Position Vector of a Partially Null Curve Derived from a Vector Differential Equation

In this paper, position vector of a partially null unit speed curve with respect to standard frame of Minkowski space-time is studied. First, it is proven that position vector of every partially null unit speed curve satisfies a vector differential equation of fourth order. In terms of solution of the differential equation, position vector of a partially null unit speed curve is expressed.

Effects of Li2O Thickness and Moisture Content on LiH Hydrolysis Kinetics in Slightly Humidified Argon

The hydrolysis kinetics of polycrystalline lithium hydride (LiH) in argon at various low humidities was measured by gravimetry and Raman spectroscopy with ambient water concentration ranging from 200 to 1200 ppm. The results showed that LiH hydrolysis curve revealed a paralinear shape, which was attributed to two different reaction stages that forming different products as explained by the 'Layer Diffusion Control' model. Based on the model, a novel two-stage rate equation for LiH hydrolysis reactions was developed and used to fit the experimental data for determination of Li2O steady thickness Hs and the ultimate hydrolysis rate vs. The fitted data presented a rise of Hs as ambient water concentration cw increased. However, in spite of the negative effect imposed by Hs increasing, the upward trend of vs remained, which implied that water concentration, rather than Li2O thickness, played a predominant role in LiH hydrolysis kinetics. In addition, the proportional relationship between vsHs and cw predicted by rate equation and confirmed by gravimetric data validated the model in such conditions.

Tool Path Generation and Manufacturing Process for Blades of a Compressor Rotor

This paper presents a complete procedure for tool path planning and blade machining in 5-axis manufacturing. The actual cutting contact and cutter locations can be determined by lead and tilt angles. The tool path generation is implemented by piecewise curved approximation and chordal deviation detection. An application about drive surface method promotes flexibility of tool control and stability of machine motion. A real manufacturing process is proposed to separate the operation into three regions with five stages and to modify the local tool orientation with an interactive algorithm.

Aerodynamics and Optimization of Airfoil Under Ground Effect

The Prediction of aerodynamic characteristics and shape optimization of airfoil under the ground effect have been carried out by integration of computational fluid dynamics and the multiobjective Pareto-based genetic algorithm. The main flow characteristics around an airfoil of WIG craft are lift force, lift-to-drag ratio and static height stability (H.S). However, they show a strong trade-off phenomenon so that it is not easy to satisfy the design requirements simultaneously. This difficulty can be resolved by the optimal design. The above mentioned three characteristics are chosen as the objective functions and NACA0015 airfoil is considered as a baseline model in the present study. The profile of airfoil is constructed by Bezier curves with fourteen control points and these control points are adopted as the design variables. For multi-objective optimization problems, the optimal solutions are not unique but a set of non-dominated optima and they are called Pareto frontiers or Pareto sets. As the results of optimization, forty numbers of non- dominated Pareto optima can be obtained at thirty evolutions.

AGV Guidance System: An Application of Simple Active Contour for Visual Tracking

In this paper, a simple active contour based visual tracking algorithm is presented for outdoor AGV application which is currently under development at the USM robotic research group (URRG) lab. The presented algorithm is computationally low cost and able to track road boundaries in an image sequence and can easily be implemented on available low cost hardware. The proposed algorithm used an active shape modeling using the B-spline deformable template and recursive curve fitting method to track the current orientation of the road.

Damage Evaluation of Curved Steel Bridges Upgraded with Isolation Bearings and Unseating Prevention Cable Restrainers

This paper investigates the effectiveness of the use of seismic isolation devices on the overall 3D seismic response of curved highway viaducts with an emphasis on expansion joints. Furthermore, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of cable restrainers is presented. For this purpose, the bridge seismic performance has been evaluated on four different radii of curvature, considering two cases: restrained and unrestrained curved viaducts. Depending on the radius of curvature, three-dimensional non-linear dynamic analysis shows the vulnerability of curved viaducts to pounding and deck unseating damage. In this study, the efficiency of using LRB supports combined with cable restrainers on curved viaducts is demonstrated, not only by reducing in all cases the possible damage, but also by providing a similar behavior in the viaducts despite of curvature radius.

Exploration of the Communication Area of Infrared Short-Range Communication Systems for Intervehicle Communication

Infrared communication in the wavelength band 780- 950 nm is very suitable for short-range point-to-point communications. It is a good choice for vehicle-to-vehicle communication in several intelligent-transportation-system (ITS) applications such as cooperative driving, collision warning, and pileup-crash prevention. In this paper, with the aid of a physical model established in our previous works, we explore the communication area of an infrared intervehicle communication system utilizing a typical low-cost cormmercial lightemitting diodes (LEDs) as the emitter and planar p-i-n photodiodes as the receiver. The radiation pattern of the emitter fabricated by aforementioned LEDs and the receiving pattern of the receiver are approximated by a linear combination of cosinen functions. This approximation helps us analyze the system performance easily. Both multilane straight-road conditions and curved-road conditions with various radius of curvature are taken into account. The condition of a small car communicating with a big truck, i.e., there is a vertical mounting height difference between the emitter and the receiver, is also considered. Our results show that the performance of the system meets the requirement of aforementioned ITS applications in terms of the communication area.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio Improvement of EMCCD Cameras

Over the past years, the EMCCD has had a profound influence on photon starved imaging applications relying on its unique multiplication register based on the impact ionization effect in the silicon. High signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) means high image quality. Thus, SNR improvement is important for the EMCCD. This work analyzes the SNR performance of an EMCCD with gain off and on. In each mode, simplified SNR models are established for different integration times. The SNR curves are divided into readout noise (or CIC) region and shot noise region by integration time. Theoretical SNR values comparing long frame integration and frame adding in each region are presented and discussed to figure out which method is more effective. In order to further improve the SNR performance, pixel binning is introduced into the EMCCD. The results show that pixel binning does obviously improve the SNR performance, but at the expensive of the spatial resolution.

Multiproject Scheduling in Construction Industry

In this paper, supply policy and procurement of shared resources in some kinds of concurrent construction projects are investigated. This could be oriented to the problems of holding construction companies who involve in different projects concurrently and they have to supply limited resources to several projects as well as prevent delays to any project. Limits on transportation vehicles and storage facilities for potential construction materials and also the available resources (such as cash or manpower) are some of the examples which affect considerably on management of all projects over all. The research includes investigation of some real multi-storey buildings during their execution periods and surveying the history of the activities. It is shown that the common resource demand variation curve of the projects may be expanded or displaced to achieve an optimum distribution scheme. Of course, it may cause some delay to some projects, but it has minimum influence on whole execution period of all projects and its influence on procurement cost of the projects is considerable. These observations on investigation of some multistorey building which are built in Iran will be presented in this paper.

Proposed Developments of Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm

The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) is the elliptic curve analogue of DSA, where it is a digital signature scheme designed to provide a digital signature based on a secret number known only to the signer and also on the actual message being signed. These digital signatures are considered the digital counterparts to handwritten signatures, and are the basis for validating the authenticity of a connection. The security of these schemes results from the infeasibility to compute the signature without the private key. In this paper we introduce a proposed to development the original ECDSA with more complexity.

Generalized Method for Estimating Best-Fit Vertical Alignments for Profile Data

When the profile information of an existing road is missing or not up-to-date and the parameters of the vertical alignment are needed for engineering analysis, the engineer has to recreate the geometric design features of the road alignment using collected profile data. The profile data may be collected using traditional surveying methods, global positioning systems, or digital imagery. This paper develops a method that estimates the parameters of the geometric features that best characterize the existing vertical alignments in terms of tangents and the expressions of the curve, that may be symmetrical, asymmetrical, reverse, and complex vertical curves. The method is implemented using an Excel-based optimization method that minimizes the differences between the observed profile and the profiles estimated from the equations of the vertical curve. The method uses a 'wireframe' representation of the profile that makes the proposed method applicable to all types of vertical curves. A secondary contribution of this paper is to introduce the properties of the equal-arc asymmetrical curve that has been recently developed in the highway geometric design field.

Analysis for MHD Flow of a Maxwell Fluid past a Vertical Stretching Sheet in the Presence of Thermophoresis and Chemical Reaction

The hydromagnetic flow of a Maxwell fluid past a vertical stretching sheet with thermophoresis is considered. The impact of chemical reaction species to the flow is analyzed for the first time by using the homotopy analysis method (HAM). The h-curves for the flow boundary layer equations are presented graphically. Several values of wall skin friction, heat and mass transfer are obtained and discussed.

The Effect of Dispersed MWCNTs Using SDBS Surfactant on Bacterial Growth

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are attractive because of their excellent chemical durability mechanical strength and electrical properties. Therefore there is interest in CNTs for not only electrical and mechanical application, but also biological and medical application. In this study, the dispersion power of surfactant-treated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and their effect on the antibacterial activity were examined. Surfactant was used sodium dodecyl-benzenesulfonate (SDBS). UV-vis absorbance and transmission electron microscopy(TEM) were used to characterize the dispersion of MWCNTs in the aqueous phase, showing that the surfactant molecules had been adsorbed onto the MWCNTs surface. The surfactant-treated MWCNTs exhibited antimicrobial activities to streptococcus mutans. The optical density growth curves and viable cell number determined by the plating method suggested that the antimicrobial activity of surfactant-treated MWCNTs was both concentration and treatment time-dependent.

Evaluation of Seismic Damage for Gisha Bridge in Tehran by HAZUS Methodology

Transportation is of great importance in the current life of human beings. The transportation system plays many roles, from economical development to after-catastrophe aids such as rescue operation in the first hours and days after an earthquake. In after earthquakes response phase, transportation system acts as a basis for ground operations including rescue and relief operation, food providing for victims and etc. It is obvious that partial or complete obstruction of this system results in the stop of these operations. Bridges are one of the most important elements of transportation network. Failure of a bridge, in the most optimistic case, cuts the relation between two regions and in more developed countries, cuts the relation of numerous regions. In this paper, to evaluate the vulnerability and estimate the damage level of Tehran bridges, HAZUS method, developed by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with the aid of National Institute of Building Science (NIBS), is used for the first time in Iran. In this method, to evaluate the collapse probability, fragility curves are used. Iran is located on seismic belt and thus, it is vulnerable to earthquakes. Thus, the study of the probability of bridge collapses, as an important part of transportation system, during earthquakes is of great importance. The purpose of this study is to provide fragility curves for Gisha Bridge, one of the longest steel bridges in Tehran, as an important lifeline element. Besides, the damage probability for this bridge during a specific earthquake, introduced as scenario earthquakes, is calculated. The fragility curves show that for the considered scenario, the probability of occurrence of complete collapse for the bridge is 8.6%.

Energy Density Increasing in the Channel of Super-High Pressure Megaampere Discharge due to Resonance of Different Type Oscillations of the Channel

Discharges in hydrogen, ignited by wire explosion, with current amplitude up to 1.5 MA were investigated. Channel diameter oscillations were observed on the photostreaks. Voltage and current curves correlated with the photostreaks. At initial gas pressure of 5-35 MPa the oscillation period was proportional to square root of atomic number of the initiating wire material. These oscillations were associated with aligned magnetic and gas-kinetic pressures. At initial pressure of 80-160 MPa acoustic pressure fluctuations on the discharge chamber wall were increased up to 150 MPa and there were the growth of voltage fluctuations on the discharge gap up to 3 kV simultaneously with it. In some experiments it was observed abrupt increase in the oscillation amplitude, which can be caused by the resonance of the acoustic oscillations in discharge chamber volume and the oscillations connected with alignment of the gaskinetic pressure and the magnetic pressure, as far as frequencies of these oscillations are close to each other in accordance with the estimates and the experimental data. Resonance of different type oscillations can produce energy density increasing in the discharge channel. Thus, the appropriate initial conditions in the experiment allow to increase the energy density in the discharge channel

Liquid-Liquid Equilibria for Ternary Mixtures of (Water + Carboxylic Acid+ MIBK), Experimental, Simulation, and Optimization

In this work, Experimental tie-line results and solubility (binodal) curves were obtained for the ternary systems (water + acetic acid + methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK)), (water + lactic acid+ methyl isobutyl ketone) at T = 294.15K and atmospheric pressure. The consistency of the values of the experimental tie-lines was determined through the Othmer-Tobias and Hands correlations. For the extraction effectiveness of solvents, the distribution and selectivity curves were plotted. In addition, these experimental tieline data were also correlated with NRTL model. The interaction parameters for the NRTL model were retrieved from the obtained experimental results by means of a combination of the homotopy method and the genetic algorithms.

The Control Vector Scheme for Design of Planar Primitive PH curves

The PH curve can be constructed by given parameters, but the shape of the curve is not so easy to image from the value of the parameters. On the contract, Bézier curve can be constructed by the control polygon, and from the control polygon, we can image the figure of the curve. In this paper, we want to use the hodograph of Bézier curve to construct PH curve by selecting part of the control vectors, and produce other control vectors, so the property of PH curve exists.

Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks can be used to measure and monitor many challenging problems and typically involve in monitoring, tracking and controlling areas such as battlefield monitoring, object tracking, habitat monitoring and home sentry systems. However, wireless sensor networks pose unique security challenges including forgery of sensor data, eavesdropping, denial of service attacks, and the physical compromise of sensor nodes. Node in a sensor networks may be vanished due to power exhaustion or malicious attacks. To expand the life span of the sensor network, a new node deployment is needed. In military scenarios, intruder may directly organize malicious nodes or manipulate existing nodes to set up malicious new nodes through many kinds of attacks. To avoid malicious nodes from joining the sensor network, a security is required in the design of sensor network protocols. In this paper, we proposed a security framework to provide a complete security solution against the known attacks in wireless sensor networks. Our framework accomplishes node authentication for new nodes with recognition of a malicious node. When deployed as a framework, a high degree of security is reachable compared with the conventional sensor network security solutions. A proposed framework can protect against most of the notorious attacks in sensor networks, and attain better computation and communication performance. This is different from conventional authentication methods based on the node identity. It includes identity of nodes and the node security time stamp into the authentication procedure. Hence security protocols not only see the identity of each node but also distinguish between new nodes and old nodes.

Therapeutic Product Preparation Bioprocess Modeling

An immunomodulator bioproduct is prepared in a batch bioprocess with a modified bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The bioprocess is performed in 100 L Bioengineering bioreactor with 42 L cultivation medium made of peptone, meat extract and sodium chloride. The optimal bioprocess parameters were determined: temperature – 37 0C, agitation speed - 300 rpm, aeration rate – 40 L/min, pressure – 0.5 bar, Dow Corning Antifoam M-max. 4 % of the medium volume, duration - 6 hours. This kind of bioprocesses are appreciated as difficult to control because their dynamic behavior is highly nonlinear and time varying. The aim of the paper is to present (by comparison) different models based on experimental data. The analysis criteria were modeling error and convergence rate. The estimated values and the modeling analysis were done by using the Table Curve 2D. The preliminary conclusions indicate Andrews-s model with a maximum specific growth rate of the bacterium in the range of 0.8 h-1.

Neural Network Optimal Power Flow(NN-OPF) based on IPSO with Developed Load Cluster Method

An Optimal Power Flow based on Improved Particle Swarm Optimization (OPF-IPSO) with Generator Capability Curve Constraint is used by NN-OPF as a reference to get pattern of generator scheduling. There are three stages in Designing NN-OPF. The first stage is design of OPF-IPSO with generator capability curve constraint. The second stage is clustering load to specific range and calculating its index. The third stage is training NN-OPF using constructive back propagation method. In training process total load and load index used as input, and pattern of generator scheduling used as output. Data used in this paper is power system of Java-Bali. Software used in this simulation is MATLAB.