processing device for the detection and identification process. Here the system analyses the signals in real time in order to produce a particular response if needed. The system analyses the signals in real time in order to produce a specific output if needed. Detection is achieved through normalizing the inputs and comparing the read signals to a dynamic threshold and thus avoiding detections linked to loud or fluctuating environing noise. Identification is done through neuronal network algorithms. As a setup our system can receive signals to “learn” certain patterns. Through “learning” the system can recognize signals faster, inducing flexibility to new patterns similar to those known. Sound is captured through a simple jack input, and could be changed for an enhanced recording surface such as a wide-area recorder. Furthermore a communication module can be added to the apparatus to send alerts to another interface if needed.

Keywords: Sound Detection, Impulsive Signal, Background Noise, Neural Network.

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Authors: Ahmad Gholami, Saeed Sharafi, Hamid Abbasdokht

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The heterotrophic seedling growth can be defined as a product of two components: (1) the weight of mobilized seed reserve, and (2) conversion efficiency of utilized seed reserve to seedling tissue. The first component can be further divided into (1) initial seed weight, and (2) the fraction of seed reserve, which is mobilized. The objective of this study was the identification of the sensitive seedling growth component(s) in response to drought and salinity stresses. Two experiments were separately conducted using various salinity levels (osmotic pressure) of 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1, 1.25 and 1.5 MPa created using NaCl as first experiment and by polyethylene glycol (drought stress) of 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.2 and 1.4 MPa in second experiment. Seeds of five crops species (Hordeum vulgare, Brassica napus, Zea mays, Medicago sativa and Medicago scutellata) were used in each experiment. In both experiments, seedling growth, fraction of seed reserve utilization and weight of mobilized seed reserve decreased with increasing drought and salt intensity. However, drought and salinity stresses had no effect on the conversion efficiency. It was concluded that the sensitive component of seedling growth is the weight of mobilized seed reserve.

Keywords: Salinity, Drought, Seed reserve, Seedling, Cropsspecies

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Authors: Abdelhamid Louliej, Younes Jabrane

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Satellites are becoming indispensable assets to fifth-generation (5G) new radio architecture, complementing wireless and terrestrial communication links. The combination of satellites and 5G architecture allows consumers to access all next-generation services anytime, anywhere, including scenarios, like traveling to remote areas (without coverage). Nevertheless, this solution faces several challenges, such as a significant propagation delay, Doppler frequency shift, and high Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR), causing signal distortion due to the non-linear saturation of the High-Power Amplifier (HPA). To compensate for HPA non-linearity in 5G satellite transmission, an efficient pre-distorter scheme using Neural Networks (NN) is proposed. To assess the proposed NN pre-distorter, two types of HPA were investigated: Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier (TWTA) and Solid-State Power Amplifier (SSPA). The results show that the NN pre-distorter design presents an Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) improvement by 95.26%. Normalized Mean Square Error (NMSE) and Adjacent Channel Power Ratio (ACPR) were reduced by -43,66 dB and 24.56 dBm, respectively. Moreover, the system suffers no degradation of the Bit Error Rate (BER) for TWTA and SSPA amplifiers.

Keywords: Satellites, 5G, Neural Networks, High-Power Amplifier, Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier, Solid-State Power Amplifier, EVM, NMSE, ACPR.

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Authors: A. Asgharzadeh, M. Maroufi

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5G mobile communication system has drawn more and more attention. The 5G system needs to provide three different types of services, including enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), massive machine-type communication (mMTC), and ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC). Universal Filtered Multi-Carrier (UFMC), Filter Bank Multicarrier (FBMC), and Filtered Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (f-OFDM) are suggested as a well-known candidate waveform for the coming 5G system. Themachine-to-machine (M2M) communications are one of the essential applications in 5G, and it involves exchanging of concise messages with a very short latency. However, in UFMC systems, the subcarriers are grouped into subbands but f-OFDM only one subband covers the entire band. Furthermore, in FBMC, a subband includes only one subcarrier, and the number of subbands is the same as the number of subcarriers. This paper mainly discusses the performance of UFMC with different parameters for the UFMC system. Also, paper shows that UFMC is the best choice outperforming OFDM in any case and FBMC in case of very short packets while performing similarly for long sequences with channel estimation techniques for Interleave Division Multiple Access (IDMA) systems.

Keywords: UFMC, IDMA, 5G, subband.

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Authors: Mairwen K. Jones, Lynne Harris, Lisa D. Vaccaro

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common and disabling condition. Therapist-delivered treatments that use exposure and response prevention have been found to be very effective in treating OCD, although they are costly and associated with high rates of attrition. Effective treatments that can be made widely available without the need for therapist contact are urgently needed. This case study represents the first published investigation of a self-administered cognitive treatment for OCD in a 50-year old female with a 20 year history of OCD. The treatment evaluation occurred over 27 weeks, including 12 weeks of self-administration of the Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) program. Decreases of between 23% to 33% on measures from pre-treatment to follow-up were observed. Bearing in mind the methodological limitations associated with a case study, we conclude that the results reported here are encouraging and indicate that further research effort evaluating the effectiveness of self-administered DIRT is warranted.

Keywords: Anxiety Treatment, Cognitive Therapy, Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy, Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder, Self- Administered Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy.

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Authors: N.K.F. Mustafa, S. Johar, A.G. Ahmad, S.H. Zulkarnain, M.Y. A. Rahman, A.I. Che Ani

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Building life cycle will never be excused from the existence of defects and deterioration. They are common problems in building, existed in newly build or in aged building. Buildings constructed from wood are indeed affected by its agent and serious defects and damages can reduce values to a building. In repair works, it is important to identify the causes and repair techniques that best suites with the condition. This paper reviews the conservation of traditional timber mosque in Malaysia comprises the concept, principles and approaches of mosque conservation in general. As in conservation practice, wood in historic building can be conserved by using various restoration and conservation techniques which this can be grouped as Fully and Partial Replacement, Mechanical Reinforcement, Consolidation by Impregnation and Reinforcement, Removing Paint and also Preservation of Wood and Control Insect Invasion, as to prolong and extended the function of a timber in a building. It resulted that the common techniques adopted in timber mosque conservation are from the conventional ways and the understanding of the repair technique requires the use of only preserve wood to prevent the future immature defects.

Keywords: Building conservation, conservation principles, repair works, traditional timber mosque.

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Authors: Makara Rith, Young Kyu Kim, Seung Woo Lee

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In heavy duty areas, asphalt pavement constructed as entrance roadway may expose distresses such as cracking and rutting during service life. To mitigate these problems, composite pavement with a roller-compacted concrete base may be a good alternative; however, it should be initially investigated. Structural performances such as fatigue cracking and rut depth may be changed due to variation of some design factors. Therefore, this study focuses on the variation effect of material modulus, layer thickness and loading on composite pavement performances. Stress and strain at the critical location are determined and used as the input of transfer function for corresponding distresses to evaluate the pavement performance. Also, composite pavement satisfying the design criteria may be selected as a design section for heavy duty areas. Consequently, this investigation indicates that composite pavement has the ability to eliminate fatigue cracking in asphalt surfaces and significantly reduce rut depth. In addition, a thick or strong rigid base can significantly reduce rut depth and prolong fatigue life of this layer.

Keywords: Composite pavement, ports, cracking, rutting.

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Authors: Saeed Vaneshani, Hooshang Jazayeri-Rad

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Fuzzy logic control (FLC) systems have been tested in many technical and industrial applications as a useful modeling tool that can handle the uncertainties and nonlinearities of modern control systems. The main drawback of the FLC methodologies in the industrial environment is challenging for selecting the number of optimum tuning parameters. In this paper, a method has been proposed for finding the optimum membership functions of a fuzzy system using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. A synthetic algorithm combined from fuzzy logic control and PSO algorithm is used to design a controller for a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) with the aim of achieving the accurate and acceptable desired results. To exhibit the effectiveness of proposed algorithm, it is used to optimize the Gaussian membership functions of the fuzzy model of a nonlinear CSTR system as a case study. It is clearly proved that the optimized membership functions (MFs) provided better performance than a fuzzy model for the same system, when the MFs were heuristically defined.

Keywords: continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), fuzzy logiccontrol (FLC), membership function(MF), particle swarmoptimization (PSO)

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Authors: J. Bolzan, C. Marden

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The article proposed intends to analyze the possibility (and conditions) of a media regulation law in a democratic rule of law in the twenty-first century. To do so, will be presented initially the idea of the public sphere (by Jürgen Habermas), showing how it is presented as an interface between the citizen and the state (or the private and public) and how important is it in a deliberative democracy. Based on this paradigm, the traditional perception of the role of public information (such as system functional element) and on the possibility of media regulation will be exposed, due to the public nature of their activity. A critical argument will then be displayed from two different perspectives: a) the formal function of the current media information, considering that the digital age has fragmented the information access; b) the concept of a constructive democracy, which reduces the need for representation, changing the strategic importance of the public sphere. The question to be addressed (based on the comparative law) is if the regulation is justified in a polycentric democracy, especially when it operates under the digital age (with immediate and virtual communication). The proposal is to be presented in the sense that even in a twenty-first century the media in a democratic rule of law still has an extremely important role and may be subject to regulation, but this should be on terms very different (and narrower) from those usually defended.

Keywords: Media regulation, public sphere, digital age, constructive democracy.

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Authors: Fethi Soltani, Adel Almarashi, Idir Mechai

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Tikhonov regularization and reproducing kernels are the most popular approaches to solve ill-posed problems in computational mathematics and applications. And the Fourier multiplier operators are an essential tool to extend some known linear transforms in Euclidean Fourier analysis, as: Weierstrass transform, Poisson integral, Hilbert transform, Riesz transforms, Bochner-Riesz mean operators, partial Fourier integral, Riesz potential, Bessel potential, etc. Using the theory of reproducing kernels, we construct a simple and efficient representations for some class of Fourier multiplier operators Tm on the Paley-Wiener space Hh. In addition, we give an error estimate formula for the approximation and obtain some convergence results as the parameters and the independent variables approaches zero. Furthermore, using numerical quadrature integration rules to compute single and multiple integrals, we give numerical examples and we write explicitly the extremal function and the corresponding Fourier multiplier operators.

Keywords: Fourier multiplier operators, Gauss-Kronrod method of integration, Paley-Wiener space, Tikhonov regularization.

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Authors: Huma Kanta Mishra, Akira Igarashi

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A seismic isolation pad produced by utilizing the scrap tire rubber which contains interleaved steel reinforcing cords has been proposed. The steel cords are expected to function similar to the steel plates used in conventional laminated rubber bearings. The scrap tire rubber pad (STRP) isolator is intended to be used in low rise residential buildings of highly seismic areas of the developing countries. Experimental investigation was conducted on unbonded STRP isolators, and test results provided useful information including stiffness, damping values and an eventual instability of the isolation unit. Finite element analysis (FE analysis) of STRP isolator was carried out on properly bonded samples. These types of isolators provide positive incremental force resisting capacity up to shear strain level of 155%. This paper briefly discusses the force deformation behavior of bonded STRP isolators including stability of the isolation unit.

Keywords: base isolation, buckling load, finite element analysis, STRP isolators.

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Authors: Shams Ul Islam, Chao Ying Zhou, Farooq Ahmad

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A two-dimensional numerical simulation of crossflow around four cylinders in an in-line rectangular configuration is studied by using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Special attention is paid to the effect of the spacing between the cylinders. The Reynolds number ( Re ) is chosen to be e 100 R = and the spacing ratio L / D is set at 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0 and 10.0. Results show that, as in the case of four cylinders in an inline rectangular configuration , flow fields show four different features depending on the spacing (single square cylinder, stable shielding flow, wiggling shielding flow and a vortex shedding flow) are observed in this study. The effects of spacing ratio on physical quantities such as mean drag coefficient, Strouhal number and rootmean- square value of the drag and lift coefficients are also presented. There is more than one shedding frequency at small spacing ratios. The mean drag coefficients for downstream cylinders are less than that of the single cylinder for all spacing ratios. The present results using the LBM are compared with some existing experimental data and numerical studies. The comparison shows that the LBM can capture the characteristics of the bluff body flow reasonably well and is a good tool for bluff body flow studies.

Keywords: Four square cylinders, Lattice Boltzmann method, rectangular configuration, spacing ratios, vortex shedding.

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Authors: Felix Baumann, Aleksandar Milutinovic, Dieter Roller

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Up to this point business process management projects in general and business process modelling projects in particular could not rely on a practical and scientifically validated method to estimate cost and effort. Especially the model development phase is not covered by a cost estimation method or model. Further phases of business process modelling starting with implementation are covered by initial solutions which are discussed in the literature. This article proposes a method of filling this gap by deriving a cost estimation method from available methods in similar domains namely software development or software engineering. Software development is regarded as closely similar to process modelling as we show. After the proposition of this method different ideas for further analysis and validation of the method are proposed. We derive this method from COCOMO II and Function Point which are established methods of effort estimation in the domain of software development. For this we lay out similarities of the software development process and the process of process modelling which is a phase of the Business Process Management life-cycle.

Keywords: Cost Estimation, Effort Estimation, Process Modelling, Business Process Management, COCOMO.

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Authors: Joshi Manohar. V., Sujatha. P., Anjaneyulu K. S. R

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The range of the output power is a very important and evident limitation of two-level inverters. In order to overcome this disadvantage, multilevel inverters are introduced. Recently, Cascade H-Bridge inverters have emerged as one of the popular converter topologies used in numerous industrial applications. The modulation switching strategies such as phase shifted carrier based Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique and Stair case modulation with Selective Harmonic Elimination (SHE) PWM technique are generally used. NR method is used to solve highly non linear transcendental equations which are formed by SHEPWM method. Generally NR method has a drawback of requiring good initial guess but in this paper a new approach is implemented for NR method with any random initial guess. A three phase CHB 11-level inverter is chosen for analysis. MATLAB/SIMULINK programming environment and harmonic profiles are compared. Finally this paper presents a method at fundamental switching frequency with least % THDV.

Keywords: Cascade H-bridge 11- level Inverter, NR method, Phase shifted carrier based pulse width modulation (PSCPWM), Selective Harmonic Elimination Pulse Width Modulation (SHEPWM), Total Harmonic Distortion (%THDv).

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Authors: Ali Fellah Jahromi, Wen Fang Xie, Rama B. Bhat

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A semi-active control strategy for suspension systems of passenger cars is presented employing Magnetorheological (MR) dampers. The vehicle is modeled with seven DOFs including the, roll pitch and bounce of car body, and the vertical motion of the four tires. In order to design an optimal controller based on the actuator constraints, a Linear-Quadratic Regulator (LQR) is designed. The design procedure of the LQR consists of selecting two weighting matrices to minimize the energy of the control system. This paper presents a hybrid optimization procedure which is a combination of gradient-based and evolutionary algorithms to choose the weighting matrices with regards to the actuator constraint. The optimization algorithm is defined based on maximum comfort and actuator constraints. It is noted that utilizing the present control algorithm may significantly reduce the vibration response of the passenger car, thus, providing a comfortable ride.

Keywords: Full car model, Linear Quadratic Regulator, Sequential Quadratic Programming, Genetic Algorithm

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Authors: J. Lin, T. C. Kuo, C. -Y. Gau, K. C. Liu, Y. J. Huang, J. D. Yu, Y. W. Lin

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A multi-agent type robot for disaster response in calamity scene is proposed in this paper. The proposed grouped rescue robots can perform cooperative reconnaissance and surveillance to achieve a given rescue mission. The multi-agent rescue of dual set robot consists of one master set and three slave units. The research for this rescue robot system is going to detect at harmful environment where human is unreachable, such as the building is infected with virus or the factory has hazardous liquid in effluent. As a dual set robot, with Bluetooth and communication network, the master set can connect with slave units and send information back to computer by wireless and monitor. Therefore, rescuer can be informed the real-time information in a calamity area. Furthermore, each slave robot is able to obstacle avoidance by ultrasonic sensors, and encodes distance and location by compass. The master robot can integrate every devices information to increase the efficiency of prospected and research unknown area.

Keywords: Designing of multi-agent rescue robot, development and basic experiments of master-slave type rescue robots.

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Authors: Shakil M. Rifaat, Md. H. Rahman, Mohammed, Mosabbir Pasha

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Road crashes not only claim lives and inflict injuries but also create economic burden to the society due to loss of productivity. The problem of deaths and injuries as a result of road traffic crashes is now acknowledged to be a global phenomenon with authorities in virtually all countries of the world concerned about the growth in the number of people killed and seriously injured on their roads. However, the road crash scenario of a developing country like Bangladesh is much worse comparing with this of developed countries. For developing proper countermeasures it is necessary to identify the factors affecting crash occurrences. The objectives of the study is to examine the effect of district wise road infrastructure, socioeconomic and demographic features on crash occurrence .The unit of analysis will be taken as individual district which has not been explored much in the past. Reported crash data obtained from Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) from the year 2004 to 2010 are utilized to develop negative binomial model. The model result will reveal the effect of road length (both paved and unpaved), road infrastructure and several socio economic characteristics on district level crash frequency in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Demographic, Negative Binomial Model, Road Infrastructure, Socio-economic, Traffic Safety.

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Authors: Fred Lacy

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Electrical resistivity is a fundamental parameter of metals or electrical conductors. Since resistivity is a function of temperature, in order to completely understand the behavior of metals, a temperature dependent theoretical model is needed. A model based on physics principles has recently been developed to obtain an equation that relates electrical resistivity to temperature. This equation is dependent upon a parameter associated with the electron travel time before being scattered, and a parameter that relates the energy of the atoms and their separation distance. Analysis of the energy parameter reveals that the equation is optimized if the proportionality term in the equation is not constant but varies over the temperature range. Additional analysis reveals that the theoretical equation can be used to determine the mean free path of conduction electrons, the number of defects in the atomic lattice, and the ‘equivalent’ charge associated with the metallic bonding of the atoms. All of this analysis provides validation for the theoretical model and provides insight into the behavior of metals where performance is affected by temperatures (e.g., integrated circuits and temperature sensors).

Keywords: Callendar–van Dusen, conductivity, mean free path, resistance temperature detector, temperature sensor.

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Authors: R. Senthilkumar

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Most simple nonlinear thresholding rules for wavelet- based denoising assume that the wavelet coefficients are independent. However, wavelet coefficients of natural images have significant dependencies. This paper attempts to give a recipe for selecting one of the popular image-denoising algorithms based on VisuShrink, SureShrink, OracleShrink, BayesShrink and BiShrink and also this paper compares different Bivariate models used for image denoising applications. The first part of the paper compares different Shrinkage functions used for image-denoising. The second part of the paper compares different bivariate models and the third part of this paper uses the Bivariate model with modified marginal variance which is based on Laplacian assumption. This paper gives an experimental comparison on six 512x512 commonly used images, Lenna, Barbara, Goldhill, Clown, Boat and Stonehenge. The following noise powers 25dB,26dB, 27dB, 28dB and 29dB are added to the six standard images and the corresponding Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) values are calculated for each noise level.

Keywords: BiShrink, Image-Denoising, PSNR, Shrinkage function

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Authors: Min Sun, Jing Liu

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The entropy of intuitionistic fuzzy sets is used to indicate the degree of fuzziness of an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set(IvIFS). In this paper, we deal with the entropies of IvIFS. Firstly, we propose a family of entropies on IvIFS with a parameter λ ∈ [0, 1], which generalize two entropy measures defined independently by Zhang and Wei, for IvIFS, and then we prove that the new entropy is an increasing function with respect to the parameter λ. Furthermore, a new multiple attribute decision making (MADM) method using entropy-based attribute weights is proposed to deal with the decision making situations where the alternatives on attributes are expressed by IvIFS and the attribute weights information is unknown. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the applications of the proposed method.

Keywords: Interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets, intervalvalued intuitionistic fuzzy entropy, multiple attribute decision making

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Authors: P. Asadee

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Multiplication algorithms have considerable effect on processors performance. A new high-speed, low-power multiplication algorithm has been presented using modified Dadda tree structure. Three important modifications have been implemented in inner product generation step, inner product reduction step and final addition step. Optimized algorithms have to be used into basic computation components, such as multiplication algorithms. In this paper, we proposed a new algorithm to reduce power, delay, and transistor count of a multiplication algorithm implemented using low power modified counter. This work presents a novel design for Dadda multiplication algorithms. The proposed multiplication algorithm includes structured parts, which have important effect on inner product reduction tree. In this paper, a 1.3V, 64-bit carry hybrid adder is presented for fast, low voltage applications. The new 64-bit adder uses a new circuit to implement the proposed carry hybrid adder. The new adder using 80 nm CMOS technology has been implemented on 700 MHz clock frequency. The proposed multiplication algorithm has achieved 14 percent improvement in transistor count, 13 percent reduction in delay and 12 percent modification in power consumption in compared with conventional designs.

Keywords: adder, CMOS, counter, Dadda tree, encoder.

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Authors: Pantip Kayee

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17α-ethinylestradiol (EE₂) is a recalcitrant micropollutant which is found in small amounts in municipal wastewater. But these small amounts still adversely affect for the reproductive function of aquatic organisms. Evidence in the past suggested that full-scale WWTPs equipped with nitrification process enhanced the removal of EE₂ in the municipal wastewater. EE₂ has been proven to be able to be transformed by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) via co-metabolism. This research aims to clarify the EE₂ degradation pattern by different consortium of ammonia oxidizing microorganism (AOM) including AOA (ammonia oxidizing archaea) and investigate contribution between the existing ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) and new synthesized AOM. The result showed that AOA or AOB of N. oligotropha cluster in enriched nitrifying activated sludge (NAS) from 2mM and 5mM, commonly found in municipal WWTPs, could degrade EE₂ in wastewater via co-metabolism. Moreover, the investigation of the contribution between the existing ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) and new synthesized AOM demonstrated that the new synthesized AMO enzyme may perform ammonia oxidation rather than the existing AMO enzyme or the existing AMO enzyme may has a small amount to oxidize ammonia.

Keywords: 17α-ethinylestradiol, nitrification, ammonia oxidizing bacteria, ammonia oxidizing archaea.

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Authors: H. Ucar, U. Aridogan

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Composite structures become intriguing for the design of aerospace, automotive and marine applications due to weight reduction, corrosion resistance and radar signature reduction demands and requirements. Studies on piezoelectric ceramic transducers (PZT) for diagnostics and health monitoring have gained attention for their sensing capabilities, however PZT structures are prone to fail in case of heavy operational loads. In this paper, we develop a piezo-based Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) composite finite element (FE) model, validate with experimental setup, and identify the applicability and limitations of PZTs for a marine application. A case study is conducted to assess the piezo-based sensing capabilities in a representative marine composite structure. A FE model of the composite structure combined with PZT patches is developed, afterwards the response and functionality are investigated according to the sea conditions. Results of this study clearly indicate the blockers and critical aspects towards industrialization and wide-range use of PZTs for marine composite applications.

Keywords: FRP, marine composite, piezoelectric transducer, sea state, wave-induced loads.

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Authors: M. Kaomek, J. R. Ketudat-Cairns

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The cDNA encoding the 326 amino acids of a Class I basic chitinase gene from Leucaena leucocephala de Wit (KB3, Genbank accession: AAM49597) was cloned under the control of CaMV35S promoter in pCAMBIA 1300 and transferred to Koshihikari. Calli of Koshihikari rice was transformed with agrobacterium with this construct expressing the chitinase and β- glucouronidase (GUS). The frequencies of calli 90 % has been obtained from rice seedlings cultured on NB medium. The high regeneration frequencies, 74% was obtained from calli cultured on regeneration medium containing 4 mg/l BAP, and 7 g/l phytagel at 25°C. Various factors were studied in order to establish a procedure for the transformation of Koshihikari Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Supplementation of 50 mM acetosyringone to the medium during coculivation was important to enhance the frequency to transient transformation. The 4 week-old scutellum-derived calli were excellent starting materials. Selection medium based on NB medium supplement with 40 mg/l hygromycin and 400 mg/l cefotaxime were an optimized medium for selection of transformed rice calli. The percentage of transformation 70 was obtained. Recombinant calli and regenerated rice plants were checked the expression of chitinase and gus by PCR, northern blot gel, southern blot gel, and gus assay. Chitinase and gus were expressed in all parts of recombinant rice. The rice line expressing the KB3 chiitnase was more resistant to the blast fungus Fusarium monoliforme than control line.

Keywords: chitinase, Leucaena leucocephala de Wit, Koshihikari, transgenic rice.

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Authors: A. Jamal, M. A. I. El-Shaarawi, E. M. A. Mokheimer

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Combined conduction-free convection heat transfer in vertical eccentric annuli is numerically investigated using a finitedifference technique. Numerical results, representing the heat transfer parameters such as annulus walls temperature, heat flux, and heat absorbed in the developing region of the annulus, are presented for a Newtonian fluid of Prandtl number 0.7, fluid-annulus radius ratio 0.5, solid-fluid thermal conductivity ratio 10, inner and outer wall dimensionless thicknesses 0.1 and 0.2, respectively, and dimensionless eccentricities 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7. The annulus walls are subjected to thermal boundary conditions, which are obtained by heating one wall isothermally whereas keeping the other wall at inlet fluid temperature. In the present paper, the annulus heights required to achieve thermal full development for prescribed eccentricities are obtained. Furthermore, the variation in the height of thermal full development as function of the geometrical parameter, i.e., eccentricity is also investigated.

Keywords: Conjugate natural convection, eccentricity, heat transfer, vertical eccentric annuli.

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Authors: Z. Khan, O. Moselhi, T. Zayed

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Development of levels of service in municipal context is a flexible vehicle to assist in performing quality-cost trade-off analysis for municipal services. This trade-off depends on the willingness of a community to pay as well as on the condition of the assets. Community perspective of the performance of an asset from service point of view may be quite different from the municipality perspective of the performance of the same asset from condition point of view. This paper presents a three phased level of service based methodology for water mains that consists of :1)development of an Analytical Hierarchy model of level of service 2) development of Fuzzy Weighted Sum model of water main condition index and 3) deriving a Fuzzy logic based function that maps level of service to asset condition index. This mapping will assist asset managers in quantifying condition improvement requirement to meet service goals and to make more informed decisions on interventions and relayed priorities.

Keywords: Asset Management, Level of Service, Condition Index, Analytical Hierarchy, Fuzzy Logic.

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Authors: Iftikhar Ahmed Satti, Wan Ismail Wan Yusoff

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The structural interpretation of a part of eastern Potwar (Missa Keswal) has been carried out with available seismological, seismic and well data. Seismological data contains both the source parameters and fault plane solution (FPS) parameters and seismic data contains ten seismic lines that were re-interpreted by using well data. Structural interpretation depicts two broad types of fault sets namely, thrust and back thrust faults. These faults together give rise to pop up structures in the study area and also responsible for many structural traps and seismicity. Seismic interpretation includes time and depth contour maps of Chorgali Formation while seismological interpretation includes focal mechanism solution (FMS), depth, frequency, magnitude bar graphs and renewal of Seismotectonic map. The Focal Mechanism Solutions (FMS) that surrounds the study area are correlated with the different geological and structural maps of the area for the determination of the nature of subsurface faults. Results of structural interpretation from both seismic and seismological data show good correlation. It is hoped that the present work will help in better understanding of the variations in the subsurface structure and can be a useful tool for earthquake prediction, planning of oil field and reservoir monitoring.

Keywords: Focal mechanism solution (FMS), Fault plane solution (FPS), Reservoir monitoring, earthquake prediction.

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Authors: Nahid A. Ali, Salma H. Ahmed, ElShazali A. Mohamed, Isam A. Mohamed Ahmed, Elfadil E.Babiker

Abstract:

The effect of cross linking of the protein isolates of three legumes with the microbial enzyme transglutaminase (EC 2.3.2.13) on the functional properties at different NaCl concentration was studied. The reduction in the total free amino groups (OD340) of the polymerized protein showed that TGase treatment cross-linking the protein subunit of each legume. The solubility of the protein polymer of each legume was greatly improved at high concentration of NaCl. At 1.2 M NaCl the solubility of the native legumes protein was significantly decreased but after polymerization slightly improved. Cross linked proteins were less turbid on heating to higher temperature as compared to native proteins and the temperature at which the protein turns turbid also increased in the polymerized proteins. The emulsifying and foaming properties of the protein polymer were greatly improved at all concentrations of NaCl for all legumes.

Keywords: Functional properties, Legumes, Protein isolate, NaCl, Transglutaminase.

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Authors: Laura Sapranaviciute-Zabazlajeva, Abdonas Tamosiunas, Dalia Luksiene, Dalia Virviciute

Abstract:

The cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the EU, especially in the middle aged and elderly population. Psychological wellbeing (PWB) has been linked with better cardiovascular health and survival in the elderly. The aim of the study is to evaluate associations between CVD risk and PWB in middle-aged and elderly population. 10,940 middle aged and older Lithuanians of age 45-74 years, were invited to participate in the study. A study sample was a random and stratified by gender and age. In 2006-2008 7,087 responders participated in the survey, so the response rate was 64.8%. A follow-up study was conducted from 2006 till 2015. New CVD cases and deaths from CVD were evaluated using the Kaunas population-based CVD register and death register of Kaunas. Study results revealed that good PWB predicts longer life in female participants (Log Rank = 13.7, p < 0.001). In the fully adjusted model for socio-demographic, social and CVD risk factors, hazard ratio for CVD mortality risk was lower amongst women with good PWB (HR = 0.28, 95% CI 0.11-0.72), but not significantly for men. Our study concludes, that lower CVD mortality rates is being associated with better PWB in female aged 45-74 years.

Keywords: Psychological wellbeing, cardiovascular disease, elderly.

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Authors: T. Zlámal, J. Petrů, M. Pagáč, P. Krajkovič

Abstract:

For the required function of components with the thermal spray coating, it is necessary to perform additional machining of the coated surface. The paper deals with assessing the surface integrity of Metco 2042, a plasma sprayed coating, after its machining. The selected plasma sprayed coating serves as an abradable sealing coating in a jet engine. Therefore, the spray and its surface must meet high quality and functional requirements. Plasma sprayed coatings are characterized by lamellar structure, which requires a special approach to their machining. Therefore, the experimental part involves the set-up of special cutting tools and cutting parameters under which the applied coating was machined. For the assessment of suitably set machining parameters, selected parameters of surface integrity were measured and evaluated during the experiment. To determine the size of surface irregularities and the effect of the selected machining technology on the sprayed coating surface, the surface roughness parameters Ra and Rz were measured. Furthermore, the measurement of sprayed coating surface hardness by the HR 15 Y method before and after machining process was used to determine the surface strengthening. The changes of strengthening were detected after the machining. The impact of chosen cutting parameters on the surface roughness after the machining was not proven.

Keywords: Machining, plasma sprayed coating, surface integrity, strengthening.

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