Abstract: This paper presents a review on published literature
and experimental works on local sands for possible use as proppant,
specifically those from Terengganu coastal area. This includes
examination on characteristics of sand samples and selection of
experiments for proppant testing. Sand samples from identified areas
were tested according to particle size distribution, density, roundness
and sphericity, turbidity and mineralogy. Results from sand samples
were compared against proppant specifications set by API RP 56 and
selected commercial proppants. The present study found that the size
distribution, sphericity, turbidity and bulk density of Terengganu
sands are at par with some of commercial proppants. Nevertheless,
Terengganu sand samples do not completely surpass the required
roundness for use as proppant.
Abstract: A direct downconversion receiver implemented in 0.13 μm 1P8M process is presented. The circuit is formed by a single-end LNA, an active balun for conversion into balanced mode, a quadrature double-balanced passive switch mixer and a quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator. The receiver operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and complies with IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee) specifications. The circuit exhibits a very low noise figure of only 2.27 dB and dissipates only 14.6 mW with a 1.2 V supply voltage and is hence suitable for low-power applications.
Abstract: Modernizing legacy applications is the key issue facing IT managers today because there's enormous pressure on organizations to change the way they run their business to meet the new requirements. The importance of software maintenance and reengineering is forever increasing. Understanding the architecture of existing legacy applications is the most critical issue for maintenance and reengineering. The artifacts recovery can be facilitated with different recovery approaches, methods and tools. The existing methods provide static and dynamic set of techniques for extracting architectural information, but are not suitable for all users in different domains. This paper presents a simple and lightweight pattern extraction technique to extract different artifacts from legacy systems using regular expression pattern specifications with multiple language support. We used our custom-built tool DRT to recover artifacts from existing system at different levels of abstractions. In order to evaluate our approach a case study is conducted.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the design and implementation of MICOSim, an event-driven simulator written in Java for evaluating the performance of Grid entities (users, brokers and resources) under different scenarios such as varying the numbers of users, resources and brokers and varying their specifications and employed strategies.
Abstract: This study systemizes processes and methods in
wooden furniture design that contains uniqueness in function and
aesthetics. The study was done by research and analysis for
designer-s consideration factors that affect function and production.
Therefore, the study result indicates that such factors are design
process (planning for design, product specifications, concept design,
product architecture, industrial design, production), design evaluation
as well as wooden furniture design dependent factors i.e. art (art
style; furniture history, form), functionality (the strength and
durability, area place, using), material (appropriate to function, wood
mechanical properties), joints, cost, safety, and social responsibility.
Specifically, all aforementioned factors affect good design. Resulting
from direct experience gained through user-s usage, the designer
must design the wooden furniture systemically and effectively. As a
result, this study selected dinning armchair as a case study with all
involving factors and all design process stated in this study.
Abstract: This work concerns the topological optimization
problem for determining the optimal petroleum refinery
configuration. We are interested in further investigating and
hopefully advancing the existing optimization approaches and
strategies employing logic propositions to conceptual process
synthesis problems. In particular, we seek to contribute to this
increasingly exciting area of chemical process modeling by
addressing the following potentially important issues: (a) how the
formulation of design specifications in a mixed-logical-and-integer
optimization model can be employed in a synthesis problem to enrich
the problem representation by incorporating past design experience,
engineering knowledge, and heuristics; and (b) how structural
specifications on the interconnectivity relationships by space (states)
and by function (tasks) in a superstructure should be properly
formulated within a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP)
model. The proposed modeling technique is illustrated on a case
study involving the alternative processing routes of naphtha, in which
significant improvement in the solution quality is obtained.
Abstract: A multivariable discontinuous feedback linearization approach is proposed to position control of an electrically driven fast robot manipulator. A desired performance is achieved by selecting a useful controller and suitable sampling rate and considering saturation for actuators. There is a high flexibility to apply the proposed control approach on different electrically driven manipulators. The control approach can guarantee the stability and satisfactory tracking performance. A PUMA 560 robot driven by geared permanent magnet dc motors is simulated. The simulation results show a desired performance for control system under technical specifications.
Abstract: In real-time networks a large number of application programs are relying on video data and heterogeneous data transmission techniques. The aim of this research is presenting a method for end-to-end vouch quality service in surface applicationlayer for sending video data in comparison form in wireless heterogeneous networks. This method tries to improve the video sending over the wireless heterogeneous networks with used techniques in surface layer, link and application. The offered method is showing a considerable improvement in quality observing by user. In addition to this, other specifications such as shortage of data load that had require to resending and limited the relation period length to require time for second data sending, help to be used the offered method in the wireless devices that have a limited energy. The presented method and the achieved improvement is simulated and presented in the NS-2 software.
Abstract: It-s known that incorporating prior knowledge into support
vector regression (SVR) can help to improve the approximation
performance. Most of researches are concerned with the incorporation
of knowledge in the form of numerical relationships. Little work,
however, has been done to incorporate the prior knowledge on the
structural relationships among the variables (referred as to Structural
Prior Knowledge, SPK). This paper explores the incorporation of SPK
in SVR by constructing appropriate admissible support vector kernel
(SV kernel) based on the properties of reproducing kernel (R.K).
Three-levels specifications of SPK are studied with the corresponding
sub-levels of prior knowledge that can be considered for the method.
These include Hierarchical SPK (HSPK), Interactional SPK (ISPK)
consisting of independence, global and local interaction, Functional
SPK (FSPK) composed of exterior-FSPK and interior-FSPK. A
convenient tool for describing the SPK, namely Description Matrix
of SPK is introduced. Subsequently, a new SVR, namely Motivated
Support Vector Regression (MSVR) whose structure is motivated
in part by SPK, is proposed. Synthetic examples show that it is
possible to incorporate a wide variety of SPK and helpful to improve
the approximation performance in complex cases. The benefits of
MSVR are finally shown on a real-life military application, Air-toground
battle simulation, which shows great potential for MSVR to
the complex military applications.
Abstract: The stochastic nature of tool life using conventional discrete-wear data from experimental tests usually exists due to many individual and interacting parameters. It is a common practice in batch production to continually use the same tool to machine different parts, using disparate machining parameters. In such an environment, the optimal points at which tools have to be changed, while achieving minimum production cost and maximum production rate within the surface roughness specifications, have not been adequately studied. In the current study, two relevant aspects are investigated using coated and uncoated inserts in turning operations: (i) the accuracy of using machinability information, from fixed parameters testing procedures, when variable parameters situations are emerged, and (ii) the credibility of tool life machinability data from prior discrete testing procedures in a non-stop machining. A novel technique is proposed and verified to normalize the conventional fixed parameters machinability data to suit the cases when parameters have to be changed for the same tool. Also, an experimental investigation has been established to evaluate the error in the tool life assessment when machinability from discrete testing procedures is employed in uninterrupted practical machining.