A Cell-centered Diffusion Finite Volume Scheme and it's Application to Magnetic Flux Compression Generators

A cell-centered finite volume scheme for discretizing diffusion operators on distorted quadrilateral meshes has recently been designed and added to APMFCG to enable that code to be used as a tool for studying explosive magnetic flux compression generators. This paper describes this scheme. Comparisons with analytic results for 2-D test cases are presented, as well as 2-D results from a test of a "realistic" generator configuration.

Research on the Layout of Ground Control Points in Plain area 1:10000 DLG Production Using POS Technique

POS (also been called DGPS/IMU) technique can obtain the Exterior Orientation Elements of aerial photo, so the triangulation and DLG production using POS can save large numbers of ground control points (GCP), and this will improve the produce efficiency of DLG and reduce the cost of collecting GCP. This paper mainly research on POS technique in production of 1:10 000 scale DLG on GCP distribution. We designed 23 kinds of ground control points distribution schemes, using integrated sensor direction method to do the triangulation experiments, based on the results of triangulation, we produce a map with the scale of 1:10 000 and test its accuracy. This paper put forward appropriate GCP distributing schemes by experiments and research above, and made preparations for the application of POS technique on photogrammetry 4D data production.

Tree-on-DAG for Data Aggregation in Sensor Networks

Computing and maintaining network structures for efficient data aggregation incurs high overhead for dynamic events where the set of nodes sensing an event changes with time. Moreover, structured approaches are sensitive to the waiting time that is used by nodes to wait for packets from their children before forwarding the packet to the sink. An optimal routing and data aggregation scheme for wireless sensor networks is proposed in this paper. We propose Tree on DAG (ToD), a semistructured approach that uses Dynamic Forwarding on an implicitly constructed structure composed of multiple shortest path trees to support network scalability. The key principle behind ToD is that adjacent nodes in a graph will have low stretch in one of these trees in ToD, thus resulting in early aggregation of packets. Based on simulations on a 2,000-node Mica2- based network, we conclude that efficient aggregation in large-scale networks can be achieved by our semistructured approach.

Energy Efficiency: An Engineering Pathway towards Sustainability

Today global warming, climate change and energy supply are of greater concern as it is widely realized that the planet earth does not provide an infinite capacity for absorbing human industrialization in the 21st century. The aim of this paper is to analyze upstream and downstream electricity production in selected case studies: a coal power plant, a pump system and a microwave oven covering and consumption to explore the position of energy efficiency in engineering sustainability. Collectively, the analysis presents energy efficiency as a major pathway towards sustainability that requires an inclusive and a holistic supply chain response in the engineering design process.

Algebraic Quantum Error Correction Codes

A systematic and exhaustive method based on the group structure of a unitary Lie algebra is proposed to generate an enormous number of quantum codes. With respect to the algebraic structure, the orthogonality condition, which is the central rule of generating quantum codes, is proved to be fully equivalent to the distinguishability of the elements in this structure. In addition, four types of quantum codes are classified according to the relation of the codeword operators and some initial quantum state. By linking the unitary Lie algebra with the additive group, the classical correspondences of some of these quantum codes can be rendered.

Representing Shared Join Points with State Charts: A High Level Design Approach

Aspect Oriented Programming promises many advantages at programming level by incorporating the cross cutting concerns into separate units, called aspects. Join Points are distinguishing features of Aspect Oriented Programming as they define the points where core requirements and crosscutting concerns are (inter)connected. Currently, there is a problem of multiple aspects- composition at the same join point, which introduces the issues like ordering and controlling of these superimposed aspects. Dynamic strategies are required to handle these issues as early as possible. State chart is an effective modeling tool to capture dynamic behavior at high level design. This paper provides methodology to formulate the strategies for multiple aspect composition at high level, which helps to better implement these strategies at coding level. It also highlights the need of designing shared join point at high level, by providing the solutions of these issues using state chart diagrams in UML 2.0. High level design representation of shared join points also helps to implement the designed strategy in systematic way.

A Discretizing Method for Reliability Computation in Complex Stress-strength Models

This paper proposes, implements and evaluates an original discretization method for continuous random variables, in order to estimate the reliability of systems for which stress and strength are defined as complex functions, and whose reliability is not derivable through analytic techniques. This method is compared to other two discretizing approaches appeared in literature, also through a comparative study involving four engineering applications. The results show that the proposal is very efficient in terms of closeness of the estimates to the true (simulated) reliability. In the study we analyzed both a normal and a non-normal distribution for the random variables: this method is theoretically suitable for each parametric family.

Advantages of Composite Materials in Aircraft Structures

In the competitive environment of aircraft industries it becomes absolutely necessary to improve the efficiency, performance of the aircrafts to reduce the development and operating costs considerably, in order to capitalize the market. An important contribution to improve the efficiency and performance can be achieved by decreasing the aircraft weight through considerable usage of composite materials in primary aircraft structures. In this study, a type of composite material called Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) is explored for the usage is aircraft skin panels. Even though there were plenty of studies and research has been already carried out, here a practical example of an aircraft skin panel is taken and substantiated the benefits of composites material usage over the metallic skin panel. A crown skin panel of a commercial aircraft is designed using both metal and composite materials. Stress analysis has been carried out for both and margin of safety is estimated for the critical load cases. The skin panels are compared for manufacturing, tooling, assembly and cost parameters. Detail step by step comparison between metal and composite constructions are studied and results are tabulated for better understanding.

Design of Angular Estimator of Inertial Sensor Using the Least Square Method

Since MEMS gyro sensors measure not angle of rotation but angular rate, an estimator is designed to estimate the angles in many applications. Gyro and accelerometer are used to improve estimating accuracy of the angle. This paper presents a method of finding filter coefficients of the well-known estimator which is to get rotation angles from gyro and accelerometer data. In order to verify the performance of our method, the estimated angle is compared with the encoder output in a rotary pendulum system.

A Watermarking System Using the Wavelet Technique for Satellite Images

The huge development of new technologies and the apparition of open communication system more and more sophisticated create a new challenge to protect digital content from piracy. Digital watermarking is a recent research axis and a new technique suggested as a solution to these problems. This technique consists in inserting identification information (watermark) into digital data (audio, video, image, databases...) in an invisible and indelible manner and in such a way not to degrade original medium-s quality. Moreover, we must be able to correctly extract the watermark despite the deterioration of the watermarked medium (i.e attacks). In this paper we propose a system for watermarking satellite images. We chose to embed the watermark into frequency domain, precisely the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). We applied our algorithm on satellite images of Tunisian center. The experiments show satisfying results. In addition, our algorithm showed an important resistance facing different attacks, notably the compression (JEPG, JPEG2000), the filtering, the histogram-s manipulation and geometric distortions such as rotation, cropping, scaling.

Comparison of Current Chinese and Japanese Design Specification for Bridge Pile in Liquefied Ground

Firstly, this study briefly presents the current situation that there exists a vast gap between current Chinese and Japanese seismic design specification for bridge pile foundation in liquefiable and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading ground; The Chinese and Japanese seismic design method and technical detail for bridge pile foundation in liquefying and lateral spreading ground are described and compared systematically and comprehensively, the methods of determining coefficient of subgrade reaction and its reduction factor as well as the computing mode of the applied force on pile foundation due to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading soil in Japanese design specification are especially introduced. Subsequently, the comparison indicates that the content of Chinese seismic design specification for bridge pile foundation in liquefiable and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading ground, just presenting some qualitative items, is too general and lacks systematicness and maneuverability. Finally, some defects of seismic design specification in China are summarized, so the improvement and revision of specification in the field turns out to be imperative for China, some key problems of current Chinese specifications are generalized and the corresponding improvement suggestions are proposed.

PID Controller Design for Following Control of Hard Disk Drive by Characteristic Ratio Assignment Method

The author present PID controller design for following control of hard disk drive by characteristic ratio assignment method. The study in this paper concerns design of a PID controller which sufficiently robust to the disturbances and plant perturbations on following control of hard disk drive. Characteristic Ratio Assignment (CRA) is shown to be an efficient control technique to serve this requirement. The controller design by CRA is based on the choice of the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of the closed loop system according to the convenient performance criteria such as equivalent time constant and ration of characteristic coefficient. Hence, in this study, CRA method is applied in PID controller design for following control of hard disk drive. Matlab simulation results shown that CRA design is fairly stable and robust whilst giving the convenience in controller-s parameters adjustment.

The Dynamics of Oil Bodies in A. thaliana Seeds: A Mathematical Model of Biogenesis and Coalescence

The subcellular organelles called oil bodies (OBs) are lipid-filled quasi-spherical droplets produced from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and then released into the cytoplasm during seed development. It is believed that an OB grows by coalescence with other OBs and that its stability depends on the composition of oleosins, major proteins inserted in the hemi membrane that covers OBs. In this study, we measured the OB-volume distribution from different genotypes of A. thaliana after 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 days of seed development. In order to test the hypothesis of OBs dynamics, we developed a simple mathematical model using non-linear differential equations inspired from the theory of coagulation. The model describes the evolution of OB-volume distribution during the first steps of seed development by taking into consideration the production of OBs, the increase of triacylglycerol volume to be stored, and the growth by coalescence of OBs. Fitted parameters values show an increase in the OB production and coalescence rates in A. thaliana oleosin mutants compared to wild type.

Fast Dummy Sequence Insertion Method for PAPR Reduction in WiMAX Systems

In literatures, many researches proposed various methods to reduce PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio). Among those, DSI (Dummy Sequence Insertion) is one of the most attractive methods for WiMAX systems because it does not require side information transmitted along with user data. However, the conventional DSI methods find dummy sequence by performing an iterative procedure until achieving PAPR under a desired threshold. This causes a significant delay on finding dummy sequence and also effects to the overall performances in WiMAX systems. In this paper, the new method based on DSI is proposed by finding dummy sequence without the need of iterative procedure. The fast DSI method can reduce PAPR without either delays or required side information. The simulation results confirm that the proposed method is able to carry out PAPR performances as similar to the other methods without any delays. In addition, the simulations of WiMAX system with adaptive modulations are also investigated to realize the use of proposed methods on various fading schemes. The results suggest the WiMAX designers to modify a new Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) criteria for adaptation.

Real-time Target Tracking Using a Pan and Tilt Platform

In recent years, we see an increase of interest for efficient tracking systems in surveillance applications. Many of the proposed techniques are designed for static cameras environments. When the camera is moving, tracking moving objects become more difficult and many techniques fail to detect and track the desired targets. The problem becomes more complex when we want to track a specific object in real-time using a moving Pan and Tilt camera system to keep the target within the image. This type of tracking is of high importance in surveillance applications. When a target is detected at a certain zone, the possibility of automatically tracking it continuously and keeping it within the image until action is taken is very important for security personnel working in very sensitive sites. This work presents a real-time tracking system permitting the detection and continuous tracking of targets using a Pan and Tilt camera platform. A novel and efficient approach for dealing with occlusions is presented. Also a new intelligent forget factor is introduced in order to take into account target shape variations and avoid learning non desired objects. Tests conducted in outdoor operational scenarios show the efficiency and robustness of the proposed approach.

Effectiveness and Usability Evaluation of 'Li2D' Courseware

Multimedia courseware has been accepted as a tool that can support teaching and learning process. 'Li2D' courseware was developed to assist student-s visualization on the topic of Loci in Two Dimension. This paper describes an evaluation on the effectiveness and usability of a 'Li2D' courseware. The quasi experiment was used for the effectiveness evaluation. Usability evaluation was accomplished based on four constructs of usability, namely: efficiency, learnability, screen design and satisfaction. An evaluation on the multimedia elements was also conducted. A total of 63 students of Form Two are involved in the study. The students are divided into two groups: control and experimental. The experimental group had to interact with 'Li2D' courseware as part of the learning activities while the control group used the conventional learning methods. The results indicate that the experimental group performed better than the control group in understanding the Loci in Two Dimensions topic. In terms of usability, the results showed that the students agreed on the usability in multimedia elements in the 'Li2D' courseware.

OXADM Asymmetrical Optical Device: Extending the Application to FTTH System

With the drastically growth in optical communication technology, a lossless, low-crosstalk and multifunction optical switch is most desirable for large-scale photonic network. To realize such a switch, we have introduced the new architecture of optical switch that embedded many functions on single device. The asymmetrical architecture of OXADM consists of 3 parts; selective port, add/drop operation, and path routing. Selective port permits only the interest wavelength pass through and acts as a filter. While add and drop function can be implemented in second part of OXADM architecture. The signals can then be re-routed to any output port or/and perform an accumulation function which multiplex all signals onto single path and then exit to any interest output port. This will be done by path routing operation. The unique features offered by OXADM has extended its application to Fiber to-the Home Technology (FTTH), here the OXADM is used as a wavelength management element in Optical Line Terminal (OLT). Each port is assigned specifically with the operating wavelengths and with the dynamic routing management to ensure no traffic combustion occurs in OLT.

Dynamic Routing to Multiple Destinations in IP Networks using Hybrid Genetic Algorithm (DRHGA)

In this paper we have proposed a novel dynamic least cost multicast routing protocol using hybrid genetic algorithm for IP networks. Our protocol finds the multicast tree with minimum cost subject to delay, degree, and bandwidth constraints. The proposed protocol has the following features: i. Heuristic local search function has been devised and embedded with normal genetic operation to increase the speed and to get the optimized tree, ii. It is efficient to handle the dynamic situation arises due to either change in the multicast group membership or node / link failure, iii. Two different crossover and mutation probabilities have been used for maintaining the diversity of solution and quick convergence. The simulation results have shown that our proposed protocol generates dynamic multicast tree with lower cost. Results have also shown that the proposed algorithm has better convergence rate, better dynamic request success rate and less execution time than other existing algorithms. Effects of degree and delay constraints have also been analyzed for the multicast tree interns of search success rate.

Analysis of Permanence and Extinction of Enterprise Cluster Based On Ecology Theory

This paper is concerned with the permanence and extinction problem of enterprises cluster constituted by m satellite enterprises and a dominant enterprise. We present the model involving impulsive effect based on ecology theory, which effectively describe the competition and cooperation of enterprises cluster in real economic environment. Applying comparison theorem of impulsive differential equation, we establish sufficient conditions which ultimately affect the fate of enterprises: permanence, extinction, and co-existence. Finally, we present numerical examples to explain the economical significance of mathematical results.

Target Tracking in Sensor Networks: A Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Approach

In distributed resource allocation a set of agents must assign their resources to a set of tasks. This problem arises in many real-world domains such as distributed sensor networks, disaster rescue, hospital scheduling and others. Despite the variety of approaches proposed for distributed resource allocation, a systematic formalization of the problem, explaining the different sources of difficulties, and a formal explanation of the strengths and limitations of key approaches is missing. We take a step towards this goal by using a formalization of distributed resource allocation that represents both dynamic and distributed aspects of the problem. In this paper we present a new idea for target tracking in sensor networks and compare it with previous approaches. The central contribution of the paper is a generalized mapping from distributed resource allocation to DDCSP. This mapping is proven to correctly perform resource allocation problems of specific difficulty. This theoretical result is verified in practice by a simulation on a realworld distributed sensor network.