Micropower Fuzzy Linguistic-Hedges Circuit in Current-Mode Approach

In this paper, based on a novel synthesis, a set of new simplified circuit design to implement the linguistic-hedge operations for adjusting the fuzzy membership function set is presented. The circuits work in current-mode and employ floating-gate MOS (FGMOS) transistors that operate in weak inversion region. Compared to the other proposed circuits, these circuits feature severe reduction of the elements number, low supply voltage (0.7V), low power consumption (60dB). In this paper, a set of fuzzy linguistic hedge circuits, including absolutely, very, much more, more, plus minus, more or less and slightly, has been implemented in 0.18 mm CMOS process. Simulation results by Hspice confirm the validity of the proposed design technique and show high performance of the circuits.

Community Detection-based Analysis of the Human Interactome Network

The study of proteomics reached unexpected levels of interest, as a direct consequence of its discovered influence over some complex biological phenomena, such as problematic diseases like cancer. This paper presents a new technique that allows for an accurate analysis of the human interactome network. It is basically a two-step analysis process that involves, at first, the detection of each protein-s absolute importance through the betweenness centrality computation. Then, the second step determines the functionallyrelated communities of proteins. For this purpose, we use a community detection technique that is based on the edge betweenness calculation. The new technique was thoroughly tested on real biological data and the results prove some interesting properties of those proteins that are involved in the carcinogenesis process. Apart from its experimental usefulness, the novel technique is also computationally effective in terms of execution times. Based on the analysis- results, some topological features of cancer mutated proteins are presented and a possible optimization solution for cancer drugs design is suggested.

Analysis of Endovascular Graft Features Affecting Endotension Following Endovascular Aneurysm Repair

Endovascular aneurysm repair is a new and minimally invasive repair for patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). This method has potential advantages that are incomparable with other repair methods. However, the enlargement of aneurysm in the absence of endoleak, which is known as endotension, may occur as one of post-operative compliances of this method. Typically, endotension is mainly as a result of pressure transmitted to aneurysm sac by endovascular installed graft. After installation of graft the aneurysm sac reduces significantly but remains non-zero. There are some factors which affect this pressure transmitted. In this study, the geometry features of installed vascular graft have been considered. It is inferred that graft neck angle and iliac bifurcation angle are two factors which can affect the drag force on graft and consequently the pressure transmitted to aneurysm.

Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Sound Radiation by the Boundary Element Method

The modeling of sound radiation is of fundamental importance for understanding the propagation of acoustic waves and, consequently, develop mechanisms for reducing acoustic noise. The propagation of acoustic waves, are involved in various phenomena such as radiation, absorption, transmission and reflection. The radiation is studied through the linear equation of the acoustic wave that is obtained through the equation for the Conservation of Momentum, equation of State and Continuity. From these equations, is the Helmholtz differential equation that describes the problem of acoustic radiation. In this paper we obtained the solution of the Helmholtz differential equation for an infinite cylinder in a pulsating through free and homogeneous. The analytical solution is implemented and the results are compared with the literature. A numerical formulation for this problem is obtained using the Boundary Element Method (BEM). This method has great power for solving certain acoustical problems in open field, compared to differential methods. BEM reduces the size of the problem, thereby simplifying the input data to be worked and reducing the computational time used.

The Architectural and Imaginary Spaces of the Anime Models

Architecture as a form of art, whilst actively developing, finds new methods and conceptions. Currently, architectural animation is actively developing as a step, successive to architectural visualization. Interesting vistas of architectural ideas were discovered by artists of Japanese animation, in which there are traditional spirits, kami, and imaginary spaces relating to them. Anime art should be considered abstract painting, another kind of an architectural workshop, where new architectural ideas are generated.

Revised PLWAP Tree with Non-frequent Items for Mining Sequential Pattern

Sequential pattern mining is a challenging task in data mining area with large applications. One among those applications is mining patterns from weblog. Recent times, weblog is highly dynamic and some of them may become absolute over time. In addition, users may frequently change the threshold value during the data mining process until acquiring required output or mining interesting rules. Some of the recently proposed algorithms for mining weblog, build the tree with two scans and always consume large time and space. In this paper, we build Revised PLWAP with Non-frequent Items (RePLNI-tree) with single scan for all items. While mining sequential patterns, the links related to the nonfrequent items are not considered. Hence, it is not required to delete or maintain the information of nodes while revising the tree for mining updated transactions. The algorithm supports both incremental and interactive mining. It is not required to re-compute the patterns each time, while weblog is updated or minimum support changed. The performance of the proposed tree is better, even the size of incremental database is more than 50% of existing one. For evaluation purpose, we have used the benchmark weblog dataset and found that the performance of proposed tree is encouraging compared to some of the recently proposed approaches.

Fuzzy Based Problem-Solution Data Structureas a Data Oriented Model for ABS Controlling

The anti-lock braking systems installed on vehicles for safe and effective braking, are high-order nonlinear and timevariant. Using fuzzy logic controllers increase efficiency of such systems, but impose a high computational complexity as well. The main concept introduced by this paper is reducing computational complexity of fuzzy controllers by deploying problem-solution data structure. Unlike conventional methods that are based on calculations, this approach is based on data oriented modeling.

The Nonlinear Dynamic Elasto-Plastic Analysis for Evaluating the Controlling Effectiveness and Failure Mechanism of the MSCSS

This paper focuses on the Mega-Sub Controlled Structure Systems (MSCSS) performances and characteristics regarding the new control principle contained in MSCSS subjected to strong earthquake excitations. The adopted control scheme consists of modulated sub-structures where the control action is achieved by viscous dampers and sub-structure own configuration. The elastic-plastic time history analysis under severe earthquake excitation is analyzed base on the Finite Element Analysis Method (FEAM), and some comparison results are also given in this paper. The result shows that the MSCSS systems can remarkably reduce vibrations effects more than the mega-sub structure (MSS). The study illustrates that the improved MSCSS presents good seismic resistance ability even at 1.2g and can absorb seismic energy in the structure, thus imply that structural members cross section can be reduce and achieve to good economic characteristics. Furthermore, the elasto-plastic analysis demonstrates that the MSCSS is accurate enough regarding international building evaluation and design codes. This paper also shows that the elasto-plastic dynamic analysis method is a reasonable and reliable analysis method for structures subjected to strong earthquake excitations and that the computed results are more precise.

Sulphur-Mediated Precipitation of Pt/Fe/Co/CrIons in Liquid-Liquid and Gas-Liquid Chloride Systems

The proof of concept experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of using small amounts of Dissolved Sulphur (DS) from the gaseous phase to precipitate platinum ions in chloride media. Two sets of precipitation experiments were performed in which the source of sulphur atoms was either a thiosulphate solution (Na2S2O3) or a sulphur dioxide gas (SO2). In liquid-liquid (L-L) system, complete precipitation of Pt was achieved at small dosages of Na2S2O3 (0.01 – 1.0 M) in a time interval of 3-5 minutes. On the basis of this result, gas absorption tests were carried out mainly to achieve sulphur solubility equivalent to 0.018 M. The idea that huge amounts of precious metals could be recovered selectively from their dilute solutions by utilizing the waste SO2 streams at low pressure seemed attractive from the economic and environmental point of views. Therefore, mass transfer characteristics of SO2 gas associated with reactive absorption across the gas-liquid (G-L) interface were evaluated under different conditions of pressure (0.5 – 2 bar), solution temperature ranges from 20 – 50 oC and acid strength (1 – 4 M, HCl). This paper concludes with information about selective precipitation of Pt in the presence of cations (Fe2+, Co2+, and Cr3+) in a CSTR and recommendation to scale up laboratory data to industrial pilot scale operations.

On the Early Development of Dispersion in Flow through a Tube with Wall Reactions

This is a study on numerical simulation of the convection-diffusion transport of a chemical species in steady flow through a small-diameter tube, which is lined with a very thin layer made up of retentive and absorptive materials. The species may be subject to a first-order kinetic reversible phase exchange with the wall material and irreversible absorption into the tube wall. Owing to the velocity shear across the tube section, the chemical species may spread out axially along the tube at a rate much larger than that given by the molecular diffusion; this process is known as dispersion. While the long-time dispersion behavior, well described by the Taylor model, has been extensively studied in the literature, the early development of the dispersion process is by contrast much less investigated. By early development, that means a span of time, after the release of the chemical into the flow, that is shorter than or comparable to the diffusion time scale across the tube section. To understand the early development of the dispersion, the governing equations along with the reactive boundary conditions are solved numerically using the Flux Corrected Transport Algorithm (FCTA). The computation has enabled us to investigate the combined effects on the early development of the dispersion coefficient due to the reversible and irreversible wall reactions. One of the results is shown that the dispersion coefficient may approach its steady-state limit in a short time under the following conditions: (i) a high value of Damkohler number (say Da ≥ 10); (ii) a small but non-zero value of absorption rate (say Γ* ≤ 0.5).

Effects of Corrosion on Reinforced Concrete Beams with Silica Fume and Polypropylene Fibre

Reinforced concrete has good durability and excellent structural performance. But there are cases of early deterioration due to a number of factors, one prominent factor being corrosion of steel reinforcement. The process of corrosion sets in due to ingress of moisture, oxygen and other ingredients into the body of concrete, which is unsound, permeable and absorbent. Cracks due to structural and other causes such as creep, shrinkage, etc also allow ingress of moisture and other harmful ingredients and thus accelerate the rate of corrosion. There are several interactive factors both external and internal, which lead to corrosion of reinforcement and ultimately failure of structures. Suitable addition of mineral admixture like silica fume (SF) in concrete improves the strength and durability of concrete due to considerable improvement in the microstructure of concrete composites, especially at the transition zone. Secondary reinforcement in the form of fibre is added to concrete, which provides three dimensional random reinforcement in the entire mass of concrete. Reinforced concrete beams of size 0.1 m X 0.15 m and length 1m have been cast using M 35 grade of concrete. The beams after curing process were subjected to corrosion process by impressing an external Direct Current (Galvanostatic Method) for a period of 15 days under stressed and unstressed conditions. The corroded beams were tested by applying two point loads to determine the ultimate load carrying capacity and cracking pattern and the results of specimens were compared with that of the companion specimens. Gravimetric method is used to quantify corrosion that has occurred.

Structural and Optical Characterizations of CIGST Solar Cell Materials

Structural and UV/Visible optical properties can be useful to describe a material for the CIGS solar cell active layer, therefore, this work demonstrates the properties like surface morphology, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) bonding energy (EB) core level spectra, UV/Visible absorption spectra, refractive index (n), optical energy band (Eg), reflection spectra for the Cu25 (In16Ga9) Se40Te10 (CIGST-1) and Cu20 (In14Ga9) Se45Te12 (CIGST-2) chalcogenide compositions. Materials have been exhibited homogenous surface morphologies, broading /-or diffusion of bonding energy peaks relative elemental values and a high UV/Visible absorption tendency in the wave length range 400 nm- 850 nm range with the optical energy band gaps 1.37 and 1.42 respectively. Subsequently, UV/Visible reflectivity property in the wave length range 250 nm to 320 nm for these materials has also been discussed.

Plasmonic Absorption Enhancement in Au/CdS Nanocomposite

Composite nanostructures of metal core/semiconductor shell (Au/CdS) configuration were prepared using organometalic method. UV-Vis spectra for the Au/CdS colloids show initially two well separated bands, corresponding to surface plasmon of the Au core, and the exciton of CdS shell. The absorption of CdS shell is enhanced, while the Au plasmon band is suppressed as the shell thickness increases. The shell sizes were estimated from the optical spectra using the effective mass approximation model (EMA), and compared to the sizes of the Au core and CdS shell measured by high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). The changes in the absorption features are discussed in terms of gradual increase in the coupling strength of the Au core surface plasmon and the exciton in the CdS. leading to charge transfer and modification of electron oscillation in Au core.

PI Controller for Automatic Generation Control Based on Performance Indices

The optimal design of PI controller for Automatic Generation Control in two area is presented in this paper. The concept of Dual mode control is applied in the PI controller, such that the proportional mode is made active when the rate of change of the error is sufficiently larger than a specified limit otherwise switched to the integral mode. A digital simulation is used in conjunction with the Hooke-Jeeve’s optimization technique to determine the optimum parameters (individual gain of proportional and integral controller) of the PI controller. Integrated Square of the Error (ISE), Integrated Time multiplied by Absolute Error(ITAE) , and Integrated Absolute Error(IAE) performance indices are considered to measure the appropriateness of the designed controller.  The proposed controller are tested for a two area single nonreheat thermal system considering the practical aspect of the problem such as Deadband and Generation Rate Constraint(GRC). Simulation results show that  dual mode with optimized values of the gains improved the control performance than the commonly used Variable Structure .

Thermal and Visual Performance of Solar Control Film

The use of solar control film on windows as one of solar passive strategies for building have becoming important and is gaining recognition. Malaysia located close to equator is having warm humid climate with long sunshine hours and abundant solar radiation throughout the year. Hence, befitting solar control on windows is absolutely necessary to capture the daylight whilst moderating thermal impact and eliminating glare problems. This is one of the energy efficient strategies to achieve thermal and visual comfort in buildings. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the effect of window solar controls on thermal and visual performance of naturally ventilated buildings. This was conducted via field data monitoring using a test building facility. Four types of window glazing systems were used with three types of solar control films. Data were analysed for thermal and visual impact with reference to thermal and optical characteristics of the films. Results show that for each glazing system, the surface temperature of windows are influenced by the Solar Energy Absorption property, the indoor air temperature are influenced by the Solar Energy Transmittance and Solar Energy Reflectance, and the daylighting by Visible Light Transmission and Shading Coefficient. Further investigations are underway to determine the mathematical relation between thermal energy and visual performance with the thermal and optical characteristics of solar control films.

Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) Algorithm – A Comparison of Mathematica Code with FLUENT 6.2 for Low Knudsen Number

A code has been developed in Mathematica using Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) technique. The code was tested for 2-D air flow around a circular cylinder. Same geometry and flow properties were used in FLUENT 6.2 for comparison. The results obtained from Mathematica simulation indicated significant agreement with FLUENT calculations, hence providing insight into particle nature of fluid flows.

Comparison and Analysis of Lithium Bromide-water Absorption Chillers Using Plastic Heat Transfer Tubes and Traditional Lithium Bromide-water Absorption Chillers

There are extensive applications of lithium bromide-water absorption chillers in industry, but the heat exchangers corrosion and refrigerating capacity loss are very difficult to be solved. In this paper, an experiment was conducted by using plastic heat transfer tubes instead of copper tubes. As an example, for a lithium bromide-water absorption chiller of refrigerating capacity of 35kW, the correlative performance of the lithium bromide-water absorption chiller using plastic heat transfer tubes was compared with the traditional lithium bromide-water absorption chiller. And then the following three aspects, i.e., heat transfer area, pipe resistance, and safety strength, are analyzed. The results show that plastic heat transfer tubes can be used on lithium bromide-water absorption chillers, and its prospect is very optimistic.

An Iterative Algorithm to Compute the Generalized Inverse A(2) T,S Under the Restricted Inner Product

Let T and S be a subspace of Cn and Cm, respectively. Then for A ∈ Cm×n satisfied AT ⊕ S = Cm, the generalized inverse A(2) T,S is given by A(2) T,S = (PS⊥APT )†. In this paper, a finite formulae is presented to compute generalized inverse A(2) T,S under the concept of restricted inner product, which defined as < A,B >T,S=< PS⊥APT,B > for the A,B ∈ Cm×n. By this iterative method, when taken the initial matrix X0 = PTA∗PS⊥, the generalized inverse A(2) T,S can be obtained within at most mn iteration steps in absence of roundoff errors. Finally given numerical example is shown that the iterative formulae is quite efficient.

A Comparison of Real Valued Transforms for Image Compression

In this paper we present simulation results for the application of a bandwidth efficient algorithm (mapping algorithm) to an image transmission system. This system considers three different real valued transforms to generate energy compact coefficients. First results are presented for gray scale and color image transmission in the absence of noise. It is seen that the system performs its best when discrete cosine transform is used. Also the performance of the system is dominated more by the size of the transform block rather than the number of coefficients transmitted or the number of bits used to represent each coefficient. Similar results are obtained in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise. The varying values of the bit error rate have very little or no impact on the performance of the algorithm. Optimum results are obtained for the system considering 8x8 transform block and by transmitting 15 coefficients from each block using 8 bits.

An Adaptive Virtual Desktop Service in Cloud Computing Platform

Cloud computing is becoming more and more matured over the last few years and consequently the demands for better cloud services is increasing rapidly. One of the research topics to improve cloud services is the desktop computing in virtualized environment. This paper aims at the development of an adaptive virtual desktop service in cloud computing platform based on our previous research on the virtualization technology. We implement cloud virtual desktop and application software streaming technology that make it possible for providing Virtual Desktop as a Service (VDaaS). Given the development of remote desktop virtualization, it allows shifting the user’s desktop from the traditional PC environment to the cloud-enabled environment, which is stored on a remote virtual machine rather than locally. This proposed effort has the potential to positively provide an efficient, resilience and elastic environment for online cloud service. Users no longer need to burden the platform maintenances and drastically reduces the overall cost of hardware and software licenses. Moreover, this flexible remote desktop service represents the next significant step to the mobile workplace, and it lets users access their desktop environments from virtually anywhere.