Abstract: The European Union Survey on Income and Living
Conditions (EU-SILC) is a popular survey which provides
information on income, poverty, social exclusion and living
conditions of households and individuals in the European Union.
The EU-SILC contains variables which may contain outliers. The
presence of outliers can have an impact on the measures and
indicators used by the EU-SILC. In this paper, we used data sets
from various countries to analyze the presence of outliers. In addition,
we obtain some indicators after removing these outliers, and a
comparison between both situations can be observed. Finally, some
conclusions are obtained.
Abstract: Anultra-low power capacitor less low-dropout voltage
regulator with improved transient response using gain enhanced feed
forward path compensation is presented in this paper. It is based on a
cascade of a voltage amplifier and a transconductor stage in the feed
forward path with regular error amplifier to form a composite gainenhanced
feed forward stage. It broadens the gain bandwidth and thus
improves the transient response without substantial increase in power
consumption. The proposed LDO, designed for a maximum output
current of 100 mA in UMC 180 nm, requires a quiescent current of
69 )A. An undershot of 153.79mV for a load current changes from
0mA to 100mA and an overshoot of 196.24mV for current change of
100mA to 0mA. The settling time is approximately 1.1 )s for the
output voltage undershooting case. The load regulation is of 2.77
)V/mA at load current of 100mA. Reference voltage is generated by
using an accurate band gap reference circuit of 0.8V.The costly
features of SOC such as total chip area and power consumption is
drastically reduced by the use of only a total compensation
capacitance of 6pF while consuming power consumption of 0.096
mW.
Abstract: The relationship between eigenstructure (eigenvalues
and eigenvectors) and latent structure (latent roots and latent vectors)
is established. In control theory eigenstructure is associated with
the state space description of a dynamic multi-variable system and
a latent structure is associated with its matrix fraction description.
Beginning with block controller and block observer state space forms
and moving on to any general state space form, we develop the
identities that relate eigenvectors and latent vectors in either direction.
Numerical examples illustrate this result. A brief discussion of the
potential of these identities in linear control system design follows.
Additionally, we present a consequent result: a quick and easy
method to solve the polynomial eigenvalue problem for regular matrix
polynomials.
Abstract: Two types of commercial cylindrical lithium ion
batteries (Panasonic 3.4 Ah NCR-18650B and Samsung 2.9 Ah
INR-18650), were investigated experimentally. The capacities of these
samples were individually measured using constant current-constant
voltage (CC-CV) method at different ambient temperatures (-10°C,
0°C, 25°C). Their internal resistance was determined by
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and pulse discharge
methods. The cells with different configurations of parallel connection
NCR-NCR, INR-INR and NCR-INR were charged/discharged at the
aforementioned ambient temperatures. The results showed that the
difference of internal resistance between cells much more evident at
low temperatures. Furthermore, the parallel connection of NCR-NCR
exhibits the most uniform temperature distribution in cells at -10°C,
this feature is quite favorable for the safety of the battery pack.
Abstract: Recent perceived climate variability raises concerns
with unprecedented hydrological phenomena and extremes.
Distribution and circulation of the waters of the Earth become
increasingly difficult to determine because of additional uncertainty
related to anthropogenic emissions. The world wide observed
changes in the large-scale hydrological cycle have been related to an
increase in the observed temperature over several decades. Although
the effect of change in climate on hydrology provides a general
picture of possible hydrological global change, new tools and
frameworks for modelling hydrological series with nonstationary
characteristics at finer scales, are required for assessing climate
change impacts. Of the downscaling techniques, dynamic
downscaling is usually based on the use of Regional Climate Models
(RCMs), which generate finer resolution output based on atmospheric
physics over a region using General Circulation Model (GCM) fields
as boundary conditions. However, RCMs are not expected to capture
the observed spatial precipitation extremes at a fine cell scale or at a
basin scale. Statistical downscaling derives a statistical or empirical
relationship between the variables simulated by the GCMs, called
predictors, and station-scale hydrologic variables, called predictands.
The main focus of the paper is on the need for using statistical
downscaling techniques for projection of local hydrometeorological
variables under climate change scenarios. The projections can be then
served as a means of input source to various hydrologic models to
obtain streamflow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and other
hydrological variables of interest.
Abstract: This paper clarifies the role of ICT capital in economic
growth. Albeit ICT remarkably contributes to economic growth, there
are few studies on ICT capital in ICT sector from theoretical point of
view. In this paper, production function of ICT which is used as input
of intermediate good in final good and ICT sectors is incorporated
into our model. In this setting, we analyze the role of ICT on balance
growth path and show the possibility of general equilibrium solutions
for this model. Through the simulation of the equilibrium solutions,
we find that when ICT impacts on economy and economic growth
increases, it is necessary that increases of efficiency at ICT sector and
of accumulation of non-ICT and ICT capitals occur simultaneously.
Abstract: It is well known, that any interpolating polynomial
p (x, y) on the vector space Pn,m of two-variable polynomials with
degree less than n in terms of x and less than m in terms of y, has
various representations that depends on the basis of Pn,m that we
select i.e. monomial, Newton and Lagrange basis e.t.c.. The aim of
this short note is twofold : a) to present transformations between the
coordinates of the polynomial p (x, y) in the aforementioned basis
and b) to present transformations between these bases.
Abstract: The generalized wave equation models various
problems in sciences and engineering. In this paper, a new three-time
level implicit approach based on cubic trigonometric B-spline for the
approximate solution of wave equation is developed. The usual finite
difference approach is used to discretize the time derivative while
cubic trigonometric B-spline is applied as an interpolating function in
the space dimension. Von Neumann stability analysis is used to
analyze the proposed method. Two problems are discussed to exhibit
the feasibility and capability of the method. The absolute errors and
maximum error are computed to assess the performance of the
proposed method. The results were found to be in good agreement
with known solutions and with existing schemes in literature.
Abstract: Three dimensional non-Interlaced carbon fibre
reinforced silicon carbide (3-D-Cf/SiC) composites with pyrocarbon
interphase were fabricated using isothermal chemical vapor
infiltration (ICVI) combined with polymer impregnation pyrolysis
(PIP) process. Polysilazane (PSZ) is used as a preceramic polymer to
obtain silicon carbide matrix. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA),
Infrared spectroscopic analysis (IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD)
analysis were carried out on PSZ pyrolysed at different temperatures
to understand the pyrolysis and obtaining the optimum pyrolysing
condition to yield β-SiC phase. The density of the composites was
1.94 g cm-3 after the 3-D carbon preform was SiC infiltrated for 280 h
with one intermediate polysilazane pre-ceramic PIP process.
Mechanical properties of the composite materials were investigated
under tensile, flexural, shear and impact loading. The values of
tensile strength were 200 MPa at room temperature (RT) and 195
MPa at 500°C in air. The average RT flexural strength was 243 MPa.
The lower flexural strength of these composites is because of the
porosity. The fracture toughness obtained from single edge notched
beam (SENB) technique was 39 MPa.m1/2. The work of fracture
obtained from the load-displacement curve of SENB test was 22.8
kJ.m-2. The composites exhibited excellent impact resistance and the
dynamic fracture toughness of 44.8 kJ.m-2 is achieved as determined
from instrumented Charpy impact test. The shear strength of the
composite was 93 MPa, which is significantly higher compared 2-D
Cf/SiC composites. Microstructure evaluation of fracture surfaces
revealed the signatures of fracture processes and showed good
support for the higher toughness obtained.
Abstract: This paper presents the performance state analysis of
Self-Excited Induction Generator (SEIG) using Artificial Bee Colony
(ABC) optimization technique. The total admittance of the induction
machine is minimized to calculate the frequency and magnetizing
reactance corresponding to any rotor speed, load impedance and
excitation capacitance. The performance of SEIG is calculated using
the optimized parameter found. The results obtained by ABC
algorithm are compared with results from numerical method. The
results obtained coincide with the numerical method results. This
technique proves to be efficient in solving nonlinear constrained
optimization problems and analyzing the performance of SEIG.
Abstract: With the rapid progress of modern cities, the railway
construction must be developing quickly in China.As a typical
high-density country, shopping center on the subway should be one
important factor during the process of urban development. The paper
discusses the influence of the layout of shopping center on the subway,
and put it in the time and space’s axis of Shanghai urban development.
We usethe digital technology to establish the database of relevant
information. And then get the change role about shopping center on
subway in Shanghaiby the Kernel density estimate.The result shows
the development of shopping center on subway has a relationship with
local economic strength, population size, policysupport, and city
construction. And the suburbanization trend of shopping center would
be increasingly significant.By this case research, we could see the
Kernel density estimate is an efficient analysis method on the spatial
layout. It could reveal the characters of layout form of shopping center
on subway in essence. And it can also be applied to the other research
of space form.
Abstract: The growth of wireless devices affects the availability
of limited frequencies or spectrum bands as it has been known that
spectrum bands are a natural resource that cannot be added.
Meanwhile, the licensed frequencies are idle most of the time.
Cognitive radio is one of the solutions to solve those problems.
Cognitive radio is a promising technology that allows the unlicensed
users known as secondary users (SUs) to access licensed bands
without making interference to licensed users or primary users (PUs).
As cloud computing has become popular in recent years, cognitive
radio networks (CRNs) can be integrated with cloud platform. One of
the important issues in CRNs is security. It becomes a problem since
CRNs use radio frequencies as a medium for transmitting and CRNs
share the same issues with wireless communication systems. Another
critical issue in CRNs is performance. Security has adverse effect to
performance and there are trade-offs between them. The goal of this
paper is to investigate the performance related to security trade-off in
CRNs with supporting cloud platforms. Furthermore, Queuing
Network Models with preemptive resume and preemptive repeat
identical priority are applied in this project to measure the impact of
security to performance in CRNs with or without cloud platform. The
generalized exponential (GE) type distribution is used to reflect the
bursty inter-arrival and service times at the servers. The results show
that the best performance is obtained when security is disabled and
cloud platform is enabled.
Abstract: The ever increasing amount of solid waste (SW)
generated which is exacerbated by lack of proper waste management
system is of growing concern worldwide and in major cities in
developing countries due to its social, economic and environmental
implications. This study attempts to describe the aspects of solid
waste management (SWM) in Adama, one of the fast urbanizing
cities in Ethiopia, and highlights the challenges thereof. Data were
gathered through interview supplemented by field observation and
self-administered questionnaire. Then, the data were analyzed using
the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. In
addition, secondary data were gathered from documents. Findings
revealed that the current SWM practice couldn’t cope with the fast
urbanizing needs and the rapid population growth exhibited by the
city. Besides, major factors contributing to the inefficient system
were identified. The study would provide practical insights to
decision makers in developing a sustainable SWM system leading to
minimized risk in the city.
Abstract: The construction of a new airport or the extension of
an existing one requires massive investments and many times public
private partnerships were considered in order to make feasible such
projects. One characteristic of these projects is uncertainty with
respect to financial and environmental impacts on the medium to long
term. Another one is the multistage nature of these types of projects.
While many airport development projects have been a success, some
others have turned into a nightmare for their promoters.
This communication puts forward a new approach for airport
investment risk assessment. The approach takes explicitly into
account the degree of uncertainty in activity levels prediction and
proposes milestones for the different stages of the project for
minimizing risk. Uncertainty is represented through fuzzy dual theory
and risk management is performed using dynamic programming. An
illustration of the proposed approach is provided.
Abstract: Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs)
possess immunomodulatory properties. The effect of MSCs on the
crucial cellular immunity compartment – T-cells is of a special
interest. It is known that MSC tissue niche and expected milieu of
their interaction with T- cells are characterized by low oxygen
concentration, whereas the in vitro experiments usually are carried
out at a much higher ambient oxygen (20%). We firstly evaluated
immunomodulatory effects of MSCs on T-cells at tissue-related
oxygen (5%) after interaction implied cell-to-cell contacts and
paracrine factors only. It turned out that MSCs under reduced oxygen
can effectively suppress the activation and proliferation of PHAstimulated
T-cells and can provoke decrease in the production of
proinflammatory and increase in anti-inflammatory cytokines. In
hypoxia some effects were amplified (inhibition of proliferation, antiinflammatory
cytokine profile shift). This impact was more evident
after direct cell-to-cell interaction; lack of intercellular contacts could
revoke the potentiating effect of hypoxia.
Abstract: In order to evaluate the performance of a unified power
flow controller (UPFC), mathematical models for steady state and
dynamic analysis are to be developed. The steady state model is
mainly concerned with the incorporation of the UPFC in load flow
studies. Several load flow models for UPFC have been introduced
in literature, and one of the most reliable models is the decoupled
UPFC model. In spite of UPFC decoupled load flow model simplicity,
it is more robust compared to other UPFC load flow models and it
contains unique capabilities. Some shortcoming such as additional
set of nonlinear equations are to be solved separately after the load
flow solution is obtained. The aim of this study is to investigate the
different control strategies that can be realized in the decoupled load
flow model (individual control and combined control), and the impact
of the location of the UPFC in the network on its control parameters.
Abstract: This work presents the modelling and simulation of
saponification of ethyl acetate in the presence of sodium hydroxide in
a plug flow reactor using Aspen Plus simulation software. Plug flow
reactors are widely used in the industry due to the non-mixing
property. The use of plug flow reactors becomes significant when
there is a need for continuous large scale reaction or fast reaction.
Plug flow reactors have a high volumetric unit conversion as the
occurrence for side reactions is minimum. In this research Aspen Plus
V8.0 has been successfully used to simulate the plug flow reactor. In
order to simulate the process as accurately as possible HYSYS Peng-
Robinson EOS package was used as the property method. The results
obtained from the simulation were verified by the experiment carried
out in the EDIBON plug flow reactor module. The correlation
coefficient (r2) was 0.98 and it proved that simulation results
satisfactorily fit for the experimental model. The developed model
can be used as a guide for understanding the reaction kinetics of a
plug flow reactor.
Abstract: Biological conversion of biomass to methane has
received increasing attention in recent years. Grasses have been
explored for their potential anaerobic digestion to methane. In this
review, extensive literature data have been tabulated and classified.
The influences of several parameters on the potential of these
feedstocks to produce methane are presented. Lignocellulosic
biomass represents a mostly unused source for biogas and ethanol
production. Many factors, including lignin content, crystallinity of
cellulose, and particle size, limit the digestibility of the hemicellulose
and cellulose present in the lignocellulosic biomass. Pretreatments
have used to improve the digestibility of the lignocellulosic biomass.
Each pretreatment has its own effects on cellulose, hemicellulose and
lignin, the three main components of lignocellulosic biomass. Solidstate
anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) generally occurs at solid
concentrations higher than 15%. In contrast, liquid anaerobic
digestion (AD) handles feedstocks with solid concentrations between
0.5% and 15%. Animal manure, sewage sludge, and food waste are
generally treated by liquid AD, while organic fractions of municipal
solid waste (OFMSW) and lignocellulosic biomass such as crop
residues and energy crops can be processed through SS-AD. An
increase in operating temperature can improve both the biogas yield
and the production efficiency, other practices such as using AD
digestate or leachate as an inoculant or decreasing the solid content
may increase biogas yield but have negative impact on production
efficiency. Focus is placed on substrate pretreatment in anaerobic
digestion (AD) as a means of increasing biogas yields using today’s
diversified substrate sources.
Abstract: This paper proposes a cooperative Alamouti space time
transmission scheme with low relay complexity for the cooperative
communication systems. In the proposed scheme, the source node
combines the data symbols to construct the Alamouti-coded form at
the destination node, while the conventional scheme performs the
corresponding operations at the relay nodes. In simulation results,
it is shown that the proposed scheme achieves the second order
cooperative diversity while maintaining the same bit error rate (BER)
performance as that of the conventional scheme.
Abstract: This study investigates the effect of moisture
conditioning on the Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS) of asphalt
concrete. As a first step, cylindrical samples of 100 mm diameter and
50 mm thick were prepared using a Superpave gyratory compactor.
Next, the samples were conditioned using Moisture Induced
Susceptibility Test (MIST) device at different numbers of moisture
conditioning cycles. In the MIST device, samples are subjected water
pressure through the sample pores cyclically. The MIST conditioned
samples were tested for ITS. Results show that the ITS does not
change significantly with MIST conditioning at the specific pressure
and cycles adopted in this study.