Abstract: Among various testing methodologies, Built-in Self-
Test (BIST) is recognized as a low cost, effective paradigm. Also,
full adders are one of the basic building blocks of most arithmetic
circuits in all processing units. In this paper, an optimized testable 2-
bit full adder as a test building block is proposed. Then, a BIST
procedure is introduced to scale up the building block and to generate
a self testable n-bit full adders. The target design can achieve 100%
fault coverage using insignificant amount of hardware redundancy.
Moreover, Overall test time is reduced by utilizing polymorphic
gates and also by testing full adder building blocks in parallel.
Abstract: Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) is one of the various
methods that can be used to reduce the carbon footprint of the
energy sector. This paper focuses on the absorption of CO2 from
flue gas using packed columns, whose efficiency is highly dependent
on the structure of the liquid films within the column. To study the
characteristics of liquid films a CFD solver, OpenFOAM is utilised
to solve two-phase, isothermal film flow using the volume-of-fluid
(VOF) method. The model was validated using existing experimental
data and the Nusselt theory. It was found that smaller plate inclination
angles, with respect to the horizontal plane, resulted in larger wetted
areas on smooth plates. However, only a slight improvement in
the wetted area was observed. Simulations were also performed
using a ridged plate and it was observed that these surface textures
significantly increase the wetted area of the plate. This was mainly
attributed to the channelling effect of the ridges, which helped to
oppose the surface tension forces trying to minimise the surface area.
Rivulet formations on the ridged plate were also flattened out and
spread across a larger proportion of the plate width.
Abstract: The absolute Cu atoms density in Cu(2S1/22P1/2)
ground state has been measured by Resonance Optical Absorption
(ROA) technique in a DC magnetron sputtering deposition with
argon. We measured these densities under variety of operation
conditions: pressure from 0.6 μbar to 14 μbar, input power from
10W to 200W and N2 mixture from 0% to 100%. For measuring the
gas temperature, we used the simulation of N2 rotational spectra
with a special computer code. The absolute number density of Cu
atoms decreases with increasing the N2 percentage of buffer gas at
any conditions of this work. But the deposition rate, is not decreased
with the same manner. The deposition rate variation is very small
and in the limit of quartz balance measuring equipment accuracy. So
we conclude that decrease in the absolute number density of Cu
atoms in magnetron plasma has not a big effect on deposition rate,
because the diffusion of Cu atoms to the chamber volume and
deviation of Cu atoms from direct path (towards the substrate)
decreases with increasing of N2 percentage of buffer gas. This is
because of the lower mass of N2 atoms compared to the argon ones.
Abstract: This paper presents investigation effects of a sharp edged gust on aeroelastic behavior and time-domain response of a typical section model using Jones approximate aerodynamics for pure plunging motion. Flutter analysis has been done by using p and p-k methods developed for presented finite-state aerodynamic model for a typical section model (airfoil). Introduction of gust analysis as a linear set of ordinary differential equations in a simplified procedure has been carried out by using transformation into an eigenvalue problem.
Abstract: The amount and heterogeneity of data in biomedical research, notably in interdisciplinary research, requires new methods for the collection, presentation and analysis of information. Important data from laboratory experiments as well as patient trials are available but come out of distributed resources. The Charite Medical School in Berlin has established together with the German Research Foundation (DFG) a new information service center for kidney diseases and transplantation (Open European Nephrology Science Centre - OpEN.SC). The system is based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) with main and auxiliary modules arranged in four layers. To improve the reuse and efficient arrangement of the services the functionalities are described as business processes using the standardised Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).
Abstract: Academics and researchers are interested in the effects of social media on college students, with a specific focus on the most popular social media website; Facebook. Previous studied have found contradictory result on the relationship between Facebook usage and the student engagement with positive, detrimental and no significant relationships. However, these studies were limited to western higher education system. This paper fills a gap in the literature by using a sample (300) of Sri Lankan management undergraduates to examine the relationship between Facebook usage and student engagement. Student engagement was measured 35 item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement and Facebook usage by Facebook intensity scale. Descriptive statistics, path analysis and structural equation modeling were applied as statistical tools and techniques. Results indicate that student engagement scale was significantly negatively related with the Facebook usage with the influence from student engagement on Facebook usage.
Abstract: This paper presents a narrative management system
for organizations to capture organization's tacit knowledge
through stories. The intention of capturing tacit knowledge is to
address the problem that comes with the mobility of workforce in
organisation. Storytelling in knowledge management context is
seen as a powerful management tool to communicate tacit
knowledge in organization. This narrative management system is
developed firstly to enable uploading of many types of knowledge
sharing stories, from general to work related-specific stories and
secondly, each video has comment functionality where knowledge
users can post comments to other knowledge users. The narrative
management system allows the stories to browse, search and view
by the users. In the system, stories are stored in a video repository.
Stories that were produced from this framework will improve
learning, knowledge transfer facilitation and tacit knowledge
quality in an organization.
Abstract: In this study the integration of an absorption heat
pump (AHP) with the concentration section of an industrial pulp and
paper process is investigated using pinch technology. The optimum
design of the proposed water-lithium bromide AHP is then achieved
by minimizing the total annual cost. A comprehensive optimization is
carried out by relaxation of all stream pressure drops as well as heat
exchanger areas involving in AHP structure. It is shown that by
applying genetic algorithm optimizer, the total annual cost of the
proposed AHP is decreased by 18% compared to one resulted from
simulation.
Abstract: In this work, a characterization and modeling of
packet loss of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication
is developed. The distributions of the number of consecutive received
and lost packets (namely gap and burst) are modeled from the
transition probabilities of two-state and four-state model.
Measurements show that both models describe adequately the burst
distribution, but the decay of gap distribution for non-homogeneous
losses is better fit by the four-state model. The respective
probabilities of transition between states for each model were
estimated with a proposed algorithm from a set of monitored VoIP
calls in order to obtain representative minimum, maximum and
average values for both models.
Abstract: In this paper, we consider the analysis of the
acquisition process for a hybrid double-dwell system with antenna
diversity for DS-CDMA (direct sequence-code division multiple
access) using an adaptive threshold. Acquisition systems with a fixed
threshold value are unable to adapt to fast varying mobile
communications environments and may result in a high false alarm
rate, and/or low detection probability. Therefore, we propose an
adaptively varying threshold scheme through the use of a cellaveraging
constant false alarm rate (CA-CFAR) algorithm, which is
well known in the field of radar detection. We derive exact
expressions for the probabilities of detection and false alarm in
Rayleigh fading channels. The mean acquisition time of the system
under consideration is also derived. The performance of the system is
analyzed and compared to that of a hybrid single dwell system.
Abstract: In this paper, the application of thermal spray
coatings in high speed shafts by a revolution up to 23000 RPM
has been studied. Gas compressor shafts are worn in contact
zone with journal therefore will be undersized. Wear
mechanisms of compressor shaft were identified. The
predominant wear mechanism is abrasion wear. The worn
surface was coated by hard WC-Co cermets using high
velocity oxy fuel (HVOF) after preparation. The shafts were in
satisfactory service in 8000h period. The metallurgical and
Tribological studies has been made on the worn and coated
shaft using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) and X-ray diffraction.
Abstract: The “PYRAMIDS" Block Cipher is a symmetric encryption algorithm of a 64, 128, 256-bit length, that accepts a variable key length of 128, 192, 256 bits. The algorithm is an iterated cipher consisting of repeated applications of a simple round transformation with different operations and different sequence in each round. The algorithm was previously software implemented in Cµ code. In this paper, a hardware implementation of the algorithm, using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), is presented. In this work, we discuss the algorithm, the implemented micro-architecture, and the simulation and implementation results. Moreover, we present a detailed comparison with other implemented standard algorithms. In addition, we include the floor plan as well as the circuit diagrams of the various micro-architecture modules.
Abstract: Designing and implementing intelligent systems has become a crucial factor for the innovation and development of better products of space technologies. A neural network is a parallel system, capable of resolving paradigms that linear computing cannot. Field programmable gate array (FPGA) is a digital device that owns reprogrammable properties and robust flexibility. For the neural network based instrument prototype in real time application, conventional specific VLSI neural chip design suffers the limitation in time and cost. With low precision artificial neural network design, FPGAs have higher speed and smaller size for real time application than the VLSI and DSP chips. So, many researchers have made great efforts on the realization of neural network (NN) using FPGA technique. In this paper, an introduction of ANN and FPGA technique are briefly shown. Also, Hardware Description Language (VHDL) code has been proposed to implement ANNs as well as to present simulation results with floating point arithmetic. Synthesis results for ANN controller are developed using Precision RTL. Proposed VHDL implementation creates a flexible, fast method and high degree of parallelism for implementing ANN. The implementation of multi-layer NN using lookup table LUT reduces the resource utilization for implementation and time for execution.
Abstract: The following study aims to outline, whether the
perceptions of entrepreneurs about their entrepreneurial activities and
the underlying meanings of their activities are universal or whether
they vary systematically across cultures. In contrast to previous
studies, the phenomenographical approach and the resulting findings
of this study provide new insights into what constitutes
entrepreneurship by drawing an inference from the perceptions of
entrepreneurs in the United States and in Germany. Culture is shown
to have an important impact on entrepreneurship, since the
underlying meanings of entrepreneurship vary significantly among
the two sample groups. Furthermore, the study sheds more light on
the culturally contingent 'why' of entrepreneurship by looking at the
internal motivations of individuals instead of exclusively focusing on
character traits or external influences of the respective economic
environments.
Abstract: This paper addresses control of commutation of switched reluctance (SR) motor without the use of a physical position detector. Rotor position detection schemes for SR motor based on magnetisation characteristics of the motor use normal excitation or applied current /voltage pulses. The resulting schemes are referred to as passive or active methods respectively. The research effort is in realizing an economical sensorless SR rotor position detector that is accurate, reliable and robust to suit a particular application. An effective and reliable means of generating commutation signals of an SR motor based on inductance profile of its stator windings determined using active probing technique is presented. The scheme has been validated online using a 4-phase 8/6 SR motor and an 8-bit processor.
Abstract: Elementary particles are created in pairs of equal and opposite momentums at a reference frame at the speed of light. The speed of light reference frame is viewed as a point in space as observed by observer at rest. This point in space is the bang location of the big bang theory. The bang in the big bang theory is not more than sustained flow of pairs of positive and negative elementary particles. Electrons and negative charged elementary particles are ejected from this point in space at velocities faster than light, while protons and positively charged particles obtain velocities lower than light. Subsonic masses are found to have real and positive charge, while supersonic masses are found to be negative and imaginary indicating that the two masses are of different entities. The electron-s super-sonic speed, as viewed by rest observer was calculated and found to be less than the speed of light and is little higher than the electron speed in Bohr-s orbit. The newly formed hydrogen gas temperature was found to be in agreement with temperatures found on newly formed stars. Universe expansion was found to be in agreement. Partial mass and charge elementary particles and particles with momentum only were explained in the context of this theoretical approach.
Abstract: In this article, biomechanical aspects of hen-s eggshell as a natural ceramic structure are studied. The images, taken by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), are used to investigate the microscopic aspects of the egg. It is observed that eggshell has a three-layered microstructure with different morphological and structural characteristics. Studies on the eggshell membrane (ESM) as a prosperous tissue suggest that it is placed to prevent the penetration of microorganisms into the egg. Finally, numerical models of the egg are presented to study the stress distribution and its deformation under different loading conditions. The effects of two different types of loading (hydrostatic and point loadings) on two different shell models (with constant and variable thicknesses) are investigated in detail.
Abstract: The heart tissue is an excitable media. A Cellular
Automata is a type of model that can be used to model cardiac action
potential propagation. One of the advantages of this approach against
the methods based on differential equations is its high speed in large
scale simulations. Recent cellular automata models are not able to
avoid flat edges in the result patterns or have large neighborhoods. In
this paper, we present a new model to eliminate flat edges by
minimum number of neighbors.
Abstract: In this study, structural, mechanical, thermal and
electrical properties of poly (lactic acid) (PLA) nanocomposites with
low-loaded (0-1.5 wt%) untreated, heat and nitric acid treated multiwalled
carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were studied. Among the
composites, untreated 0.5 wt % MWCNTs and acid-treated 1.0 wt%
MWCNTs reinforced PLA show the tensile strength and modulus
values higher than the others. These two samples along with pure
PLA exhibit the stable orthorhombic α-form, whilst other samples
reveal the less stable orthorhombic β-form, as demonstrated by X-ray
diffraction study. Differential scanning calorimetry reveals the
evolution of the mentioned different phases by controlled cooling and
discloses an enhancement of PLA crystallization by nanotubes
incorporation. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that the MWCNTs
loaded sample degraded faster than PLA. Surface resistivity of the
nanocomposites is found to be dropped drastically by a factor of 1013
with a low loading of MWCNTs (1.5 wt%).
Abstract: Stochastic comparison has been an important
direction of research in various area. This can be done by the use of
the notion of stochastic ordering which gives qualitatitive rather than
purely quantitative estimation of the system under study. In this
paper we present applications of comparison based uncertainty
related to entropy in Reliability analysis, for example to design
better systems. These results can be used as a priori information in
simulation studies.