Abstract: High-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) thermal spraying
uses a combustion process to heat the gas flow and coating material.
A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed to
predict gas dynamic behavior in a HVOF thermal spray gun in which
premixed oxygen and propane are burnt in a combustion chamber
linked to a parallel-sided nozzle. The CFD analysis is applied to
investigate axisymmetric, steady-state, turbulent, compressible,
chemically reacting, subsonic and supersonic flow inside and outside
the gun. The gas velocity, temperature, pressure and Mach number
distributions are presented for various locations inside and outside
the gun. The calculated results show that the most sensitive
parameters affecting the process are fuel-to-oxygen gas ratio and
total gas flow rate. Gas dynamic behavior along the centerline of the
gun depends on both total gas flow rate and fuel-to-oxygen gas ratio.
The numerical simulations show that the axial gas velocity and Mach
number distribution depend on both flow rate and ratio; the highest
velocity is achieved at the higher flow rate and most fuel-rich ratio.
In addition, the results reported in this paper illustrate that the
numerical simulation can be one of the most powerful and beneficial
tools for the HVOF system design, optimization and performance
analysis.
Abstract: This paper aims to scale up Dye-sensitized Solar Cell
(DSSC) production using a commonly available industrial material –
stainless steel - and industrial plasma equipment. A working DSSC
electrode formed by (1) coating titania nanotube (TiO2 NT) film on
304 stainless steel substrate using a plasma spray technique; then, (2)
filling the nano-pores of the TiO2 NT film using a TiF4 sol-gel method.
A DSSC device consists of an anode absorbed photosensitive dye
(N3), a transparent conductive cathode with platinum (Pt)
nano-catalytic particles adhered to its surface, and an electrolytic
solution sealed between the anode and the transparent conductive
cathode. The photo-current conversion efficiency of the DSSC sample
was tested under an AM 1.5 Solar Simulator. The sample has a short
current (Isc) of 0.83 mA cm-2, open voltage (Voc) of 0.81V, filling
factor (FF) of 0.52, and conversion efficiency (η) of 2.18% on a 0.16
cm2 DSSC work-piece.
Abstract: During the past several years, face recognition in video
has received significant attention. Not only the wide range of
commercial and law enforcement applications, but also the availability
of feasible technologies after several decades of research contributes
to the trend. Although current face recognition systems have reached a
certain level of maturity, their development is still limited by the
conditions brought about by many real applications. For example,
recognition images of video sequence acquired in an open
environment with changes in illumination and/or pose and/or facial
occlusion and/or low resolution of acquired image remains a largely
unsolved problem. In other words, current algorithms are yet to be
developed. This paper provides an up-to-date survey of video-based
face recognition research. To present a comprehensive survey, we
categorize existing video based recognition approaches and present
detailed descriptions of representative methods within each category.
In addition, relevant topics such as real time detection, real time
tracking for video, issues such as illumination, pose, 3D and low
resolution are covered.
Abstract: Students with high level skills are in demand, especially in scare skill environments. If universities wish to be successful and competitive, its students need to be adequately equipped with the necessary tools. Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is an essential component of the education of a student. The relevance of higher education should be assessed in terms of how it meets the needs of society and the world of work in a global economy. This paper demonstrates how to use Habermas's theory of communicative action to reflect on students- perceptions on their integration in the work environment to achieve social integration and financial justification. Interpretive questionnaires are used to determine the students- view of how they are integrated into society, and contributing to the economy. This paper explores the use of Habermas-s theory of communicative action to give theoretical and methodological guidance for the practice of social findings obtained in this inquiry.
Abstract: To respond to the Kyoto Protocol, the policy of Payment for Environmental Service (PES), which was entitled “Plain Landscape Afforestation Program (PLAP)", was certified by Executive Yuan in Taiwan on 31 August 2001 and has been implementing for six years since 1 January 2002. Although the PLAP has received a lot of positive comments, there are still many difficulties during the process of implementation, such as insufficient technology for afforestation, private landowners- low interests in participating in PLAP, insufficient subsidies, and so on, which are potential threats that hinder the PLAP from moving forward in future. In this paper, selecting Ping-Tung County in Taiwan as a sample region and targeting those private landowners with and without intention to participate in the PLAP, respectively, we conduct an empirical analysis based on the Logit model to investigate the factors that determine whether those private landowners join the PLAP, so as to realize the incentive effects of the PLAP upon the personal decision on afforestation. The possible factors that might determine private landowner-s participation in the PLAP include landowner-s characteristics, cropland characteristics, as well as policy factors. Among them, the policy factors include afforestation subsidy amount (+), duration of afforestation subsidy (+), the rules on adjoining and adjacent areas (+), and so on, which do not reach the remarkable level in statistics though, but the directions of variable signs are consistent with the intuition behind the policy. As for the landowners- characteristics, each of age (+), education level (–), and annual household income (+) variables reaches 10% of the remarkable level in statistics; as for the cropland characteristics, each of cropland area (+), cropland price (–), and the number of cropland parcels (–) reaches 1% of the remarkable level in statistics. In light of the above, the cropland characteristics are the dominate factor that determines the probability of landowner-s participation in the PLAP. In the Logit model established by this paper, the probability of correctly estimating nonparticipants is 98%, the probability of correctly estimating the participants is 71.8%, and the probability for the overall estimation is 95%. In addition, Hosmer-Lemeshow test and omnibus test also revealed that the Logit model in this paper may provide fine goodness of fit and good predictive power in forecasting private landowners- participation in this program. The empirical result of this paper expects to help the implementation of the afforestation programs in Taiwan.
Abstract: the present paper, using the technique of differential subordination, we obtain certain results for analytic functions defined by a multiplier transformation in the open unit disc E = { z : IzI < 1}. We claim that our results extend and generalize the existing results in this particular direction
Abstract: An artificial neural network (ANN) approach was used to model the energy consumption of wheat production. This study was conducted over 35,300 hectares of irrigated and dry land wheat fields in Canterbury in the 2007-2008 harvest year.1 In this study several direct and indirect factors have been used to create an artificial neural networks model to predict energy use in wheat production. The final model can predict energy consumption by using farm condition (size of wheat area and number paddocks), farmers- social properties (education), and energy inputs (N and P use, fungicide consumption, seed consumption, and irrigation frequency), it can also predict energy use in Canterbury wheat farms with error margin of ±7% (± 1600 MJ/ha).
Abstract: The study aimed to investigate characteristics of
vegetative tissue for taxonomic purpose and possibly trend of waste
application in industry. Stems and branches of 15 species in Solanum
found in Thailand were prepared for fiber and examined by light
microscopy. Microstructural characteristic data of fiber i.e. fiber
length and width, fiber lumen diameter and fiber cell wall thickness
were recorded. The longest average fiber cell length (>3.9 mm.) were
obtained in S. lycopersicum L. and S. tuberosum L. Fiber cells from
S. lycopersicum also revealed the widest average diameter of whole
cell and its lumen at >45.5 μm and >29 μm respectively. However
fiber cells with thickest wall of > 9.6 μm were belonged to the
ornamental tree species, S. wrightii Benth. The results showed that
the slenderness ratio, Runkel ratio, and flexibility coefficient, with
potentially suitable for feedstock in paper industry fell in 4 exotic
species, i.e. Solanumamericanum L., S. lycopersicum, S.
seaforthianum Andr., and S. tuberosum L
Abstract: In this note first we define the notions of intuitionistic
fuzzy dual positive implicative hyper K-ideals of types
1,2,3,4 and intuitionistic fuzzy dual hyper K-ideals. Then we
give some classifications about these notions according to the
level subsets. Also by given some examples we show that these
notions are not equivalent, however we prove some theorems
which show that there are some relationships between these
notions. Finally we define the notions of product and antiproduct
of two fuzzy subsets and then give some theorems
about the relationships between the intuitionistic fuzzy dual
positive implicative hyper K-ideal of types 1,2,3,4 and their
(anti-)products, in particular we give a main decomposition
theorem.
Abstract: Power transformers are among the most important and
expensive equipments in the electric power systems. Consequently
the transformer protection is an essential part of the system
protection. This paper presents a new method for locating
transformer winding faults such as turn-to-turn, turn-to-core, turn-totransformer
body, turn-to-earth, and high voltage winding to low
voltage winding. In this study the current and voltage signals of input
and output terminals of the transformer are measured, which the
Fourier transform of measured signals and harmonic analysis
determine the fault's location.
Abstract: Automatic reusability appraisal is helpful in
evaluating the quality of developed or developing reusable software
components and in identification of reusable components from
existing legacy systems; that can save cost of developing the
software from scratch. But the issue of how to identify reusable
components from existing systems has remained relatively
unexplored. In this research work, structural attributes of software
components are explored using software metrics and quality of the
software is inferred by different Neural Network based approaches,
taking the metric values as input. The calculated reusability value
enables to identify a good quality code automatically. It is found that
the reusability value determined is close to the manual analysis used
to be performed by the programmers or repository managers. So, the
developed system can be used to enhance the productivity and
quality of software development.
Abstract: .Hardware realization of a Neural Network (NN), to a large extent depends on the efficient implementation of a single neuron. FPGA-based reconfigurable computing architectures are suitable for hardware implementation of neural networks. FPGA realization of ANNs with a large number of neurons is still a challenging task. This paper discusses the issues involved in implementation of a multi-input neuron with linear/nonlinear excitation functions using FPGA. Implementation method with resource/speed tradeoff is proposed to handle signed decimal numbers. The VHDL coding developed is tested using Xilinx XC V50hq240 Chip. To improve the speed of operation a lookup table method is used. The problems involved in using a lookup table (LUT) for a nonlinear function is discussed. The percentage saving in resource and the improvement in speed with an LUT for a neuron is reported. An attempt is also made to derive a generalized formula for a multi-input neuron that facilitates to estimate approximately the total resource requirement and speed achievable for a given multilayer neural network. This facilitates the designer to choose the FPGA capacity for a given application. Using the proposed method of implementation a neural network based application, namely, a Space vector modulator for a vector-controlled drive is presented
Abstract: This paper presents the 20-GHz fractional PLL (Phase
Locked Loop) circuit for the next generation Wi-Fi by using 90 nm
TSMC process. The newly suggested millimeter wave 16/17
pre-scalar is designed and verified by measurement to make the
fractional PLL having a low quantization noise. The operational
bandwidth of the 60 GHz system is 15 % of the carrier frequency
which requires large value of Kv (VCO control gain) resulting in
degradation of phase noise. To solve this problem, this paper adopts
AFC (Automatic Frequency Controller) controlled 4-bit millimeter
wave VCO with small value of Kv. Also constant Kv is implemented
using 4-bit varactor bank. The measured operational bandwidth is 18.2
~ 23.2 GHz which is 25 % of the carrier frequency. The phase noise of
-58 and -96.2 dBc/Hz at 100 KHz and 1 MHz offset is measured
respectively. The total power consumption of the PLL is only 30 mW.
Abstract: This paper reported an experimental research of
steady-state heat transfer behaviour of a gas flowing through a fixed
bed under the different operating conditions. Studies had been carried
out in a fixed-bed packed methanol synthesis catalyst percolated by air
at appropriate flow rate. Both radial and axial direction temperature
distribution had been investigated under the different operating
conditions. The effects of operating conditions including the reactor
inlet air temperature, the heating pipe temperature and the air flow rate
on temperature distribution was investigated and the experimental
results showed that a higher inlet air temperature was conducive to
uniform temperature distribution in the fixed bed. A large temperature
drop existed at the radial direction, and the temperature drop increased
with the heating pipe temperature increasing under the experimental
conditions; the temperature profile of the vicinity of the heating pipe
was strongly affected by the heating pipe temperature. A higher air
flow rate can improve the heat transfer in the fixed bed. Based on the
thermal distribution, heat transfer models of the fixed bed could be
established, and the characteristics of the temperature distribution in
the fixed bed could be finely described, that had an important practical
significance.
Abstract: In this paper, a uniform calculus-based approach for
synthesizing monitors checking correctness properties specified by a
large variety of logics at runtime is provided, including future and past
time logics, interval logics, state machine and parameterized temporal
logics. We present a calculus mechanism to synthesize monitors from
the logical specification for the incremental analysis of execution
traces during test and real run. The monitor detects both good and bad
prefix of a particular kind, namely those that are informative for the
property under investigation. We elaborate the procedure of calculus
as monitors.
Abstract: Materials used on exterior spacecraft surfaces are subjected to many environmental threats which can cause degradation, atomic oxygen is one of the most threats. We prepared organic silicon atomic-oxygen-protection film using method of polymerization. This paper presented the effects on the film structure and its durability of the preparation processing, and analyzed the polymerization theory, the film structure and composition of the film. At last, we tested the film in our ground based atomic oxygen simulator, and indicated that the film worked well.
Abstract: With the exponential rise in the number of multimedia
applications available, the best-effort service provided by the Internet
today is insufficient. Researchers have been working on new
architectures like the Next Generation Network (NGN) which, by
definition, will ensure Quality of Service (QoS) in an all-IP based
network [1]. For this approach to become a reality, reservation of
bandwidth is required per application per user. WiMAX (Worldwide
Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless communication
technology which has predefined levels of QoS which can be
provided to the user [4]. IPv6 has been created as the successor for
IPv4 and resolves issues like the availability of IP addresses and
QoS. This paper provides a design to use the power of WiMAX as an
NSP (Network Service Provider) for NGN using IPv6. The use of the
Traffic Class (TC) field and the Flow Label (FL) field of IPv6 has
been explained for making QoS requests and grants [6], [7]. Using
these fields, the processing time is reduced and routing is simplified.
Also, we define the functioning of the ASN gateway and the NGN
gateway (NGNG) which are edge node interfaces in the NGNWiMAX
design. These gateways ensure QoS management through
built in functions and by certain physical resources and networking
capabilities.
Abstract: Recently, web services to access from many type devices
are often used. We have developed the shortest path planning
system called "Bus-Net" in Tottori prefecture as a web application
to sustain the public transport. And it used the same user interface
for both devices. To support both devices, the interface cannot use
JavaScript and so on.
Thus, we developed the method that use individual user interface
for each device type to improve its convenience. To be concrete,
we defined formats of condition input to the path planning system
and result output from it and separate the system into the request
processing part and user interface parts that depend on device types.
By this method, we have also developed special device for Bus-Net
named "Intelligent-Bus-Stop".
Abstract: Image compression can improve the performance of
the digital systems by reducing time and cost in image storage
and transmission without significant reduction of the image quality.
Furthermore, the discrete cosine transform has emerged as the new
state-of-the art standard for image compression. In this paper, a
hybrid image compression technique based on reversible blockade
transform coding is proposed. The technique, implemented over
regions of interest (ROIs), is based on selection of the coefficients
that belong to different transforms, depending on the coefficients is
proposed. This method allows: (1) codification of multiple kernals
at various degrees of interest, (2) arbitrary shaped spectrum,and (3)
flexible adjustment of the compression quality of the image and the
background. No standard modification for JPEG2000 decoder was
required. The method was applied over different types of images.
Results show a better performance for the selected regions, when
image coding methods were employed for the whole set of images.
We believe that this method is an excellent tool for future image
compression research, mainly on images where image coding can
be of interest, such as the medical imaging modalities and several
multimedia applications. Finally VLSI implementation of proposed
method is shown. It is also shown that the kernal of Hartley and
Cosine transform gives the better performance than any other model.
Abstract: This paper features the modeling and design of a
Robust Decentralized Fast Output Sampling (RDFOS) Feedback
control technique for the active vibration control of a smart flexible
multimodel Euler-Bernoulli cantilever beams for a multivariable
(MIMO) case by retaining the first 6 vibratory modes. The beam
structure is modeled in state space form using the concept of
piezoelectric theory, the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the Finite
Element Method (FEM) technique by dividing the beam into 4 finite
elements and placing the piezoelectric sensor / actuator at two finite
element locations (positions 2 and 4) as collocated pairs, i.e., as
surface mounted sensor / actuator, thus giving rise to a multivariable
model of the smart structure plant with two inputs and two outputs.
Five such multivariable models are obtained by varying the
dimensions (aspect ratios) of the aluminium beam. Using model
order reduction technique, the reduced order model of the higher
order system is obtained based on dominant Eigen value retention
and the Davison technique. RDFOS feedback controllers are
designed for the above 5 multivariable-multimodel plant. The closed
loop responses with the RDFOS feedback gain and the magnitudes of
the control input are obtained and the performance of the proposed
multimodel smart structure system is evaluated for vibration control.