Abstract: The proof of concept experiments were conducted to
determine the feasibility of using small amounts of Dissolved
Sulphur (DS) from the gaseous phase to precipitate platinum ions in
chloride media. Two sets of precipitation experiments were
performed in which the source of sulphur atoms was either a
thiosulphate solution (Na2S2O3) or a sulphur dioxide gas (SO2). In
liquid-liquid (L-L) system, complete precipitation of Pt was achieved
at small dosages of Na2S2O3 (0.01 – 1.0 M) in a time interval of 3-5
minutes. On the basis of this result, gas absorption tests were carried
out mainly to achieve sulphur solubility equivalent to 0.018 M. The
idea that huge amounts of precious metals could be recovered
selectively from their dilute solutions by utilizing the waste SO2
streams at low pressure seemed attractive from the economic and
environmental point of views. Therefore, mass transfer characteristics
of SO2 gas associated with reactive absorption across the gas-liquid
(G-L) interface were evaluated under different conditions of pressure
(0.5 – 2 bar), solution temperature ranges from 20 – 50 oC and acid
strength (1 – 4 M, HCl). This paper concludes with information about
selective precipitation of Pt in the presence of cations (Fe2+, Co2+,
and Cr3+) in a CSTR and recommendation to scale up laboratory data
to industrial pilot scale operations.
Abstract: Abu Dhabi is one of the fastest developed cities in the region. On top of all the current and future environmental challenges, Abu Dhabi aims to be among the top governments in the world in sustainable development. Abu Dhabi plans to create an attractive, livable and sustainable managed urban environment in which all necessary services and infrastructure are provided in a sustainable and timely manner. Abu Dhabi is engaged in a difficult challenge to develop credible environmental indicators that would assess the ambitious environmental targets. The aim of those indicators is to provide reliable guidance to decision makers and the public concerning key factors that determine the state of urban environment and identify major areas for policy intervention. In order to ensure sustainable development in UAE in general, and of Abu Dhabi City in particular, relevant and contextual environmental indicators need to be carefully considered. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to establish environmental policy goals. The environment indicators assist city decision-making in such areas as identification of significant environmental aspects and observation of environmental performance trends. Those can help to find ways of reducing environmental pollution and in improving eco-efficiency. This paper outlines recent strategies implemented in Abu Dhabi that aims to improve the sustainable performance of the city-s built environment. The paper explores the variety of current and possible indicators at different levels and their roles in the development of the city.
Abstract: In process control applications, above 90% of the
controllers are of PID type. This paper proposed a robust PI
controller with fractional-order integrator. The PI parameters were
obtained using classical Ziegler-Nichols rules but enhanced with the
application of error filter cascaded to the fractional-order PI. The
controller was applied on steam temperature process that was
described by FOPDT transfer function. The process can be classified
as lag dominating process with very small relative dead-time. The
proposed control scheme was compared with other PI controller
tuned using Ziegler-Nichols and AMIGO rules. Other PI controller
with fractional-order integrator known as F-MIGO was also
considered. All the controllers were subjected to set point change and
load disturbance tests. The performance was measured using Integral
of Squared Error (ISE) and Integral of Control Signal (ICO). The
proposed controller produced best performance for all the tests with
the least ISE index.
Abstract: In this paper, a pipelined version of genetic algorithm,
called PLGA, and a corresponding hardware platform are described.
The basic operations of conventional GA (CGA) are made pipelined
using an appropriate selection scheme. The selection operator, used
here, is stochastic in nature and is called SA-selection. This helps
maintaining the basic generational nature of the proposed pipelined
GA (PLGA). A number of benchmark problems are used to compare
the performances of conventional roulette-wheel selection and the
SA-selection. These include unimodal and multimodal functions with
dimensionality varying from very small to very large. It is seen that
the SA-selection scheme is giving comparable performances with
respect to the classical roulette-wheel selection scheme, for all the
instances, when quality of solutions and rate of convergence are considered.
The speedups obtained by PLGA for different benchmarks
are found to be significant. It is shown that a complete hardware
pipeline can be developed using the proposed scheme, if parallel
evaluation of the fitness expression is possible. In this connection
a low-cost but very fast hardware evaluation unit is described.
Results of simulation experiments show that in a pipelined hardware
environment, PLGA will be much faster than CGA. In terms of
efficiency, PLGA is found to outperform parallel GA (PGA) also.
Abstract: This paper proposes new hybrid approaches for face
recognition. Gabor wavelets representation of face images is an
effective approach for both facial action recognition and face
identification. Perform dimensionality reduction and linear
discriminate analysis on the down sampled Gabor wavelet faces can
increase the discriminate ability. Nearest feature space is extended to
various similarity measures. In our experiments, proposed Gabor
wavelet faces combined with extended neural net feature space
classifier shows very good performance, which can achieve 93 %
maximum correct recognition rate on ORL data set without any preprocessing
step.
Abstract: The paper deals with calculation of the parameters of
ceramic material from a set of destruction tests of ceramic heads of
total hip joint endoprosthesis. The standard way of calculation of the
material parameters consists in carrying out a set of 3 or 4 point
bending tests of specimens cut out from parts of the ceramic material
to be analysed. In case of ceramic heads, it is not possible to cut out
specimens of required dimensions because the heads are too small (if
the cut out specimens were smaller than the normalised ones, the
material parameters derived from them would exhibit higher strength
values than those which the given ceramic material really has). On
that score, a special testing jig was made, in which 40 heads were
destructed. From the measured values of circumferential strains of the
head-s external spherical surface under destruction, the state of stress
in the head under destruction was established using the final elements
method (FEM). From the values obtained, the sought for parameters
of the ceramic material were calculated using Weibull-s weakest-link
theory.
Abstract: In this paper the neural network-based controller is
designed for motion control of a mobile robot. This paper treats the
problems of trajectory following and posture stabilization of the
mobile robot with nonholonomic constraints. For this purpose the
recurrent neural network with one hidden layer is used. It learns
relationship between linear velocities and error positions of the
mobile robot. This neural network is trained on-line using the
backpropagation optimization algorithm with an adaptive learning
rate. The optimization algorithm is performed at each sample time to
compute the optimal control inputs. The performance of the proposed
system is investigated using a kinematic model of the mobile robot.
Abstract: We propose a decoy-pulse protocol for frequency-coded implementation of B92 quantum key distribution protocol. A direct extension of decoy-pulse method to frequency-coding scheme results in security loss as an eavesdropper can distinguish between signal and decoy pulses by measuring the carrier photon number without affecting other statistics. We overcome this problem by optimizing the ratio of carrier photon number of decoy-to-signal pulse to be as close to unity as possible. In our method the switching between signal and decoy pulses is achieved by changing the amplitude of RF signal as opposed to modulating the intensity of optical signal thus reducing system cost. We find an improvement by a factor of 100 approximately in the key generation rate using decoy-state protocol. We also study the effect of source fluctuation on key rate. Our simulation results show a key generation rate of 1.5×10-4/pulse for link lengths up to 70km. Finally, we discuss the optimum value of average photon number of signal pulse for a given key rate while also optimizing the carrier ratio.
Abstract: A new SUZ-4 zeolite membrane with
tetraethlyammonium hydroxide as the template was fabricated on
mullite tube via hydrothermal sol-gel synthesis in a rotating
autoclave reactor. The suitable synthesis condition was SiO2:Al2O3
ratio of 21.2 for 4 days at 155 °C crystallization under autogenous
pressure. The obtained SUZ-4 possessed a high BET surface area of
396.4 m2/g, total pore volume at 2.611 cm3/g, and narrow pore size
distribution with 97 nm mean diameter and 760 nm long of needle
crystal shape. The SUZ-4 layer obtained from seeding crystallization
was thicker than that of without seeds or in situ crystallization.
Abstract: Discrete particle swarm optimization (DPSO) is a
powerful stochastic evolutionary algorithm that is used to solve the
large-scale, discrete and nonlinear optimization problems. However,
it has been observed that standard DPSO algorithm has premature
convergence when solving a complex optimization problem like
transmission expansion planning (TEP). To resolve this problem an
advanced discrete particle swarm optimization (ADPSO) is proposed
in this paper. The simulation result shows that optimization of lines
loading in transmission expansion planning with ADPSO is better
than DPSO from precision view point.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the application of the vision control algorithm for robot's point placement task in discontinuous trajectory caused by obstacle. The presented vision control algorithm consists of four models, which are the robot kinematic model, vision system model, parameters estimation model, and robot joint angle estimation model.When the robot moves toward a target along discontinuous trajectory, several types of obstacles appear in two obstacle regions. Then, this study is to investigate how these changes will affect the presented vision control algorithm.Thus, the practicality of the vision control algorithm is demonstrated experimentally by performing the robot's point placement task in discontinuous trajectory by obstacle.
Abstract: This paper describes the design and results of FROID,
an outbound intrusion detection system built with agent technology
and supported by an attacker-centric ontology. The prototype
features a misuse-based detection mechanism that identifies remote
attack tools in execution. Misuse signatures composed of attributes
selected through entropy analysis of outgoing traffic streams and
process runtime data are derived from execution variants of attack
programs. The core of the architecture is a mesh of self-contained
detection cells organized non-hierarchically that group agents in a
functional fashion. The experiments show performance gains when
the ontology is enabled as well as an increase in accuracy achieved
when correlation cells combine detection evidence received from
independent detection cells.
Abstract: How to efficiently assign system resource to route the
Client demand by Gateway servers is a tricky predicament. In this
paper, we tender an enhanced proposal for autonomous recital of
Gateway servers under highly vibrant traffic loads. We devise a
methodology to calculate Queue Length and Waiting Time utilizing
Gateway Server information to reduce response time variance in
presence of bursty traffic.
The most widespread contemplation is performance, because
Gateway Servers must offer cost-effective and high-availability
services in the elongated period, thus they have to be scaled to meet
the expected load. Performance measurements can be the base for
performance modeling and prediction. With the help of performance
models, the performance metrics (like buffer estimation, waiting
time) can be determined at the development process.
This paper describes the possible queue models those can be
applied in the estimation of queue length to estimate the final value
of the memory size. Both simulation and experimental studies using
synthesized workloads and analysis of real-world Gateway Servers
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system.
Abstract: Most file systems overwrite modified file data and
metadata in their original locations, while the Log-structured File
System (LFS) dynamically relocates them to other locations. We
design and implement the Evergreen file system that can select
between overwriting or relocation for each block of a file or metadata.
Therefore, the Evergreen file system can achieve superior write
performance by sequentializing write requests (similar to LFS-style
relocation) when space utilization is low and overwriting when
utilization is high. Another challenging issue is identifying
performance benefits of LFS-style relocation over overwriting on a
newly introduced SSD (Solid State Drive) which has only
Flash-memory chips and control circuits without mechanical parts.
Our experimental results measured on a SSD show that relocation
outperforms overwriting when space utilization is below 80% and vice
versa.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a morphing method by which face color images can be freely transformed. The main focus of this work is the transformation of one face image to another. This method is fully automatic in that it can morph two face images by automatically detecting all the control points necessary to perform the morph. A face detection neural network, edge detection and medium filters are employed to detect the face position and features. Five control points, for both the source and target images, are then extracted based on the facial features. Triangulation method is then used to match and warp the source image to the target image using the control points. Finally color interpolation is done using a color Gaussian model that calculates the color for each particular frame depending on the number of frames used. A real coded Genetic algorithm is used in both the image warping and color blending steps to assist in step size decisions and speed up the morphing. This method results in ''very smooth'' morphs and is fast to process.
Abstract: A robust AUSM+ upwind discretisation scheme has been developed to simulate multiphase flow using consistent spatial discretisation schemes and a modified low-Mach number diffusion term. The impact of the selection of an interfacial pressure model has also been investigated. Three representative test cases have been simulated to evaluate the accuracy of the commonly-used stiffenedgas equation of state with respect to the IAPWS-IF97 equation of state for water. The algorithm demonstrates a combination of robustness and accuracy over a range of flow conditions, with the stiffened-gas equation tending to overestimate liquid temperature and density profiles.
Abstract: Raisin Concentrate (RC) are the most important
products obtained in the raisin processing industries. These RC
products are now used to make the syrups, drinks and confectionery
productions and introduced as natural substitute for sugar in food
applications. Iran is a one of the biggest raisin exporter in the world
but unfortunately despite a good raw material, no serious effort to
extract the RC has been taken in Iran. Therefore, in this paper, we
determined and analyzed affected parameters on extracting RC
process and then optimizing these parameters for design the
extracting RC process in two types of raisin (round and long)
produced in Khorasan region. Two levels of solvent (1:1 and 2:1),
three levels of extraction temperature (60°C, 70°C and 80°C), and
three levels of concentration temperature (50°C, 60°C and 70°C)
were the treatments. Finally physicochemical characteristics of the
obtained concentrate such as color, viscosity, percentage of reduction
sugar, acidity and the microbial tests (mould and yeast) were
counted. The analysis was performed on the basis of factorial in the
form of completely randomized design (CRD) and Duncan's multiple
range test (DMRT) was used for the comparison of the means.
Statistical analysis of results showed that optimal conditions for
production of concentrate is round raisins when the solvent ratio was
2:1 with extraction temperature of 60°C and then concentration
temperature of 50°C. Round raisin is cheaper than the long one, and
it is more economical to concentrate production. Furthermore, round
raisin has more aromas and the less color degree with increasing the
temperature of concentration and extraction. Finally, according to
mentioned factors the concentrate of round raisin is recommended.
Abstract: Reinforced concrete has good durability and excellent structural performance. But there are cases of early deterioration due to a number of factors, one prominent factor being corrosion of steel reinforcement. The process of corrosion sets in due to ingress of moisture, oxygen and other ingredients into the body of concrete, which is unsound, permeable and absorbent. Cracks due to structural and other causes such as creep, shrinkage, etc also allow ingress of moisture and other harmful ingredients and thus accelerate the rate of corrosion. There are several interactive factors both external and internal, which lead to corrosion of reinforcement and ultimately failure of structures. Suitable addition of mineral admixture like silica fume (SF) in concrete improves the strength and durability of concrete due to considerable improvement in the microstructure of concrete composites, especially at the transition zone. Secondary reinforcement in the form of fibre is added to concrete, which provides three dimensional random reinforcement in the entire mass of concrete. Reinforced concrete beams of size 0.1 m X 0.15 m and length 1m have been cast using M 35 grade of concrete. The beams after curing process were subjected to corrosion process by impressing an external Direct Current (Galvanostatic Method) for a period of 15 days under stressed and unstressed conditions. The corroded beams were tested by applying two point loads to determine the ultimate load carrying capacity and cracking pattern and the results of specimens were compared with that of the companion specimens. Gravimetric method is used to quantify corrosion that has occurred.
Abstract: A mathematical model for the hydrodynamics of a
surface water treatment pilot plant was developed and validated by
the determination of the residence time distribution (RTD) for the
main equipments of the unit. The well known models of ideal/real
mixing, ideal displacement (plug flow) and (one-dimensional axial)
dispersion model were combined in order to identify the structure
that gives the best fitting of the experimental data for each equipment
of the pilot plant. RTD experimental results have shown that pilot
plant hydrodynamics can be quite well approximated by a
combination of simple mathematical models, structure which is
suitable for engineering applications. Validated hydrodynamic
models will be further used in the evaluation and selection of the
most suitable coagulation-flocculation reagents, optimum operating
conditions (injection point, reaction times, etc.), in order to improve
the quality of the drinking water.
Abstract: In this study, oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM) over a Au/CeO2–Fe2O3 catalyst prepared by a depositionprecipitation (DP) method was studied to produce hydrogen in order to feed a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). The support (CeO2, Fe2O3, and CeO2–Fe2O3) were prepared by precipitation and co-precipitation methods. The impact of the support composition on the catalytic performance was studied by varying the Ce/(Ce+Fe) atomic ratio, it was found that the 1%Au/CF(0.25) calcined at 300 °C exhibited the highest catalytic activity in the whole temperature studied. In addition, the effect of Au content was investigated and 3%Au/CF(0.25) exhibited the highest activity under the optimum condition in the temperature range of 200 °C to 400 °C. The catalysts were characterized by various techniques: XRD, TPR, XRF, and UV-vis.