Using the Schunt Active Power Filter for Compensation of the Distorted and Umbalanced Power System Voltage

In this paper, we apply the PQ theory with shunt active power filter in an unbalanced and distorted power system voltage to compensate the perturbations generated by non linear load. The power factor is also improved in the current source. The PLL system is used to extract the fundamental component of the even sequence under conditions mentioned of the power system voltage.

Three-Level Converters based Generalized Unified Power Quality Conditioner

A generalized unified power quality conditioner (GUPQC) by using three single-phase three-level voltage source converters (VSCs) connected back-to-back through a common dc link is proposed in this paper as a new custom power device for a three-feeder distribution system. One of the converters is connected in shunt with one feeder for mitigation of current harmonics and reactive power compensation, while the other two VSCs are connected in series with the other two feeders to maintain the load voltage sinusoidal and at constant level. A new control scheme based on synchronous reference frame is proposed for series converters. The simulation analysis on compensation performance of GUPQC based on PSCAD/EMTDC is reported.

Issues in Travel Demand Forecasting

Travel demand forecasting including four travel choices, i.e., trip generation, trip distribution, modal split and traffic assignment constructs the core of transportation planning. In its current application, travel demand forecasting has associated with three important issues, i.e., interface inconsistencies among four travel choices, inefficiency of commonly used solution algorithms, and undesirable multiple path solutions. In this paper, each of the three issues is extensively elaborated. An ideal unified framework for the combined model consisting of the four travel choices and variable demand functions is also suggested. Then, a few remarks are provided in the end of the paper

Characterization of the LMOS with Different Channel Structure

In this paper, we propose a novel metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor with L-shaped channel structure (LMOS), and several type of L-shaped structures are also designed, studied and compared with the conventional MOSFET device for the same average gate length (Lavg). The proposed device electrical characteristics are analyzed and evaluated by three dimension (3-D) ISE-TCAD simulator. It can be confirmed that the LMOS devices have higher on-state drain current and both lower drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) and subthreshold swing (S.S.) than its conventional counterpart has. In addition, the transconductance and voltage gain properties of the LMOS are also improved.

Design of DC Voltage Control for D-STATCOM

This paper presents the DC voltage control design of D-STATCOM when the D-STATCOM is used for load voltage regulation. Although, the DC voltage can be controlled by active current of the D-STATCOM, reactive current still affects the DC voltage. To eliminate this effect, the control strategy with elimination effect of the reactive current is proposed and the results of the control with and without the elimination the effect of the reactive current are compared. For obtaining the proportional and integral gains of the PI controllers, the symmetrical optimum and genetic algorithms methods are applied. The stability margin of these methods are obtained and discussed in detail. In addition, the performance of the DC voltage control based on symmetrical optimum and genetic algorithms methods are compared. Effectiveness of the controllers designed was verified through computer simulation performed by using Power System Tool Block (PSB) in SIMULINK/MATLAB. The simulation results demonstrated that the DC voltage control proposed is effective in regulating DC voltage when the DSTATCOM is used for load voltage regulation.

Design of Novel SCR-based ESD Protection Device for I/O Clamp in BCD Process

In this paper, a novel LVTSCR-based device for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection of integrated circuits (ICs) is designed, fabricated and characterized. The proposed device is similar to the conventional LVTSCR but it has an embedded PMOSFET in the anode n-well to enhance the turn on speed, the clamping capability and the robustness. This is possible because the embedded PMOSFET provides the sub-path of ESD discharge current. The TLP, HBM and MM testing are carried out to verify the ESD performance of the proposed devices, which are fabricated in 0.35um (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) BCDMOS process. The device has the robustness of 70mA/um that is higher about 60mA/um than the LVTSCR, approximately.

A New Current-mode Multifunction Filter with High Impedance Outputs Using Minimum Number of Passive Elements

A new current-mode multifunction filter using minimum number of passive elements is proposed. The proposed filter has single-input and four high-impedance outputs. It uses four passive elements (two capacitors and two resistors) and four dual output second generation current conveyors. Each output provides a different filter response, namely, low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and band-reject. The sensitivity analysis is also carried out on both ideal and non-ideal filter configurations. The validity of the proposed filter is verified through PSPICE simulations.

Planning of Road Infrastructure Financing: Computational Finance Viewpoint

Lack of resources for road infrastructure financing is a problem that currently affects not only eastern European economies but also many other countries especially in relation to the impact of global financial crisis. In this context, we are talking about the socalled short-investment problem as a result of long-term lack of investment resources. Based on an analysis of road infrastructure financing in the Czech Republic this article points out at weaknesses of current system and proposes a long-term planning methodology supported by system approach. Within this methodology and using created system dynamic model the article predicts the development of short-investment problem in the Country and in reaction on the downward trend of certain sources the article presents various scenarios resulting from the change of the structure of financial sources. In the discussion the article focuses more closely on the possibility of introduction of tax on vehicles instead of taxes with declining revenue streams and estimates its approximate price in relation to reaching various solutions of short-investment in time.

A Multiple-Objective Environmental Rationalization and Optimization for Material Substitution in the Production of Stone-Washed Jeans- Garments

As the Textile Industry is the second largest industry in Egypt and as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up a great portion of this industry therein it is essential to apply the concept of Cleaner Production for the purpose of reducing pollution. In order to achieve this goal, a case study concerned with ecofriendly stone-washing of jeans-garments was investigated. A raw material-substitution option was adopted whereby the toxic potassium permanganate and sodium sulfide were replaced by the environmentally compatible hydrogen peroxide and glucose respectively where the concentrations of both replaced chemicals together with the operating time were optimized. In addition, a process-rationalization option involving four additional processes was investigated. By means of criteria such as product quality, effluent analysis, mass and heat balance; and cost analysis with the aid of a statistical model, a process optimization treatment revealed that the superior process optima were 50%, 0.15% and 50min for H2O2 concentration, glucose concentration and time, respectively. With these values the superior process ought to reduce the annual cost by about EGP 105 relative to the currently used conventional method.

A Similarity Function for Global Quality Assessment of Retinal Vessel Segmentations

Retinal vascularity assessment plays an important role in diagnosis of ophthalmic pathologies. The employment of digital images for this purpose makes possible a computerized approach and has motivated development of many methods for automated vascular tree segmentation. Metrics based on contingency tables for binary classification have been widely used for evaluating performance of these algorithms and, concretely, the accuracy has been mostly used as measure of global performance in this topic. However, this metric shows very poor matching with human perception as well as other notable deficiencies. Here, a new similarity function for measuring quality of retinal vessel segmentations is proposed. This similarity function is based on characterizing the vascular tree as a connected structure with a measurable area and length. Tests made indicate that this new approach shows better behaviour than the current one does. Generalizing, this concept of measuring descriptive properties may be used for designing functions for measuring more successfully segmentation quality of other complex structures.

The Suitability of GPS Receivers Update Rates for Navigation Applications

Navigation is the processes of monitoring and controlling the movement of an object from one place to another. Currently, Global Positioning System (GPS) is the main navigation system used all over the world for navigation applications. GPS receiver receives signals from at least three satellites to locate and display itself. Displayed positioning information is updated continuously. Update rate is the number of times per second that a display is illuminated. The speed of update is governed by receiver update rate. A higher update rate decreases display lag time and improves distance measurements and tracking especially when moving on a curvy route. The majority of GPS receivers used nowadays are updated every second continuously. This period is considered reasonable for some applications while it is long relatively for high speed applications. In this paper, the suitability and feasibility of GPS receiver with different update rates will be evaluated for various applications according to the level of speed and update rate needed for particular applications.

Motor Imagery Signal Classification for a Four State Brain Machine Interface

Motor imagery classification provides an important basis for designing Brain Machine Interfaces [BMI]. A BMI captures and decodes brain EEG signals and transforms human thought into actions. The ability of an individual to control his EEG through imaginary mental tasks enables him to control devices through the BMI. This paper presents a method to design a four state BMI using EEG signals recorded from the C3 and C4 locations. Principle features extracted through principle component analysis of the segmented EEG are analyzed using two novel classification algorithms using Elman recurrent neural network and functional link neural network. Performance of both classifiers is evaluated using a particle swarm optimization training algorithm; results are also compared with the conventional back propagation training algorithm. EEG motor imagery recorded from two subjects is used in the offline analysis. From overall classification performance it is observed that the BP algorithm has higher average classification of 93.5%, while the PSO algorithm has better training time and maximum classification. The proposed methods promises to provide a useful alternative general procedure for motor imagery classification

A Novel Four-Transistor SRAM Cell with Low Dynamic Power Consumption

This paper presents a novel CMOS four-transistor SRAM cell for very high density and low power embedded SRAM applications as well as for stand-alone SRAM applications. This cell retains its data with leakage current and positive feedback without refresh cycle. The new cell size is 20% smaller than a conventional six-transistor cell using same design rules. Also proposed cell uses two word-lines and one pair bit-line. Read operation perform from one side of cell, and write operation perform from another side of cell, and swing voltage reduced on word-lines thus dynamic power during read/write operation reduced. The fabrication process is fully compatible with high-performance CMOS logic technologies, because there is no need to integrate a poly-Si resistor or a TFT load. HSPICE simulation in standard 0.25μm CMOS technology confirms all results obtained from this paper.

A Power-Gating Scheme to Reduce Leakage Power for P-type Adiabatic Logic Circuits

With rapid technology scaling, the proportion of the static power consumption catches up with dynamic power consumption gradually. To decrease leakage consumption is becoming more and more important in low-power design. This paper presents a power-gating scheme for P-DTGAL (p-type dual transmission gate adiabatic logic) circuits to reduce leakage power dissipations under deep submicron process. The energy dissipations of P-DTGAL circuits with power-gating scheme are investigated in different processes, frequencies and active ratios. BSIM4 model is adopted to reflect the characteristics of the leakage currents. HSPICE simulations show that the leakage loss is greatly reduced by using the P-DTGAL with power-gating techniques.

A Serializability Condition for Multi-step Transactions Accessing Ordered Data

In mobile environments, unspecified numbers of transactions arrive in continuous streams. To prove correctness of their concurrent execution a method of modelling an infinite number of transactions is needed. Standard database techniques model fixed finite schedules of transactions. Lately, techniques based on temporal logic have been proposed as suitable for modelling infinite schedules. The drawback of these techniques is that proving the basic serializability correctness condition is impractical, as encoding (the absence of) conflict cyclicity within large sets of transactions results in prohibitively large temporal logic formulae. In this paper, we show that, under certain common assumptions on the graph structure of data items accessed by the transactions, conflict cyclicity need only be checked within all possible pairs of transactions. This results in formulae of considerably reduced size in any temporal-logic-based approach to proving serializability, and scales to arbitrary numbers of transactions.

Speed -Sensorless Vector Control of Parallel Connected Induction Motor Drive Fed by a Single Inverter using Natural Observer

This paper describes the speed sensorless vector control method of the parallel connected induction motor drive fed by a single inverter. Speed and rotor fluxes of the induction motor are estimated by natural observer with load torque adaptation and adaptive rotor flux observer. The performance parameters speed and rotor fluxes are estimated from the measured terminal voltages and currents. Fourth order induction motor model is used and speed is considered as a parameter. The performance of the natural observer is similar to the conventional observer. The speed of an induction motor is estimated by MATLAB simulation under different speed and load conditions. Estimated values along with other measured states are used for closed loop control. The simulation results show that the natural observer is also effective for parallel connected induction motor drive.

Removal of Methylene Blue Dye Using Roselle Petals from Aqueous Solutions

The present study based on removal of natural dyes of Roselle petals, then used Roselle petals powder (RPP) as an adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue dye (as a typical cationic or basic dye) from aqueous solutions. The present study shows that used Roselle petals powder exhibit adsorption trend for the dye. The adsorption processes were carried out at various conditions of temperatures ranging from 278 to 338 K ± 2 K , concentrations, processing time and a wide range of pH between 2.5-11. Adsorption isotherm equations such as Freundlich, and Langmuir were applied to calculate the values of respective constants. Adsorption study was found that the currently introduced adsorbent can be used to remove cationic dyes such as methylene blue from aqueous solutions.

A Framework for Product Development Process including HW and SW Components

This paper proposes a framework for product development including hardware and software components. It provides separation of hardware dependent software, modifications of current product development process, and integration of software modules with existing product configuration models and assembly product structures. In order to decide the dependent software, the framework considers product configuration modules and engineering changes of associated software and hardware components. In order to support efficient integration of the two different hardware and software development, a modified product development process is proposed. The process integrates the dependent software development into product development through the interchanges of specific product information. By using existing product data models in Product Data Management (PDM), the framework represents software as modules for product configurations and software parts for product structure. The framework is applied to development of a robot system in order to show its effectiveness.

Electrical Performance of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Unit with Non-Uniform Inlet Flow and High Fuel Utilization

This study investigates the electrical performance of a planar solid oxide fuel cell unit with cross-flow configuration when the fuel utilization gets higher and the fuel inlet flow are non-uniform. A software package in this study solves two-dimensional, simultaneous, partial differential equations of mass, energy, and electro-chemistry, without considering stack direction variation. The results show that the fuel utilization increases with a decrease in the molar flow rate, and the average current density decreases when the molar flow rate drops. In addition, non-uniform Pattern A will induce more severe happening of non-reaction area in the corner of the fuel exit and the air inlet. This non-reaction area deteriorates the average current density and then deteriorates the electrical performance to –7%.

Coping with the Rapidity of Information Technology Changes – A Comparison Reviewon Current Practices

Information technology managers nowadays are facing with tremendous pressure to plan, implement, and adopt new technology solution due to the rapidity of technology changes. Resulted from a lack of study that have been done in this topic, the aim of this paper is to provide a comparison review on current tools that are currently being used in order to respond to technological changes. The study is based on extensive literature review of published works with majority of them are ranging from 2000 to the first part of 2011. The works were gathered from journals, books, and other information sources available on the Web. Findings show that, each tools has different focus and none of the tools are providing a framework in holistic view, which should include technical, people, process, and business environment aspect. Hence, this result provides potential information about current available tools that IT managers could use to manage changes in technology. Further, the result reveals a research gap in the area where the industries a short of such framework.