Abstract: Predicting short term wind speed is essential in order
to prevent systems in-action from the effects of strong winds. It also
helps in using wind energy as an alternative source of energy, mainly
for Electrical power generation. Wind speed prediction has
applications in Military and civilian fields for air traffic control,
rocket launch, ship navigation etc. The wind speed in near future
depends on the values of other meteorological variables, such as
atmospheric pressure, moisture content, humidity, rainfall etc. The
values of these parameters are obtained from a nearest weather
station and are used to train various forms of neural networks. The
trained model of neural networks is validated using a similar set of
data. The model is then used to predict the wind speed, using the
same meteorological information. This paper reports an Artificial
Neural Network model for short term wind speed prediction, which
uses back propagation algorithm.
Abstract: This paper features the modeling and design of a Fast
Output Sampling (FOS) Feedback control technique for the Active
Vibration Control (AVC) of a smart flexible aluminium cantilever
beam for a Single Input Single Output (SISO) case. Controllers are
designed for the beam by bonding patches of piezoelectric layer as
sensor / actuator to the master structure at different locations along
the length of the beam by retaining the first 2 dominant vibratory
modes. The entire structure is modeled in state space form using the
concept of piezoelectric theory, Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, Finite
Element Method (FEM) and the state space techniques by dividing
the structure into 3, 4, 5 finite elements, thus giving rise to three
types of systems, viz., system 1 (beam divided into 3 finite
elements), system 2 (4 finite elements), system 3 (5 finite elements).
The effect of placing the sensor / actuator at various locations along
the length of the beam for all the 3 types of systems considered is
observed and the conclusions are drawn for the best performance and
for the smallest magnitude of the control input required to control the
vibrations of the beam. Simulations are performed in MATLAB. The
open loop responses, closed loop responses and the tip displacements
with and without the controller are obtained and the performance of
the proposed smart system is evaluated for vibration control.
Abstract: This study is concerned with a new adaptive impedance control strategy to compensate for unknown time-varying environment stiffness and position. The uncertainties are expressed by Function Approximation Technique (FAT), which allows the update laws to be derived easily using Lyapunov stability theory. Computer simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.
Abstract: The main goal of this paper is to study Statistical Process Control (SPC) with Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) control chart when observations are serially-correlated. The characteristic of control chart is Average Run Length (ARL) which is the average number of samples taken before an action signal is given. Ideally, an acceptable ARL of in-control process should be enough large, so-called (ARL0). Otherwise it should be small when the process is out-of-control, so-called Average of Delay Time (ARL1) or a mean of true alarm. We find explicit formulas of ARL for EWMA control chart for Seasonal Autoregressive and Moving Average processes (SARMA) with Exponential white noise. The results of ARL obtained from explicit formula and Integral equation are in good agreement. In particular, this formulas for evaluating (ARL0) and (ARL1) be able to get a set of optimal parameters which depend on smoothing parameter (λ) and width of control limit (H) for designing EWMA chart with minimum of (ARL1).
Abstract: Xanthan gum is a microbial polysaccharide of great
commercial significance. The purpose of this study was to select the
optimum fermentation time for xanthan gum production by
Xanthomonas campestris (NRRL-B-1459) using 10% sugar beet
molasses as a carbon source. The pre-heating of sugar beet molasses
and the supplementation of the medium were investigated in order to
improve xanthan gum production. Maximum xanthan gum
production in fermentation media (9.02 g/l) was observed after 4 days
shaking incubation at 25°C and 240 rpm agitation speed. A solution
of 10% sucrose was used as a control medium. Results indicated that
the optimum period for xanthan gum production in this condition was
4 days.
Abstract: Recently, it has been suggested that thought control strategies aimed at controlling unwanted thoughts may be used to cope with paranoid thoughts in both clinical and nonclinical samples. The current study aims to examine the type of thought control strategies that were associated with the frequency of paranoid thoughts in nonclinical samples. A total of 159 Japanese undergraduate students completed the two scales–the Paranoia Checklist and the Thought Control Questionnaire. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that worry-based control strategies were associated with paranoid thoughts, whereas distraction- and social-based control strategies were inversely associated with paranoid thoughts. Our findings suggest that in a nonclinical population, worry-based strategies may be especially maladaptive, whereas distraction- and social-based strategies may be adaptive to paranoid thoughts.
Abstract: In this research paper we have presented control
architecture for robotic arm movement and trajectory planning using
Fuzzy Logic (FL) and Genetic Algorithms (GAs). This architecture is
used to compensate the uncertainties like; movement, friction and
settling time in robotic arm movement. The genetic algorithms and
fuzzy logic is used to meet the objective of optimal control
movement of robotic arm. This proposed technique represents a
general model for redundant structures and may extend to other
structures. Results show optimal angular movement of joints as result
of evolutionary process. This technique has edge over the other
techniques as minimum mathematics complexity used.
Abstract: Goat milk has an hypoallergenic effects, and allergic
diseases related to abnormal of intestinal flora. Probiotic microorganisms
do exert an activity on the immune system in the skin of
the individual.The purpose of this study are to determine the number
of leukocyte and lymphocyte proliferation in rat supplemented with
fermented goat milk (acidophilus milk and kefir) and sensitized with
dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). Female Wistar rats 6-8 weeks olds
were divided into 3 treatment groups. The first group supplemented
goat milk kefir, second group acidophilus goat milk, and third group
as control. During 28-day experiment, on day 15 rat sensitized with
allergen DNCB on the dorsal of the body, and on day 24 was
challenged with DNCB on the ear. Sampling of blood and tissue of
intestinal Peyer'patch (PP) were performed on day 14 (before DNCB
sensitized) and on day 28 (after DNCB sensitized). The results
showed the number of neutrophils in rats supplemented with
acidophilus milk was higher (P
Abstract: The Internet is the global data communications
infrastructure based on the interconnection of both public and private
networks using protocols that implement Internetworking on a global
scale. Hence the control of protocol and infrastructure development,
resource allocation and network operation are crucial and interlinked
aspects. Internet Governance is the hotly debated and contentious
subject that refers to the global control and operation of key Internet
infrastructure such as domain name servers and resources such as
domain names. It is impossible to separate technical and political
positions as they are interlinked. Furthermore the existence of a
global market, transparency and competition impact upon Internet
Governance and related topics such as network neutrality and
security. Current trends and developments regarding Internet
governance with a focus on the policy-making process, security and
control have been observed to evaluate current and future
implications on the Internet. The multi stakeholder approach to
Internet Governance discussed in this paper presents a number of
opportunities, issues and developments that will affect the future
direction of the Internet. Internet operation, maintenance and
advisory organisations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) or the Internet Governance Forum
(IGF) are currently in the process of formulating policies for future
Internet Governance. Given the controversial nature of the issues at
stake and the current lack of agreement it is predicted that
institutional as well as market governance will remain present for the
network access and content.
Abstract: In this paper electrical characteristics of various kinds
of multiple-gate silicon nanowire transistors (SNWT) with the
channel length equal to 7 nm are compared. A fully ballistic quantum
mechanical transport approach based on NEGF was employed to
analyses electrical characteristics of rectangular and cylindrical
silicon nanowire transistors as well as a Double gate MOS FET. A
double gate, triple gate, and gate all around nano wires were studied
to investigate the impact of increasing the number of gates on the
control of the short channel effect which is important in nanoscale
devices. Also in the case of triple gate rectangular SNWT inserting
extra gates on the bottom of device can improve the application of
device. The results indicate that by using gate all around structures
short channel effects such as DIBL, subthreshold swing and delay
reduces.
Abstract: This study demonstrates the use of Class F fly ash in
combination with lime or lime kiln dust in the full depth reclamation
(FDR) of asphalt pavements. FDR, in the context of this paper, is a
process of pulverizing a predetermined amount of flexible pavement
that is structurally deficient, blending it with chemical additives and
water, and compacting it in place to construct a new stabilized base
course. Test sections of two structurally deficient asphalt pavements
were reclaimed using Class F fly ash in combination with lime and
lime kiln dust. In addition, control sections were constructed using
cement, cement and emulsion, lime kiln dust and emulsion, and mill
and fill. The service performance and structural behavior of the FDR
pavement test sections were monitored to determine how the fly ash
sections compared to other more traditional pavement rehabilitation
techniques. Service performance and structural behavior were
determined with the use of sensors embedded in the road and Falling
Weight Deflectometer (FWD) tests. Monitoring results of the FWD
tests conducted up to 2 years after reclamation show that the cement,
fly ash+LKD, and fly ash+lime sections exhibited two year resilient
modulus values comparable to open graded cement stabilized
aggregates (more than 750 ksi). The cement treatment resulted in a
significant increase in resilient modulus within 3 weeks of
construction and beyond this curing time, the stiffness increase was
slow. On the other hand, the fly ash+LKD and fly ash+lime test
sections indicated slower shorter-term increase in stiffness. The fly
ash+LKD and fly ash+lime section average resilient modulus values
at two years after construction were in excess of 800 ksi. Additional
longer-term testing data will be available from ongoing pavement
performance and environmental condition data collection at the two
pavement sites.
Abstract: Rice, which is the staple food in Sierra Leone, is
consumed on a daily basis. It is the most imperative food crop
extensively grown by farmers across all ecologies in the country.
Though much attention is now given to rice grain production through
the small holder commercialization programme (SHCP), however, no
attention has been given in investigating the limitations faced by rice
producers. This paper will contribute to attempts to overcome the
development challenges caused by food insecurity. The objective of
this paper is thus, to analysis the relationship between rice production
and the domestic retail price of rice. The study employed a log linear
model in which, the quantity of rice produced is the dependent
variable, quantity of rice imported, price of imported rice and price of
domestic rice as explanatory variables. Findings showed that, locally
produced rice is even more expensive than the imported rice per ton,
and almost all the inhabitants in the capital city which hosts about
65% of the entire population of the country favor imported rice, as it
is free from stones with other impurities. On the other hand, to
control price and simultaneously increase rice production, the
government should purchase the rice from the farmers and then sell to private retailers.
Abstract: 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.
Abstract: One problem of synthetic sunflower cultivation is an
erratic germination of the seeds. To improve the germination, presowing
seed treatment with an ultrasound was tested. All treatments
were carried out at 40 kHz frequency with the intensities of 40, 60,
80 and 100% of the ultrasonic generator total power (250 W) for the
durations of 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes. Data on seed germination
percentage, seed vigor index (SVI), root and shoot lengths of
seedlings were collected. The results showed that germination, SVI,
root and shoot lengths of ultrasonic treated seedlings were different
from the control, depending on intensity of the ultrasound. The
effects of ultrasonic treatment were significant on germination,
resulting in a maximum increase of 43% at 40 and 60% intensities
compared to that of the control seeds. In addition, seedlings of these 2
treatments had higher SVI and longer root and shoot lengths than that
of the control seedlings. All treatment durations resulted in higher
germination and SVI, longer root and higher shoot lenghts of
seedlings than the control. Among the duration treatments, only SVI
and seedling root length were significantly different.
Abstract: As nanotechnology advances, the use of nanotechnology for medical purposes in the field of nanomedicine seems more promising; the rise of nanorobots for medical diagnostics and treatments could be arriving in the near future. This study proposes a swarm intelligence based control mechanism for swarm nanorobots that operate as artificial platelets to search for wounds. The canonical particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed in this study. A simulation in the circulatory system is constructed and used for demonstrating the movement of nanorobots with essential characteristics to examine the performance of proposed control mechanism. The effects of three nanorobot capabilities including their perception range, maximum velocity and respond time are investigated. The results show that canonical particle swarm optimization can be used to control the early version nanorobots with simple behaviors and actions.
Abstract: Chemically defined Schlegel-s medium was modified
to improve production of cell growth and other metabolites that are
produced by fluorescent pseudomonad R62 strain. The modified
medium does not require pH control as pH changes are kept within ±
0.2 units of the initial pH 7.1 during fermentation. The siderophore
production was optimized for the fluorescent pseudomonad strain in
the modified medium containing 1% glycerol as a major carbon
source supplemented with 0.05% succinic acid and 0.5% Ltryptophan.
Indole-3 acetic acid (IAA) production was higher when
L-tryptophan was used at 0.5%. The 2,4- diacetylphloroglucinol
(DAPG) was higher with amended three trace elements in medium.
The optimized medium produced 2.28 g/l of dry cell mass and 900
mg/l of siderophore at the end of 36 h cultivation, while the
production levels of IAA and DAPG were 65 mg/l and 81 mg/l
respectively at the end of 48 h cultivation.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is i) to investigate the driving factors and barriers of the adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Halal logistic and ii) to develop an ICT adoption framework for Halal logistic service provider. The Halal LSPs selected for the study currently used ICT service platforms, such as accounting and management system for Halal logistic business. The study categorizes the factors influencing the adoption decision and process by LSPs into four groups: technology related factors, organizational and environmental factors, Halal assurance related factors, and government related factors. The major contribution in this study is the discovery that technology related factors (ICT compatibility with Halal requirement) and Halal assurance related factors are the most crucial factors among the Halal LSPs applying ICT for Halal control in transportation-s operation. Among the government related factors, ICT requirement for monitoring Halal included in Halal Logistic Standard on Transportation (MS2400:2010) are the most influencing factors in the adoption of ICT with the support of the government. In addition, the government related factors are very important in the reducing the main barriers and the creation of the atmosphere of ICT adoption in Halal LSP sector.
Abstract: Evolutionary Algorithms are population-based,
stochastic search techniques, widely used as efficient global
optimizers. However, many real life optimization problems often
require finding optimal solution to complex high dimensional,
multimodal problems involving computationally very expensive
fitness function evaluations. Use of evolutionary algorithms in such
problem domains is thus practically prohibitive. An attractive
alternative is to build meta models or use an approximation of the
actual fitness functions to be evaluated. These meta models are order
of magnitude cheaper to evaluate compared to the actual function
evaluation. Many regression and interpolation tools are available to
build such meta models. This paper briefly discusses the
architectures and use of such meta-modeling tools in an evolutionary
optimization context. We further present two evolutionary algorithm
frameworks which involve use of meta models for fitness function
evaluation. The first framework, namely the Dynamic Approximate
Fitness based Hybrid EA (DAFHEA) model [14] reduces
computation time by controlled use of meta-models (in this case
approximate model generated by Support Vector Machine
regression) to partially replace the actual function evaluation by
approximate function evaluation. However, the underlying
assumption in DAFHEA is that the training samples for the metamodel
are generated from a single uniform model. This does not take
into account uncertain scenarios involving noisy fitness functions.
The second model, DAFHEA-II, an enhanced version of the original
DAFHEA framework, incorporates a multiple-model based learning
approach for the support vector machine approximator to handle
noisy functions [15]. Empirical results obtained by evaluating the
frameworks using several benchmark functions demonstrate their
efficiency
Abstract: Based on the feature of model disturbances and uncertainty being compensated dynamically in auto – disturbances-rejection-controller (ADRC), a new method using ADRC is proposed for the decoupling control of dispenser longitudinal movement in big flight envelope. Developed from nonlinear model directly, ADRC is especially suitable for dynamic model that has big disturbances. Furthermore, without changing the structure and parameters of the controller in big flight envelope, this scheme can simplify the design of flight control system. The simulation results in big flight envelope show that the system achieves high dynamic performance, steady state performance and the controller has strong robustness.
Abstract: Quality control charts indicate out of control
conditions if any nonrandom pattern of the points is observed or any
point is plotted beyond the control limits. Nonrandom patterns of
Shewhart control charts are tested with sensitizing rules. When the
processes are defined with fuzzy set theory, traditional sensitizing
rules are insufficient for defining all out of control conditions. This is
due to the fact that fuzzy numbers increase the number of out of
control conditions. The purpose of the study is to develop a set of
fuzzy sensitizing rules, which increase the flexibility and sensitivity
of fuzzy control charts. Fuzzy sensitizing rules simplify the
identification of out of control situations that results in a decrease in
the calculation time and number of evaluations in fuzzy control chart
approach.