SLDG: a metamodel for Simulink/Stateflow models and its applications

Simulink and Stateflow (SL/SF) models are being widely used to design and develop embedded systems. Often the SL/SF models of embedded controllers turn out to be large and consist of many subsystems and hierarchies. When such a system is maintained, it becomes difficult to manually analyse the model to identify the impacted elements due to the existence of several explicit and implicit dependencies among the model elements. To automate the analysis of an SL/SF model, we propose a metamodel to capture various types of dependencies existing across the basic blocks. We have named this metamodel Simulink dependency graph (SLDG). We investigate the use of SLDG in change impact visualization and regression test selection. We have developed a prototype tool by implementing our approach for the aforementioned applications.     

Efficient financial time series prediction with evolutionary virtual data position exploration

Prediction of stock index remains a challenging task of the financial time series prediction process. Random fluctuations in the stock index make it difficult to predict. Usually the time series prediction is based on the observations of past trend over a period of time. In general, the curve the time series data follows has a linear part and a non-linear part. Prediction of the linear part with past history is not a difficult task, but the prediction of non linear segments is difficult. Though different non-linear prediction models are in use, but their prediction accuracy does not improve beyond a certain level. It is observed that close enough data positions are more informative where as far away data positions mislead prediction of such non linear segments. Apart from the existing data positions, exploration of few more close enough data positions enhance the prediction accuracy of the non-linear segments significantly. In this study, an evolutionary virtual data position (EVDP) exploration method for financial time series is proposed. It uses multilayer perceptron and genetic algorithm to build this model. Performance of the proposed model is compared with three deterministic methods such as linear, Lagrange and Taylor interpolation as well as two stochastic methods such as Uniform and Gaussian method. Ten different stock indices from across the globe are used for this experiment and it is observed that in majority of the cases performance of the proposed EVDP exploration method is better. Some stylized facts exhibited by the financial time series are also documented.

     

Toughening of Polylactic Acid: An Overview of Research Progress

To overcome the limitations of polylactic acid, alterations are needed to enhance its toughness, to improve handling and for various applications. Extensive studies were reported, mainly in the area of blends with renewable resource polymer blends. Better phase dispersion between the blend materials is achieved either by reactive mixing of the two components or by incorporation of a block copolymer compatibilizer, finally showing highly enhanced property. In this article, the recent research progress of different toughening processes of PLA via blending is reviewed and a detailed understanding about toughening of PLA using biodegradable or renewable polymers has been established.     

A rheological study on aged binder rejuvenated with Pongamia oil and Composite castor oil

Recycling of highway materials is an effort to preserve the natural environment, reduce waste and provide a cost-effective way for construction of highways. The reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) contains stiffened binder caused by loss of volatile materials and oxidation. Hence, the addition of high amount of the RAP to asphalt mix may make it prone to fatigue failure. Due to this reason, addition of RAP to asphalt mixture in substantial amount has been a challenge so far. Therefore, ‘rejuvenators’ which are supposed to restore chemical and physical properties of the aged asphalts are used effectively in asphalt mixture. In this study, two locally available oils, i.e. pongamia oil (locally known as Karanja oil) derived from the seeds of Pongamia pinnata and a composite rejuvenator made of castor oil and coke oven gas condensate have been explored for rejuvenating the aged binder. The rheological properties of aged binder and rejuvenated binders were studied using a dynamic shear rheometer. From the various rheological tests conducted, it was found that certain proportion of pongamia oil as well as composite castor oil was able to impart desirable rutting as well as fatigue performance for the rejuvenated binder samples. The thermal analysis carried out using thermogravimetric analysis ensured adequate thermal stability for the binder specimens treated with these oils. In terms of binder performances, it was found that these oils could be considered as suitable rejuvenators for effectively restoring properties of the aged binder. Performance studies on RAP mixes may be extended for recommending these two oils as rejuvenators for hot mix pavement recycling.     

Acrylic-ester-polyol based novel two-component polyurethane clear coat: Evaluation of performance characteristics

In the current study, a combination of acrylic polyol (AP) and ester polyol (EP) were synthesized and reacted at variable ratios with hexamethylene diisocyanates and isophorone diisocyanates to prepare a transparent two-component polyurethane (PU) coating formulation. The formations of the polyol system, isocyanate system, and the PU systems were confirmed by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Transparency of the coatings was examined using haze, and gloss measurement, which showed acrylic-ester-polyurethane (aePU-5 and aePU-6) have 91.5% and 91.8% transparency and gloss of 90.3 and 90.7 GU respectively. The thermal properties like T_g and the thermal stability of the coatings were verified using differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis respectively which was found to increase with increasing EP content and decreasing AP content which may be ascribed to improved compatibility of copolymers, and homogeneity in PU along with enhanced crosslinking density. The degree of adhesion of coating with the substrate was validated from lap-shear, and cross-cut tape test which showed improved performance at AP:EP ratio of 60:40. The coatings were found to exhibit resistance toward pencil hardness with aePU-5 and aePU-6 having the optimum resistance of 9H. The surface morphology and topography were observed under scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy, respectively. The outcome confirms the higher smoothness of the surfaces subjected to the increase in EP content. The PU system with 40 wt% AP content and 60 wt% EP designated as aePU-5 was found to exhibit optimum performance.     

Synthesis,Surface Properties and Effect of an Amino Acid Head Group of 11-(2-Methoxy-4-vinylphenoxy)undecanoicacid-Based Anionic Surfactants

Our present research describes the surface properties of three biobased anionic surfactant synthesized from vinylguaiacol and 11-bromo undecanoic acid. To further improve its hydrophobicity and bioavailability, amino acid head group incorporation was carried out. All these synthesized compounds were thoroughly characterized using NMR and mass spectroscopy. The performance properties such as foaming, wetting, emulsification value and calcium tolerance were evaluated. The studied surfactants possess excellent emulsion stability and moderate calcium tolerance as compared to commercially available surfactant sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). The micelle formation and the thermodynamics involved at the air–water interface were estimated from surface tension measurements. These surfactants showed a higher tendency towards adsorption at the air–water interface than micellization. Dynamic light scattering and steady state fluorescence anisotropy study were carried out to shed light on the bulk micellization properties of the synthesized surfactant. Along with spherical micelles of <5 nm size, larger aggregates (35–84 nm) were observed with higher anisotropy values. FESEM images further confirmed the larger spherical micelles formed by these surfactants. The surfactants formed chiral aggregates above the critical micelle concentration as indicated by circular dichroism spectra. These surfactants may be suitable candidates for additives to detergents to improve their calcium tolerance especially in the case of hard water. Furthermore, a low foaming ability along with high emulsion stability may find these surfactants to be better replacement of the conventional surfactant used as emulsifiers in many industrial applications.     

Binning algorithm for high-resolution IRS-P4 OCM chlorophyll image

Daily chlorophyll-a concentration from the Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) sensor onboard the Indian Remote Sensing satellite (IRS-P4) is used to make weekly and monthly chlorophyll-a concentration maps. The pathwise swath data at 12 noon for every alternate day over the north Indian Ocean (NIO) during February 2004 and February 2005 were used to compare the existing algorithms for binning the data. Atmospherically corrected and geocorrected OCM data were used in the comparative study of three averaging algorithms – arithmetic mean (AVG), geometric mean (GEO) and maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). The analysis shows that the AVG algorithm is best suited when compared with the two other algorithms. However, for case 1 water, MLE gives nearly the same value as AVG. Based on this result, AVG was selected for operational weekly and monthly averaging of OCM data over the NIO. These high-resolution-derived chlorophyll-a weekly and monthly products will be useful to resolve inter-annual-to-decadal changes in chlorophyll-a concentration over the NIO.     

Generalized hybrid control synthesis for affine systems using sequential adaptive networks

BACKGROUND: A generalized methodology for the synthesis of a hybrid controller for affine systems using sequential adaptive networks (SAN) is presented. SAN consists of an assembly of neural networks that are ordered in a chronological sequence, with one network assigned to each sampling interval. Using a suitable process model based on oxygen metabolism and an a priori objective function, a hybrid control law is derived that can use online measurements and the states predicted by SAN for computing the desired control action. RESULTS: The performance of the SAN–hybrid controller is tested for simulated fed‐batch production of methionine for three different process conditions. Simulations assume that online measurements of dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration are available. The performance of the SAN–hybrid controller gave an NRMSE of ～10^?4 in the absence of noise, ～10^?3 and ～10^?2 for ± 5% and ± 10% noise in the DO measurement and ～10^?2 for parameter uncertainty when compared with the ideal model prediction. CONCLUSIONS: The observed performance for unmeasured state prediction and control implementation shows that the proposed SAN–hybrid controller can efficiently compute the manipulated variable required to maintain methionine production along the optimized trajectory for different conditions. The test results show that the SAN–hybrid controller can be used for online real‐time implementation in fed‐batch bioprocesses. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry