Calibration of Time-Skew Error in a M-Channel Time-Interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converter

Offset mismatch, gain mismatch, and time-skew error between time-interleaved channels limit the performance of time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters (TIADC). This paper focused on the time-skew error. A new technique for calibrating time-skew error in M-channels TIADC is described, and simulation results are also presented.

Linking OpenCourseWares and Open Education Resources: Creating an Effective Search and Recommendation System

With a growing number of digital libraries and other open education repositories being made available throughout the world, effective search and retrieval tools are necessary to access the desired materials that surpass the effectiveness of traditional, allinclusive search engines. This paper discusses the design and use of Folksemantic, a platform that integrates OpenCourseWare search, Open Educational Resource recommendations, and social network functionality into a single open source project. The paper describes how the system was originally envisioned, its goals for users, and data that provides insight into how it is actually being used. Data sources include website click-through data, query logs, web server log files and user account data. Based on a descriptive analysis of its current use, modifications to the platform's design are recommended to better address goals of the system, along with recommendations for additional phases of research.

Leadership Branding for Sustainable Customer Engagement

The purpose of this paper is to examine the inter relationships among various leadership branding constructs of entrepreneurs in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). We employ a quantitative structural equation modeling through a new leadership branding engagement model comprises constructs of leader-s or entrepreneur-s personality, branding practice and customer engagement. The results confirm that there are significant relationships between the three constructs and the major fit indices indicate that the data fits the proposed model. The findings provide insights and fill in the literature gaps on statistically validated representation of leadership branding for SMEs across new economic regions of Malaysia that may implicate other economic zones with similar situations. This study extends the establishment of a leadership branding engagement model with a new mechanism of using leaders- personality as a predictor to branding practice and customer engagement performance.

Design of a Low Cost Motion Data Acquisition Setup for Mechatronic Systems

Motion sensors have been commonly used as a valuable component in mechatronic systems, however, many mechatronic designs and applications that need motion sensors cost enormous amount of money, especially high-tech systems. Design of a software for communication protocol between data acquisition card and motion sensor is another issue that has to be solved. This study presents how to design a low cost motion data acquisition setup consisting of MPU 6050 motion sensor (gyro and accelerometer in 3 axes) and Arduino Mega2560 microcontroller. Design parameters are calibration of the sensor, identification and communication between sensor and data acquisition card, interpretation of data collected by the sensor.

The Anti-Noise and Anti-Wear Systems for Railways

In recent years there has been a continuous increase of axle loads, tonnage, train speed and train length which has increased both the productivity in the rail sector and the risk of rail breaks and derailments. On the other hand, the environmental requirements (e.g. noise reduction) for railway operations will become tighter in the future. In our research we developed a new composite material which does not change braking properties, is capable of taking extremely high pressure loads, reduces noise and is environmentally friendly. Part of our research was also the development of technology which will be able to apply this material to the rail. The result of our research was the system which reduces the wear out significantly and almost completely eliminates the squealing noise at the same time, and by using only one special material.

The Influence of the Inlet Conditions on the Airside Heat Transfer Performance of Plain Finned Evaporator

A numerical study has been conducted to investigate the influence of fin pitch and relative humidity on the heat transfer performance of the fin-and-tube heat exchangers having plain fin geometry under dehumidifying conditions. The analysis is done using the ratio between the heat transfer coefficients in totally wet conditions and those in totally dry conditions using the appropriate correlations for both dry and wet conditions. For a constant relative humidity, it is found that the heat transfer coefficient increases with the increase of the air frontal velocity. By contrast, the fin efficiency decreases when the face velocity is increased. Apparently, this phenomenon is attributed to the path of condensate drainage. For the influence of relative humidity, the results showed an increase in heat transfer performance and a decrease in wet fin efficiency when relative humidity increases. This is due to the higher amount of mass transfer encountered at higher relative humidity. However, it is found that the effect of fin pitch on the heat transfer performance depends strongly on the face velocity. At lower frontal velocity the heat transfer increases with fin pitch. Conversely, an increase in fin pitch gives lower heat transfer coefficients when air velocity is increased.

Study of a Four-Bed Pressure Swing Adsorption for Oxygen Separation from Air

This article is presented an experimental and modeling study of a four-bed pressure swing adsorption process using zeolite13X to provide oxygen-enriched air. The binary mixture N2/O2 (79/21 vol %) was used as a feed stream. The effects of purge/feed ratio (P/F), adsorption pressure, cyclic time and product flow rate on product purity and recovery under nonisothermal condition were studied. The adsorption dynamics of process were determined using a mathematical model incorporated mass and energy balances. A Mathlab code using finite difference method was developed to solve the set of coupled differential-algebraic equations, and the simulation results are agreed well with experimental results.

New Simultaneous High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method for Determination of NSAIDs and Opioid Analgesics in Advanced Drug Delivery Systems and Human Plasma

A new and cost effective RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for simultaneous analysis of non steroidal anti inflammatory dugs Diclofenac sodium (DFS), Flurbiprofen (FLP) and an opioid analgesic Tramadol (TMD) in advanced drug delivery systems (Liposome and Microcapsules), marketed brands and human plasma. Isocratic system was employed for the flow of mobile phase consisting of 10 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate buffer and acetonitrile in molar ratio of 67: 33 with adjusted pH of 3.2. The stationary phase was hypersil ODS column (C18, 250×4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm) with controlled temperature of 30 C°. DFS in liposomes, microcapsules and marketed drug products was determined in range of 99.76-99.84%. FLP and TMD in microcapsules and brands formulation were 99.78 - 99.94 % and 99.80 - 99.82 %, respectively. Single step liquid-liquid extraction procedure using combination of acetonitrile and trichloroacetic acid (TCA) as protein precipitating agent was employed. The detection limits (at S/N ratio 3) of quality control solutions and plasma samples were 10, 20, and 20 ng/ml for DFS, FLP and TMD, respectively. The Assay was acceptable in linear dynamic range. All other validation parameters were found in limits of FDA and ICH method validation guidelines. The proposed method is sensitive, accurate and precise and could be applicable for routine analysis in pharmaceutical industry as well as in human plasma samples for bioequivalence and pharmacokinetics studies.

A Novel Approach to EMABS and Comparison with ABS

In this paper two different Antilock braking system (ABS) are simulated and compared. One is the ordinary hydraulic ABS system which we call it ABS and the other is Electromagnetic Antilock braking system which is called (EMABS) the basis of performance of an EMABS is based upon Electromagnetic force. In this system there is no need to use servo hydraulic booster which are used in ABS system. In EMABS to generate the desired force we have use a magnetic relay which works with an input voltage through an air gap (g). The generated force will be amplified by the relay arm, and is applied to the brake shoes and thus the braking torque is generated. The braking torque is proportional to the applied electrical voltage E. to adjust the braking torque it is only necessary to regulate the electrical voltage E which is very faster and has a much smaller time constant T than the ABS system. The simulations of these two different ABS systems are done with MATLAB/SIMULINK software and the superiority of the EMABS has been shown.

A Novel Approach to Fault Classification and Fault Location for Medium Voltage Cables Based on Artificial Neural Network

A novel application of neural network approach to fault classification and fault location of Medium voltage cables is demonstrated in this paper. Different faults on a protected cable should be classified and located correctly. This paper presents the use of neural networks as a pattern classifier algorithm to perform these tasks. The proposed scheme is insensitive to variation of different parameters such as fault type, fault resistance, and fault inception angle. Studies show that the proposed technique is able to offer high accuracy in both of the fault classification and fault location tasks.

Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control of an MR Mount for Vibration Attenuation

In this paper, an magnetorheological (MR) mount with fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC) is studied for vibration suppression when the system is subject to base excitations. In recent years, magnetorheological fluids are becoming a popular material in the field of the semi-active control. However, the dynamic equation of an MR mount is highly nonlinear and it is difficult to identify. FSMC provides a simple method to achieve vibration attenuation of the nonlinear system with uncertain disturbances. This method is capable of handling the chattering problem of sliding mode control effectively and the fuzzy control rules are obtained by using the Lyapunov stability theory. The numerical simulations using one-dimension and two-dimension FSMC show effectiveness of the proposed controller for vibration suppression. Further, the well-known skyhook control scheme and an adaptive sliding mode controller are also included in the simulation for comparison with the proposed FSMC.

Optimizing Electrospinning Parameters for Finest Diameter of Nano Fibers

Nano fibers produced by electrospinning are of industrial and scientific attention due to their special characteristics such as long length, small diameter and high surface area. Applications of electrospun structures in nanotechnology are included tissue scaffolds, fibers for drug delivery, composite reinforcement, chemical sensing, enzyme immobilization, membrane-based filtration, protective clothing, catalysis, solar cells, electronic devices and others. Many polymer and ceramic precursor nano fibers have been successfully electrospun with diameters in the range from 1 nm to several microns. The process is complex so that fiber diameter is influenced by various material, design and operating parameters. The objective of this work is to apply genetic algorithm on the parameters of electrospinning which have the most significant effect on the nano fiber diameter to determine the optimum parameter values before doing experimental set up. Effective factors including initial polymer concentration, initial jet radius, electrical potential, relaxation time, initial elongation, viscosity and distance between nozzle and collector are considered to determine finest diameter which is selected by user.

Development of a New Piezoelectrically Actuated Micropump for Liquid and Gas

This paper aims to present the design, fabrication and test of a novel piezoelectric actuated, check-valves embedded micropump having the advantages of miniature size, light weight and low power consumption. This device is designed to pump gases and liquids with the capability of performing the self-priming and bubble-tolerant work mode by maximizing the stroke volume of the membrane as well as the compression ratio via minimization of the dead volume of the micropump chamber and channel. By experiment apparatus setup, we can get the real-time values of the flow rate of micropump, the displacement of the piezoelectric actuator and the deformation of the check valve, simultaneously. The micropump with check valve 0.4 mm in thickness obtained higher output performance under the sinusoidal waveform of 120 Vpp. The micropump achieved the maximum pumping rates of 42.2 ml/min and back pressure of 14.0 kPa at the corresponding frequency of 28 and 20 Hz. The presented micropump is able to pump gases with a pumping rate of 196 ml/min at operating frequencies of 280 Hz under the sinusoidal waveform of 120 Vpp.

QCM-D Study of E-casein Adsorption on Bimodal PEG Brushes

Adsorption of proteins onto a solid surface is believed to be the initial and controlling step in biofouling. A better knowledge of the fouling process can be obtained by controlling the formation of the first protein layer at a solid surface. A number of methods have been investigated to inhibit adsorption of proteins. In this study, the adsorption kinetics of

Effect of Atmospheric Turbulence on AcquisitionTime of Ground to Deep Space Optical Communication System

The performance of ground to deep space optical communication systems is degraded by distortion of the beam as it propagates through the turbulent atmosphere. Turbulence causes fluctuations in the intensity of the received signal which ultimately affects the acquisition time required to acquire and locate the spaceborne target using narrow laser beam. In this paper, performance of free-space optical (FSO) communication system in atmospheric turbulence has been analyzed in terms of acquisition time for coherent and non-coherent modulation schemes. Numerical results presented in graphical and tabular forms show that the acquisition time increases with the increase in turbulence level. This is true for both schemes. The BPSK has lowest acquisition time among all schemes. In non-coherent schemes, M-PPM performs better than the other schemes. With the increase in M, acquisition time becomes lower, but at the cost of increase in system complexity.

Identification Common Microbes Observed on Polyester Tufting

Tufting carpet is a very suitable substrate for growing microorganism such as pathogenic microbes, due to the direct touch with human body, long washing periods and laying on the floor; in fact there are 3 major problems: To risk human health, Prepare bad odors and Destruction of the products.. In the presented research, for investigation of presence most common microbes on polyester tufting, first goods laid in a public place (in the corridor fair) for 30 days and the existence of some microbes were investigate on it with two methods of enrichment in nutrient environments such as thioglycolate and noutrunt brath, and shake the dust off the polyester tufting onto cultivation mediums such as blood agar and noutrunt agar. After the microorganism colonics are grown, the colonies were separated and six microbial tests such as cataloes and sitrat were carried out in five phases on the colonics for identifying the varieties of bacteria. As a result of tests, 5 type of bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, staphylococcus saprophytic as were identified. Each of the mentioned bacteria can be seriously harmful for the heath of human.

ECG Analysis using Nature Inspired Algorithm

This paper presents an algorithm based on the wavelet decomposition, for feature extraction from the ECG signal and recognition of three types of Ventricular Arrhythmias using neural networks. A set of Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) coefficients, which contain the maximum information about the arrhythmias, is selected from the wavelet decomposition. After that a novel clustering algorithm based on nature inspired algorithm (Ant Colony Optimization) is developed for classifying arrhythmia types. The algorithm is applied on the ECG registrations from the MIT-BIH arrhythmia and malignant ventricular arrhythmia databases. We applied Daubechies 4 wavelet in our algorithm. The wavelet decomposition enabled us to perform the task efficiently and produced reliable results.

Evolutionary Origin of the αC Helix in Integrins

Integrins are a large family of multidomain α/β cell signaling receptors. Some integrins contain an additional inserted I domain, whose earliest expression appears to be with the chordates, since they are observed in the urochordates Ciona intestinalis (vase tunicate) and Halocynthia roretzi (sea pineapple), but not in integrins of earlier diverging species. The domain-s presence is viewed as a hallmark of integrins of higher metazoans, however in vertebrates, there are clearly three structurally-different classes: integrins without I domains, and two groups of integrins with I domains but separable by the presence or absence of an additional αC helix. For example, the αI domains in collagen-binding integrins from Osteichthyes (bony fish) and all higher vertebrates contain the specific αC helix, whereas the αI domains in non-collagen binding integrins from vertebrates and the αI domains from earlier diverging urochordate integrins, i.e. tunicates, do not. Unfortunately, within the early chordates, there is an evolutionary gap due to extinctions between the tunicates and cartilaginous fish. This, coupled with a knowledge gap due to the lack of complete genomic data from surviving species, means that the origin of collagen-binding αC-containing αI domains remains unknown. Here, we analyzed two available genomes from Callorhinchus milii (ghost shark/elephant shark; Chondrichthyes – cartilaginous fish) and Petromyzon marinus (sea lamprey; Agnathostomata), and several available Expression Sequence Tags from two Chondrichthyes species: Raja erinacea (little skate) and Squalus acanthias (dogfish shark); and Eptatretus burgeri (inshore hagfish; Agnathostomata), which evolutionary reside between the urochordates and osteichthyes. In P. marinus, we observed several fragments coding for the αC-containing αI domain, allowing us to shed more light on the evolution of the collagen-binding integrins.

Effect of Lubrication on the Quantity of Heat Emission of two Spur Gears in Meshing

This paper investigates the effects of lubrication on the quantity of heat emission of two spur gear. System with and without lubrication effected on the quantity of heat induced on the gear box (oil - bearings – gears). Both of lubrication and speed of motor are affected on the performance of gears. Research investigated the lubrication on the system with and without loading as well as the wear of gears and bearing's conditions. Gear box investigated includes the motor, pump, two spur gears, two shafts; speed change used pulleys and belts. Load used equal one weight ones of gear. Lubrication mechanism used jet system (upper and lower jet). Gear box we used system of jet lubrication is perpendicular direction of the contact line between two teeth. Results appeared in this work that the lubrication is the vital parameter which is affected on the performance and durability of gears and bearings. In macroscopic observation, we noted that damage of bearings happened during the absence of lubrication as well as abrasive of wear of teeth. Higher speed of motor without lubrication increased the noise, but in the presence of lubrication was decreased.