Search results for: Conjugate free convection

Authors: Mouna Hamed, Ammar B. Brahim

Abstract:

The objective of this work was to develop a theoretical model to study the dynamic thermal behavior of a flat plate solar collector integrated with a phase change material (PCM). The PCM acted as a heat source for the solar system during low intensity solar radiation and night. The energy balance equations for the various components of the collector as well as for the PCM were formulated and numerically solved using Matlab computational program. The effect of natural convection on heat during the melting process was taken into account by using an effective thermal conductivity. The model was used to investigate the effect of inlet water temperature, water mass flow rate, and PCM thickness on the outlet water temperature and the melt fraction during charging and discharging modes. A comparison with a collector without PCM was made. Results showed that charging and discharging processes of PCM have six stages. The adding of PCM caused a decrease in temperature during charge and an increase during discharge. The rise was most enhanced for higher inlet water temperature, PCM thickness and for lower mass flow rate. Analysis indicated that the complete melting time was shorter than the solidification time due to the high heat transfer coefficient during melting. The increases in PCM height and mass flow rate were not linear with the melting and solidification times.

Keywords: Thermal energy storage, phase change material, melting, solidification.

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Authors: Mouna Hamed, Ammar B. Brahim

Abstract:

The objective of this work was to develop a theoretical model to study the dynamic thermal behavior of a flat plate solar collector integrated with a phase change material (PCM). The PCM acted as a heat source for the solar system during low intensity solar radiation and night. The energy balance equations for the various components of the collector as well as for the PCM were formulated and numerically solved using MATLAB computational program. The effect of natural convection on heat during the melting process was taken into account by using an effective thermal conductivity. The model was used to investigate the effect of inlet water temperature, water mass flow rate, and PCM thickness on the outlet water temperature and the melt fraction during charging and discharging modes. A comparison with a collector without PCM was made. Results showed that charging and discharging processes of PCM have six stages. The adding of PCM caused a decrease in temperature during charge and an increase during discharge. The rise was most enhanced for higher inlet water temperature, PCM thickness and for lower mass flow rate. Analysis indicated that the complete melting time was shorter than the solidification time due to the high heat transfer coefficient during melting. The increases in PCM height and mass flow rate were not linear with the melting and solidification times.

Keywords: Thermal energy storage, phase change material, melting, solidification.

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Authors: A. T. Eswara

Abstract:

This paper analyses the unsteady, two-dimensional stagnation point flow of an incompressible viscous fluid over a flat sheet when the flow is started impulsively from rest and at the same time, the sheet is suddenly stretched in its own plane with a velocity proportional to the distance from the stagnation point. The partial differential equations governing the laminar boundary layer forced convection flow are non-dimensionalised using semi-similar transformations and then solved numerically using an implicit finitedifference scheme known as the Keller-box method. Results pertaining to the flow and heat transfer characteristics are computed for all dimensionless time, uniformly valid in the whole spatial region without any numerical difficulties. Analytical solutions are also obtained for both small and large times, respectively representing the initial unsteady and final steady state flow and heat transfer. Numerical results indicate that the velocity ratio parameter is found to have a significant effect on skin friction and heat transfer rate at the surface. Furthermore, it is exposed that there is a smooth transition from the initial unsteady state flow (small time solution) to the final steady state (large time solution).

Keywords: Forced flow, Keller-box method, Stagnation point, Stretching flat sheet, Unsteady laminar boundary layer, Velocity ratio parameter.

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Authors: Ben Mohamed Ahemed Mohamed, Yassine Adnan

Abstract:

The problem of bin-packing in two dimensions (2BP) consists in placing a given set of rectangular items in a minimum number of rectangular and identical containers, called bins. This article treats the case of objects with a free orientation of 90Ôùª. We propose an approach of resolution combining optimization by colony of ants (ACO) and the heuristic method IMA to resolve this NP-Hard problem.

Keywords: Ant colony algorithm, bin-packing problem, heuristics methods.

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Authors: Kambiz Tahvildari A., Narges Davari B., Mohammadreza Allahgholi Ghasri C, MasoomehBehrourzinavid D

Abstract:

Chicken fat was employed as a feedstock for producing of biodiesel by trasesterification reaction with methanol and alkali catalyst (KOH). In this study chicken fat biodiesel with 1.4% free fatty acid, methanol and various amount of potassium hydroxide for 2 hour were studied. The progression of reaction and conversion of triglycerides to methyl ester were checked by IR spectrum method.

Keywords: Alkali catalyst, biodiesel, chicken fat, transesterification reaction

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Authors: Fariba Jafari, Samaneh Heydarian

Abstract:

Al2(HPO4)3 was easily prepared and used as a solid acid in acetalization of carbonyl compounds at room temperature and under solvent-free conditions. The protection was done in short reaction times and in good to high isolated yields. The cheapness and availability of this reagent with easy procedure and work-up make this method attractive for the organic synthesis.

Keywords: Acetalization, acid catalysis, carbonylcompounds, green condition, protection.

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

Abstract:

The manual system of voting has been the most widely used system of electing representatives around the globe, particularly in Africa. Due to the known numerous problems and challenges associated with the manual system of voting, many countries are migrating to the electronic voting system as a suitable and credible means of electing representatives over the manual paper-based system. This research paper therefore investigated the factors influencing adoption and use of an electronic voting system in Ghana. A total of 400 Questionnaire Instruments (QI) were administered to potential respondents in Ghana, of which 387 responded representing a response rate of 96.75%. The Technology Acceptance Model was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The research model was tested using a simple linear regression analysis with SPSS. A little of over 71.1% of the respondents recommended the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to adopt an electronic voting system in the conduct of public elections in Ghana. The results indicated that all the six predictors such as perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived free and fair elections (PFFF), perceived credible elections (PCE), perceived system integrity (PSI) and citizens trust in the election management body (CTEM) were all positively significant in predicting the readiness of citizens to adopt and use an electronic voting system in Ghana. However, jointly, the hypotheses tested revealed that apart from Perceived Free and Fair Elections and Perceived Credible and Transparent Elections, all the other factors such as PU, Perceived System Integrity and Security and Citizen Trust in the Election Management Body were found to be significant predictors of the Willingness of Ghanaians to use an electronic voting system. All the six factors considered in this study jointly account for about 53.1% of the reasons determining the readiness to adopt and use an electronic voting system in Ghana. The implications of this research finding on elections in Ghana are discussed.

Keywords: Credible elections, democracy, Election Management Body (EMB), electronic voting, Ghana, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

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Authors: G. Sarojamma, K. Vendabai

Abstract:

An analysis is carried out to investigate the effect of magnetic field and heat source on the steady boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a Casson nanofluid over a vertical cylinder stretching exponentially along its radial direction. Using a similarity transformation, the governing mathematical equations, with the boundary conditions are reduced to a system of coupled, non –linear ordinary differential equations. The resulting system is solved numerically by the fourth order Runge – Kutta scheme with shooting technique. The influence of various physical parameters such as Reynolds number, Prandtl number, magnetic field, Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter, Lewis number and the natural convection parameter are presented graphically and discussed for non – dimensional velocity, temperature and nanoparticle volume fraction. Numerical data for the skin – friction coefficient, local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number have been tabulated for various parametric conditions. It is found that the local Nusselt number is a decreasing function of Brownian motion parameter Nb and the thermophoresis parameter Nt.

Keywords: Casson nanofluid, Boundary layer flow, Internal heat generation/absorption, Exponentially stretching cylinder, Heat transfer, Brownian motion, Thermophoresis.

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Authors: Junjie Chen, Deguang Xu

Abstract:

Transient simulation of the hydrogen-assisted self-ignition of propane-air mixtures were carried out in platinum-coated micro-channels from ambient cold-start conditions, using a two-dimensional model with reduced-order reaction schemes, heat conduction in the solid walls, convection and surface radiation heat transfer. The self-ignition behavior of hydrogen-propane mixed fuel is analyzed and compared with the heated feed case. Simulations indicate that hydrogen can successfully cause self-ignition of propane-air mixtures in catalytic micro-channels with a 0.2 mm gap size, eliminating the need for startup devices. The minimum hydrogen composition for propane self-ignition is found to be in the range of 0.8-2.8% (on a molar basis), and increases with increasing wall thermal conductivity, and decreasing inlet velocity or propane composition. Higher propane-air ratio results in earlier ignition. The ignition characteristics of hydrogen-assisted propane qualitatively resemble the selectively inlet feed preheating mode. Transient response of the mixed hydrogen- propane fuel reveals sequential ignition of propane followed by hydrogen. Front-end propane ignition is observed in all cases. Low wall thermal conductivities cause earlier ignition of the mixed hydrogen-propane fuel, subsequently resulting in low exit temperatures. The transient-state behavior of this micro-scale system is described, and the startup time and minimization of hydrogen usage are discussed.

Keywords: Micro-combustion, Self-ignition, Hydrogen addition, Heat transfer, Catalytic combustion, Transient simulation.

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Authors: J. P. Panda, K. Sasmal, H. V. Warrior

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Eddy viscosity models in turbulence modeling can be mainly classified as linear and nonlinear models. Linear formulations are simple and require less computational resources but have the disadvantage that they cannot predict actual flow pattern in complex geophysical flows where streamline curvature and swirling motion are predominant. A constitutive equation of Reynolds stress anisotropy is adopted for the formulation of eddy viscosity including all the possible higher order terms quadratic in the mean velocity gradients, and a simplified model is developed for actual oceanic flows where only the vertical velocity gradients are important. The new model is incorporated into the one dimensional General Ocean Turbulence Model (GOTM). Two realistic oceanic test cases (OWS Papa and FLEX' 76) have been investigated. The new model predictions match well with the observational data and are better in comparison to the predictions of the two equation k-epsilon model. The proposed model can be easily incorporated in the three dimensional Princeton Ocean Model (POM) to simulate a wide range of oceanic processes. Practically, this model can be implemented in the coastal regions where trasverse shear induces higher vorticity, and for prediction of flow in estuaries and lakes, where depth is comparatively less. The model predictions of marine turbulence and other related data (e.g. Sea surface temperature, Surface heat flux and vertical temperature profile) can be utilized in short term ocean and climate forecasting and warning systems.

Keywords: Eddy viscosity, turbulence modeling, GOTM, CFD.

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Authors: S. Khademi, A. Darudi, Z. Abbasi

Abstract:

One of the main limitations for the resolution of optical instruments is the size of the sensor-s pixels. In this paper we introduce a new sub pixel resolution algorithm to enhance the resolution of images. This method is based on the analysis of multiimages which are fast recorded during the fine relative motion of image and pixel arrays of CCDs. It is shown that by applying this method for a sample noise free image one will enhance the resolution with 10-14 order of error.

Keywords: Sub Pixel Resolution, Moving Pixels, CCD, Image, Optical Instrument.

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Authors: Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, Shihas A. Khader

Abstract:

Motion response of floating structures is of great concern in marine engineering. Nonlinearity is an inherent property of any floating bodies subjected to irregular waves. These floating structures are continuously subjected to environmental loadings from wave, current, wind etc. This can result in undesirable motions of the vessel which may challenge the operability. For a floating body to remain in its position, it should be able to induce a restoring force when displaced. Mooring is provided to enable this restoring force. This paper discusses the hydrodynamic performance and motion characteristics of an 8 point spread mooring system applied to a pipe laying barge operating in the West African sea. The modelling of the barge is done using a computer aided-design (CAD) software RHINOCEROS. Irregular waves are generated using a suitable wave spectrum. Both frequency domain and time domain analysis is done. Numerical simulations based on potential theory are carried out to find the responses and hydrodynamic performance of the barge in both free floating as well as moored conditions. Initially, potential flow frequency domain analysis is done to obtain the Response Amplitude Operator (RAO) which gives an idea about the structural motion in free floating state. RAOs for different wave headings are analyzed. In the following step, a time domain analysis is carried out to obtain the responses of the structure in the moored condition. In this study, wave induced motions are only taken into consideration. Wind and current loads are ruled out and shall be included in further studies. For the current study, 2000 seconds simulation is taken. The results represent wave induced motion responses, mooring line tensions and identify critical mooring lines.

Keywords: Irregular wave, moored barge, time domain analysis, numerical simulation.

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Authors: Isaac Mugume, Charles Basalirwa, Daniel Waiswa, Mary Nsabagwa, Triphonia Jacob Ngailo, Joachim Reuder, Sch¨attler Ulrich, Musa Semujju

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The Numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are considered powerful tools for guiding quantitative rainfall prediction. A couple of NWP models exist and are used at many operational weather prediction centers. This study considers two models namely the Consortium for Small–scale Modeling (COSMO) model and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. It compares the models’ ability to predict rainfall over Uganda for the period 21st April 2013 to 10th May 2013 using the root mean square (RMSE) and the mean error (ME). In comparing the performance of the models, this study assesses their ability to predict light rainfall events and extreme rainfall events. All the experiments used the default parameterization configurations and with same horizontal resolution (7 Km). The results show that COSMO model had a tendency of largely predicting no rain which explained its under–prediction. The COSMO model (RMSE: 14.16; ME: -5.91) presented a significantly (p = 0.014) higher magnitude of error compared to the WRF model (RMSE: 11.86; ME: -1.09). However the COSMO model (RMSE: 3.85; ME: 1.39) performed significantly (p = 0.003) better than the WRF model (RMSE: 8.14; ME: 5.30) in simulating light rainfall events. All the models under–predicted extreme rainfall events with the COSMO model (RMSE: 43.63; ME: -39.58) presenting significantly higher error magnitudes than the WRF model (RMSE: 35.14; ME: -26.95). This study recommends additional diagnosis of the models’ treatment of deep convection over the tropics.

Keywords: Comparative performance, the COSMO model, the WRF model, light rainfall events, extreme rainfall events.

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Authors: C. Amer, M. Sahin

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The design of an optimised horizontal axis 5-meter-long wind turbine rotor blade in according with IEC 61400-2 standard is a research and development project in order to fulfil the requirements of high efficiency of torque from wind production and to optimise the structural components to the lightest and strongest way possible. For this purpose, a research study is presented here by focusing on the structural characteristics of a composite wind turbine blade via finite element modelling and analysis tools. In this work, first, the required data regarding the general geometrical parts are gathered. Then, the airfoil geometries are created at various sections along the span of the blade by using CATIA software to obtain the two surfaces, namely; the suction and the pressure side of the blade in which there is a hat shaped fibre reinforced plastic spar beam, so-called chassis starting at 0.5m from the root of the blade and extends up to 4 m and filled with a foam core. The root part connecting the blade to the main rotor differential metallic hub having twelve hollow threaded studs is then modelled. The materials are assigned as two different types of glass fabrics, polymeric foam core material and the steel-balsa wood combination for the root connection parts. The glass fabrics are applied using hand wet lay-up lamination with epoxy resin as METYX L600E10C-0, is the unidirectional continuous fibres and METYX XL800E10F having a tri-axial architecture with fibres in the 0,+45,-45 degree orientations in a ratio of 2:1:1. Divinycell H45 is used as the polymeric foam. The finite element modelling of the blade is performed via MSC PATRAN software with various meshes created on each structural part considering shell type for all surface geometries, and lumped mass were added to simulate extra adhesive locations. For the static analysis, the boundary conditions are assigned as fixed at the root through aforementioned bolts, where for dynamic analysis both fixed-free and free-free boundary conditions are made. By also taking the mesh independency into account, MSC NASTRAN is used as a solver for both analyses. The static analysis aims the tip deflection of the blade under its own weight and the dynamic analysis comprises normal mode dynamic analysis performed in order to obtain the natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes focusing the first five in and out-of-plane bending and the torsional modes of the blade. The analyses results of this study are then used as a benchmark prior to modal testing, where the experiments over the produced wind turbine rotor blade has approved the analytical calculations.

Keywords: Dynamic analysis, Fiber Reinforced Composites, Horizontal axis wind turbine blade, Hand-wet layup, Modal Testing.

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Authors: Fadi Eleiwi, Taous Meriem Laleg-Kirati

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This paper presents a complete dynamic modeling of a membrane distillation process. The model contains two consistent dynamic models. A 2D advection-diffusion equation for modeling the whole process and a modified heat equation for modeling the membrane itself. The complete model describes the temperature diffusion phenomenon across the feed, membrane, permeate containers and boundary layers of the membrane. It gives an online and complete temperature profile for each point in the domain. It explains heat conduction and convection mechanisms that take place inside the process in terms of mathematical parameters, and justify process behavior during transient and steady state phases. The process is monitored for any sudden change in the performance at any instance of time. In addition, it assists maintaining production rates as desired, and gives recommendations during membrane fabrication stages. System performance and parameters can be optimized and controlled using this complete dynamic model. Evolution of membrane boundary temperature with time, vapor mass transfer along the process, and temperature difference between membrane boundary layers are depicted and included. Simulations were performed over the complete model with real membrane specifications. The plots show consistency between 2D advection-diffusion model and the expected behavior of the systems as well as literature. Evolution of heat inside the membrane starting from transient response till reaching steady state response for fixed and varying times is illustrated.

Keywords: Membrane distillation, Dynamical modeling, Advection-diffusion equation, Thermal equilibrium, Heat equation.

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Authors: Abdellali Kelil, Shengrui Wang, Ryszard Brzezinski

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The literature reports a large number of approaches for measuring the similarity between protein sequences. Most of these approaches estimate this similarity using alignment-based techniques that do not necessarily yield biologically plausible results, for two reasons. First, for the case of non-alignable (i.e., not yet definitively aligned and biologically approved) sequences such as multi-domain, circular permutation and tandem repeat protein sequences, alignment-based approaches do not succeed in producing biologically plausible results. This is due to the nature of the alignment, which is based on the matching of subsequences in equivalent positions, while non-alignable proteins often have similar and conserved domains in non-equivalent positions. Second, the alignment-based approaches lead to similarity measures that depend heavily on the parameters set by the user for the alignment (e.g., gap penalties and substitution matrices). For easily alignable protein sequences, it's possible to supply a suitable combination of input parameters that allows such an approach to yield biologically plausible results. However, for difficult-to-align protein sequences, supplying different combinations of input parameters yields different results. Such variable results create ambiguities and complicate the similarity measurement task. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper describes a novel and effective approach for measuring the similarity between protein sequences, called SAF for Substitution and Alignment Free. Without resorting either to the alignment of protein sequences or to substitution relations between amino acids, SAF is able to efficiently detect the significant subsequences that best represent the intrinsic properties of protein sequences, those underlying the chronological dependencies of structural features and biochemical activities of protein sequences. Moreover, by using a new efficient subsequence matching scheme, SAF more efficiently handles protein sequences that contain similar structural features with significant meaning in chronologically non-equivalent positions. To show the effectiveness of SAF, extensive experiments were performed on protein datasets from different databases, and the results were compared with those obtained by several mainstream algorithms.

Keywords: Protein, Similarity, Substitution, Alignment.

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Authors: Ying-Ming Su

Abstract:

Fujian earthen building which was known as a classic for ecological buildings was listed on the world heritage in 2008 (UNESCO) in China. Its design strategy can be applied to modern architecture planning and design. This study chose two different cases (Round Atrium: Er-Yi Building, Double Round Atrium: Zhen-Chen Building) of earthen building in Fu-Jian to compare the ventilation effects of different atrium forms. We adopt field measurements and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of temperature, humidity, and wind environment to identify the relationship between external environment and atrium about comfort and to confirm the relationship about atrium H/W (height/width). Results indicate that, through the atrium convection effect, it makes the natural wind guides to each space surrounded and keeps indoor comfort. It illustrates that the smaller the ratio of the H/W which is the relationship between the height and the width of an atrium is, the greater the wind speed generated within the street valley. Moreover, the wind speed is very close to the reference wind speed. This field measurement verifies that the value of H/W has great influence of solar radiation heat and sunshine shadows. The ventilation efficiency is: Er-Yi Building (H/W =0.2778) > Zhen-Chen Building (H/W=0.3670). Comparing the cases with the same shape but with different H/W, through the different size patios, airflow revolves in the atriums and can be brought into each interior space. The atrium settings meet the need of building ventilation, and can adjust the humidity and temperature within the buildings. It also creates good ventilation effect.

Keywords: Traditional folk houses, Atrium, Earthen building, Ventilation, Building microclimate, PET.

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Authors: Tian Baoguang, Liang Chunyan, Chen Nan

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In this paper, the nonlinear matrix equation is investigated. Based on the fixed-point theory, the boundary and the existence of the solution with the case r>-δ_i are discussed. An algorithm that avoids matrix inversion with the case -1<-δ_i<0 is proposed.

Keywords: Nonlinear matrix equation, Positive definite solution, The maximal-minimal solution, Iterative method, Free-inversion

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Authors: Hui Tag, Jambey Tsering, Pallabi Kalita Hui, Baikuntha Jyoti Gogoi, Vijay Veer

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The food security issues and its relevance in High Mountain regions of the world have been often neglected. Wild edible plants have been playing a major role in livelihood security among the tribal Communities of East Himalayan Region of the world since time immemorial. The Eastern Himalayan Region of India is one of the mega diverse regions of world and rated as top 12th Global Biodiversity Hotspots by IUCN and recognized as one of the 200 significant eco-regions of the Globe. The region supports one of the world’s richest alpine floras and about one-third of them are endemic to the region. There are at least 7,500 flowering plants, 700 orchids, 58 bamboo species, 64 citrus species, 28 conifers, 500 mosses, 700 ferns and 728 lichens. The region is the home of more than three hundred different ethnic communities having diverse knowledge on traditional uses of flora and fauna as food, medicine and beverages. Monpa, Memba and Khamba are among the local communities residing in high altitude region of Eastern Himalaya with rich traditional knowledge related to utilization of wild edible plants. The Monpas, Memba and Khamba are the followers Mahayana sect of Himalayan Buddhism and they are mostly agrarian by primary occupation and also heavily relaying on wild edible plants for their livelihood security during famine since millennia. In the present study, we have reported traditional uses of 40 wild edible plant species and out of which 6 species were analyzed at biochemical level for nutrients contents and free radical scavenging activities. The results have shown significant free radical scavenging (antioxidant) activity and nutritional potential of the selected 6 wild edible plants used by the local communities of Eastern Himalayan Region of India.

Keywords: East Himalaya, Local community, Wild edible plants, Nutrition, Food security.

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Authors: Mamta Agrawal, Neeru Adlakha, K.R. Pardasani

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An attempt has been made to develop a seminumerical model to study temperature variations in dermal layers of human limbs. The model has been developed for two dimensional steady state case. The human limb has been assumed to have elliptical cross section. The dermal region has been divided into three natural layers namely epidermis, dermis and subdermal tissues. The model incorporates the effect of important physiological parameters like blood mass flow rate, metabolic heat generation, and thermal conductivity of the tissues. The outer surface of the limb is exposed to the environment and it is assumed that heat loss takes place at the outer surface by conduction, convection, radiation, and evaporation. The temperature of inner core of the limb also varies at the lower atmospheric temperature. Appropriate boundary conditions have been framed based on the physical conditions of the problem. Cubic splines approach has been employed along radial direction and Fourier series along angular direction to obtain the solution. The numerical results have been computed for different values of eccentricity resembling with the elliptic cross section of the human limbs. The numerical results have been used to obtain the temperature profile and to study the relationships among the various physiological parameters.

Keywords: Blood Mass Flow Rate, Metabolic Heat Generation, Fourier Series, Cubic splines and Thermal Conductivity.

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Authors: Emine Tirali

Abstract:

This article provides a conceptual framework of the freedom of media and its correlation with democracy. In a democracy, media should serve the publics’ right to know and reflect human rights violations and offer options for meaningful political choices and effective participation in civic affairs. On that point, the 2013 events at Gezi Park in Turkey are a good empirical example to be discussed. During the events, when self-censorship was broadly employed by mainstream Turkish media, social media filled the important role of providing information to the public. New technologies have made information into a fundamental tool for change and growth, and as a consequence, societies worldwide have merged into a single, interdependent, and autonomous organism. For this reason, violations of human rights can no longer be considered domestic issues, but rather global ones. Only global political action is an adequate response. Democracy depends on people shaping the society they live in, and in order to accomplish this, they need to express themselves. Freedom of expression is therefore necessary in order to understand diversity and differing perspectives, which in turn are necessary to resolve conflicts among people. Moreover, freedom of information is integral to freedom of expression. In this context, the international rules and laws regarding freedom of expression and freedom of information – indispensable for a free and independent media – are examined. These were put in place by international institutions such as the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the European Union, which have aimed to build a free, democratic, and pluralist world committed to human rights and the rule of law. The methods of international human rights institutions depend on effective and frequent employment of mass media to relay human rights violations to the public. Therefore, in this study, the relationship between mass media and democracy, the process of how mass media forms public opinion, the problems of mass media, the neo-liberal theory of mass media, and the use of mass media by NGOs will be evaluated.

Keywords: Freedom of expression, democracy, public opinion, self-censorship.

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Authors: Vishal V. R. Nandigana, Mohammad Heiranian, Narayana R. Aluru

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Graphene material has found tremendous applications in water desalination, DNA sequencing and energy storage. Multiple nanopores are etched to create opening for water desalination and energy storage applications. The nanopores created are of the order of 3-5 nm allowing multiple ions to transport through the pore. In this paper, we present for the first time, molecular dynamics study of single ion transport, where only one ion passes through the graphene nanopore. The diameter of the graphene nanopore is of the same order as the hydration layers formed around each ion. Analogous to single electron transport resulting from ionic transport is observed for the first time. The current-voltage characteristics of such a device are similar to single electron transport in quantum dots. The current is blocked until a critical voltage, as the ions are trapped inside a hydration shell. The trapped ions have a high energy barrier compared to the applied input electrical voltage, preventing the ion to break free from the hydration shell. This region is called “Coulomb blockade region”. In this region, we observe zero transport of ions inside the nanopore. However, when the electrical voltage is beyond the critical voltage, the ion has sufficient energy to break free from the energy barrier created by the hydration shell to enter into the pore. Thus, the input voltage can control the transport of the ion inside the nanopore. The device therefore acts as a binary storage unit, storing 0 when no ion passes through the pore and storing 1 when a single ion passes through the pore. We therefore postulate that the device can be used for fluidic computing applications in chemistry and biology, mimicking a computer. Furthermore, the trapped ion stores a finite charge in the Coulomb blockade region; hence the device also acts a super capacitor.

Keywords: Graphene, single ion transport, Coulomb blockade, fluidic computer, super capacitor.

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Authors: Hong-Wen Hsieh, Shun-Tung Yen

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We theoretically demonstrate modulation of light polarization by a crossed rectangular hole array with asymmetric arm lengths. There are two waveguide modes that can modulate the x- and y- polarized incident waves independently. A specific structure is proposed to convert a left-hand incident wave to a right-hand outgoing wave by transmission.

Keywords: Crossed rectangular hole array, extraordinary optical transmission, polarization modulation.

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Authors: Reza Sharifian, Vagharshak Belubekyan

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This paper is concerned with an investigation into the localized non-stability of a thin elastic orthotropic semi-infinite plate. In this study, a semi-infinite plate, simply supported on two edges and different boundary conditions, clamped, hinged, sliding contact and free on the other edge, are considered. The mathematical model is used and a general solution is presented the conditions under which localized solutions exist are investigated.

Keywords: Localized, Non-stability, Orthotropic, Semi-infinite

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Authors: L. C. Gómez-Pavón, M. A. Rojas Aparicio, E. Juárez Ruiz, M. A. Flores Guerrero, and O. Gómez-de la Fuente

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In this work the design and characterization of an optoelectronic automated measurement system it is presented. The optoelectronic devices of this system are an optical transmitter, the optical components and the optical receiver, which were selected for a great precision of the system. The mechanical system allows free displacement of the components as well as the devices that generate the movement. The results, length and profile of the objects are display in Lab View.

Keywords: Automated, optoelectronic, triangulation method.

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Authors: Saeid Gharechelou, Ryutaro Tateishi

Abstract:

Earthquake is an inevitable catastrophic natural disaster. The damages of buildings and man-made structures, where most of the human activities occur are the major cause of casualties from earthquakes. A comparison of optical and SAR data is presented in the case of Kathmandu valley which was hardly shaken by 2015-Nepal Earthquake. Though many existing researchers have conducted optical data based estimated or suggested combined use of optical and SAR data for improved accuracy, however finding cloud-free optical images when urgently needed are not assured. Therefore, this research is specializd in developing SAR based technique with the target of rapid and accurate geospatial reporting. Should considers that limited time available in post-disaster situation offering quick computation exclusively based on two pairs of pre-seismic and co-seismic single look complex (SLC) images. The InSAR coherence pre-seismic, co-seismic and post-seismic was used to detect the change in damaged area. In addition, the ground truth data from field applied to optical data by random forest classification for detection of damaged area. The ground truth data collected in the field were used to assess the accuracy of supervised classification approach. Though a higher accuracy obtained from the optical data then integration by optical-SAR data. Limitation of cloud-free images when urgently needed for earthquak evevent are and is not assured, thus further research on improving the SAR based damage detection is suggested. Availability of very accurate damage information is expected for channelling the rescue and emergency operations. It is expected that the quick reporting of the post-disaster damage situation quantified by the rapid earthquake assessment should assist in channeling the rescue and emergency operations, and in informing the public about the scale of damage.

Keywords: Sentinel-1A data, Landsat-8, earthquake damage, InSAR, rapid monitoring, 2015-Nepal earthquake.

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Authors: H. B. Darbandi, M. R. Ito, J. Little

Abstract:

This paper describes a probabilistic method for three-dimensional object recognition using a shared pool of surface signatures. This technique uses flatness, orientation, and convexity signatures that encode the surface of a free-form object into three discriminative vectors, and then creates a shared pool of data by clustering the signatures using a distance function. This method applies the Bayes-s rule for recognition process, and it is extensible to a large collection of three-dimensional objects.

Keywords: Object recognition, modeling, classification, computer vision.

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Authors: Rozita Borhan, Lam Kien Sieng

Abstract:

This paper describes I²C Slave implementation using I²C master obtained from the OpenCores website. This website provides free Verilog and VHDL Codes to users. The design implementation for the I²C slave is in Verilog Language and uses EDA tools for ASIC design known as ModelSim from Mentor Graphic. This tool is used for simulation and verification purposes. Common application for this I²C Master-Slave integration is also included. This paper also addresses the advantages and limitations of the said design.

Keywords: I²C, master, opencores, slave, verilog, verification.

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Authors: Jian-Jun Shu

Abstract:

A cold, thin film of liquid impinging on an isothermal hot, horizontal surface has been investigated. An approximate solution for the velocity and temperature distributions in the flow along the horizontal surface is developed, which exploits the hydrodynamic similarity solution for thin film flow. The approximate solution may provide a valuable basis for assessing flow and heat transfer in more complex settings.

Keywords: Flux, free impinging jet, solid-surface, uniform wall temperature.

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Authors: Chimin Tsai

Abstract:

This work consists of three parts. First, the alias-free condition for the conventional two-channel quadrature mirror filter bank is analyzed using complex arithmetic. Second, the approach developed in the first part is applied to the complex quadrature mirror filter bank. Accordingly, the structure is simplified and the theory is easier to follow. Finally, a new class of complex quadrature mirror filter banks is proposed. Interesting properties of this new structure are also discussed.

Keywords: Aliasing cancellation, complex signal processing, polyphase realization, quadrature mirror filter banks.

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