Search results for: micro actuator

Authors: Taiwo O. Margaret, Olaoluwa O. Olaoluwa

Abstract:

Moraceae family has immense phytochemical constituents and significant pharmacological properties, hence have great medicinal values. The aim of this study was to screen and quantify phytochemicals as well as the antioxidant activities of the leaf and stem bark extracts and fractions (crude ethanol extracts, n-hexane, ethyl acetate and aqueous ethanol fractions) of Ficus sagittifolia. Leaf and stem bark of F. sagittifolia were extracted by maceration method using ethanol to give ethanol crude extract. The ethanol crude extract was partitioned by n-hexane and ethyl-acetate to give their respective fractions. All the extracts were screened for their phytochemicals using standard methods. The total phenolic, flavonoid, tannin, saponin contents and antioxidant activity were determined by spectrophotometric method while the alkaloid content was evaluated by titrimetric method. The amount of total phenolic in extracts and fractions were estimated in comparison to gallic acid, whereas total flavonoids, tannins and saponins were estimated corresponding to quercetin, tannic acid and saponin respectively. 2, 2-diphenylpicryl hydrazyl radical (DPPH)* and phosphomolybdate methods were used to evaluate the antioxidant activities of leaf and stem bark of F. sagittifolia. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoids, saponins, terpenoids/steroids, alkaloids for both extracts of leaf and stem bark of F. sagittifolia. The phenolic content of F. sagittifolia was most abundant in leaf ethanol crude extract as 3.53 ± 0.03 mg/g equivalent of gallic acid. Total flavonoids and tannins content were highest in stem bark aqueous ethanol fraction of F. sagittifolia estimated as 3.41 ± 0.08 mg/g equivalent of quercetin and 1.52 ± 0.05 mg/g equivalent of tannic acid respectively. The hexane leaf fraction of F. sagittifolia had the utmost saponin and alkaloid content as 5.10 ± 0.48 mg/g equivalent of saponins and 0.171 ± 0.39 g of alkaloids. Leaf aqueous ethanol fraction of F. sagittifolia showed high antioxidant activity (IC₅₀ value of 63.092 µg/mL) and stem ethanol crude extract (227.43 ± 0.78 mg/g equivalent of ascorbic acid) for DPPH and phosphomolybdate method respectively and the least active was found to be the stem hexane fraction using both methods (313.32 µg/mL; 16.21 ± 1.30 mg/g equivalent of ascorbic acid). The presence of these phytochemicals in the leaf and stem bark of F. sagittifolia are responsible for their therapeutic importance as well as the ability to scavenge free radicals in living systems.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity, Ficus sagittifolia, Moraceae, phytochemicals.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 977

Authors: Kwok Tak Kit

Abstract:

Combating climate change is becoming a hot topic in various sectors. Building construction and infrastructure sectors contributed a significant proportion of waste and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the environment of different countries and cities. However, there is little research on the micro-level of waste management, “building construction material wastage management,” and fewer reviews about regulatory control in the building construction sector. This paper focuses on the potentialities and importance of material wastage management and reviews the deficiencies of the current standard to take into account the reduction of material wastage in a systematic and quantitative approach.

Keywords: Quantitative measurement, material wastage management plan, waste management, uncalculated waste, circular economy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 611

Authors: Dhruvit S. Berawala, Jann R. Ursin, Obrad Slijepcevic

Abstract:

Shale gas is one of the most rapidly growing forms of natural gas. Unconventional natural gas deposits are difficult to characterize overall, but in general are often lower in resource concentration and dispersed over large areas. Moreover, gas is densely packed into the matrix through adsorption which accounts for large volume of gas reserves. Gas production from tight shale deposits are made possible by extensive and deep well fracturing which contacts large fractions of the formation. The conventional reservoir modelling and production forecasting methods, which rely on fluid-flow processes dominated by viscous forces, have proved to be very pessimistic and inaccurate. This paper presents a new approach to forecast shale gas production by detailed modeling of gas desorption, diffusion and non-linear flow mechanisms in combination with statistical representation of these processes. The representation of the model involves a cube as a porous media where free gas is present and a sphere (SiC: Sphere in Cube model) inside it where gas is adsorbed on to the kerogen or organic matter. Further, the sphere is considered consisting of many layers of adsorbed gas in an onion-like structure. With pressure decline, the gas desorbs first from the outer most layer of sphere causing decrease in its molecular concentration. The new available surface area and change in concentration triggers the diffusion of gas from kerogen. The process continues until all the gas present internally diffuses out of the kerogen, gets adsorbs onto available surface area and then desorbs into the nanopores and micro-fractures in the cube. Each SiC idealizes a gas pathway and is characterized by sphere diameter and length of the cube. The diameter allows to model gas storage, diffusion and desorption; the cube length takes into account the pathway for flow in nanopores and micro-fractures. Many of these representative but general cells of the reservoir are put together and linked to a well or hydraulic fracture. The paper quantitatively describes these processes as well as clarifies the geological conditions under which a successful shale gas production could be expected. A numerical model has been derived which is then compiled on FORTRAN to develop a simulator for the production of shale gas by considering the spheres as a source term in each of the grid blocks. By applying SiC to field data, we demonstrate that the model provides an effective way to quickly access gas production rates from shale formations. We also examine the effect of model input properties on gas production.

Keywords: Sphere in Cube Grid Approach to Modelling of Shale Gas Production Using Non-Linear Flow Mechanisms

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 784

Authors: Myoung Ro Kim, Gilwon Yoon

Abstract:

A game using electro-oculography (EOG) as control signal was introduced in this study. Various EOG signals are generated by eye movements. Even though EOG is a quite complex type of signal, distinct and separable EOG signals could be classified from horizontal and vertical, left and right eye movements. Proper signal processing was incorporated since EOG signal has very small amplitude in the order of micro volts and contains noises influenced by external conditions. Locations of the electrodes were set to be above and below as well as left and right positions of the eyes. Four control signals of up, down, left and right were generated. A microcontroller processed signals in order to simulate a DDR game. A LCD display showed arrows falling down with four different head directions. This game may be used as eye exercise for visual concentration and acuity. Our proposed EOG control signal can be utilized in many other applications of human machine interfaces such as wheelchair, computer keyboard and home automation.

Keywords: DDR game, EOG, eye movement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4737

Authors: Young-Seok Choi

Abstract:

The neural stimulation has been gaining much interest in neuromodulation research and clinical trials. For efficiency, there is a need for variable electrical stimulation such as current and voltage stimuli as well as wireless framework. In this regard, we develop the wireless neural stimulator capable of voltage and current stimuli. The system consists of ZigBee which is a wireless communication module and stimulus generator. The stimulus generator with 8-bits resolution enable both mono-polar and bi-polar waveform in voltage (-3.3~3.3V) and current(-330~330µA) stimulus mode which is controllable. The experimental results suggest that the proposed neural stimulator can play a role as an effective approach for neuromodulation.

Keywords: Neural stimulator, current stimulation, voltage stimulation, neuromodulation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2140

Authors: Haider K. Raad

Abstract:

In this paper, a compact wide-band, ultra-thin and flexible slot antenna intended for wearable applications is presented. The presented antenna is designed to provide Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) connectivity. The presented design exhibits a relatively wide bandwidth (1600-3500 MHz below -6 dB impedance bandwidth limit). The antenna is positioned on a 33 mm x 30 mm flexible substrate with a thickness of 50 µm. Antenna properties, such as the far-field radiation patterns, scattering parameter S₁₁ are provided. The presented compact, thin and flexible design along with excellent radiation characteristics are deemed suitable for integration into flexible and wearable devices.

Keywords: Wearable Electronics, Slot Antenna, LTE, WLAN.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1157

Authors: A. Alshebani, Y. Swesi, S. Mrayed, F. Altaher, I. Musbah

Abstract:

Cs-type nanocomposite zeolite membrane was successfully synthesized on an alumina ceramic hollow fibre with a mean outer diameter of 1.7 mm; cesium cationic exchange test was carried out inside test module with mean wall thickness of 230 μm and an average crossing pore size smaller than 0.2 μm. Separation factor of n-butane/H₂ obtained indicate that a relatively high quality closed to 20. Maxwell-Stefan modeling provides an equivalent thickness lower than 1 µm. To compare the difference an application to CO₂/N₂ separation has been achieved, reaching separation factors close to (4,18) before and after cation exchange on H-zeolite membrane formed within the pores of a ceramic alumina substrate.

Keywords: MFI membrane, nanocomposite, Ceramic hollow fibre, CO2, Ion-exchange.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1984

Authors: Saman M. Siddiqui, Fang Jiancheng

Abstract:

Micro electromechanical sensors (MEMS) play a vital role along with global positioning devices in navigation of autonomous vehicles .These sensors are low cost ,easily available but depict colored noises and unpredictable discontinuities .Conventional filters like Kalman filters and Sigma point filters are not able to cope with nonwhite noises. This research has utilized H∞ filter in nonlinear frame work both with Kalman filter and Unscented filter for navigation and self alignment of an airborne vehicle. The system is simulated for colored noises and discontinuities and results are compared with not robust nonlinear filters. The results are found 40%-70% more robust against colored noises and discontinuities.

Keywords: filtering, integrated navigation, MEMS, nonlinearfiltering, self alignment

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1756

Authors: A. A. Azemati, H. Hosseini, B. Shirkavand Hadavand

Abstract:

By using an adequate thermal barrier coating in buildings the energy saving will be happened. In this study, a range of wall paints with different absorption coefficient in different climates has been investigated. In order to study these effects, heating and cooling loads of a common building with different ordinary paints and paint with mineral coating have been calculated. The effect of building paint in different climatic condition was studied and comparison was done between ordinary paints and paint with mineral insulators in temperate climate to obtain optimized energy consumption. The results have been shown that coatings with inorganic micro particles as insulation reduce the energy consumption of buildings around 14%.

Keywords: Insulator, coating, climate, energy consumption.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1381

Authors: Burja C., Burja V.

Abstract:

For Romania, the fulfilment of the obligations undertaken as a member state of the European Union in accordance with the Treaty of Accession requires the effective implementation of sustainable development principles and practices, this being the only reasonable development option, which adequately draws in on the economic, social and environment resources. Achieving this objective is based on a profound analysis of the realities in the Romanian economy, which will reflect the existent situation and the action directions for the future. The paper presents an analysis of the Romanian economic performances compared to the EU economy, based on the sustainable value (SV) model. The analysis highlighted the considerable gap between Romania and the EU regarding the sustainable capitalization of resources, the provided information being useful to justify strategic development decisions at a micro and macro levels.

Keywords: Sustainable value, sustainable development, opportunity cost, economic performance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1349

Authors: Seok Hong Min, Tae Kwon Ha

Abstract:

Phase equilibria of AZ91D Mg alloys for nonflammable use, containing Ca and Y, were carried out by using FactSage® and FTLite database, which revealed that solid solution treatment could be performed at temperatures from 400 to 450oC. Solid solution treatment of AZ91D Mg alloy without Ca and Y was successfully conducted at 420oC and supersaturated microstructure with all beta phase resolved into matrix was obtained. In the case of AZ91D Mg alloy with some Ca and Y; however, a little amount of intermetallic particles were observed after solid solution treatment. After solid solution treatment, each alloy was annealed at temperatures of 180 and 200oC for time intervals from 1 min to 48 hrs and hardness of each condition was measured by micro-Vickers method. Peak aging conditions were deduced as at the temperature of 200oC for 10 hrs.

Keywords: Mg alloy, AZ91D, nonflammable alloy, phase equilibrium, peak aging.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2203

Authors: Viviane C. Correia, Sergio F. Santos, Holmer Savastano Jr.

Abstract:

The main purpose of this work was verify the influence of the accelerated carbonation in the physical and mechanical properties of the hybrid composites, reinforced with micro and nanofibers and composites with microfibers. The composites were produced by the slurry vacuum dewatering method, followed by pressing. It was produced using two formulations: 8% of eucalyptus pulp + 1% of the nanofibrillated cellulose and 9% of eucalyptus pulp, both were subjected to accelerated carbonation. The results showed that the accelerated carbonation contributed to improve the physical and mechanical properties of the hybrid composites and of the composites reinforced with microfibers (eucalyptus pulp).

Keywords: Carbonation, cement composites, nanofibrillated cellulose.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2705

Authors: S. Falkenberg, L. Overmeyer

Abstract:

The “conveyor belt" as a product represents a complex high performance component with a wide range of different applications. Further development of these highly complex components demands an integration of new technologies and new enhanced materials. In this context nanostructured fillers appear to have a more promising effect on the performance of the conveyor belt composite than conventional micro-scaled fillers. Within the project “DotTrans" nanostructured fillers, for example silicon dioxide, are used to optimize performance parameters of conveyor belt systems. The objective of the project includes operating parameters like energy consumption or friction characteristics as well as adaptive parameters like cut or wear resistance.

Keywords: Conveyor belt, nanostructured fillers, wear resistance, friction characteristics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2115

Authors: R. Borghol, T. Aguili

Abstract:

In this paper, we investigate theoretically the waves propagation in a lossless double-negative grounded slab (DNG). This study is performed by the Transverse Resonance Method (TRM). The proper or improper nature of real and complex modes is observed. They are highly dependent on metamaterial parameters, i.e. ɛ_r-negative, µ_r-negative, or both. Numerical results provided that only the proper complex modes (i.e., leaky modes) exist in DNG slab, and only the improper complex modes exist in single-negative grounded slab.

Keywords: Double-negative grounded slab, real and complex modes, single-negative grounded slab, transverse resonance method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 930

Authors: C. Thanga Raj, S. P. Srivastava, Pramod Agarwal

Abstract:

This paper presents an optimal design of poly-phase induction motor using Quadratic Interpolation based Particle Swarm Optimization (QI-PSO). The optimization algorithm considers the efficiency, starting torque and temperature rise as objective function (which are considered separately) and ten performance related items including harmonic current as constraints. The QI-PSO algorithm was implemented on a test motor and the results are compared with the Simulated Annealing (SA) technique, Standard Particle Swarm Optimization (SPSO), and normal design. Some benchmark problems are used for validating QI-PSO. From the test results QI-PSO gave better results and more suitable to motor-s design optimization. Cµ code is used for implementing entire algorithms.

Keywords: Design, harmonics, induction motor, particle swarm optimization

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1751

Authors: Sudip K. Ganguly

Abstract:

In order to meet environmental norms, Indian fuel policy aims at producing ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD) in near future. A catalyst for meeting such requirements has been developed and kinetics of this catalytic process is being looked into. In the present investigations, effect of mass transfer on kinetics of ultra deep hydrodesulphurization (UDHDS) to produce ULSD has been studied to determine intrinsic kinetics over a pre-sulphided catalyst. Experiments have been carried out in a continuous flow micro reactor operated in the temperature range of 330 to 3600C, whsv of 1 hr-1 at a pressure of 35 bar, and its parameters estimated. Based on the derived rate expression and estimated parameters optimum operation range has been determined for this UDHDS catalyst to obtain ULSD product.

Keywords: Diesel, hydrodesulphurization, kinetics, mass transfer.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1765

Authors: Hanane Ondella, Pierre Ladet, David Ferrand, Pat Sloan

Abstract:

In the micro and nano-technology industry, the «clean-rooms» dedicated to manufacturing chip, are equipped with the most sophisticated equipment-tools. There use a large number of resources in according to strict specifications for an optimum working and result. The distribution of «utilities» to the production is assured by teams who use a supervision tool. The studies show the interest to control the various parameters of production or/and distribution, in real time, through a reliable and effective supervision tool. This document looks at a large part of the functions that the supervisor must assure, with complementary functionalities to help the diagnosis and simulation that prove very useful in our case where the supervised installations are complexed and in constant evolution.

Keywords: Control-Command, evolution, non regression, performances, real time, simulation, supervision.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1227

Authors: Poo Bee Tin, Rahmah Ismail, Norasmah Othman

Abstract:

Globalisation is a phenomenon that cannot be avoided. As globalisation allowed free flow of inputs including labour, it may affect job opportunities for the locals. Therefore, investigate the determinants of labour supply is essential in understanding the structure of labour market in the new era of globalization. The objective of this article is to examine labour supply by taking into account the globalisation effect. The study covers 3885 households in Peninsular Malaysia who are chosen using stratified random sampling. The labour supply model will be the basis for the analysis. The basic labour supply determinants are own wage and non-labour income. However, the extended labour supply model incorporates other variables like spouse wage，number of children and individuals characteristics like education level and age. Besides, the globalization indicator will also be incorporated as another independent variable.

Keywords: globalization, head of households, labour supply, wage

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2569

Authors: Shigenori Togashi, Kei Takenaka

Abstract:

We developed new processes which can collect and detect rapidly airborne pathogens such as the avian flu virus for the pandemic prevention. The fluorescence antibody technique is known as one of high-sensitive detection methods for viruses, but this needs up to a few hours to bind sufficient fluorescence dyes to viruses for detection. In this paper, we developed a mist-labeling can detect substitution viruses in a short time to improve the binding rate of fluorescent dyes and substitution viruses by the micro reaction process. Moreover, we developed the rapid detection system with the above “mist labeling”. The detection system set with a sampling bag collecting patient’s breath and a cartridge can detect automatically pathogens within 10 minutes.

Keywords: Viruses, Sampler, Mist, Detection, Fluorescent dyes, Microreaction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2812

Authors: F. R. Sultanov Ch. Daulbayev, B. Bakbolat, Z. A. Mansurov, A. A. Zhurintaeva, R. I. Gadilshina, A. B. Dugali

Abstract:

Both hydrophilic-oleophobic and hydrophobic-oleophilic membranes were obtained by coating of the substrate of membranes, presented by stainless steel meshes with various dimensions of their openings, with a composition that forms the special type of their surface wettability via spray-coating method. The surface morphology of resulting membranes was studied using SEM, the type of their wettability was identified by measuring the contact angle between the surface of membrane and a drop of studied liquid (water or organic liquid) and efficiency of continuous separation of water and organic liquid was studied on self-assembled setup.

Keywords: Membrane, stainless steel mesh, oleophobicity, hydrophobicity, separation, water, organic liquids.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 787

Authors: A. A. Hussen, I. N. Jleta

Abstract:

Micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers and gyroscopes are suitable for the inertial navigation system (INS) of many applications due to low price, small dimensions and light weight. The main disadvantage in a comparison with classic sensors is a worse long term stability. The estimation accuracy is mostly affected by the time-dependent growth of inertial sensor errors, especially the stochastic errors. In order to eliminate negative effects of these random errors, they must be accurately modeled. In this paper, the Allan variance technique will be used in modeling the stochastic errors of the inertial sensors. By performing a simple operation on the entire length of data, a characteristic curve is obtained whose inspection provides a systematic characterization of various random errors contained in the inertial-sensor output data.

Keywords: Allan variance, accelerometer, gyroscope, stochastic errors.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5213

Authors: Jorge Rodriguez-Guerra, Carlos Calleja, Aron Pujana, Iker Elorza, Ana Maria Macarulla

Abstract:

Society demands more reliable manufacturing processes capable of producing high quality products in shorter production cycles. New control algorithms have been studied to satisfy this paradigm, in which Fault-Tolerant Control (FTC) plays a significant role. It is suitable to detect, isolate and adapt a system when a harmful or faulty situation appears. In this paper, a general overview about FTC characteristics are exposed; highlighting the properties a system must ensure to be considered faultless. In addition, a research to identify which are the main FTC techniques and a classification based on their characteristics is presented in two main groups: Active Fault-Tolerant Controllers (AFTCs) and Passive Fault-Tolerant Controllers (PFTCs). AFTC encompasses the techniques capable of re-configuring the process control algorithm after the fault has been detected, while PFTC comprehends the algorithms robust enough to bypass the fault without further modifications. The mentioned re-configuration requires two stages, one focused on detection, isolation and identification of the fault source and the other one in charge of re-designing the control algorithm by two approaches: fault accommodation and control re-design. From the algorithms studied, one has been selected and applied to a case study based on an industrial hydraulic-press. The developed model has been embedded under a real-time validation platform, which allows testing the FTC algorithms and analyse how the system will respond when a fault arises in similar conditions as a machine will have on factory. One AFTC approach has been picked up as the methodology the system will follow in the fault recovery process. In a first instance, the fault will be detected, isolated and identified by means of a neural network. In a second instance, the control algorithm will be re-configured to overcome the fault and continue working without human interaction.

Keywords: Fault-tolerant control, electro-hydraulic actuator, fault detection and isolation, control re-design, real-time.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 784

Authors: Sarah O. Alhumoud, Mawaheb I. Altuwaijri, Tarfa M. Albuhairi, Wejdan M. Alohaideb

Abstract:

Large-scale data stream analysis has become one of the important business and research priorities lately. Social networks like Twitter and other micro-blogging platforms hold an enormous amount of data that is large in volume, velocity and variety. Extracting valuable information and trends out of these data would aid in a better understanding and decision-making. Multiple analysis techniques are deployed for English content. Moreover, one of the languages that produce a large amount of data over social networks and is least analyzed is the Arabic language. The proposed paper is a survey on the research efforts to analyze the Arabic content in Twitter focusing on the tools and methods used to extract the sentiments for the Arabic content on Twitter.

Keywords: Big Data, Social Networks, Sentiment Analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4303

Authors: Thomas Meier

Abstract:

One of the major challenges for sustainable smart building systems is to support device interoperability, i.e. connecting sensor or actuator devices from different vendors, and present their functionality to the external applications. Furthermore, smart building systems are supposed to connect with devices that are not available yet, i.e. devices that become available on the market sometime later. It is of vital importance that a sustainable smart building platform provides an appropriate external interface that can be leveraged by external applications and smart services. An external platform interface must be stable and independent of specific devices and should support flexible and scalable usage scenarios. A typical approach applied in smart home systems is based on a generic device interface used within the smart building platform. Device functions, even of rather complex devices, are mapped to that generic base type interface by means of specific device drivers. Our new approach, presented in this work, extends that approach by using the smart building system’s rule engine to create complex virtual devices that can represent the most diverse properties of real devices. We examined and evaluated both approaches by means of a practical case study using a smart building system that we have developed. We show that the solution we present allows the highest degree of flexibility without affecting external application interface stability and scalability. In contrast to other systems our approach supports complex virtual device configuration on application layer (e.g. by administration users) instead of device configuration at platform layer (e.g. platform operators). Based on our work, we can show that our approach supports almost arbitrarily flexible use case scenarios without affecting the external application interface stability. However, the cost of this approach is additional appropriate configuration overhead and additional resource consumption at the IoT platform level that must be considered by platform operators. We conclude that the concept of complex virtual devices presented in this work can be applied to improve the usability and device interoperability of sustainable intelligent building systems significantly.

Keywords: Complex virtual devices, device integration, device interoperability, Internet of Things, smart building platform.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 726

Authors: K.-J. You, H.J. Lee, Y. Lang, C. Im, C.S. Koh, H.-C. Shin

Abstract:

This paper presents a novel method for inferring the odor based on neural activities observed from rats- main olfactory bulbs. Multi-channel extra-cellular single unit recordings were done by micro-wire electrodes (tungsten, 50μm, 32 channels) implanted in the mitral/tufted cell layers of the main olfactory bulb of anesthetized rats to obtain neural responses to various odors. Neural response as a key feature was measured by substraction of neural firing rate before stimulus from after. For odor inference, we have developed a decoding method based on the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation. The results have shown that the average decoding accuracy is about 100.0%, 96.0%, 84.0%, and 100.0% with four rats, respectively. This work has profound implications for a novel brain-machine interface system for odor inference.

Keywords: biomedical signal processing, neural engineering, olfactory, neural decoding, BMI

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1577

Authors: Hyunwon Moon

Abstract:

It is necessary to realize new biomedical wireless communication systems which send the signals collected from various bio sensors located at human body in order to monitor our health. Also, it should seamlessly connect to the existing wireless communication systems. A 5.8 GHz ISM band low power RF front-end receiver for a biomedical wireless communication system is implemented using a 0.5 µm SiGe BiCMOS process. To achieve low power RF front-end, the current optimization technique for selecting device size is utilized. The implemented low noise amplifier (LNA) shows a power gain of 9.8 dB, a noise figure (NF) of below 1.75 dB, and an IIP3 of higher than 7.5 dBm while current consumption is only 6 mA at supply voltage of 2.5 V. Also, the performance of a down-conversion mixer is measured as a conversion gain of 11 dB and SSB NF of 10 dB.

Keywords: Biomedical, low noise amplifier, mixer, receiver, RF front-end, SiGe.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1533

Authors: Kanittha Kanokkanjana, Savitri Garivait

Abstract:

This study focuses on emission of black carbon (BC) from field open burning of corn residues. Real-time BC concentration was measured by Micro Aethalometer from field burning and simulated open burning in a chamber (SOC) experiments. The average concentration of BC was 1.18±0.47 mg/m3 in the field and 0.89±0.63 mg/m3 in the SOC. The deduced emission factor from field experiments was 0.50±0.20 gBC/kgdm, and 0.56±0.33 gBC/kgdm from SOC experiment, which are in good agreement with other studies. In 2007, the total burned area of corn crop was 8,000 ha, resulting in an emission load of BC 20 ton corresponding to 44.5 million kg CO2 equivalent. Therefore, the control of open burning in corn field represents a significant global warming reduction option.

Keywords: Black carbon, corn field residues, global warming, mitigation option

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2460

Authors: B. Singh, A. Singh, R. C. Yadav

Abstract:

Utmost care of human related issues are essentially required for sustainable growth of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of India, as these MSMEs are contributing enormously to socio-economic development of country. In this research, aspects related to human factors and functioning of MSMEs of India were studied. The investigation, based on a survey of 84 MSMEs of India cited that the enterprises are mostly employing unskilled labor whose wages are less with poor training. In spite of reported minor accidents, attention towards safety is poorly paid. To meet-out the production target, MSMEs generally employ over-time and payment towards this overtime is sometimes missing. Hence, honest and humanitarian attention for better human resources is needed to improve the performance and competitiveness of MSMEs of India.

Keywords: Human factors, Small and medium enterprises, Working culture.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2280

Authors: Jun Yu, Yat-Hei Lam, Boris Grinberg, Kevin Chai Tshun Chuan

Abstract:

This paper presents a 5-V to 30-V current-mode boost converter for powering the drive circuit of a micro-electro-mechanical sensor. The design of a transconductance amplifier and an integrated current sensing circuit are presented. In addition, essential building blocks for power-on protection such as a soft-start and clamp block and supply and clock ready block are discussed in details. The chip is fabricated in a 0.18-μm CMOS process. Measurement results show that the soft-start and clamp block can effectively limit the inrush current during startup and protect the boost converter from startup failure.

Keywords: Boost Converter, Current Sensing, Power-on protection, Step-up Converter, Soft-start.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2019

Authors: P. O. Angienda, D. J. Hill

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the factors affecting antimicrobial effectiveness of essential oils against food spoilage and pathogenic bacteria. The minimum inhibition concentrations (MIC) of the essential oils, were determined by turbidimetric technique using Biocreen C, analyzer. The effects of pH ranging from 7.3 to 5.5 in absence and presence of essential oils and/or NaCl on the lag time and mean generation time of the bacteria at 370C, were carried out and results were determined showed that, combination of low pH and essential oil at 370C had additive effects against the test micro-organisms. The combination of 1.2 % (w/v) of NaCl and clove essential oil at 0.0325% (v/v) was effective against E. coli. The use of concentrations less than MIC in combination with low pH and or NaCl has the potential of being used as an alternative to “traditional food preservatives".

Keywords: Antimicrobial, Bacteria, Bioscreen C, essential oil.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4802