Abstract: The European countries that during the past two
decades based their exchange rate regimes on currency board
arrangement (CBA) are usually analysed from the perspective of
corner solution choice’s stabilisation effects. There is an open
discussion on the positive and negative background of a strict
exchange rate regime choice, although it should be seen as part of the
transition process towards the monetary union membership. The
focus of the paper is on the Baltic countries that after two decades of
a rigid exchange rate arrangement and strongly influenced by global
crisis are finishing their path towards the euro zone. Besides the
stabilising capacity, the CBA is highly vulnerable regime, with
limited developing potential. The rigidity of the exchange rate (and
monetary) system, despite the ensured credibility, do not leave
enough (or any) space for the adjustment and/or active crisis
management. Still, the Baltics are in a process of recovery, with fiscal
consolidation measures combined with (painful and politically
unpopular) measures of internal devaluation. Today, two of them
(Estonia and Latvia) are members of euro zone, fulfilling their
ultimate transition targets, but de facto exchanging one fixed regime
with another.
The paper analyses the challenges for the CBA in unstable
environment since the fixed regimes rely on imported stability and
are sensitive to external shocks. With limited monetary instruments,
these countries were oriented to the fiscal policies and used a
combination of internal devaluation and tax policy measures. Despite
their rather quick recovery, our second goal is to analyse the long
term influence that the measures had on the national economy.
Abstract: For high-speed control of robots, a good knowledge of system modelling is necessary to obtain the desired bandwidth. In this paper, we present a cartesian robot with a pan/tilt unit in end-effector (5 dof). This robot is implemented with powerful direct drive AC induction machines. The dynamic model, parameter identification and model validation of the robot are studied (including actuators). This work considers the cartesian robot coupled and non linear (contrary to normal considerations for this type of robots). The mechanical and control architecture proposed in this paper is efficient for industrial and research application in which high speed, well known model and very high accuracy are required.
Abstract: This paper reviews various approaches that have been
used for the modeling and simulation of large-scale engineering
systems and determines their appropriateness in the development of a
RICS modeling and simulation tool. Bond graphs, linear graphs,
block diagrams, differential and difference equations, modeling
languages, cellular automata and agents are reviewed. This tool
should be based on linear graph representation and supports symbolic
programming, functional programming, the development of noncausal
models and the incorporation of decentralized approaches.
Abstract: Wheeled Mobile Robots (WMRs) are built with their
Wheels- drive machine, Motors. Depend on their desire design of
WMR, Technicians made used of DC Motors for motion control. In
this paper, the author would like to analyze how to choose DC motor
to be balance with their applications of especially for WMR.
Specification of DC Motor that can be used with desire WMR is to
be determined by using MATLAB Simulink model. Therefore, this
paper is mainly focus on software application of MATLAB and
Control Technology. As the driving system of DC motor, a
Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC) based control system is
designed including the assembly software technology and H-bridge
control circuit. This Driving system is used to drive two DC gear
motors which are used to control the motion of WMR. In this
analyzing process, the author mainly focus the drive system on
driving two DC gear motors that will control with Differential Drive
technique to the Wheeled Mobile Robot . For the design analysis of
Motor Driving System, PIC16F84A is used and five inputs of sensors
detected data are tested with five ON/OFF switches. The outputs of
PIC are the commands to drive two DC gear motors, inputs of Hbridge
circuit .In this paper, Control techniques of PIC
microcontroller and H-bridge circuit, Mechanism assignments of
WMR are combined and analyzed by mainly focusing with the
“Modeling and Simulink of DC Motor using MATLAB".
Abstract: System identification is the process of creating
models of dynamic process from input- output signals. The aim of
system identification can be identified as “ to find a model with
adjustable parameters and then to adjust them so that the predicted
output matches the measured output". This paper presents a method
of modeling and simulating with system identification to achieve the
maximum fitness for transformation function. First by using
optimized KLM equivalent circuit for PVDF piezoelectric transducer
and assuming different inputs including: sinuside, step and sum of
sinusides, get the outputs, then by using system identification
toolbox in MATLAB, we estimate the transformation function from
inputs and outputs resulted in last program. Then compare the fitness
of transformation function resulted from using ARX,OE(Output-
Error) and BJ(Box-Jenkins) models in system identification toolbox
and primary transformation function form KLM equivalent circuit.
Abstract: The paper shows that in the analysis of a queuing system with fixed-size batch arrivals, there emerges a set of polynomials which are a generalization of Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. The paper uses these polynomials in assessing the transient behaviour of the overflow (equivalently call blocking) probability in the system. A key figure to note is the proportion of the overflow (or blocking) probability resident in the transient component, which is shown in the results to be more significant at the beginning of the transient and naturally decays to zero in the limit of large t. The results also show that the significance of transients is more pronounced in cases of lighter loads, but lasts longer for heavier loads.
Abstract: A new approach for timestamp ordering problem in
serializable schedules is presented. Since the number of users using
databases is increasing rapidly, the accuracy and needing high
throughput are main topics in database area. Strict 2PL does not
allow all possible serializable schedules and so does not result high
throughput. The main advantages of the approach are the ability to
enforce the execution of transaction to be recoverable and the high
achievable performance of concurrent execution in central databases.
Comparing to Strict 2PL, the general structure of the algorithm is
simple, free deadlock, and allows executing all possible serializable
schedules which results high throughput. Various examples which
include different orders of database operations are discussed.
Abstract: One of the most common practices for strengthening
the reinforced concrete structures is the application of FRP (Fiber
Reinforce Plastic) sheets to increase the flexural and shear strengths
of the member. The elastic modulus of FRP is considerably higher
than that of concrete. This will result in debonding between the FRP
sheets and concrete surface. With conventional surface preparation of
concrete, the ultimate capacity of the FRP sheets can hardly be
achieved. New methods for preparation of the bonding surface have
shown improvements in reducing the premature debonding of FRP
sheets from concrete surface. The present experimental study focuses
on the application of grooving method to postpone debonding of the
FRP sheets attached to the side faces of concrete beams for shear
strengthening. Comparison has also been made with conventional
surface preparation method. This study clearly shows the efficiency
of grooving method compared to surface preparation method, in
preventing the debonding phenomenon and in increasing the load
carrying capacity of FRP.
Abstract: The modern Kazakh society is characterized by strengthen cross-cultural communication, the emergence of new powerful subcultures, accelerated change in social systems and values. The socio-political reforms in all fields have changed the quality of social relationships and spiritual life.Cross-cultural approach involves the analysis of different types of behavior and communication, including the manifestation of the conflict, and the formation of marginal destructive stereotypes.
Abstract: Fast forecasting of stock market prices is very important for
strategic planning. In this paper, a new approach for fast forecasting of
stock market prices is presented. Such algorithm uses new high speed
time delay neural networks (HSTDNNs). The operation of these
networks relies on performing cross correlation in the frequency
domain between the input data and the input weights of neural
networks. It is proved mathematically and practically that the number
of computation steps required for the presented HSTDNNs is less
than that needed by traditional time delay neural networks
(TTDNNs). Simulation results using MATLAB confirm the
theoretical computations.
Abstract: In recent years, the research in wireless sensor
network has increased steadily, and many studies were focusing on
reducing energy consumption of sensor nodes to extend their lifetimes.
In this paper, the issue of energy consumption is investigated and two
adaptive mechanisms are proposed to extend the network lifetime.
This study uses high-energy-first scheme to determine cluster heads
for data transmission. Thus, energy consumption in each cluster is
balanced and network lifetime can be extended. In addition, this study
uses cluster merging and dynamic routing mechanisms to further
reduce energy consumption during data transmission. The simulation
results show that the proposed method can effectively extend the
lifetime of wireless sensor network, and it is suitable for different base
station locations.
Abstract: In the present study, changes of morphology and
mechanical characteristics in the lumbar vertebrae of the
ovariectomised (OVX) rat were investigated. In previous researches,
there were many studies about morphology like volume fraction and
trabecular thickness based on Micro - Computed Tomography (Micro
- CT). However, detecting and tracking long-term changes in the
trabecular bone of the lumbar vertebrae for the OVX rat were few. For
this study, one female Sprague-Dawley rat was used: an OVX rat. The
4th Lumbar of the OVX rat was subjected to in-vivo micro-CT.
Detecting and tracking long-term changes could be investigated in the
trabecular bone of the lumbar vertebrae for an OVX rat using in-vivo
micro-CT. An OVX rat was scanned at week 0 (just before surgery), at
week 4, at week 8, week 16, week 22 and week 56 after surgery. Finite
element (FE) analysis was used to investigate mechanical
characteristics of the lumbar vertebrae for an OVX rat. When the OVX
rat (at week 56) was compared with the OVX rat (at week 0), volume
fraction was decreased by 80% and effective modulus was decreased
by 75%.
Abstract: An experimental and numerical study has been conducted to clarify heat transfer characteristics and effectiveness of a cross-flow heat exchanger employing staggered wing-shaped tubes at different angels of attack. The water-side Rew and the air-side Rea were at 5 x 102 and at from 1.8 x 103 to 9.7 x 103, respectively. The tubes arrangements were employed with various angles of attack θ1,2,3 from 0° to 330° at the considered Rea range. Correlation of Nu, St, as well as the heat transfer per unit pumping power (ε) in terms of Rea, design parameters for the studied bundle were presented. The temperature fields around the staggered wing-shaped tubes bundle were predicted by using commercial CFD FLUENT 6.3.26 software package. Results indicated that the heat transfer was increased by increasing the angle of attack from 0° to 45°, while the opposite was true for angles of attack from 135° to 180°. The best thermal performance and hence η of studied bundle was occurred at the lowest Rea and/or zero angle of attack. Comparisons between the experimental and numerical results of the present study and those, previously, obtained for similar available studies showed good agreements.
Abstract: We consider optimal channel equalization for MIMO
(multi-input/multi-output) time-varying channels in the sense of
MMSE (minimum mean-squared-error), where the observation noise
can be non-stationary. We show that all ZF (zero-forcing) receivers
can be parameterized in an affine form which eliminates completely
the ISI (inter-symbol-interference), and optimal channel equalizers
can be designed through minimization of the MSE (mean-squarederror)
between the detected signals and the transmitted signals,
among all ZF receivers. We demonstrate that the optimal channel
equalizer is a modified Kalman filter, and show that under the AWGN
(additive white Gaussian noise) assumption, the proposed optimal
channel equalizer minimizes the BER (bit error rate) among all
possible ZF receivers. Our results are applicable to optimal channel
equalization for DWMT (discrete wavelet multitone), multirate transmultiplexers,
OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing),
and DS (direct sequence) CDMA (code division multiple access)
wireless data communication systems. A design algorithm for optimal
channel equalization is developed, and several simulation examples
are worked out to illustrate the proposed design algorithm.
Abstract: The hospital and the health-care center of a
community, as a place for people-s life-care and health-care settings,
must provide more and better services for patients or residents. After
Establishing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system -which is a
necessity- in the hospital, providing pervasive services is a further
step. Our objective in this paper is to use pervasive computing in a
case study of healthcare, based on EMR database that coordinates
application services over network to form a service environment for
medical and health-care. Our method also categorizes the hospital
spaces into 3 spaces: Public spaces, Private spaces and Isolated
spaces. Although, there are many projects about using pervasive
computing in healthcare, but all of them concentrate on the disease
recognition, designing smart cloths, or provide services only for
patient. The proposed method is implemented in a hospital. The
obtained results show that it is suitable for our purpose.
Abstract: This paper describes studies carried out to investigate
the viability of using wireless cameras as a tool in monitoring
changes in air quality. A camera is used to monitor the change in
colour of a chemically responsive polymer within view of the camera
as it is exposed to varying chemical species concentration levels. The
camera captures this image and the colour change is analyzed by
averaging the RGB values present. This novel chemical sensing
approach is compared with an established chemical sensing method
using the same chemically responsive polymer coated onto LEDs. In
this way, the concentration levels of acetic acid in the air can be
tracked using both approaches. These approaches to chemical plume
tracking have many applications for air quality monitoring.
Abstract: ZnO heteronanostructured nanowires arrays have
been fabricated by low temperature solution method. Various
heterostructures were synthesized including CdS/ZnO,
CdSe/CdS/ZnO nanowires and Co3O4/ZnO, ZnO/SiC
nanowires. These multifunctional heterostructure nanowires
showed important applications in photocatalysts, sensors,
wettability control and solar energy conversion.
Abstract: An enhanced particle swarm optimization algorithm
(PSO) is presented in this work to solve the non-convex OPF
problem that has both discrete and continuous optimization variables.
The objective functions considered are the conventional quadratic
function and the augmented quadratic function. The latter model
presents non-differentiable and non-convex regions that challenge
most gradient-based optimization algorithms. The optimization
variables to be optimized are the generator real power outputs and
voltage magnitudes, discrete transformer tap settings, and discrete
reactive power injections due to capacitor banks. The set of equality
constraints taken into account are the power flow equations while the
inequality ones are the limits of the real and reactive power of the
generators, voltage magnitude at each bus, transformer tap settings,
and capacitor banks reactive power injections. The proposed
algorithm combines PSO with Newton-Raphson algorithm to
minimize the fuel cost function. The IEEE 30-bus system with six
generating units is used to test the proposed algorithm. Several cases
were investigated to test and validate the consistency of detecting
optimal or near optimal solution for each objective. Results are
compared to solutions obtained using sequential quadratic
programming and Genetic Algorithms.
Abstract: Years of extensive research in the field of speech
processing for compression and recognition in the last five decades,
resulted in a severe competition among the various methods and
paradigms introduced. In this paper we include the different representations
of speech in the time-frequency and time-scale domains
for the purpose of compression and recognition. The examination of
these representations in a variety of related work is accomplished.
In particular, we emphasize methods related to Fourier analysis
paradigms and wavelet based ones along with the advantages and
disadvantages of both approaches.
Abstract: Current systems for face recognition techniques often
use either SVM or Adaboost techniques for face detection part and use
PCA for face recognition part. In this paper, we offer a novel method
for not only a powerful face detection system based on
Six-segment-filters (SSR) and Adaboost learning algorithms but also
for a face recognition system. A new exclusive face detection
algorithm has been developed and connected with the recognition
algorithm. As a result of it, we obtained an overall high-system
performance compared with current systems. The proposed algorithm
was tested on CMU, FERET, UNIBE, MIT face databases and
significant performance has obtained.