bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Flower morphology and floral sequence in Artemisia annua (Asteraceae)1
Authors: Wetzstein Hazel Y. , Porter Justin A. , Janick Jules , Ferreira Jorge F. S.
Published: May 2014

• Premise of the study: Artemisia annua produces phytochemicals possessing antimalarial, antitumor, anti‐inflammatory, and anthelmintic activities. The main active ingredient, artemisinin, is extremely effective against malaria. Breeding to develop cultivars producing high levels of artemisinin can help meet worldwide demand for artemisinin and its derivatives. However, fundamental reproductive processes, such as the sequence of flowering and fertility, are not well understood and impair breeding and seed propagation programs.

• Methods: Capitulum structure and floral sequence were studied using light and scanning electron microscopy to describe inflorescence architecture, floret opening, and seed set.

• Key results: Florets are minute and born in capitula containing pistillate ray florets and hermaphroditic disk florets. Ray florets have elongated stigmatic arms that extend prior to disk floret opening. Disk florets exhibit protandry. During the staminate phase, pollen is released within a staminate tube and actively presented with projections at the tip of stigmas as the pistil elongates. During the pistillate phase, stigmatic arms bifurcate and reflex. Stigmas are of the dry type and stain positively for polysaccharides, lipids, and an intact cuticle. Floret numbers vary with genotype, and capitula are predominantly composed of disk florets. Both ray and disk florets produce filled seed.

• Conclusions: Gynomonoecy, early opening of ray florets, and dichogamy of disk florets promote outcrossing in A. annua. For breeding and seed development, flowering in genotypes can be synchronized under short days according to the floral developmental stages defined. Floret number and percentage seed fill vary with genotype and may be a beneficial selection criterion.
The evolution of bark mechanics and storage across habitats in a clade of tropical trees
Authors: Rosell Julieta A. , Olson Mark E.
Published: May 2014

•Premise of the study:Bark functional strategies vary conspicuously within communities. As a result, predicting most community‐level bark traits based on environment often reveals little association. To complement this community‐based view, we took a clade‐based approach to study potentially adaptive differences in bark water storage and biomechanics across habitats and examined ontogenetic mechanisms that lead to these differences.

•Methods:We studied the branches of nine species in thesimarubaclade ofBurserain dry to wet, fire‐free neotropical forests. We measured mechanical properties from branch tips to bases, as well as the relative area and water content of bark. Using raw data and phylogenetically independent contrasts, we then tested predictions regarding trait associations with environment and mapped branch tip‐to‐base ontogenetic changes.

•Key results:Across our wet–dry gradient, bark water storage was greater in drier habitats, whereas bark tissue mechanical rigidity was greater in the taller species of moister forests. Bark was the principal mechanical tissue in branch tips and an important contributor even in branches 3 m long. Within species, bark contributions to mechanical support and water storage came mostly through a tip‐to‐base increase in bark quantity rather than alterations in tissue properties. Quantitative developmental alterations in proportions of bark to wood led to habit differences.

•Conclusions:Our clade‐based approach shows that, in marked contrast to most community‐based results, environment can strongly predict bark functional traits across species in ways that seem plausibly adaptive.
TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR IN SAUDI ARABIA AND THE ROLE OF SOCIAL FACTORS
Authors: Al-Atawi Attiyah , Saleh Wafaa
Published: May 2014

Travel behaviour research indicates that travel decisions are usually influenced by accessibility as well as characteristics of the transport systems. Factors such as travel times, travel costs, waiting times, walking times have the most significant contributions in mode choice and travel decisions. In the case of developing countries however, the most influencing factors for travel behaviour and decisions are the social factors. This is very important for transport modellers and decision makers to realise in order to achieve appropriate design and implementations of various transport policies. The influence of social and economic factors on travel behaviour are discussed and investigated in this paper. In Saudi Arabia, a randomly selected sample of 1220 households was interviewed in the Tabuk city of the Saudi Arabia and data on their socio-economic and trip-making behaviour was obtained. The relative impact of socioeconomic variables on household travel behaviour was discussed and discrete choice models were calibrated. These types of studies can be useful in the development of plans, programs and policies for the improvement of transportation systems in urban areas of the Saudi Arabia and other similar countries in the region. The findings show that the social factors have the most important impact on travel behaviour in Saudi Arabia.
TIME–SPACE ANALYSIS OF TRANSPORT SYSTEM USING DIFFERENT MAPPING METHODS
Authors: Ficzere Péter , Ultmann Zita , Török Ádám
Published: May 2014

Transport systems exist within at least two types of space. One is the apparent geographic space, but equally important is the time–space implied by the travel time relations created by the system. Differences between the geographic and time–spaces are properties induced by the transport system. Methods for time–space transformations of geographic space to explore visualize and analyse transport systems were initially developed in the 1960s and 1970s but due to the low computational capacity not evolved yet. However, these methods have not been pursued beyond this initial flurry of research activity, most likely due to the difficulties associated with handling and processing huge amount of digital geographic data. This paper presents a case study of the transformation possibilities and particularly the usage of non-affine transformations of maps – Rubber-Sheet Method (RSM) – using a typical GIS software called ArcView in order to analyse the current status and development possibilities of the Hungarian railway system.
Studying in 3D Environments
Authors: Marcelino Roderval , Silva Juarez Bento da , Gruber Vilson , Bilessimo Simone Meister , Oliveria Janaina , Santana Simone Barreto , Melo Iury
Published: May 2014

This paper shows the application of a 3D Virtual World in public schools. A 3D environment developed through the new information technologies and communication. The integration between the real and virtual presented new possibilities of interaction between technology and education. The use of the virtual world in schools provided an opportunity to mobility, virtualization of everyday life, interaction and modeling environments. This application has made the technology a tool for efficient learning and stimulating. Reproduction in real environments and simulated environments, offered children meaningful experiences to their learning inside and outside school.
Determination of the Synchronous Machine's Parameters Using the iLab Shared Architecture
Authors: Naddami Ahmed , Fahli Ahmed , Gourmaj Mourad , Moussetad Mohammed
Published: May 2014

The target of this work is to promote the experimental works via internet within the different laboratories of Hassan 1st University in Settat and our partners in eSiense group within the frame of Tempus project.

Tempus project aims to create a series of remote laboratories in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria in cooperation with France, Austria, Romania and Greece and it is financed by the European Union.

In order to share knowledge, Morocco and these universities are working together in a collective work program in order to create leading laboratories, aiming to put into practice the experimental works in electrical engineering, that are accessible through internet. These experimental works tend to share the equipments existing in every University so as to make them possible for other universities to benefit from them.

This leading project will be generalized afterwards in order to engulf all the other fields, including different manipulations of measuring powers using electromechanical machines and measures concerning instruments.

This paper focuses on the implementation of the first remote laboratory in Hassan 1st University in morocco. It concerns the determination of the characteristics of the synchronous machine. For this, student accesses to our platform via internet to determine the parameters in Open Circuit characteristics OCC, Short circuit characteristics SCC and then the determination of the synchronous reactance Xs.
Wireless Sensor Network Based Chicken Coop Surveillance System
Authors: Xu Lijia , Ren Xiaopei , You Zhikun , Wu Sheng
Published: May 2014

To tackle with the current situation of China's chick raising industry that is characterized with plenty insufficient automatic level and underdeveloped management techniques, a chicken coop surveillance system based upon wireless sensor network proposed in this article is composed of 4 major components like parameter collection module, host and slave computer as well as wireless communication network for the purpose of monitoring the temperature, humidity and concentration of hazardous gas inside the chicken coops while automatically initiating the manure remover according to the detected hazardous gas concentration. It is revealed by relevant experiments that such system is able to realize precise control over temperature and humidity with maximum tolerance up to 2â„ƒ and 4% respectively and meanwhile, ensure that the concentration of hazardous gas is limited to an allowed range. Therefore, this is an ideal intelligent chicken coop surveillance system for chick raisers as it is not only easy to operate but also capable of delivering preferable control results.
Correlation between Urban Morphology and Wind Environment in Digital City using GIS and CFD Simulations
Authors: Jie Yin , Qingming Zhan , Yinghui Xiao , Tao Wang , Erzhuo Che , Fanshuo Meng , Yi Qian
Published: May 2014

Digital city technology has been used increasingly in planning and architectural design, and it has become a powerful means for solving problems faced in a city. In China, more than 61% of the population will live in cities by 2020; this proportion will increase to 69% by 2030. The city’s internal environment is deteriorating. Using information technology, this study focuses on both the urban and the residential neighbourhood scale to explore the relationship between the urban morphology and the urban wind environment. At the urban scale, using geographic information system (GIS)-based spatial analysis and calculating the frontal area density (FAD) and roughness length, the building density and building volume density (BVD) can help improve the urban wind environment. At the residential neighbourhood scale, through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, the building density has a strongly linear relationship with the average pedestrian wind speed; however, the floor area ratio, average building height, and average wind speed show weak correlation.
Energy Efficient Spectrum Sensing and Accessing Scheme for Zigbee Cognitive Networks
Authors: Joseph Slitta Maria , P. Vijayakumar
Published: May 2014

We consider a cognitive radio network that makes access to spectrum licensed to the primary user. In this network, the secondary user will be allowed to use the idle frequency channel of the primary user. It’s primarily depending on the proper spectrum sensing. If the channel is seems to be idle the secondary user can occupy the channel but whenever the primary user returns to their frequency channel they have to either switch to the other idle channel or they can wait still on the same channel till it free. In this paper we are considering a cognitive network with one primary user and a secondary user. Secondary user (SU) accessing multiple channels via periodic sensing and spectrum handoff. In our design Implementation is done by utilizing the concept of energy detection algorithm on specific transceiver model of 802.15.4/Zigbee based on Arduino board by analysis of RSSI values of Zigbee devices according to the distance. Also include analyzing of the sensing duration and finding appropriate threshold value for sensing based on Zigbee modems. Energy efficient design is being implemented by utilizing sleeping mode of the Zigbee devices.
Environmental Scanning – An Information System Framework for Strategic Decisions in SMEs
Authors: Wong Ho Yin , Sultan Parves , Sit Jason Kokho , Li En , Hung Jia-Yi
Published: May 2014

The aim of this chapter is to explore the role of environmental scanning in information systems for strategic decisions in the context of small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in Australia. A case study approach was adopted for this exploratory study. In-depth interviews were conducted with owners of two SMEs. Data were analysed using manual qualitative data analysis techniques. Owing to the unique characteristics of SMEs, findings suggest that SMEs share some commonalities and differences to their large firm counterparts. In general, SMEs have a clear idea what their information needs are. They have a narrow scope of scanning, which focuses mainly on economic, customers, and competitive information. External sources from media, salespeople, clients, and competitors are their major sources of information. Human memory and manual filing systems are the key methods of storing information. The information is distributed through personal communications. SMEs use common sense and intuitive approach rather than sophisticated analytical tools to analyse the information. The scanned information is used for both strategic and functional decisions. The findings provide insight to SMEs as to the usefulness of environmental scanning in making various business decisions.
Strategic Learning for Agile Maneuvering in High Technology SMEs
Authors: Sirén Charlotta A. , Kohtamäki Marko
Published: May 2014

This chapter illustrates four interrelated strategic learning processes, namely knowledge creation, dissemination, interpretation, and implementation, that are critical in ensuring the effective and rapid renewal of the core capabilities of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on a cluster analysis of 182 Finnish software companies and information from illustrative case examples, the chapter highlights success factors related to strategic learning practices necessary for survival and prosperity in the highly dynamic IT industry. By offering a consistent strategic learning framework and multiple practical examples, the chapter provides SME leadership teams with practical suggestions to facilitate strategic learning. In addition, the chapter considers learning traps that prevent firms from renewing their capabilities and highlights practices to avoid those traps to facilitate strategic learning in technology-based SMEs.
SMEs' Leaders
Authors: Redien-Collot Renaud , Lefebvre Miruna Radu
Published: May 2014

This chapter explores leadership processes within SMEs emphasized as a unique opportunity to observe the genesis of collective cognition and its transformation into collective competence. The authors argue that a close examination of SMEs' interactions between leaders and employees reveals that these interactions strongly contribute to building collective cognition and competences that further impact strategic business outcomes (Kozlowski, 1998). Collective competences significantly contribute to strategic management in SMEs contexts. SME leaders build a strategy coordination system on the basis of collective cognition and competences that articulates three different phases: the communication of the leader's vision and its evolution/transformation, the assessment of the structure, processes, business model and functioning of the enterprise, and the development of internal and external interpersonal and business interactions. The authors examine bricolage leaders, experimental leaders and entrepreneurial leaders in the context of this strategy coordination system.
Becoming Strategic in Small Businesses
Authors: Mills Colleen E.
Published: May 2014

While strategy has been described as a plan or pattern of actions aligned to a conscious intent, it can also be conceptualised as the deliberate activities those in business engage in to realise a strategic intent. It is this activity oriented conception of strategy that is fuelling the turn towards practice in strategy scholarship. This chapter draws on this perspective and the ‘communication as constitutive of organisations' (CCO) perspective to explore what is involved in becoming strategic in an active and experiential sense in a small business. To do this, it uses illustrations from a series of studies of business startup or restart from the creative, ICT, and construction industries in New Zealand. The empirically-based synthesis presents strategic management in small businesses as a relational process producing a narrative infrastructure that weaves together episodes of strategy praxis to produce a coherent thread that ‘tells the firm forward' (See Deuten & Rip, 2000). The chapter finishes by briefly exploring the implications of this view for those seeking to become more strategic in small businesses.
Relevance and Usage of Management Control Systems with Reference to Strategy Formulation and Control
Authors: Aureli Selena
Published: May 2014

Management control systems (MCSs) can undoubtedly support organizations' strategic processes as they help coordinate and align personnel behaviour to organizational goals, verify the validity of the organization's strategic plan and contribute to better formulate future plans. However, past research indicates that SMEs scarcely adopt MCSs. With the aim to update past research, the present chapter explores the current role and quality of MCSs used by SMEs in relation to strategic processes. Moreover, it evaluates whether MCSs adoption is associated to specific SMEs owner-managers' beliefs and other contingency factors. A survey conducted in Italy in 2012 indicates that SMEs attribute an important role to MCSs in supporting strategy formulation, its control and subsequent reformulation, but this strategic role is not associated with the adoption of advanced MCSs. SMEs still rely on traditional accounting-based control systems or perform some ad hoc analysis to obtain information useful for top managers strategic decision making.
Unconstrained Face Recognition
Authors: Zafeiriou Stefanos , Kotsia Irene , Pantic Maja
Published: May 2014

The human face is the most well-researched object in computer vision, mainly because (1) it is a highly deformable object whose appearance changes dramatically under different poses, expressions, and, illuminations, etc., (2) the applications of face recognition are numerous and span several fields, (3) it is widely known that humans possess the ability to perform, extremely efficiently and accurately, facial analysis, especially identity recognition. Although a lot of research has been conducted in the past years, the problem of face recognition using images captured in uncontrolled environments including several illumination and/or pose variations still remains open. This is also attributed to the existence of outliers (such as partial occlusion, cosmetics, eyeglasses, etc.) or changes due to age. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the existing fully automatic face recognition technologies for uncontrolled scenarios. They present the existing databases and summarize the challenges that arise in such scenarios and conclude by presenting the opportunities that exist in the field.
3D Face Recognition Using Spatial Relations
Authors: Berretti Stefano , del Bimbo Alberto , Pala Pietro
Published: May 2014

Identity recognition using 3D scans of the face has been recently proposed as an alternative or complementary solution to conventional 2D face recognition approaches based on still images or videos. In fact, face representations based on 3D data are expected to be more robust to pose changes and illumination variations than 2D images, thus allowing accurate face recognition in real-world applications with unconstrained acquisition. Based on these premises, in this chapter, the authors first introduce the general and main methodologies for 3D face recognition, shortly reviewing the related literature by distinguishing between global and local approaches. Then, the authors present and discuss two 3D face recognition approaches that are robust to facial expression variations and share the common idea of accounting for the spatial relations between local facial features. In the first approach, the face is partitioned into iso-geodesic stripes and spatial relations are computed by integral measures that capture the relative displacement between the sets of 3D points in each pair of stripes. In the second solution, the face is described by detecting keypoints in the depth map of the face and locally describing them. Then, facial curves on the surface are considered between each pair of keypoints, so as to capture the shape of the face along the curve as well as the relational information between keypoints. Future research directions and conclusions are drawn at the end of the chapter.
Illumination Invariant Face Recognition
Authors: Chan Chi Ho , Zou Xuan , Poh Norman , Kittler Josef
Published: May 2014

Illumination variation is one of the well-known problems in face recognition, especially in uncontrolled environments. This chapter presents an extensive and up-to-date survey of the existing techniques to address this problem. This survey covers the conventional passive techniques that attempt to solve the illumination problem by studying the visible light images, in which face appearance has been altered by varying illumination, as well as the active techniques that aim to obtain images of face modalities invariant to environmental illumination.
Facial Action Recognition in 2D and 3D
Authors: Valstar Michel , Zafeiriou Stefanos , Pantic Maja
Published: May 2014

Automatic Facial Expression Analysis systems have come a long way since the earliest approaches in the early 1970s. We are now at a point where the first systems are commercially applied, most notably smile detectors included in digital cameras. As one of the most comprehensive and objective ways to describe facial expressions, the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) has received significant and sustained attention within the field. Over the past 30 years, psychologists and neuroscientists have conducted extensive research on various aspects of human behaviour using facial expression analysis coded in terms of FACS. Automating FACS coding would make this research faster and more widely applicable, opening up new avenues to understanding how we communicate through facial expressions. Mainly due to the cost effectiveness of existing recording equipment, until recently almost all work conducted in this area involves 2D imagery, despite their inherent problems relating to pose and illumination variations. In order to deal with these problems, 3D recordings are increasingly used in expression analysis research. In this chapter, the authors give an overview of 2D and 3D FACS recognition, and summarise current challenges and opportunities.
Using Ocular Data for Unconstrained Biometric Recognition
Authors: Proença Hugo , Santos Gil , Neves João C.
Published: May 2014

There are several scenarios where a full facial picture cannot be obtained nor the iris properly imaged. For such cases, a good possibility might be to use the ocular region for recognition, which is a relatively new idea and is regarded as a good trade-off between using the whole face or the iris alone. The area in the vicinity of the eyes is designated as periocular and is particularly useful on less constrained conditions, when image acquisition is unreliable, or to avoid iris pattern spoofing. This chapter provides a comprehensive summary of the most relevant research conducted in the scope of ocular (periocular) recognition methods. The authors compare the main features of the publicly available data sets and summarize the techniques most frequently used in the recognition algorithms in this chapter. In addition, they present the state-of-the-art results in terms of recognition accuracy and discuss the current issues on this topic, together with some directions for further work.
Human Face Region Detection Driving Activity Recognition in Video
Authors: Doulamis Anastasios , Voulodimos Athanasios , Varvarigou Theodora
Published: May 2014

Automatic recognition of human actions from video signals is probably one of the most salient research topics of computer vision with a tremendous impact for many applications. In this chapter, the authors introduce a new descriptor, the Human Constrained Pixel Change History (HC-PCH), which is based on PCH but focuses on the human body movements over time. They propose a modification of the conventional PCH that entails the calculation of two probabilistic maps based on human face and body detection, respectively. These HC-PCH features are used as input to an HMM-based classification framework, which exploits redundant information from multiple streams by employing sophisticated fusion methods, resulting in enhanced activity recognition rates.
Design of Closed Loop Supply Chain Networks
Authors: Pazhani Subramanian , Ravindran A. Ravi
Published: May 2014

Given the importance of operating and managing forward and reverse supply chains in an integrated manner, this article considers an integrated four-stage supply chain network with forward and reverse product flows. We consider a closed loop supply chain (CLSC) network with primarily commercial returns, which could be potentially recovered by light repair operations or by refurbishing. The annual estimate of commercial returns in the United States is in excess of $100 billion. This paper discusses the optimal design of a CLSC network.A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed to determine the optimal locations of the facilities and the distribution of flows between facilities in the CLSC to maximize the total profit. The model is illustrated using a realistic example applicable to the electronics industries. Even though recycling and refurbishing add cost, the overall supply chain profit increases due to a reduction in the raw material cost. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to determine the effect of return percentage and varying demands of customers who are willing to buy refurbished products. The analysis show that the total supply chain profit increases with the increase in refurbishing activity. Finally, changes in the network design with respect to the uncertainty in these return parameters are also studied. The results show that the changes in return parameters lead to changes in optimal network design implying the need to explicitly consider the uncertainty in these return parameters.
Determination of Effective Shear Modulus of Graphite/Epoxy Mixture by an Inverse Method
Authors: Acharyya K. , Chattopadhyay Arun , Dixit U. S.
Published: May 2014

In recent years, there has been an influx of multi-material components into the manufacturing field. For a large number of cases where joining of non-metallic parts are involved, adhesive bonding is given preference over traditional joining processes. One of the prominent methods of enhancement of adhesive bond strength is by use of additives on the adhesive. Adhesive joints are commonly used in load-bearing structures. The loading is primarily in the shear mode. Hence, the shear modulus of the adhesive is a primary index of the adhesive bond-strength. In this work, a mathematical model for adhesively bonded single strap butt joint is developed and an inverse method to calculate the effective shear moduli of graphite/epoxy mixtures of different ratios is presented.
Investigations of Water Barrier and Thermal Stability Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Polymer Nanocomposites
Authors: Ramamoorthi R. , Sampath P.S.
Published: May 2014

This paper deals with the water uptake and thermal stability properties epoxy matrix /glass fiber composites reinforced with HNT (EP/GF/HNT nanocomposites). HNT at 2wt%, 4 wt%, 8wt% and 10 wt.% were filled in glass fibre reinforced epoxy polymer and placed in a water medium at room temperature. The result shows a dramatic decrease in water mass uptake of HNT filled composites. Hence the role of HNT on reducing water uptake is studied and results are compared with unfilled glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites. Thermal degradation behaviour were also studied by thermogravemetric analysis (TGA) and it was found that the thermal stability of the nanocomposite increases with increasing the HNT content.
A Novel Control Strategy for a DFIG Based Wind Power under Unbalanced Conditions
Authors: Manonmani N.
Published: May 2014

This paper deals about an effective control strategy for wind power plant to bring out additional transmission capacity and better means of maintaining system reliability when compared to already existing control techniques. The rotor power of Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) is the only controlling parameter taken to determine four current reference values using this single strategy. These references are fed to rotor side and grid side current controllers which enables torque, grid side real and reactive power, as well as pitch angle control resulting in more prominent solution. This control strategy therefore relieves the need for switching between different controllers or reconfiguration of the hardware and it also provides automatic voltage and frequency regulation for network. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control strategy is studied through simulation carried out on detailed switched model of the system in the PSCAD/EMTDC version 4.2 software environment.
Peak Power Reduction through Conic Optimized Sigma Clipping and Filtering
Authors: Nandalal V. , Sophia S. , Gayathri B.
Published: May 2014

High Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) of OFDM reduces transmitter power efficiency and increases complexity in hardware implementation. In the paper, the high PAPR is reduced using optimized Standard Deviation based Iterative Clipping and Filtering (SD-ICF).The proposed method achieves a greater reduction in PAPR in a few iterations with reduced out-of-band distortion and bit error rate when compared over classical clipping techniques.Also, the effects of oversampling on the performance of proposed OFDM system is discussed.
A Drop Test for Finding the most Probable Resting Orientation of a Part
Authors: Suresh M. , Jagadeesh K.A. , Ashoka Varthanan.P.
Published: May 2014

The material handling is the art of moving, orienting, packing and storing the part. Industrial feeders are used to facilitate the operations by feeding the parts in a specific quantity and at a perfect orientation. It is a tedious task to obtain a particular part orientation, at the assembly station, in a short lead time. To overcome this problem, part feeders are used to segregate and orient parts prior to packing. The natural resting orientation of the part is the orientation in which the part rests on a horizontal hard surface, when dropped from a height. The most probable natural resting orientation of the part has to be identified which helps in the effective design of feeder and orienting devices. In this paper, an attempt was made to study the effect of initial orientation from different heights on natural resting orientation. Drop test was conducted at different heights with each initial orientation. The favorable orientation of the part (or) the most probable natural resting orientation is identified using drop test. In this work, most probable natural resting orientation of a typical asymmetric component, brake pad, is identified.
Preparation and Characterization of Aluminium Nanocomposites Based on MWCNT
Authors: Sivananthan S. , Gnanasekaran S. , Samson Jerold Samuel C.
Published: May 2014

Metal Matrix Composites (MMC) has wide range of engineering applications such as high strength, temperature, stiffness, yield strength and modulus of rigidity. Among the metals, aluminium is widely used due to its light weight. However, the electrical conductivity of aluminium is low when compared with copper. This paper deals with the development of aluminium nanocomposites based on Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) in order to enhance the electrical resistivity of aluminium. Morphology and electrical properties of the nanocomposites has been analyzed and compared with aluminium.
The Comparison between Swing-Constrain Reciprocating Piston Oil-Free Air Compressor and Traditional Compressor
Authors: Su Wen Gui , Han Xiao Gang , Geng Kui Hua , Guo Jing , Wei Wei , Yan Xin , Li Chun Hong
Published: May 2014

This paper gives the comparison of structure and motion characteristics between the new swing-constrain reciprocating piston oil-free air compressor (new compressor) and traditional compressor through mechanism, kinematics and dynamics analysis. By comparison, the new compressor has more parts, more manufacturing and maintenance costs and less machine height that is benefit to reduce storage and transportation cost. Furthermore, reversing knocking strength between piston and cylinder is released ,friction loss is decreased dramatically between seal ring and cylinder and so the service time of seal ring is prolonged.
Quasi-Static Contact Analysis of an Inchworm-Type Piezoelectric-Driven Rotary Actuator via Finite Element Method
Authors: Li Ze Jun , Cui Tao , Zhao Hong Wei , Li Jian Ping
Published: May 2014

Measurement results of the output stepping rotary angle of a piezoelectric-driven rotary actuator by means of inchworm motion have been compared with results obtained from three-dimensional Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Comparison results showed a good quantitative agreement, and confirmed the validity and accuracy of the finite element method in the design and analysis of the inchworm-type rotary actuators. In addition, the effect of the gap between the stator and rotor on the working performance of the actuator was investigated by using FEA. With the increase of the gap, both the stepping rotary angle and the output torque of the rotor decrease significantly. Therefore, this factor must be taken into consideration in the design and machining of this kind of actuators.
Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Study on the Vibration of the Bimorph Piezoelectric Vibrator for Piezoelectric Pump
Authors: Zheng Wei , Lin Bai Song , Dong Jing Shi , Shi Jing Yuan , Wu Bo Da
Published: May 2014

This paper studied the characteristics of the bimorph piezoelectric vibrator for piezoelectric pump. By simulating the working conditions of the vibration in the pump, we constructed a dynamic model and derived the bending vibration equations of the piezoelectric vibrator under different support conditions. Then the analysis of finite element simulation is carried out for the equations, through which the vibration mode of the multi-order modal of the piezoelectric vibrator was acquired, and the relationship between the deformation deflection and peripheral support stiffness of the piezoelectric vibrator was analyzed. Finally, the deformation of the piezoelectric vibrator was tested. It is found that the test results are consistent with the conclusions of the finite element simulation, which provides a theoretical basis for the optimal design of the bimorph piezoelectric vibrator.
A Rotary Spiral Array Applied in Near-Field Acoustical Holography
Authors: Chen Lin Song , Cao Yue Yun , Guo Wen Yong
Published: May 2014

This paper presents a new method to apply a spiral array in near-field acoustical holography (NAH). Usually, a NAH array needs much more microphones than a beamforming array does. Superior to a normal regular planar grid array or linear scanning array, this spiral array rotates to get more measuring data. Without a static referring microphone, a numerical method was designed to estimate the phase information measured at different time. Numerical simulations and a series experiment showed that this method is adequate for the sound below 450Hz. It is especially useful for using a random planar array at NAH mode, while the beamforming mode can only cover the higher frequency band.
A Study on Design Principle of the Knee Rehabilitation Device with Two Degrees of Freedom
Authors: Han Liang , Zhang Qian , Hong Hui Hui
Published: May 2014

This paper studies a new knee rehabilitation device with two degrees of freedom based on human medical science. The device uses the revolute pairs as hip and knee joints. The independent motor driving is used in each joint. The simple structure and independent drive mode help the new knee rehabilitation device to gain larger range and better flexibility.
A Simple Red Tide Warning Device
Authors: Yu Fang , Yuan Jia Li , Chen Chen , Peng Bao Jin
Published: May 2014

Aiming at the growing red tide, we designed a simply red tide predication device which is intended to measure the content of red tide alga in seawater. We make use of Chlorophyll A’s spectrum characteristic, which is in the red tide alga. Then combined with narrow spectrum of LED, high photon-electron efficiency and high response rate of PIN diode, different idea, we designed a circuit to amplify, acquire, process the optoelectronic signal and put the warning information on PC. We can know the accurate content of red tide alga in seawater in real time by monitoring the content of Chlorophyll A. This device has the advantages of high sensitivity, low cost and easy to operate .etc.
Research on the Modeling of the Faraday Effect Based on the OCT Used in Power System
Authors: Cao Li Xin , Li Yan Song , Liu Jun
Published: May 2014

Smart grid puts forward higher requirement for measurement which the traditional electromagnetic CTs cannot meet for its disadvantages of saturation and low transient accuracy. For its good performances, OCT is very suitable for power system, especially the system with high voltage level to improve equipment safety and to reduce costs. In this paper, magneto-optical sensing system based on Faraday effect is applied in the measurement of the electric current and the principles and simulation models of Faraday effect based on COMSOL Multiphysics are discussed in detail. It can be seen that Faraday magneto-optical effect could be simulated to calculate the electric current distribution , which is a new research direction.
Evaluation of Light Protective Properties of High Performance Aramid Fabrics
Authors: Cui Xin , Ke Qin Fei , Cai Guang Ming
Published: May 2014

The aramid fabrics have been widely used in aerospace, military and protective clothes for light radiation stability properties. The reflection and transmission properties of two kinds of materials (Kevlar 49 fabric and Kevlar 49/Nomex blended fabric) and three weaves of aramid fabrics with different wavelength spectrum were evaluated by ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV–Vis–NIR) spectrophotometer analysis. The effects of fabric layers on the reflection and transmission performances of aramid fabric were also discussed. It indicated that the aramid fabrics have good thermal and light protective properties.
Frequency Stabilization of Semiconductor Laser Based on TMS320F2812
Authors: Jiang Yi Lin , Li Zheng Yan , Dong En Sheng , Li Juan Juan
Published: May 2014

A novel frequency stabilization method is proposed in this paper. The variation of frequency is used as the feedback signal, and the system is composed of a loop temperature loop and a current loop of the semiconductor laser. The hardware and the software of the frequency stabilization system based on DSP are outlined. The simulation result of the digital-controlled current source is presented, which shows that the frequency stability of the system reaches 6.73×10-7.
Comprehensive Parameters Adaption of Rolling Force Model Based on Objective Function in Tandem Cold Mill
Authors: Bu He Nan , Yan Zhu Wen , Zhang Cheng Ming , Zhang Dian Hua
Published: May 2014

In order to improve the setting accuracy of rolling force model, a comprehensive parameters adaptive objective function of rolling force was established. During the adaptive process, the adaptive coefficients of friction coefficient and deformation resistance were taken as the optimized parameters, and the Rosenbrock algorithm was used to search the optimal solution of the objective function. The proposed adaptive method has been applied successfully to a 1450mm 5-stand tandem cold mill. Application results show that the forecast accuracy of rolling force model has been improved significantly.
Simulation Study on Coupling Effect under HEMP of Shielding Control Box
Authors: Dou Long , Chen Bin , Chen Hai Lin , Guo Fei
Published: May 2014

The coupling effect under HEMP calculation model of the shielding control box is established with the CST software. The shielding effectiveness of the shielding control box with different incidence directions of HEMP were studied on, and the field distribution of the shielding control box was analyzed. The results show that incidence direction of HEMP in the depth direction of the gap and perpendicular to the long side of the gap can provide the worst electromagnetic pulse protection of shielding control box. The coupling field of the complex system box has resonant characters. The gap filled with conductive rubber can effectively reduce the coupling of electromagnetic energy pulse.
Experimental Study on Diesel Engine Intake Ports with Reverse Engineering Technology
Authors: Jiang Li , Wang Zi Yu , Cheng Xiu Wei , Lu Chao Yang
Published: May 2014

Compared the principle and application effect of non-contact measuring data collecting method of intake ports: the nondestructive scanning method and laser scanning method. A intake port was developed for a four-valve diesel engine with reverse engineering technology, and different core boxes of intake port were made respectively by different measureing and manufacturing method, and were investigated in the steady-flow test with the original cylinder head of the diesel engine. The results show that the performance of the metal core box based on laser scanning is consistent with the original cylinder head. Compared with the epoxy resin core box based on nondestructive scanning method, the metal core box based on laser scanning can satisfy the requirement of development of intake port.
A Method of the Detection of Marine Pollution Based on the Measurement of Refractive Index
Authors: Shi Qing Guo , Ying Lu Na , Wang Lu , Peng Bao Jin , Ying Chao Fu
Published: May 2014

For marine water pollution problems, According to the phenomenon that the refractive index of the seawater will change after been polluted .we designed a new fiber optical sensor, and completed a marine pollution monitoring automatic warning system with the sensor. One S (single mode)-M (multimode)-S-M-S structural optical fiber sensor based on the theory of M-Z Interference was made. Due to de refractive index of the fiber cladding will be affected by the environmental solution. We can determine the relationship between the movement of interference spectrum and the refractive index of the solution. With a center wavelength of 1553nm fiber Bragg grating and a coupler to obtain the change of the intensity of the light, then though the specific circuit, we can change the light intensity into the voltage values. Then enter the computer through the acquisition card, real-time reporting of environmental refractive index size, and according to the software set threshold alarms. The refractive index in the range of 1.330-1.390, the system of measurement error is less than 1%.
The Digital Ray Detection of Aircraft Honeycomb Structure
Authors: Zhang Hai Bing , Sun Jin Li , Wang Yong Qi , Wang Zhen Xing , Wang Kai
Published: May 2014

Composite material is becoming the key material of aviation industry, in this paper we get the optimal detection parameters of aircraft honeycomb structure by digital ray detection technology after many trials and testing image contrast, using gray linear transformation and reliefs enhancement technology to improve image contraction and sensitivity.
Application of the Projection Pursuit Regression in Forecasting the Torpedo Velocity at Tube Outlet
Authors: Du Jia Xing , Chen Ping , Zhang Ling , Xiang Juan Min , Li Hui Zhen
Published: May 2014

Through the relations among the torpedo velocity at tube outlet, cylinder volume, cylinder pressure and emission valve size, we adopt the projection pursuit regression method and establish the model to predict the torpedo velocity at tube outlet. Through the comparison of experiment data and model prediction, fitting accuracy of this relation model is stronger and the projection pursuit regression is an efficient method which can research the initial ballistic trajectory of ship-launched torpedoes.
System Identification of TEG Themostatic System
Authors: Yang Dong Jing , Gao Jin Wu , Jiang Le Lun , Xiao Tan
Published: May 2014

Thrombelastograph device (TEG) is a measuring instrument of blood viscoelastic properties during coagulation. The measuring temperature of TEG is fixed at 37oC while in some surgery cases, lower temperature surroundings may be adopted. Therefore a new type of TEG with a controllable themostatic system has been designed to mimic various temperature surroundings in surgery. In this paper, a small-sized high accuracy thermostatic system for TEG was designed and its system identification was built to facilitate the development of control strategy. ARX model was supposed to analyze the system identification of the thermostatic system by Matlab System Identification Toolbox. Residual analysis method was adopted to verify the identified model. The results showed that the simulation data of ARX model was consistence with the measured data (matching degree was about 93%). Transfer function of the system can be applied to develop its control strategy.
Vibration Performance Analysis of Electromagnetic Resonance Fatigue Testing System
Authors: Wang Meng , Chen Li Jie , Li Zhi , Tian Feng
Published: May 2014

Vibration property studies are fundamental works for dynamic force calibration of fatigue testing machines. Taking the electromagnetic resonance fatigue testing machine as an example, we performed modal analysis based on finite element method and the vibration modes were fully understood. Furthermore, we analyzed the influence of vibration mass variations, i.e. mass loaded and geometrical error of specimen, on the natural frequency and force coaxiality of the system. Increasing the weights loaded results in the decrease of natural frequency of the system, while increasing the cross-sectional dimension of specimen gauge leads to the increase of natural frequency and the force coaxiality.
Modeling of Free-Burning Arc and Effects of Boundary Conditions on the Anode Temperature Field
Authors: Xu Bo Ao , Chen Bin , Chen Qiang , Dou Long
Published: May 2014

A two dimensional numerical model of the free-burning arc and its interaction with anode are given. The commercial CFD code FLUENT is used to model the plasma and the solid anode part. The anode sheath is considered, as well as the heat transfer mechanism of the anode surface. The second boundary condition of heat conduction is introduced to give a more reasonable cooling boundary, so that the temperature distribution in the anode plate is more realistic. Through iteration calculation of steady MHD equations, the temperature field, pressure field and velocity field profiles are given. The result is of significant use to analysis thermal and control the electric power in the arc industrial applications.