Search results for: predetermined motion time system

Authors: S. Santalunai, T. Thosdeekoraphat, C. Thongsopa

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This paper presents the effect of electric field distribution which is an electric field intensity analysis. Consideration of the dielectric heating of grains and insects, the rice and rice weevils are utilized for dielectric heating analysis. Furthermore, this analysis compares the effect of electric field distribution in rice and rice weevil. In this simulation, two copper plates are used to generate the electric field for dielectric heating system and put the rice materials between the copper plates. The simulation is classified in two cases, which are case I one rice weevil is placed in the rice and case II two rice weevils are placed at different position in the rice. Moreover, the probes are located in various different positions on plate. The power feeding on this plate is optimized by using CST EM studio program of 1000 watt electrical power at 39 MHz resonance frequency. The results of two cases are indicated that the most electric field distribution and intensity are occurred on the rice and rice weevils at the near point of the probes. Moreover, the heat is directed to the rice weevils more than the rice. When the temperature of rice and rice weevils are calculated and compared, the rice weevils has the temperature more than rice is about 41.62 Celsius degrees. These results can be applied for the dielectric heating applications to eliminate insect.

Keywords: Copper plates, Electric field distribution, Dielectric heating.

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Authors: Inseok Yeo, Tae-Ho Song

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To practically apply vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) to buildings or home appliances, VIPs have demanded long-term lifespan with outstanding insulation performance. Service lives of VIPs enveloped with Al-foil and three-layer Al-metallized envelope are calculated. For Al-foil envelope, the service life is longer but edge conduction is too large compared with the Al-metallized envelope. To increase service life even more, the proposed double enveloping method and metal-barrier-added enveloping method are further analyzed. The service lives of the VIP to employ two enveloping methods are calculated. Also, pressure increase and thermal insulation performance characteristics are investigated. For the metalbarrier- added enveloping method, effective thermal conductivity increase with time is close to that of Al-foil envelope, especially, for getter-inserted VIPs. For double enveloping method, if water vapor is perfectly adsorbed, the effect of service life enhancement becomes much greater. From these methods, the VIP can be guaranteed for service life of more than 20 years.

Keywords: Vacuum insulation panels, Service life, Double enveloping, Metal-barrier-added enveloping, Edge conduction.

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Authors: Bekim Avdiaj

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The transition period of Kosovo society brought fundamental changes in all the spheres of organizing life. This was the period when also in the cultural tradition the biggest movement and an emerging from ‘isolation’ or from the ‘shell’ occurred. Transformation of the traditional and embracing of the modern began here. The same was experienced and is currently being experienced also by Gjakova and its surrounding which is historically renowned for its great tradition and culture. The population of this region is actually facing a transition from the traditional system into the modern one and quite often with huge leaps. These ‘movements’ or ‘evolutions’ of the society of this region, besides the numerous positive things it ‘harvested’, also brought things that do not at all correspond with their tradition as well as new criminal occurrences which in the past were not present in this area. Furthermore, some of the ‘new’ behaviors that are embraced from other ‘cultures’ and ‘civilizations’, and which are often exceeded, are quite perturbing. The security situation is also worrying, particularly following the appearance of some new criminal occurrences. Therefore, with this research paper we will strive to analyze the new cultural “intersections” as well as the nature of the origin of some new very worrying criminal occurrences. We will present there also some factors inciting into these occurrences, which were confessed by the persons involved in these criminal occurrences and who come from this very region.

Keywords: Crime, culture, Gjakova region, occurrence.

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Authors: Godwin A. Otogo, Sansanee Wangvoralak, Graham J. Pierce, Lee C. Hastie, Beth Scott

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The squid Loligo forbesii is suspected to be an important species in marine food webs, as it can strongly impact its prey and be impacted upon by predation, competition, fishing and/or climate variability. To quantify these impacts in the food web, the measurement of its trophic position and ecological role within well-studied ecosystems is essential. An Ecopath model was balanced and run for the Moray Firth ecosystem and was used to investigate the significance of this squid’s trophic roles. The network analysis routine included in Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) was used to estimate trophic interaction, system indicators (health condition and developmental stage) and food web features. Results indicated that within the Moray Firth squid occupy a top trophic position in the food web and also a major prey item for many other species. Results from Omnivory Index (OI) showed that squid is a generalized feeder transferring energy across wide trophic levels and is more important as a predator than that as a prey in the Moray Firth ecosystem. The results highlight the importance of taking squid into account in the management of Europe’s living marine resources.

Keywords: Ecopath, Loligo forbesii, moray firth, squid, trophic-level.

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Authors: Shivakumar Krishnamurti, Ruchi Agarwal

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The study examines the influence of marital status on consumers of products and services using blogs as a source of information. A pre-designed questionnaire was used to collect the primary data from the respondents (experiences). Data were collected from one hundred and eighty seven respondents residing in and around the Emirates of Sharjah and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. The collected data was analyzed with the help of statistical tools such as averages, percentages, factor analysis, Student’s t-test and Structural Equation Modelling Technique. Objectives of the study are to know the reasons how married and unmarried or single consumers of products and services are motivated to use blogs as a source of information, to know whether the consumers of products and services irrespective of their marital status share their views and experiences with other bloggers and to know the respondents’ future intentions towards blogging. The study revealed the following: Majority of the respondents have the motivation to blog because they are willing to receive comments on what they post about services, convenience of blogs to search for information about services and products, by blogging respondents share information on the symptoms of a disease/ disorder that may be experienced by someone, helps to share information about ready to cook mix products and are keen to spend more time blogging in the future.

Keywords: Blog, consumer, information, marital status.

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Authors: H. Mohammadiun, A. Kianifar, A. Kargar

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Nowadays, there is little information, concerning the heat shield systems, and this information is not completely reliable to use in so many cases. for example, the precise calculation cannot be done for various materials. In addition, the real scale test has two disadvantages: high cost and low flexibility, and for each case we must perform a new test. Hence, using numerical modeling program that calculates the surface recession rate and interior temperature distribution is necessary. Also, numerical solution of governing equation for non-charring material ablation is presented in order to anticipate the recession rate and the heat response of non-charring heat shields. the governing equation is nonlinear and the Newton- Rafson method along with TDMA algorithm is used to solve this nonlinear equation system. Using Newton- Rafson method for solving the governing equation is one of the advantages of the solving method because this method is simple and it can be easily generalized to more difficult problems. The obtained results compared with reliable sources in order to examine the accuracy of compiling code.

Keywords: Ablation rate, surface recession, interior temperaturedistribution, non charring material ablation, Newton Rafson method.

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Authors: Giorgi Chichinadze, David Shengelia, Tamara Tsutsunava, Nikoloz Maisuradze, Giorgi Beridze

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The Jalovchat intrusive is built up of hornblende gabbros, gabbro-norites and norites. Within the intrusive hornblende-bearing gabbro-pegmatites are widespread. That is a coarse-grained rock with gigantic hornblende crystals. By its unusual composition, the Jalovchat intrusive has no analogue in the Caucasus. However, petrologically and geochemically, the intrusive rocks were studied insufficiently. For comprehensive investigations, the authors applied appropriate methodologies: Microscopic study of thin sections, petro- and geochemical analyses of the samples and also different petrogenic, rare and rare earth elements diagrams and spidergrams. Analytical study established that the Jalovchat intrusive by its composition corresponds mainly to the mid-ocean ridge basalts and according to geodynamic type belongs to the subduction type. In general, it is an anomalous phenomenon, as in the rocks of such composition crystallization of hornblende and especially of its gigantic crystals is atypical. The authors believe that the water-rich magma reservoir, which was necessary for the crystallization of gigantic hornblende crystals, appeared as a result of melting of water-rich mid-ocean ridge basaltic rocks during the subduction process in Bajocian time.

Keywords: Gabbroic intrusive, petrology, geochemistry, genesis, the Caucasus.

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Authors: S. M. Ali, A. Salam Khan, A. U. Khan, M. Tariq, M. S. Hussain, B. A. Abbasi, I. Hussain, U. Farid

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Environment and surrounding plays a pivotal rule in structuring life-style of the consumers. Living standards intern effect the energy consumption of the consumers. In smart grid paradigm, climate drifts, weather parameter and green environmental directly relates to the energy profiles of the various consumers, such as residential, commercial and industrial. Considering above factors helps policy in shaping utility load curves and optimal management of demand and supply. Thus, there is a pressing need to develop correlation models of load and weather parameters and critical analysis of the factors effecting energy profiles of smart grid consumers. In this paper, we elaborated various environment and weather parameter factors effecting demand of consumers. Moreover, we developed correlation models, such as Pearson, Spearman, and Kendall, an inter-relation between dependent (load) parameter and independent (weather) parameters. Furthermore, we validated our discussion with real-time data of Texas State. The numerical simulations proved the effective relation of climatic drifts with energy consumption of smart grid consumers.

Keywords: Climatic drifts, correlation analysis, energy consumption, smart grid, weather parameter.

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Authors: Shiuh-Jer Huang, Yu-Chi Liu, Su-Hai Hsiang

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A novel low-cost impedance control structure is proposed for monitoring the contact force between end-effector and environment without installing an expensive force/torque sensor. Theoretically, the end-effector contact force can be estimated from the superposition of each joint control torque. There have a nonlinear matrix mapping function between each joint motor control input and end-effector actuating force/torques vector. This new force control structure can be implemented based on this estimated mapping matrix. First, the robot end-effector is manipulated to specified positions, then the force controller is actuated based on the hall sensor current feedback of each joint motor. The model-free fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) strategy is employed to design the position and force controllers, respectively. All the hardware circuits and software control programs are designed on an Altera Nios II embedded development kit to constitute an embedded system structure for a retrofitted Mitsubishi 5 DOF robot. Experimental results show that PI and FSMC force control algorithms can achieve reasonable contact force monitoring objective based on this hardware control structure.

Keywords: Robot, impedance control, fuzzy sliding mode control, contact force estimator.

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Authors: Yu-Lin Liao, Ya-Fu Peng

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An adaptive dynamic cerebellar model articulation controller (DCMAC) neural network used for solving the prediction and identification problem is proposed in this paper. The proposed DCMAC has superior capability to the conventional cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) neural network in efficient learning mechanism, guaranteed system stability and dynamic response. The recurrent network is embedded in the DCMAC by adding feedback connections in the association memory space so that the DCMAC captures the dynamic response, where the feedback units act as memory elements. The dynamic gradient descent method is adopted to adjust DCMAC parameters on-line. Moreover, the analytical method based on a Lyapunov function is proposed to determine the learning-rates of DCMAC so that the variable optimal learning-rates are derived to achieve most rapid convergence of identifying error. Finally, the adaptive DCMAC is applied in two computer simulations. Simulation results show that accurate identifying response and superior dynamic performance can be obtained because of the powerful on-line learning capability of the proposed DCMAC.

Keywords: adaptive, cerebellar model articulation controller, CMAC, prediction, identification

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Authors: Subramaniam Chandran

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This paper explains how mobile learning assures sustainable e-education for multicultural group of students. This paper reports the impact of mobile learning on distance education in multicultural environment. The emergence of learning technologies through CD, internet, and mobile is increasingly adopted by distance institutes for quick delivery and cost-effective purposes. Their sustainability is conditioned by the structure of learners as well as the teaching community. The experimental study was conducted among the distant learners of Vinayaka Missions University located at Salem in India. Students were drawn from multicultural environment based on different languages, religions, class and communities. During the mobile learning sessions, the students, who are divided on language, religion, class and community, were dominated by play impulse rather than study anxiety or cultural inhibitions. This study confirmed that mobile learning improved the performance of the students despite their division based on region, language or culture. In other words, technology was able to transcend the relative deprivation in the multicultural groups. It also confirms sustainable e-education through mobile learning and cost-effective system of instruction. Mobile learning appropriates the self-motivation and play impulse of the young learners in providing sustainable e-education to multicultural social groups of students.

Keywords: E-Education, mobile learning, multiculturalism.

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Authors: Lalla Nezha Lakmiti, Abdelkahar Zahid

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Due to the setbacks on the international scene and the wave of cacophonic financial scandals affecting large international groups, the new Islamic finance industry is not immune despite its initial resistance. The purpose of this paper is to understand and analyze the meaning of the Corporate Governance (CG) concept in Moroccan Islamic banking systems with specific reference to their institutions. The research objective is to identify also the path taken and adopted by these banks recently set up in Morocco. The foundation is rooted in shari'a, in particular, no stakeholder (the shareholding approach) must be harmed, and the ethical value is reflected into these parties’ behavior. We chose a qualitative method, semi-structured interviews where six managers provided answers about their banking systems. Since these respondents held a senior position (directors) within their organizations, it is felt that they are well placed and have the necessary knowledge to provide us with information to answer the questions asked. The results identified the orientation of participating banks and assessing how governance works, while determining which party is fovoured: shareholders, stakeholders or both. This study discusses the favorable condition to the harmonization of the regulations and therefore a better integration between Islamic finance and conventional ones in the economic context of Morocco.

Keywords: Corporate governance, participating banks, stakeholders, shareholders, and interests.

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Authors: Simon B. N. Thompson

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Cortisol is essential to the regulation of the immune system and yawning is a pathological symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). Electromyography activity (EMG) in the jaw muscles typically rises when the muscles are moved and with yawning is highly correlated with cortisol levels in healthy people. Saliva samples from 59 participants were collected at the start and after yawning, or at the end of the presentation of yawning-provoking stimuli, in the absence of a yawn, together with EMG data and questionnaire data: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Yawning Susceptibility Scale, General Health Questionnaire, demographic, health details. Exclusion criteria: chronic fatigue, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart condition, high blood pressure, hormone replacement therapy, multiple sclerosis, stroke. Significant differences were found between the saliva cortisol samples for the yawners, t (23) = -4.263, p = 0.000, as compared with the non-yawners between rest and post-stimuli, which was nonsignificant. Significant evidence was found to support the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis suggesting that rises in cortisol levels are associated with yawning. Further research is exploring the use of cortisol as an early diagnostic tool for MS. Ethics approval granted and professional code of conduct, confidentiality, and safety issues are approved therein.

Keywords: Cortisol, Multiple Sclerosis, Yawning, Thompson’s Cortisol Hypothesis.

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Authors: Philip Feig, Klaus Gschwendtner, Julian Schatz, Frank Diermeyer

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Projects of accident research analysis are mostly focused on accidents involving personal damage. Property damage only has a high frequency of occurrence combined with high economic impact. This paper describes main influencing parameters for the extent of damage and presents a repair cost model. For a prospective evaluation method of the monetary effect of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), it is necessary to be aware of and quantify all influencing parameters. Furthermore, this method allows the evaluation of vehicle concepts in combination with an ADAS at an early point in time of the product development process. In combination with a property damage database and the introduced repair cost model relevant test scenarios for specific vehicle configurations and their individual property damage risk may be determined. Currently, equipment rates of ADAS are low and a purchase incentive for customers would be beneficial. The next ADAS generation will prevent property damage to a large extent or at least reduce damage severity. Both effects may be a purchasing incentive for the customer and furthermore contribute to increased traffic safety.

Keywords: Property damage analysis, effectiveness, ADAS, damage risk, accident research, accident scenarios.

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Authors: Yusuff Idowu Moshood, Sanni Mohammed

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Natural radiations such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation sourced from sun are known to be the main causes of skin cancer, sunburn, eye damage, premature aging of skin and other skin related diseases. Its percentage of radiation reaching the earth populace and its impacts are not well known. Its variability in near-surface relating to its impacts on populace depends on some atmospheric parameters. Hence, this work was embarked on to determine the variability in near-surface UV radiation and its dependency on some atmospheric parameters at different time of the day in Offa, Nigeria. The variability was determined using the data obtained from meteorological garden, Science Laboratory Technology Department, Federal Polytechnic Offa, Nigeria. The data obtained were solar UV radiation, solar radiation, temperature, humidity and pressure at 30 minutes interval. Relationships were determined and correlations were derived using SPSS Pearson Correlation tool. The results showed a significant level of correlation with p-value of 0.01 and 0.05 levels. Thus, the results revealed some good relationships between the solar UV radiation and other atmospheric parameters with significance level less than p-value obtained. Inferentially, interdependent relationships were found to exist. Therefore, the nature of relationship obtained could be a yardstick for decision making in short term environmental planning on solar UV radiation depending of some atmospheric parameters within Offa locality.

Keywords: Correlation, inferential, radiation, yardstick.

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Authors: L. L. Ivy-Yap, H. A. Bekhet

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As the Malaysian residential electricity consumption continued to increase rapidly, effective energy policies, which address factors affecting residential electricity consumption, is urgently needed. This study attempts to investigate the relationship between residential electricity consumption (EC), real disposable income (Y), price of electricity (Pe) and population (Po) in Malaysia for 1978-2011 period. Unlike previous studies on Malaysia, the current study focuses on the residential sector, a sector that is important for the contemplation of energy policy. The Phillips-Perron (P-P) unit root test is employed to infer the stationarity of each variable while the bound test is executed to determine the existence of co-integration relationship among the variables, modelled in an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework. The CUSUM and CUSUM of squares tests are applied to ensure the stability of the model. The results suggest the existence of long-run equilibrium relationship and bidirectional Granger causality between EC and the macroeconomic variables. The empirical findings will help policy makers of Malaysia in developing new monitoring standards of energy consumption. As it is the major contributing factor in economic growth and CO₂ emission, there is a need for more proper planning in Malaysia to attain future targets in order to cut emissions.

Keywords: Co-integration, Elasticity, Granger causality, Malaysia, Residential electricity consumption.

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Authors: Pardeep Singh, Sanjay Sharma

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Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has been one on the most vivid research areas in the field of computer vision over the last 10 years. Many programs and tools have been developed to formulate and execute queries based on the visual or audio content and to help browsing large multimedia repositories. Still, no general breakthrough has been achieved with respect to large varied databases with documents of difering sorts and with varying characteristics. Answers to many questions with respect to speed, semantic descriptors or objective image interpretations are still unanswered. In the medical field, images, and especially digital images, are produced in ever increasing quantities and used for diagnostics and therapy. In several articles, content based access to medical images for supporting clinical decision making has been proposed that would ease the management of clinical data and scenarios for the integration of content-based access methods into Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) have been created. This paper gives an overview of soft computing techniques. New research directions are being defined that can prove to be useful. Still, there are very few systems that seem to be used in clinical practice. It needs to be stated as well that the goal is not, in general, to replace text based retrieval methods as they exist at the moment.

Keywords: CBIR, GA, Rough sets, CBMIR

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Authors: Neeraj Nehra, R. B. Patel, V. K. Bhat

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Use of the Internet and the World-Wide-Web (WWW) has become widespread in recent years and mobile agent technology has proliferated at an equally rapid rate. In this scenario load balancing becomes important for P2P systems. Beside P2P systems can be highly heterogeneous, i.e., they may consists of peers that range from old desktops to powerful servers connected to internet through high-bandwidth lines. There are various loads balancing policies came into picture. Primitive one is Message Passing Interface (MPI). Its wide availability and portability make it an attractive choice; however the communication requirements are sometimes inefficient when implementing the primitives provided by MPI. In this scenario we use the concept of mobile agent because Mobile agent (MA) based approach have the merits of high flexibility, efficiency, low network traffic, less communication latency as well as highly asynchronous. In this study we present decentralized load balancing scheme using mobile agent technology in which when a node is overloaded, task migrates to less utilized nodes so as to share the workload. However, the decision of which nodes receive migrating task is made in real-time by defining certain load balancing policies. These policies are executed on PMADE (A Platform for Mobile Agent Distribution and Execution) in decentralized manner using JuxtaNet and various load balancing metrics are discussed.

Keywords: Mobile Agents, Agent host, Agent Submitter, PMADE.

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Authors: Aptullah Karakaş, Murat Baydoğan

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In the HDA process, Al or Al-Si molten baths are mostly used. However, in this study, three different Al alloys such as Al4043 (Al-Mg), Al5356 (Al-Si) and Al7020 (Al-Zn) were used as the molten bath in order to see their effects on morphological and mechanical properties of the resulting aluminide layers. AISI 4140 low alloyed steel was used as the substrate. Parameters of the HDA process were bath composition, bath temperature, and dipping time. These parameters were considered within a Taguchi L9 orthogonal array. After the HDA process and subsequent diffusion annealing, coating thickness measurement, microstructural analysis and hardness measurement of the aluminide layers were conducted. The optimum process parameters were evaluated according to coating morphology such as cracks, Kirkendall porosity and hardness of the coatings. According to the results, smooth and clean aluminide layer with less Kirkendall porosity and cracks were observed on the sample, which was aluminized in the molten Al7020 bath at 700 C for 10 minutes, and subsequently diffusion annealed at 750 C. Hardness of the aluminide layer was in between 1100-1300 hardness of Vickers (HV) and the coating thickness was approximately 400 µm. The results were promising such that a hard and thick aluminide layer with less Kirkendall porosity and cracks could be formed. It is therefore, concluded that Al7020 bath may be used in the HDA process of AISI 4140 steel substrate.

Keywords: Aluminum alloys, coating, hot-dip aluminizing, microstructure.

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Authors: T. Kuchukhidze, N. Jalagonia, T. Korkia, V. Gabunia, N. Jalabadze, R. Chedia

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In this work, obtaining methods of ultrafine alumina powdery composites and high temperature pressing technology of matrix ceramic composites with different compositions have been discussed. Alumina was obtained by solution combustion synthesis and sol-gel methods. Metal carbides containing powdery composites were obtained by homogenization of finishing powders in nanomills, as well as by their single-step high temperature synthesis .Different types of matrix ceramics composites (α-Al2O3-ZrO2-Y2O3, α-Al2O3- Y2O3-MgO, α-Al2O3-SiC-Y2O3, α-Al2O3-WC-Co-Y2O3, α-Al2O3- B4C-Y2O3, α-Al2O3- B4C-TiB2 etc.) were obtained by using OXYGON furnace. Consolidation of powders were carried out at 1550- 1750°C (hold time - 1 h, pressure - 50 MPa). Corundum ceramics samples have been obtained and characterized by high hardness and fracture toughness, absence of open porosity, high corrosion resistance. Their density reaches 99.5-99.6% TD. During the work, the following devices have been used: High temperature vacuum furnace OXY-GON Industries Inc (USA), Electronic Scanning Microscopes Nikon Eclipse LV 150, Optical Microscope NMM- 800TRF, Planetary mill Pulverisette 7 premium line, Shimadzu Dynamic Ultra Micro Hardness Tester DUH-211S, Analysette 12 Dynasizer.

Keywords: α-Alumina, Consolidation, Matrix Ceramics, Powdery composites.

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Authors: Niaz Gharavi, Hexin Zhang

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The shear modulus of a timber beam can be determined using torsion test or shear field test method. The shear field test method is based on shear distortion measurement of the beam at the zone with the constant transverse load in the standardized four-point bending test. The current code of practice advises using two metallic arms act as an instrument to measure the diagonal displacement of the constructing square. The size and the position of the constructing square might influence the shear modulus determination. This study aimed to investigate the size and the position effect of the square in the shear field test method. A binocular stereo vision system has been employed to determine the 3D displacement of a grid of target points. Six glue laminated beams were produced and tested. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed on the acquired data to evaluate the significance of the size effect and the position effect of the square. The results have shown that the size of the square has a noticeable influence on the value of shear modulus, while, the position of the square within the area with the constant shear force does not affect the measured mean shear modulus.

Keywords: Shear field test method, structural-sized test, shear modulus of Glulam beam, photogrammetry approach.

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Authors: Diako Azizi, Ahmad Gholami, Vahid Abbasi

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Optimal selection of electrical insulations in electrical machinery insures reliability during operation. From the insulation studies of view for electrical machines, stator is the most important part. This fact reveals the requirement for inspection of the electrical machine insulation along with the electro-thermal stresses. In the first step of the study, a part of the whole structure of machine in which covers the general characteristics of the machine is chosen, then based on the electromagnetic analysis (finite element method), the machine operation is simulated. In the simulation results, the temperature distribution of the total structure is presented simultaneously by using electro-thermal analysis. The results of electro-thermal analysis can be used for designing an optimal cooling system. In order to design, review and comparing the cooling systems, four wiring structures in the slots of Stator are presented. The structures are compared to each other in terms of electrical, thermal distribution and remaining life of insulation by using Finite Element analysis. According to the steps of the study, an optimization algorithm has been presented for selection of appropriate structure.

Keywords: Electrical field, field distribution, insulation, winding, finite element method, electro thermal

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Authors: Jamal R. Elbergali

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Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems are wireless systems with multiple antenna elements at both ends of the link. Wireless communication systems demand high data rate and spectral efficiency with increased reliability. MIMO systems have been popular techniques to achieve these goals because increased data rate is possible through spatial multiplexing scheme and diversity. Spatial Multiplexing (SM) is used to achieve higher possible throughput than diversity. In this paper, we propose a Zero- Forcing (ZF) detection using a combination of Ordered Successive Interference Cancellation (OSIC) and Zero Forcing using Interference Cancellation (ZF-IC). The proposed method used an OSIC based on Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) ordering to get the estimation of last symbol, then the estimated last symbol is considered to be an input to the ZF-IC. We analyze the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of the proposed MIMO system over Rayleigh Fading Channel, using Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation scheme. The results show better performance than the previous methods.

Keywords: SNR, BER, BPSK, MIMO, Modulation, Zero forcing (ZF), OSIC, ZF-IC, Spatial Multiplexing (SM).

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Authors: S. Anna Durai, E. Anna Saro

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Image Compression using Artificial Neural Networks is a topic where research is being carried out in various directions towards achieving a generalized and economical network. Feedforward Networks using Back propagation Algorithm adopting the method of steepest descent for error minimization is popular and widely adopted and is directly applied to image compression. Various research works are directed towards achieving quick convergence of the network without loss of quality of the restored image. In general the images used for compression are of different types like dark image, high intensity image etc. When these images are compressed using Back-propagation Network, it takes longer time to converge. The reason for this is, the given image may contain a number of distinct gray levels with narrow difference with their neighborhood pixels. If the gray levels of the pixels in an image and their neighbors are mapped in such a way that the difference in the gray levels of the neighbors with the pixel is minimum, then compression ratio as well as the convergence of the network can be improved. To achieve this, a Cumulative distribution function is estimated for the image and it is used to map the image pixels. When the mapped image pixels are used, the Back-propagation Neural Network yields high compression ratio as well as it converges quickly.

Keywords: Back-propagation Neural Network, Cumulative Distribution Function, Correlation, Convergence.

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Authors: Farbod Behnaminia, Saeed Samet

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The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed many lives until a vaccine has been available, which caused the so-called "new normal". COVID-19 is an infectious disease. It can cause significant illness or death in anyone. Governments and health officials tried to impose rules and regulations to avoid and slow down transmission. Therefore, software engineers worldwide developed applications to trace and track patients’ movements and notify others, mainly using Bluetooth. In this way, everyone could be informed whether they came in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 and take proper safety precautions. Because most of the applications use technologies that can potentially reveal the user’s identity and location, researchers have debated privacy preservation and how to improve user privacy during such pandemics. We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the literature by looking for papers in the relevant field and dividing them into pre- and post-pandemic systems. Additionally, we discussed the many uses of blockchain technology in pandemic control. We found that two major obstacles facing blockchain implementation across many healthcare systems are scalability and privacy. The Polkadot platform is presented, along with a review of its efficacy in tackling current concerns. A more scalable healthcare system is achievable in near future using Polkadot as well as a much more privacy-preserving environment.

Keywords: Blockchain, Electronic Record Management, EHR, Privacy-Preserving, patient tracking, COVID-19, trust and confidence, Polkadot.

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Authors: Stephen C. W. Kong

Abstract:

The use of 3D computer-aided design (CAD) models to support construction project planning has been increasing in the previous year. 3D CAD models reveal more planning ideas by visually showing the construction site environment in different stages of the construction process. Using 3D CAD models together with scheduling software to prepare construction plan can identify errors in process sequence and spatial arrangement, which is vital to the success of a construction project. A number of 4D (3D plus time) CAD tools has been developed and utilized in different construction projects due to the awareness of their importance. Virtual prototyping extends the idea of 4D CAD by integrating more features for simulating real construction process. Virtual prototyping originates from the manufacturing industry where production of products such as cars and airplanes are virtually simulated in computer before they are built in the factory. Virtual prototyping integrates 3D CAD, simulation engine, analysis tools (like structural analysis and collision detection), and knowledgebase to streamline the whole product design and production process. In this paper, we present the application of a virtual prototyping software which has been used in a few construction projects in Hong Kong to support construction project planning. Specifically, the paper presents an implementation of virtual prototyping in a residential building project in Hong Kong. The applicability, difficulties and benefits of construction virtual prototyping are examined based on this project.

Keywords: construction project planning, prefabrication, simulation, virtual prototyping.

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Authors: M. Aqeel Iqbal

Abstract:

Fully customized hardware based technology provides high performance and low power consumption by specializing the tasks in hardware but lacks design flexibility since any kind of changes require re-design and re-fabrication. Software based solutions operate with software instructions due to which a great flexibility is achieved from the easy development and maintenance of the software code. But this execution of instructions introduces a high overhead in performance and area consumption. In past few decades the reconfigurable computing domain has been introduced which overcomes the traditional trades-off between flexibility and performance and is able to achieve high performance while maintaining a good flexibility. The dramatic gains in terms of chip performance and design flexibility achieved through the reconfigurable computing systems are greatly dependent on the design of their computational units being integrated with reconfigurable logic resources. The computational unit of any reconfigurable system plays vital role in defining its strength. In this research paper an RFU based computational unit design has been presented using the tightly coupled, multi-threaded reconfigurable cores. The proposed design has been simulated for VLIW based architectures and a high gain in performance has been observed as compared to the conventional computing systems.

Keywords: Configuration Stream, Configuration overhead, Configuration Controller, Reconfigurable devices.

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Authors: Awatef Chniguir, Tarek Farah, Zouhair Ben Jemaa, Safya Belguith

Abstract:

Optimal routing allows minimizing energy consumption in wireless sensor networks (WSN). Clustering has proven its effectiveness in organizing WSN by reducing channel contention and packet collision and enhancing network throughput under heavy load. Therefore, nowadays, with the emergence of the Internet of Things, heterogeneity is essential. Stable election protocol (SEP) that has increased the network stability period and lifetime is the first clustering protocol for heterogeneous WSN. SEP and its descendants, namely SEP, Threshold Sensitive SEP (TSEP), Enhanced TSEP (ETSSEP) and Current Energy Allotted TSEP (CEATSEP), were studied. These algorithms’ performance was evaluated based on different metrics, especially first node death (FND), to compare their stability. Simulations were conducted on the MATLAB tool considering two scenarios: The first one demonstrates the fraction variation of advanced nodes by setting the number of total nodes. The second considers the interpretation of the number of nodes while keeping the number of advanced nodes permanent. CEATSEP outperforms its antecedents by increasing stability and, at the same time, keeping a low throughput. It also operates very well in a large-scale network. Consequently, CEATSEP has a useful lifespan and energy efficiency compared to the other routing protocol for heterogeneous WSN.

Keywords: Clustering, heterogeneous, stability, scalability, throughput, IoT, WSN.

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Authors: S. Alrekabi, A. Cundy, A. Lampropoulos, I. Savina

Abstract:

Due to their remarkable mechanical properties, multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are considered by many researchers to be a highly promising filler and reinforcement agent for enhanced performance cementitious materials. Currently, however, achieving an effective dispersion of MWCNTs remains a major challenge in developing high performance nano-cementitious composites, since carbon nanotubes tend to form large agglomerates and bundles as a consequence of Van der Waals forces. In this study, effective dispersion of low concentrations of MWCNTs at 0.01%, 0.025%, and 0.05% by weight of cement in the composite was achieved by applying different sonication conditions in combination with the use of polycarboxylate ether as a surfactant. UV-Visible spectroscopy and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to assess the dispersion of MWCNTs in water, while the dispersion states of MWCNTs within the cement composites and their surface interactions were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A high sonication intensity applied over a short time period significantly enhanced the dispersion of MWCNTs at initial mixing stages, and 0.025% of MWCNTs wt. of cement, caused 86% and 27% improvement in tensile strength and compressive strength respectively, compared with a plain cement mortar.

Keywords: Dispersion, multiwall carbon nanotubes, mechanical performance, sonication conditions.

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Authors: Sanjib Kr Pal, S. Bhattacharyya

Abstract:

Mixed convection of Cu-water nanofluid in an enclosure with thick wavy bottom wall has been investigated numerically. A co-ordinate transformation method is used to transform the computational domain into an orthogonal co-ordinate system. The governing equations in the computational domain are solved through a pressure correction based iterative algorithm. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are analyzed for a wide range of Richardson number (0.1 ≤ Ri ≤ 5), nanoparticle volume concentration (0.0 ≤ ϕ ≤ 0.2), amplitude (0.0 ≤ α ≤ 0.1) of the wavy thick- bottom wall and the wave number (ω) at a fixed Reynolds number. Obtained results showed that heat transfer rate increases remarkably by adding the nanoparticles. Heat transfer rate is dependent on the wavy wall amplitude and wave number and decreases with increasing Richardson number for fixed amplitude and wave number. The Bejan number and the entropy generation are determined to analyze the thermodynamic optimization of the mixed convection.

Keywords: Entropy generation, mixed convection, conjugate heat transfer, numerical, nanofluid, wall waviness.

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