Synthesis,characterization, and supercapacitor studies of manganese (IV) oxide nanowires

One-dimensional manganese (IV) oxide (MnO₂) (～20 nm in average diameter) were synthesized by cathodic electrodeposition and heat treatment. The mechanism of electrodeposition and nanowire formation were discussed. The product was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). Nanowires with varying lengths and diameters were found in TEM and SEM images of the sample. The results of N₂ adsorption–desorption analysis indicated that the BET surface area of the MnO₂ nanowires was 157 m² g^?1 and the pore size distributions were 2.5 and 4.5 nm. The electrochemical performances of the prepared MnO₂ as an electrode material for supercapacitors were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge measurements in a solution of 0.5 M Na₂SO₄. The higher specific capacitance of 318 F g^?1 and good capacity retention of 86% were achieved after 1000 charge–discharge cycles had been observed for the MnO₂ nanowires electrode.     

Steady-state analysis of quantized distributed incremental LMS algorithm without Gaussian restriction

In this paper, we analyze the steady-state performance of the distributed incremental least mean-square (DILMS) algorithm when it is implemented in finite-precision arithmetic. Our analysis in this paper does not consider any distribution of input data. We first formulate the update equation for quantized DILMS algorithm, and then we use a spatial-temporal energy conservation argument to derive theoretical expressions that evaluate the steady-state performance of individual nodes in the network. We consider mean-square error, excess mean-square error, and mean-square deviation as the performance criteria. Simulation results are generated by using two types of signals, Gaussian and non-Gaussian distributed signals. As the simulation results show, there is a good match between the theory and simulation.     

An Improvement Energy Consumption Policy Using Communication Reduction in Wireless Body Sensor Network

Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) is an important wireless technology for current and future automotive safety and mitigation of traffic jams. In this work, we have designed a Coplanar waveguide microstrip patch antenna with linear, upper and bottom and side slots for application in DSRC. The patch antenna was designed using glass epoxy substrate (FR4). Various parametric analyses such as the current distribution, reflection coefficient, radiation pattern on E- and H-plane as well as the realized gain (dB) were performed. The results were obtained by simulation using high-frequency structure simulator tool. The proposed antenna covers a frequency band of 5.8–5.9 GHz which is highly dedicated to the DSRC wireless communication technology for enhancement of safety of the automotive transport system. The designed antenna shows a good return loss of ??19 dB at 5.9 GHz.The designed antenna shows a promising gain, return loss and radiation pattern for use in DSRC for automotive transport systems.

     

Collision avoidance slot allocation scheme for multi-cluster wireless sensor networks

This paper introduces a collision avoidance slot allocation scheme for Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) based Medium Access Control (MAC) in multi-cluster wireless sensor networks. TDMA MAC protocols have built-in active-sleep duty cycle that can be leveraged for limiting idle listening. Also, they can overcome the overhearing problem, thus have better energy efficiency. Enabling concurrent intra-cluster communications using a single radio channel is a key issue in TDMA MAC protocols. Using orthogonal frequency channels or different Code Division Multiple Access codes for different adjacent clusters can solve the problem at the expense of cost. In this paper, we propose a new distributed slot allocation protocol called  Coordinated   Time   Slot   Allocation (CTSA) that can reduce collisions significantly using a single radio channel. We use simulations to study the effects of different system parameters on the performance of our proposed protocol. Simulation results show that applying CTSA over clustering protocols can significantly reduce collisions. It also shows fast convergence for our proposed CTSA protocol. In this paper we apply our CTSA scheme to the Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy protocol which forms the basis for many cluster based routing protocols. CTSA is also compared with the SRSA algorithm proposed by Wu and Biswas (Wirel Netw 13(5):691–703, 2007) by means of simulation.     

Effects of Augmented Reality Display Settings on Human Wayfinding Performance

Augmented reality (AR) entails overlaying the real world with information from computer-generated displays. Current AR technologies support limited mobility, although this is expected to change in the future. This paper presents experimental results of effects of various AR display strategies on human performance in a simulation-based analog of a ldquosearch and rescuerdquo navigation task. The augmentation scheme was a spatially and temporally registered map that was overlaid onto a corresponding real-world maze. The experiment required the participants to traverse the maze, periodically answer orientation questions, obtain a target object, and exit the maze as quickly as possible. One hundred twenty participants were evaluated in six different conditions. There were two control conditions (paper map or compass prior to entering the maze), and four experimental conditions (combinations of egocentric and exocentric maps, and continuously on or on-demand map display). Performance measures consisted of duration of time to traverse the maze and percentage of maze covered. AR resulted in better performance than the control conditions in terms of accuracy by facilitating the participants' coverage of the maze. Results show that the better performance with respect to time was in the map control condition. This result may be due to the small size of the maze, which could be memorized. However, AR is expected to exhibit better performance compared to a paper map, when more complex environments are employed. These results demonstrate promising benefits in mobile AR usage in specific navigation tasks. Design guidelines were extracted to guide future AR systems continued progress in enhancing performance.     

A reliable energy-efficient pressure-based routing protocol for underwater wireless sensor network

Recently, Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) has witnessed significant attention from both academia and industries in research and development, due to the growing number of applications for wide range of purposes including commercial, scientific, environmental and military. Some of the major applications include pollution monitoring, tactical surveillance, tsunami warnings and offshore exploration. Efficient communication among sensors in UWSNs is a challenging task due to the harsh environments and peculiar characteristics of UWSNs. Therefore, design of routing protocol for efficient communication among sensors and sink is one of the fundamental research themes in UWSNs. In this context, this paper proposes a location-free Reliable and Energy efficient Pressure-Based Routing (RE-PBR) protocol for UWSNs. RE-PBR considers three parameters including link quality, depth and residual energy for balancing energy consumption and reliable data delivery. Specifically, link quality is estimated using triangle metric method. A light weight information acquisition algorithm is developed for efficient knowledge discovery of the network. Multi-metric data forwarding algorithm is designed based on route cost calculation which utilizes residual energy and link quality. Simulations are carried out in NS-2 with Aqua-Sim package to evaluate the performance of RE-PBR. The performance of the proposed protocol is compared with the stat-of-the-art techniques: DBR and EEDBR. The comprehensive performance evaluation attests the benefit of RE-PBR as compared to the state-of-the-art techniques in terms of network lifetime, energy consumption, end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio.     

MDP-Based Network Selection Scheme by Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing for Vertical-Handover in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The hybrid algorithm for real-time vertical handover using different objective functions has been presented to find the optimal network to connect with a good quality of service in accordance with the user’s preferences. Markov processes are widely used in performance modelling of wireless and mobile communication systems. We address the problem of optimal wireless network selection during vertical handover, based on the received information, by embedding the decision problem in a Markov decision process (MDP) with genetic algorithm (GA), we use GA to find a set of optimal decisions that ensures the best trade-off between QoS based on their priority level. Then, we emerge improved genetic algorithm (IGA) with simulated annealing (SA) as leading methods for search and optimization problems in heterogeneous wireless networks. We formulate the vertical handoff decision problem as a MDP, with the objectives of maximizing the expected total reward and minimizing average number of handoffs. A reward function is constructed to assess the QoS during each connection, and the AHP method are applied in an iterative way, by which we can work out a stationary deterministic handoff decision policy. As it is, the characteristics of the current mobile devices recommend using fast and efficient algorithms to provide solutions near to real-time. These constraints have moved us to develop intelligent algorithm that avoid the slow and massive computations. This paper compares the formulation and results of five recent optimization algorithms: artificial bee colony, GA, differential evolution, particle swarm optimization and hybrid of (GA–SA). Simulation results indicated that choosing the SA rules would minimize the cost function, and also that, the IGA–SA algorithm could decrease the number of unnecessary handovers, and thereby prevent the ‘Ping-Pong’ effect.     

Low-power CMOS distributed amplifier using new cascade gain cell for high and low gain modes

A CMOS distributed amplifier (DA) with low-power and flat and high power gain (S₂₁) is presented. In order to decrease noise figure (NF) an RL terminating network used for the gate transmission line instead of single resistance. Besides, a flat and high S₂₁ is achieved by using the proposed cascade gain cell consist of a cascode-stage with bandwidth extension capacitor. In the high-gain mode, under operation condition of V _dd  = 1.2 V and the overall current consumption of 7.8 mA, simulation result shown that the DA consumed 9.4 mW and achieved a flat and high S₂₁ of 20.5 ± 0.5 dB with an average NF of 6.5 dB over the 11 GHz band of interest, one of the best reported flat gain performances for a CMOS UWB DA. In the low-gain mode, the DA achieved average S₂₁ of 15.5 ± 0.25 dB and an average NF of 6.6 dB with low power consumption (P_DC) of 3.6 mW, the lowest P_DC ever reported for a CMOS DA or LNA with an average gain better than 10 dB.