Identification of a PWA Model of a Batch Reactor for Model Predictive Control

The complex hybrid and nonlinear nature of many processes that are met in practice causes problems with both structure modelling and parameter identification; therefore, obtaining a model that is suitable for MPC is often a difficult task. The basic idea of this paper is to present an identification method for a piecewise affine (PWA) model based on a fuzzy clustering algorithm. First we introduce the PWA model. Next, we tackle the identification method. We treat the fuzzy clustering algorithm, deal with the projections of the fuzzy clusters into the input space of the PWA model and explain the estimation of the parameters of the PWA model by means of a modified least-squares method. Furthermore, we verify the usability of the proposed identification approach on a hybrid nonlinear batch reactor example. The result suggest that the batch reactor can be efficiently identified and thus formulated as a PWA model, which can eventually be used for model predictive control purposes.

Structure and Magnetic Properties of Nanocomposite Fe2O3/TiO2 Catalysts Fabricated by Heterogeneous Precipitation

The aim of our work is to study phase composition, particle size and magnetic response of Fe2O3/TiO2 nanocomposites with respect to the final annealing temperature. Those nanomaterials are considered as smart catalysts, separable from a liquid/gaseous phase by applied magnetic field. The starting product was obtained by an ecologically acceptable route, based on heterogeneous precipitation of the TiO2 on modified g-Fe2O3 nanocrystals dispersed in water. The precursor was subsequently annealed on air at temperatures ranging from 200 oC to 900 oC. The samples were investigated by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (S-PXRD), magnetic measurements and Mössbauer spectroscopy. As evidenced by S-PXRD and Mössbauer spectroscopy, increasing the annealing temperature causes evolution of the phase composition from anatase/maghemite to rutile/hematite, finally above 700 oC the pseudobrookite (Fe2TiO5) also forms. The apparent particle size of the various Fe2O3/TiO2 phases has been determined from the highquality S-PXRD data by using two different approaches: the Rietveld refinement and the Debye method. Magnetic response of the samples is discussed in considering the phase composition and the particle size.

Developing a Simple and an Accurate Formula for the Conduction Angle of a Single Phase Rectifier with RL Load

The paper presents a simple and an accurate formula that has been developed for the conduction angle (δ) of a single phase half-wave or full-wave controlled rectifier with RL load. This formula can be also used for calculating the conduction angle (δ) in case of A.C. voltage regulator with inductive load under discontinuous current mode. The simulation results shows that the conduction angle calculated from the developed formula agree very well with that obtained from the exact solution arrived from the iterative method. Applying the developed formula can reduce the computational time and reduce the time for manual classroom calculation. In addition, the proposed formula is attractive for real time implementations.

Sub-Impact Phenomenon of Elasto-Plastic Free-Free Beam during a Strike

Based on Rayleigh beam theory, the sub-impacts of a free-free beam struck horizontally by a round-nosed rigid mass is simulated by the finite difference method and the impact-separation conditions. In order to obtain the sub-impact force, a uniaxial compression elastic-plastic contact model is employed to analyze the local deformation field on contact zone. It is found that the horizontal impact is a complicated process including the elastic plastic sub-impacts in sequence. There are two sub-zones of sub-impact. In addition, it found that the elastic energy of the free-free beam is more suitable for the Poisson collision hypothesis to explain compression and recovery processes.

An Efficient Adaptive Thresholding Technique for Wavelet Based Image Denoising

This frame work describes a computationally more efficient and adaptive threshold estimation method for image denoising in the wavelet domain based on Generalized Gaussian Distribution (GGD) modeling of subband coefficients. In this proposed method, the choice of the threshold estimation is carried out by analysing the statistical parameters of the wavelet subband coefficients like standard deviation, arithmetic mean and geometrical mean. The noisy image is first decomposed into many levels to obtain different frequency bands. Then soft thresholding method is used to remove the noisy coefficients, by fixing the optimum thresholding value by the proposed method. Experimental results on several test images by using this method show that this method yields significantly superior image quality and better Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). Here, to prove the efficiency of this method in image denoising, we have compared this with various denoising methods like wiener filter, Average filter, VisuShrink and BayesShrink.

Estimation of Real Power Transfer Allocation Using Intelligent Systems

This paper presents application artificial intelligent (AI) techniques, namely artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neuro fuzzy interface system (ANFIS), to estimate the real power transfer between generators and loads. Since these AI techniques adopt supervised learning, it first uses modified nodal equation method (MNE) to determine real power contribution from each generator to loads. Then the results of MNE method and load flow information are utilized to estimate the power transfer using AI techniques. The 25-bus equivalent system of south Malaysia is utilized as a test system to illustrate the effectiveness of both AI methods compared to that of the MNE method. The mean squared error of the estimate of ANN and ANFIS power transfer allocation methods are 1.19E-05 and 2.97E-05, respectively. Furthermore, when compared to MNE method, ANN and ANFIS methods computes generator contribution to loads within 20.99 and 39.37msec respectively whereas the MNE method took 360msec for the calculation of same real power transfer allocation. 

Anticancer Effect of Doxorubicin Loaded Heparin based Super-paramagnetic Iron oxide Nanoparticles against the Human Ovarian Cancer Cells

This study determines the effect of naked and heparinbased super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles on the human cancer cell lines of A2780. Doxorubicin was used as the anticancer drug, entrapped in the SPIO-NPs. This study aimed to decorate nanoparticles with heparin, a molecular ligand for 'active' targeting of cancerous cells and the application of modified-nanoparticles in cancer treatment. The nanoparticles containing the anticancer drug DOX were prepared by a solvent evaporation and emulsification cross-linking method. The physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles were characterized by various techniques, and uniform nanoparticles with an average particle size of 110±15 nm with high encapsulation efficiencies (EE) were obtained. Additionally, a sustained release of DOX from the SPIO-NPs was successful. Cytotoxicity tests showed that the SPIO-DOX-HP had higher cell toxicity than the individual HP and confocal microscopy analysis confirmed excellent cellular uptake efficiency. These results indicate that HP based SPIO-NPs have potential uses as anticancer drug carriers and also have an enhanced anticancer effect.

On-line and Off-line POD Assisted Projective Integral for Non-linear Problems: A Case Study with Burgers-Equation

The POD-assisted projective integration method based on the equation-free framework is presented in this paper. The method is essentially based on the slow manifold governing of given system. We have applied two variants which are the “on-line" and “off-line" methods for solving the one-dimensional viscous Bergers- equation. For the on-line method, we have computed the slow manifold by extracting the POD modes and used them on-the-fly along the projective integration process without assuming knowledge of the underlying slow manifold. In contrast, the underlying slow manifold must be computed prior to the projective integration process for the off-line method. The projective step is performed by the forward Euler method. Numerical experiments show that for the case of nonperiodic system, the on-line method is more efficient than the off-line method. Besides, the online approach is more realistic when apply the POD-assisted projective integration method to solve any systems. The critical value of the projective time step which directly limits the efficiency of both methods is also shown.

Improvement of MLLR Speaker Adaptation Using a Novel Method

This paper presents a technical speaker adaptation method called WMLLR, which is based on maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR). In MLLR, a linear regression-based transform which adapted the HMM mean vectors was calculated to maximize the likelihood of adaptation data. In this paper, the prior knowledge of the initial model is adequately incorporated into the adaptation. A series of speaker adaptation experiments are carried out at a 30 famous city names database to investigate the efficiency of the proposed method. Experimental results show that the WMLLR method outperforms the conventional MLLR method, especially when only few utterances from a new speaker are available for adaptation.

TiO2-Zeolite Y Catalyst Prepared Using Impregnation and Ion-Exchange Method for Sonocatalytic Degradation of Amaranth Dye in Aqueous Solution

Characteristics and sonocatalytic activity of zeolite Y catalysts loaded with TiO2 using impregnation and ion exchange methods for the degradation of amaranth dye were investigated. The Ion-exchange method was used to encapsulate the TiO2 into the internal pores of the zeolite while the incorporation of TiO2 mostly on the external surface of zeolite was carried out using the impregnation method. Different characterization techniques were used to elucidate the physicochemical properties of the produced catalysts. The framework of zeolite Y remained virtually unchanged after the encapsulation of TiO2 while the crystallinity of zeolite decreased significantly after the incorporation of 15 wt% of TiO2. The sonocatalytic activity was enhanced by TiO2 incorporation with maximum degradation efficiencies of 50% and 68% for the encapsulated titanium and titanium loaded onto the zeolite, respectively after 120min of reaction. Catalysts characteristics and sonocatalytic behaviors were significantly affected by the preparation method and the location of TiO2 introduced with zeolite structure. Behaviors in the sonocatalytic process were successfully correlated with the characteristics of the catalysts used.

Active Tendons for Seismic Control of Buildings

In this study, active tendons with Proportional Integral Derivation type controllers were applied to a SDOF and a MDOF building model. Physical models of buildings were constituted with virtual springs, dampers and rigid masses. After that, equations of motion of all degrees of freedoms were obtained. Matlab Simulink was utilized to obtain the block diagrams for these equations of motion. Parameters for controller actions were found by using a trial method. After earthquake acceleration data were applied to the systems, building characteristics such as displacements, velocities, accelerations and transfer functions were analyzed for all degrees of freedoms. Comparisons on displacement vs. time, velocity vs. time, acceleration vs. time and transfer function (Db) vs. frequency (Hz) were made for uncontrolled and controlled buildings. The results show that the method seems feasible.

Motivated Support Vector Regression using Structural Prior Knowledge

It-s known that incorporating prior knowledge into support vector regression (SVR) can help to improve the approximation performance. Most of researches are concerned with the incorporation of knowledge in the form of numerical relationships. Little work, however, has been done to incorporate the prior knowledge on the structural relationships among the variables (referred as to Structural Prior Knowledge, SPK). This paper explores the incorporation of SPK in SVR by constructing appropriate admissible support vector kernel (SV kernel) based on the properties of reproducing kernel (R.K). Three-levels specifications of SPK are studied with the corresponding sub-levels of prior knowledge that can be considered for the method. These include Hierarchical SPK (HSPK), Interactional SPK (ISPK) consisting of independence, global and local interaction, Functional SPK (FSPK) composed of exterior-FSPK and interior-FSPK. A convenient tool for describing the SPK, namely Description Matrix of SPK is introduced. Subsequently, a new SVR, namely Motivated Support Vector Regression (MSVR) whose structure is motivated in part by SPK, is proposed. Synthetic examples show that it is possible to incorporate a wide variety of SPK and helpful to improve the approximation performance in complex cases. The benefits of MSVR are finally shown on a real-life military application, Air-toground battle simulation, which shows great potential for MSVR to the complex military applications.

An Improved Integer Frequency Offset Estimator using the P1 Symbol for OFDM System

This paper suggests an improved integer frequency offset (IFO) estimation scheme using P1 symbol for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based the second generation terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T2) system. Proposed IFO estimator is designed by a low-complexity blind IFO estimation scheme, which is implemented with complex additions. Also, we propose active carriers (ACs) selection scheme in order to prevent performance degradation in blind IFO estimation. The simulation results show that under the AWGN and TU6 channels, the proposed method has low complexity than conventional method and almost similar performance in comparison with the conventional method.

Robust Camera Calibration using Discrete Optimization

Camera calibration is an indispensable step for augmented reality or image guided applications where quantitative information should be derived from the images. Usually, a camera calibration is obtained by taking images of a special calibration object and extracting the image coordinates of projected calibration marks enabling the calculation of the projection from the 3d world coordinates to the 2d image coordinates. Thus such a procedure exhibits typical steps, including feature point localization in the acquired images, camera model fitting, correction of distortion introduced by the optics and finally an optimization of the model-s parameters. In this paper we propose to extend this list by further step concerning the identification of the optimal subset of images yielding the smallest overall calibration error. For this, we present a Monte Carlo based algorithm along with a deterministic extension that automatically determines the images yielding an optimal calibration. Finally, we present results proving that the calibration can be significantly improved by automated image selection.

A New Approach for Mobile Agent Security

A mobile agent is a software which performs an action autonomously and independently as a person or an organizations assistance. Mobile agents are used for searching information, retrieval information, filtering, intruder recognition in networks, and so on. One of the important issues of mobile agent is their security. It must consider different security issues in effective and secured usage of mobile agent. One of those issues is the integrity-s protection of mobile agents. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of each method, after reviewing the existing methods, is examined. Regarding to this matter that each method has its own advantage or disadvantage, it seems that by combining these methods, one can reach to a better method for protecting the integrity of mobile agents. Therefore, this method is provided in this paper and then is evaluated in terms of existing method. Finally, this method is simulated and its results are the sign of improving the possibility of integrity-s protection of mobile agents.

Learning to Recognize Faces by Local Feature Design and Selection

Studies in neuroscience suggest that both global and local feature information are crucial for perception and recognition of faces. It is widely believed that local feature is less sensitive to variations caused by illumination, expression and illumination. In this paper, we target at designing and learning local features for face recognition. We designed three types of local features. They are semi-global feature, local patch feature and tangent shape feature. The designing of semi-global feature aims at taking advantage of global-like feature and meanwhile avoiding suppressing AdaBoost algorithm in boosting weak classifies established from small local patches. The designing of local patch feature targets at automatically selecting discriminative features, and is thus different with traditional ways, in which local patches are usually selected manually to cover the salient facial components. Also, shape feature is considered in this paper for frontal view face recognition. These features are selected and combined under the framework of boosting algorithm and cascade structure. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the standard eigenface method and Bayesian method. Moreover, the selected local features and observations in the experiments are enlightening to researches in local feature design in face recognition.

Block Homotopy Perturbation Method for Solving Fuzzy Linear Systems

In this paper, we present an efficient numerical algorithm, namely block homotopy perturbation method, for solving fuzzy linear systems based on homotopy perturbation method. Some numerical examples are given to show the efficiency of the algorithm.

Dynamic Response of Strain Rate Dependent Glass/Epoxy Composite Beams Using Finite Difference Method

This paper deals with a numerical analysis of the transient response of composite beams with strain rate dependent mechanical properties by use of a finite difference method. The equations of motion based on Timoshenko beam theory are derived. The geometric nonlinearity effects are taken into account with von Kármán large deflection theory. The finite difference method in conjunction with Newmark average acceleration method is applied to solve the differential equations. A modified progressive damage model which accounts for strain rate effects is developed based on the material property degradation rules and modified Hashin-type failure criteria and added to the finite difference model. The components of the model are implemented into a computer code in Mathematica 6. Glass/epoxy laminated composite beams with constant and strain rate dependent mechanical properties under dynamic load are analyzed. Effects of strain rate on dynamic response of the beam for various stacking sequences, load and boundary conditions are investigated.

Stiffness Modeling of 3-PRS Mechanism

This paper proposed a stiffness analysis method for a 3-PRS mechanism for welding thick aluminum plate using FSW technology. In the molding process, elastic deformation of lead-screws and links are taken into account. This method is based on the virtual work principle. Through a survey of the commonly used stiffness performance indices, the minimum and maximum eigenvalues of the stiffness matrix are used to evaluate the stiffness of the 3-PRS mechanism. Furthermore, A FEA model has been constructed to verify the method. Finally, we redefined the workspace using the stiffness analysis method.

The Role of Velocity Map Quality in Estimation of Intravascular Pressure Distribution

Phase-Contrast MR imaging methods are widely used for measurement of blood flow velocity components. Also there are some other tools such as CT and Ultrasound for velocity map detection in intravascular studies. These data are used in deriving flow characteristics. Some clinical applications are investigated which use pressure distribution in diagnosis of intravascular disorders such as vascular stenosis. In this paper an approach to the problem of measurement of intravascular pressure field by using velocity field obtained from flow images is proposed. The method presented in this paper uses an algorithm to calculate nonlinear equations of Navier- Stokes, assuming blood as an incompressible and Newtonian fluid. Flow images usually suffer the lack of spatial resolution. Our attempt is to consider the effect of spatial resolution on the pressure distribution estimated from this method. In order to achieve this aim, velocity map of a numerical phantom is derived at six different spatial resolutions. To determine the effects of vascular stenoses on pressure distribution, a stenotic phantom geometry is considered. A comparison between the pressure distribution obtained from the phantom and the pressure resulted from the algorithm is presented. In this regard we also compared the effects of collocated and staggered computational grids on the pressure distribution resulted from this algorithm.