Search results for: Active steering assistance.

Authors: Christopher Spiewak, M. R. Islam, Mohammad Arifur Rahaman, Mohammad H. Rahman, Roger Smith, Maarouf Saad

Abstract:

For those who have lost the ability to move their hand, going through repetitious motions with the assistance of a therapist is the main method of recovery. We have been developed a robotic assistive device to rehabilitate the hand motions in place of the traditional therapy. The developed assistive device (RAD-HR) is comprised of four degrees of freedom enabling basic movements, hand function, and assists in supporting the hand during rehabilitation. We used a nonlinear computed torque control technique to control the RAD-HR. The accuracy of the controller was evaluated in simulations (MATLAB/Simulink environment). To see the robustness of the controller external disturbance as modelling uncertainty (±10% of joint torques) were added in each joints.

Keywords: Biorobotics, rehabilitation, nonlinear control, robotic assistive device, exoskeleton.

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Authors: Yu-Chuan Chang, Chen Shi-Kai

Abstract:

A water reuse system in wetland paddy was simulated to supply water for industrial in this paper. A two-tank model was employed to represent the return flow of the wetland paddy.Historical data were performed for parameter estimation and model verification. With parameters estimated from the data, the model was then used to simulate a reasonable return flow rate from the wetland paddy. The simulation results show that the return flow ratio was 11.56% in the first crop season and 35.66% in the second crop season individually; the difference may result from the heavy rainfall in the second crop season. Under the existent pond with surplus active capacity, the water reuse ratio was 17.14%, and the water supplementary ratio was 21.56%. However, the pattern of rainfall, the active capacity of the pond, and the rate of water treatment limit the volume of reuse water. Increasing the irrigation water, dredging the depth of pond before rainy season and enlarging the scale of module are help to develop water reuse system to support for the industrial water use around wetland paddy.

Keywords: Return flow, water reuse, wetland paddy, return flow ratio (RR), water reuse ratio (WRR), water supplementary ratio(WSR)

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Authors: Pornpimol Bungkomkhun, Surapong Auwatanamongkol

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This paper presents a supervised clustering algorithm, namely Grid-Based Supervised Clustering (GBSC), which is able to identify clusters of any shapes and sizes without presuming any canonical form for data distribution. The GBSC needs no prespecified number of clusters, is insensitive to the order of the input data objects, and is capable of handling outliers. Built on the combination of grid-based clustering and density-based clustering, under the assistance of the downward closure property of density used in bottom-up subspace clustering, the GBSC can notably reduce its search space to avoid the memory confinement situation during its execution. On two-dimension synthetic datasets, the GBSC can identify clusters with different shapes and sizes correctly. The GBSC also outperforms other five supervised clustering algorithms when the experiments are performed on some UCI datasets.

Keywords: supervised clustering, grid-based clustering, subspace clustering

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Authors: M. Kumpugdee-Vollrath, J.-P. Krause, S. Bürk

Abstract:

Most of the drugs used for pharmaceutical purposes are poorly water-soluble drugs. About 40% of all newly discovered drugs are lipophilic and the numbers of lipophilic drugs seem to increase more and more. Drug delivery systems such as nanoparticles, micelles or liposomes are applied to improve their solubility and thus their bioavailability. Besides various techniques of solubilization, oil-in-water emulsions are often used to incorporate lipophilic drugs into the oil phase. To stabilize emulsions surface active substances (surfactants) are generally used. An alternative method to avoid the application of surfactants was of great interest. One possibility is to develop O/W-emulsion without any addition of surface active agents or the so called “surfactant-free emulsion or SFE”. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize SFE as a drug carrier by varying the production conditions. Lidocaine base was used as a model drug. The injection method was developed. Effects of ultrasound as well as of temperature on the properties of the emulsion were studied. Particle sizes and release were determined. The long-term stability up to 30 days was performed. The results showed that the surfactant-free O/W emulsions with pharmaceutical oil as drug carrier can be produced.

Keywords: Emulsion, lidocaine, Miglyol, size, surfactant, light scattering, release, injection, ultrasound, stability.

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Authors: S. Nandagopalan, N. Pradeep

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to propose a general framework for storing, analyzing, and extracting knowledge from two-dimensional echocardiographic images, color Doppler images, non-medical images, and general data sets. A number of high performance data mining algorithms have been used to carry out this task. Our framework encompasses four layers namely physical storage, object identification, knowledge discovery, user level. Techniques such as active contour model to identify the cardiac chambers, pixel classification to segment the color Doppler echo image, universal model for image retrieval, Bayesian method for classification, parallel algorithms for image segmentation, etc., were employed. Using the feature vector database that have been efficiently constructed, one can perform various data mining tasks like clustering, classification, etc. with efficient algorithms along with image mining given a query image. All these facilities are included in the framework that is supported by state-of-the-art user interface (UI). The algorithms were tested with actual patient data and Coral image database and the results show that their performance is better than the results reported already.

Keywords: Active Contour, Bayesian, Echocardiographic image, Feature vector.

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Authors: Wanda Luen-Wun Siu, Xiaowen Zhang

Abstract:

The outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic has caused great difficulties for South-South cooperation, but there are also opportunities. China’s health diplomacy has changed from dispatching medical teams, assisting in the construction of hospitals, and to encouraging medical investment in the Africa health sector. This paper adopted a retrospective review of China’s health statecraft in Africa from 1963 to 2020. Findings suggested that China has a preference for aiding Africa health infrastructure and sending medical teams to African countries and it is both socially and financially sustainable. China’s health diplomacy in Africa is a success and has established secure diplomatic relations with African countries, thanks to the medical and health assistance to Africa over 60 years. This research contributes to the literature of health diplomacy and indicates that China’s health aid has fostered cooperation at the medical and diplomatic levels.

Keywords: Africa, bilateral relations, China’s Health Diplomacy, COVID-19.

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Authors: Hui-Yu Huang, Shih-Hang Hsu

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In this paper, we propose a robust scheme to work face alignment and recognition under various influences. For face representation, illumination influence and variable expressions are the important factors, especially the accuracy of facial localization and face recognition. In order to solve those of factors, we propose a robust approach to overcome these problems. This approach consists of two phases. One phase is preprocessed for face images by means of the proposed illumination normalization method. The location of facial features can fit more efficient and fast based on the proposed image blending. On the other hand, based on template matching, we further improve the active shape models (called as IASM) to locate the face shape more precise which can gain the recognized rate in the next phase. The other phase is to process feature extraction by using principal component analysis and face recognition by using support vector machine classifiers. The results show that this proposed method can obtain good facial localization and face recognition with varied illumination and local distortion.

Keywords: Gabor filter, improved active shape model (IASM), principal component analysis (PCA), face alignment, face recognition, support vector machine (SVM)

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Authors: Fahri Benli, Sitalakshmi Venkatraman, Ye Wei, Fiona Wahr

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A flipped classroom which is a form of blended learning shifts the focus from a teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered approach. However, not all learners are ready to take the active role of knowledge and skill acquisition through a flipped classroom and they continue to delve in a passive mode of learning. This challenges educators in designing, scaffolding and facilitating in-class activities for students to have active learning experiences in a flipped classroom environment. Experiential learning theories have been employed by educators in the past in physical classrooms based on the principle that knowledge could be actively developed through direct experience. However, with more of online teaching witnessed recently, there are inherent limitations in designing and simulating an experiential learning activity for an online environment. In this paper, we explore enhancing experiential learning using smart digital tools that could be employed in a flipped classroom within a higher education setting. We present the use of smart collaborative tools online to enhance the experiential learning activity to teach higher-order cognitive concepts of business process modeling as a case study.

Keywords: Experiential learning, flipped classroom, smart software tools, online learning higher-order learning attributes.

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Authors: Rajendra Prasad Mahapatra, K. Vimal Kumar

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There are many automotive accidents due to blind spots and driver inattentiveness. Blind spot is the area that is invisible to the driver's viewpoint without head rotation. Several methods are available for assisting the drivers. Simplest methods are — rear mirrors and wide-angle lenses. But, these methods have a disadvantage of the requirement for human assistance. So, the accuracy of these devices depends on driver. Another approach called an automated approach that makes use of sensors such as sonar or radar. These sensors are used to gather range information. The range information will be processed and used for detecting the collision. The disadvantage of this system is — low angular resolution and limited sensing volumes. This paper is a panoramic sensor based automotive vehicle monitoring..

Keywords: Panoramic sensors, Blind spot, Convex lens, Computer Vision, Sonar.

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Authors: Roberto Sabatini, Alessandro Gardi, Mark A. Richardson

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The availability of powerful eye-safe laser sources and the recent advancements in electro-optical and mechanical beam-steering components have allowed laser-based Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) to become a promising technology for obstacle warning and avoidance in a variety of manned and unmanned aircraft applications. LIDAR outstanding angular resolution and accuracy characteristics are coupled to its good detection performance in a wide range of incidence angles and weather conditions, providing an ideal obstacle avoidance solution, which is especially attractive in low-level flying platforms such as helicopters and small-to-medium size Unmanned Aircraft (UA). The Laser Obstacle Avoidance Marconi (LOAM) system is one of such systems, which was jointly developed and tested by SELEX-ES and the Italian Air Force Research and Flight Test Centre. The system was originally conceived for military rotorcraft platforms and, in this paper, we briefly review the previous work and discuss in more details some of the key development activities required for integration of LOAM on UA platforms. The main hardware and software design features of this LOAM variant are presented, including a brief description of the system interfaces and sensor characteristics, together with the system performance models and data processing algorithms for obstacle detection, classification and avoidance. In particular, the paper focuses on the algorithm proposed for optimal avoidance trajectory generation in UA applications.

Keywords: LIDAR, Low-Level Flight, Nap-of-the-Earth Flight, Near Infra-Red, Obstacle Avoidance, Obstacle Detection, Obstacle Warning System, Sense and Avoid, Trajectory Optimisation, Unmanned Aircraft.

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Authors: Chih-Jer Lin, Chun-Ying Lee, Ying Liu, Chiang-Ho Cheng

Abstract:

The main objective of this article is to present the semi-active vibration control using an electro-rheological fluid embedded sandwich structure for a cantilever beam. ER fluid is a smart material, which cause the suspended particles polarize and connect each other to form chain. The stiffness and damping coefficients of the ER fluid can be changed in 10 micro seconds; therefore, ERF is suitable to become the material embedded in the tunable vibration absorber to become a smart absorber. For the ERF smart material embedded structure, the fuzzy control law depends on the experimental expert database and the proposed self-tuning strategy. The electric field is controlled by a CRIO embedded system to implement the real application. This study investigates the different performances using the Type-1 fuzzy and interval Type-2 fuzzy controllers. The Interval type-2 fuzzy control is used to improve the modeling uncertainties for this ERF embedded shock absorber. The self-tuning vibration controllers using Type-1 and Interval Type-2 fuzzy law are implemented to the shock absorber system. Based on the resulting performance, Internal Type-2 fuzzy is better than the traditional Type-1 fuzzy control for this vibration control system.

 

Keywords: Electro-Rheological Fluid, Semi-active vibration control, shock absorber, type 2 fuzzy control.

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Authors: Victor Maldonado

Abstract:

Recent concerns of the growing impact of aviation on climate change has prompted the emergence of a field referred to as Sustainable or “Green” Aviation dedicated to mitigating the harmful impact of aviation related CO2 emissions and noise pollution on the environment. In the current paper, a unique “green” business jet aircraft called the TransAtlantic was designed (using analytical formulation common in conceptual design) in order to show the feasibility for transatlantic passenger air travel with an aircraft weighing less than 10,000 pounds takeoff weight. Such an advance in fuel efficiency will require development and integration of advanced and emerging aerospace technologies. The TransAtlantic design is intended to serve as a research platform for the development of technologies such as active flow control. Recent advances in the field of active flow control and how this technology can be integrated on a sub-scale flight demonstrator are discussed in this paper. Flow control is a technique to modify the behavior of coherent structures in wall-bounded flows (over aerodynamic surfaces such as wings and turbine nozzles) resulting in improved aerodynamic cruise and flight control efficiency. One of the key challenges to application in manned aircraft is development of a robust high-momentum actuator that can penetrate the boundary layer flowing over aerodynamic surfaces. These deficiencies may be overcome in the current development and testing of a novel electromagnetic synthetic jet actuator which replaces piezoelectric materials as the driving diaphragm. One of the overarching goals of the TranAtlantic research platform include fostering national and international collaboration to demonstrate (in numerical and experimental models) reduced CO2/ noise pollution via development and integration of technologies and methodologies in design optimization, fluid dynamics, structures/ composites, propulsion, and controls.

Keywords: Aircraft Design, Sustainable “Green” Aviation, Active Flow Control, Aerodynamics.

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Authors: T. Teo, S. W. Lye, Y. F. Li, Z. Zakaria

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Wearable devices such as Electroencephalography (EEG) hold immense potential in the monitoring and assessment of a person’s task engagement. This is especially so in remote or online sites. Research into its use in measuring an individual's cognitive state while performing task activities is therefore expected to increase. Despite the growing number of EEG research into brain functioning activities of a person, key challenges remain in adopting EEG for real-time operations. These include limited portability, long preparation time, high number of channel dimensionality, intrusiveness, as well as level of accuracy in acquiring neurological data. This paper proposes an approach using a 4-6 EEG channels to determine the cognitive states of a subject when undertaking a set of passive and active monitoring tasks of a subject. Air traffic controller (ATC) dynamic-tasks are used as a proxy. The work found that using a developed channel reduction and identifier algorithm, good trend adherence of 89.1% can be obtained between a commercially available brain computer interface (BCI) 14 channel Emotiv EPOC+ EEG headset and that of a carefully selected set of reduced 4-6 channels. The approach can also identify different levels of engagement activities ranging from general monitoring, ad hoc and repeated active monitoring activities involving information search, extraction, and memory activities.

Keywords: Neurophysiology, monitoring, EEG, outliers, electroencephalography.

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Authors: Zharama M. Llarena

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Green chemistry for plant extraction of active principles is the main interest of many researchers concerned with climate change. While classical organic solvents are detrimental to our environment, greener alternatives to ionic liquids are very promising for sustainable organic chemistry. This study focused on the determination of functional groups observed in the main constituents from the ionic liquid extracts of Coleus aromaticus Benth leaves using FT-IR Spectroscopy. Moreover, this research aimed to determine the best ionic liquid that can separate functionalized plant constituents from the leaves Coleus aromaticus Benth using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Coleus aromaticus Benth leaf extract in different ionic liquids, elucidated pharmacologically important functional groups present in major constituents of the plant, namely, rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid and chlorogenic acid. In connection to distinctive appearance of functional groups in the spectrum and highest % transmittance, potassium chloride-glycerol is the best ionic liquid for green extraction.

Keywords: Coleus aromaticus, ionic liquid, rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid.

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Authors: Dmitry Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina, Evgenii N. Kojaev

Abstract:

In review the generalized data about biological activity of anthraquinone-containing plants and specimens on their basis is presented. Data of traditional medicine, results of bioscreening and clinical researches of specimens are analyzed.

Keywords: Anthraquinones, physiologically active substances, phytopreparation, Ramon.

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Authors: S. Hirokawa, M. Fukunaga, M. Mawatari

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Knee joint forces are available by in vivo measurement using an instrumented knee prosthesis for small to moderate knee flexion but not for high flexion yet. We created a 2D mathematical model of the lower limb incorporating several new features such as a patello-femoral mechanism, a thigh-calf contact at high knee flexion and co-contracting muscles' force ratio, then used it to determine knee joint forces arising from high knee flexions in four kneeling conditions: rising with legs in parallel, with one foot forward, with or without arm use. With arms used, the maximum values of knee joint force decreased to about 60% of those with arms not used. When rising with one foot forward, if arms are not used, the forward leg sustains a force as large as that sustained when rising with legs parallel.

Keywords: Knee joint force, kneeling, mathematical model, biomechanics.

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Authors: Ong Sing Goh, C. Ardil, Chun Che Fung, Kok Wai Wong, Arnold Depickere

Abstract:

In this paper, we proposed a new framework to incorporate an intelligent agent software robot into a crisis communication portal (CCNet) in order to send alert news to subscribed users via email and other mobile services such as Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and General Packet Radio Services (GPRS). The content on the mobile services can be delivered either through mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistance (PDA). This research has shown that with our proposed framework, the embodied conversation agents system can handle questions intelligently with our multilayer architecture. At the same time, the extended framework can take care of delivery content through a more humanoid interface on mobile devices.

Keywords: Crisis Communication Network (CCNet), EmbodiedConversational Agents (ECAs), Mobile Services, ArtificialIntelligence Neural-network Identity (AINI)

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Authors: Shishir Kumar, Chhaya Gangwal, Seema Raj

Abstract:

Public health informatics (PHI) which has seen successful implementation in the developed world, become the buzzword in the developing countries in providing improved healthcare with enhanced access. In rural areas especially, where a huge gap exists between demand and supply of healthcare facilities, PHI is being seen as a major solution. There are factors such as growing network infrastructure and the technological adoption by the health fraternity which provide support to these claims. Public health informatics has opportunities in healthcare by providing opportunities to diagnose patients, provide intra-operative assistance and consultation from a remote site. It also has certain barriers in the awareness, adaptation, network infrastructure, funding and policy related areas. There are certain medico-legal aspects involving all the stakeholders which need to be standardized to enable a working system. This paper aims to analyze the potential and challenges of Public health informatics services in rural communities.

Keywords: PHI, e-health, Public health.

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Authors: Erika Martinez Ramirez, Rene V. Mayorga

Abstract:

The internet is constantly expanding. Identifying web links of interest from web browsers requires users to visit each of the links listed, individually until a satisfactory link is found, therefore those users need to evaluate a considerable amount of links before finding their link of interest; this can be tedious and even unproductive. By incorporating web assistance, web users could be benefited from reduced time searching on relevant websites. In this paper, a rough set approach is presented, which facilitates classification of unlimited available e-vocabulary, to assist web users in reducing search times looking for relevant web sites. This approach includes two methods for identifying relevance data on web links based on the priority and percentage of relevance. As a result of these methods, a list of web sites is generated in priority sequence with an emphasis of the search criteria.

Keywords: Web search, Web Mining, Rough Sets, Web Intelligence, Intelligent Portals, Relevance.

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Authors: Ehi E. Aimiuwu

Abstract:

As of 2017, many researchers in educational journals are still wondering if students are effectively and efficiently engaged in active learning in the online learning environment. The goal of this qualitative single case study and narrative research is to explore if students are actively engaged in their online learning. Seven online students in the United States from LinkedIn and residencies were interviewed for this study. Eleven online learning techniques from research were used as a framework.  Data collection tools were used for the study that included a digital audiotape, observation sheet, interview protocol, transcription, and NVivo 12 Plus qualitative software.  Data analysis process, member checking, and key themes were used to reach saturation. About 85.7% of students preferred individual grading. About 71.4% of students valued professor’s interacting 2-3 times weekly, participating through posts and responses, having good internet access, and using email.  Also, about 57.1% said students log in 2-3 times weekly to daily, professor’s social presence helps, regular punctuality in work submission, and prefer assessments style of research, essay, and case study.  About 42.9% appreciated syllabus usefulness and professor’s expertise.

Keywords: Class facilitation, course management, online teaching, online education, student engagement.

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Authors: Jinliang Yuan, Jong-Sung Yu, Bengt Sundén

Abstract:

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed for rechargeable non-aqueous electrolyte lithium-air batteries with a partial opening for oxygen supply to the cathode. Multi-phase transport phenomena occurred in the battery are considered, including dissolved lithium ions and oxygen gas in the liquid electrolyte, solid-phase electron transfer in the porous functional materials and liquid-phase charge transport in the electrolyte. These transport processes are coupled with the electrochemical reactions at the active surfaces, and effects of discharge reaction-generated solid Li2O2 on the transport properties and the electrochemical reaction rate are evaluated and implemented in the model. The predicted results are discussed and analyzed in terms of the spatial and transient distribution of various parameters, such as local oxygen concentration, reaction rate, variable solid Li2O2 volume fraction and porosity, as well as the effective diffusion coefficients. It is found that the effect of the solid Li2O2 product deposited at the solid active surfaces is significant on the transport phenomena and the overall battery performance.

Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Modeling, Multi-phase, Transport Phenomena, Lithium-air battery.

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Authors: Mandana Kariminejad, Ali Ghaffari

Abstract:

Today, the treatment of cancer, in a relatively short period, with minimum adverse effects is a great concern for oncologists. In this paper, based on a recently used mathematical model for cancer, a guideline has been proposed for the amount and duration of drug doses for cancer treatment by immunotherapy. Dynamically speaking, the mathematical ordinary differential equation (ODE) model of cancer has different equilibrium points; one of them is unstable, which is called the no tumor equilibrium point. In this paper, based on the number of tumor cells an intelligent soft computing controller (a combination of fuzzy logic controller and genetic algorithm), decides regarding the amount and duration of drug doses, to eliminate the tumor cells and stabilize the unstable point in a relatively short time. Two different immunotherapy approaches; active and adoptive, have been studied and presented. It is shown that the rate of decay of tumor cells is faster and the doses of drug are lower in comparison with the result of some other literatures. It is also shown that the period of treatment and the doses of drug in adoptive immunotherapy are significantly less than the active method. A recommendation to oncologists has also been presented.

Keywords: Tumor, immunotherapy, fuzzy controller, Genetic algorithm, mathematical model.

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Authors: G. V. Novikov, V. S. Sivozhelezov, S. S. Kolesnikov, K. V. Shaitan

Abstract:

The study reports about the influence of binding of orthosteric ligands as well as point mutations on the conformational dynamics of β-2-adrenoreceptor. Using molecular dynamics simulation we found that there was a little fraction of active states of the receptor in its apo (ligand free) ensemble corresponded to its constitutive activity. Analysis of MD trajectories indicated that such spontaneous activation of the receptor is accompanied by the motion in intracellular part of its alpha-helices. Thus receptor’s constitutive activity directly results from its conformational dynamics. On the other hand the binding of a full agonist resulted in a significant shift of the initial equilibrium towards its active state. Finally, the binding of the inverse agonist stabilized the receptor in its inactive state. It is likely that the binding of inverse agonists might be a universal way of constitutive activity inhibition in vivo. Our results indicate that ligand binding redistribute pre-existing conformational degrees of freedom (in accordance to the Monod-Wyman-Changeux-Model) of the receptor rather than cause induced fit in it. Therefore, the ensemble of biologically relevant receptor conformations is encoded in its spatial structure, and individual conformations from that ensemble might be used by the cell in conformity with the physiological behavior.

Keywords: Seven-transmembrane receptors, constitutive activity, activation, x-ray crystallography, principal component analysis, molecular dynamics simulation.

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Authors: P. D. Pastuszak

Abstract:

The present work is devoted to thermographic studies of curved composite panels (unidirectional GFRP) with subsurface defects. Various artificial defects, created by inserting PTFE stripe between individual layers of a laminate during manufacturing stage are studied. The analysis is conducted both with the use finite element method and experiments. To simulate transient heat transfer in 3D model with embedded various defect sizes, the ANSYS package is used. Pulsed Thermography combined with optical excitation source provides good results for flat surfaces. Composite structures are mostly used in complex components, e.g., pipes, corners and stiffeners. Local decrease of mechanical properties in these regions can have significant influence on strength decrease of the entire structure. Application of active procedures of thermography to defect detection and evaluation in this type of elements seems to be more appropriate that other NDT techniques. Nevertheless, there are various uncertainties connected with correct interpretation of acquired data. In this paper, important factors concerning Infrared Thermography measurements of curved surfaces in the form of cylindrical panels are considered. In addition, temperature effects on the surface resulting from complex geometry and embedded and real defect are also presented.

Keywords: Active thermography, finite element analysis, composite, curved structures, defects.

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Authors: Chuan-Ching Sue, Shi-Zhou Chen, Ting-Yu Huang

Abstract:

Dynamic bandwidth allocation in EPONs can be generally separated into inter-ONU scheduling and intra-ONU scheduling. In our previous work, the active intra-ONU scheduling (AS) utilizes multiple queue reports (QRs) in each report message to cooperate with the inter-ONU scheduling and makes the granted bandwidth fully utilized without leaving unused slot remainder (USR). This scheme successfully solves the USR problem originating from the inseparability of Ethernet frame. However, without proper setting of threshold value in AS, the number of QRs constrained by the IEEE 802.3ah standard is not enough, especially in the unbalanced traffic environment. This limitation may be solved by enlarging the threshold value. The large threshold implies the large gap between the adjacent QRs, thus resulting in the large difference between the best granted bandwidth and the real granted bandwidth. In this paper, we integrate AS with a cooperative prediction mechanism and distribute multiple QRs to reduce the penalty brought by the prediction error. Furthermore, to improve the QoS and save the usage of queue reports, the highest priority (EF) traffic which comes during the waiting time is granted automatically by OLT and is not considered in the requested bandwidth of ONU. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme has better performance metrics in terms of bandwidth utilization and average delay for different classes of packets.

Keywords: EPON, Inter-ONU and Intra-ONU scheduling, Prediction, Unused slot remainder

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Authors: Werner Reichenfelser, Harald Hackl, Josef Hufgard, Karin Gstaltner, Margit Gfoehler

Abstract:

Training with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) has both physiological and psychological benefits for spinal cord injured subjects. Commonly used methods for quantification of spasticity have shown controversial reliability. In this study we propose a method for quick determination of spasticity in spinal cord injured subjects on a cycling and measurement system. 23 patients did training sessions on an instrumented mobile FES cycle three times a week over two months as part of their clinical rehabilitation program. Spasticity (MAS) and the legs resistance to the pedaling motion were assessed before and after the FES training and measurements were done on the subjects ability to pedal with our without motor assistance. Measurements with test persons with incomplete spastic paraplegia have shown that spasticity is decreased after a 30 min cycling training with functional electrical stimulation (FES).

Keywords: Spasticity, paraplegia, spinal cord injury, functional electrical stimulation.

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Authors: Dmitry Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina

Abstract:

In review the generalized data about different methods of synthesis of biological activity acylatedhydrohyanthraquinones is presented. The basic regularity of a synthesis is analyzed. Action of temperature, pH, solubility, catalysts and other factors on a reaction product yield is revealed.

Keywords: Aminoacidic acylation, hydroxyanthraquinones, nucleophilic exchange, physiologically active substances.

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Authors: Dmitriy Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina

Abstract:

In review the generalized data about different methods of synthesis of biological activity halogenated di-, tri- and tetrahydroxyanthraquinones is presented. The basic regularity of a synthesis is analyzed. Action of temperature, pH, solubility, catalysts and other factors on a reaction product yield is revealed.

Keywords: Electrophilic substitution, halogenation, hydroxyanthraquinones, physiologically active substances.

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Authors: Dana Kristalova, Jan Mazal

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This article deals with geographical conditions in terrain and their effect on the movement of vehicles, their effect on speed and safety of movement of people and vehicles. Finding of the optimal routes outside the communication is studied in the Army environment, but it occur in civilian as well, primarily in crisis situation, or by the provision of assistance when natural disasters such as floods, fires, storms etc., have happened. These movements require the optimization of routes when effects of geographical factors should be included. The most important factor is the surface of a terrain. It is based on several geographical factors as are slopes, soil conditions, micro-relief, a type of surface and meteorological conditions. Their mutual impact has been given by coefficient of deceleration. This coefficient can be used for the commander`s decision. New approaches and methods of terrain testing, mathematical computing, mathematical statistics or cartometric investigation are necessary parts of this evaluation.

Keywords: Movement in a terrain, geographical factors, surface of a field, mathematical evaluation, optimization and searching paths.

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Authors: Santanu Santra, Utpal Roy

Abstract:

The most important mathematical operation for any computing system is addition. An efficient adder can be of greater assistance in designing of any arithmetic circuits. Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is a promising nanotechnology to create electronic circuits for computing devices and suitable candidate for next generation of computing systems. The article presents a modest approach to implement a novel XOR gate. The gate is simple in structure and powerful in terms of implementing digital circuits. By applying the XOR gate, the hardware requirement for a QCA circuit can be decrease and circuits can be simpler in level, clock phase and cell count. In order to verify the functionality of the proposed device some implementation of Half Adder (HA) and Full Adder (FA) is checked by means of computer simulations using QCA-Designer tool. Simulation results and physical relations confirm its usefulness in implementing every digital circuit.

Keywords: Clock, Computing system, Majority gate, QCA, QCA Designer.

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