A high-level application using belief functions for exchanging and managing uncertain events on the road in vehicular ad hoc networks

This article introduces a high-level system using belief functions for exchanging and managing imperfect information about events on the road in vehicular ad hoc networks. The main purpose of this application is to provide the most reliable information for the driver from multiple messages received informing the driver about events on the roads. This system and some variants are tested using a MATLAB? simulator. An implementation with Android smartphones using a Bluetooth technology to exchange the messages is also introduced.     

Geometry modeling in cellular network planning

To design a cellular radio network (GSM, UMTS, WiFi …) it is indispensable today to use a radio planning software. In current commercialized tools, radio network planning is based on a numerical evaluation of a set of radio metrics, directly linked to quality of service notion, such as interference, throughput, coverage, capacity … The network configurations produced by such tools are generally faced with the human expert judgment who attaches great importance to the organizational aspects such as cells size and the topology. In other words, all those concepts related to the visual cells shape and geometry. In this article we emphasize the simplicity and the strength by which the geometrical concepts helps to bring out good network properties which are not taken into account by conventional radio criteria. On one hand, well-formed cells lead to reduce the number of handover calls, and to form transition zones between cells allowing proper completion of the handover procedure. On the other hand, cell geometry optimization produce performing network schemes in which the frequencies reuse (frequencies planning in GSM, WiFi) is simplified. We describe in this paper an original and practical modeling of the cellular geometry criteria granting the integration of this concept into the automatic planning process of mobile radio networks. The relevance of this criterion is assessed on three different levels. On a local level, we first establish the correlation between the geometric criteria and the improvement of point-by-point radio quality indicators. We secondly show geometry impact on radio frequency planning and the improving of the handover zones. Finally we analyze the impact of geometric criterion on improving indoor positioning systems.     

An Effective Approach for High‐Efficiency Photoelectrochemical Solar Cells by Using Bifunctional DNA Molecules Modified Photoanode

This paper firstly reports the effect of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules extracted from chickpea and wheat plants on the injection/recombination of photogenerated electrons and sensitizing ability of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). These high‐yield DNA molecules are applied as both linker bridging unit as well as thin tunneling barrier (TTB) at titanium dioxide (TiO₂ )/dye interface, to build up high‐efficient DSSCs. With its favorable energy levels, effective linker bridging role, and double helix structure, bifunctional DNA modifier shows an efficient electron injection, suppressed charge recombination, longer electron lifetime, and higher light harvesting efficiency, which leads to higher photovoltaic performance. In particular, a photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.23% is achieved by the binary chickpea and wheat DNA‐modified TiO₂ (CW@TiO₂) photoanode. Furthermore, time‐resolved fluorescence spectroscopy measurements confirm a better electron transfer kinetics for DNA‐modified TiO₂ photoanodes, implying a higher electron transfer rate (k_ET). This work highlights a great contribution for the photoanodes that are linked with DNA molecule, which act as both bridging unit and TTB to control the charge recombination and injection dynamics, and hence, boost the photovoltaic performance in the DSSCs.     

Speech synthesis using AM/FM sinusoids and band-pass noise

In the speech synthesis model presented in this paper, voiced speech is synthesized as the sum of sinusoidally modulated two FM sinusoids corresponding to the first and second formants. Each FM signal is generated such that its amplitude is equal to the formant amplitude, its carrier frequency to the formant frequency or its linear combination, its modulation frequency to the pitch, and its modulation index to one fifth of the carrier to modulation frequency ratio. Unvoiced speech is generated by shifting the center frequency of a low-pass noise with a bandwidth of 1 KHz, to the frequency where the energy of the unvoiced speech is concentrated. The drawbacks of this scheme are that the pitch and the formant frequencies of the FM signals may deviate up to 40% and 9%, respectively, and spurious formants may occur. A hardware implementation can be accomplished by driving a linear analog circuitry which can simply be integrated on a single chip, by a digital computer which supplies voltages at every T = 5 ms corresponding to seven parameter values. Examples of the signals and spectrograms of synthesized speech obtained by both synthesis by analysis and synthesis by rule are given along with a set of rules for text-to-speech synthesis of Turkish. It is observed that the speech synthesized by analysis loses the speaker's identity but it is highly intelligible, while understanding the speech synthesized by rules requires a training period.     

An algorithm for formant tracking

A formant tracking algorithm than first forms strings of spectral peaks considering only the relative positions of the peaks and then assigns these strings to the formants according to the relative positions and lengths of the strings is presented. An example is also given.     

Using fuzzy coding with qualitative data: example with subjective data in human-computer interaction

This article shows the role that fuzzy sets may play in the prospect of analysing qualitative data. To underline this role, a human-computer interaction (HCI) study is presented. The data coming from 20 experts concerns their judgment regarding 33 questions related to the use of HCI approaches in order to support interactive system development phases. Each response scale features three main modalities, that is Agree, Partially agree and Disagree. The dataset example is analysed using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) with both crisp and fuzzy coding models where the intermediate modality, Partially agree, is removed and considered with ½ membership values to the two extreme modalities. A comparative analysis is performed and the discussion states the interest of fuzzy coding with several kinds of qualitative factors or measurement variables. With qualitative measurement variables (our example), the main drawback of fuzzy coding could be the information loss, which is counterbalanced by the possibility of having fewer modalities and therefore of simplifying the multivariate analysis.     

Prediction of blast wave effects on a developed site

The guidelines for protecting against and mitigating explosion hazards require knowledge and either the experimental or theoretical evaluation of blast wave parameters. To this end, this article proposes a numerical method for simulating blast wave propagation in complex geometries. This method permits an on-the-ground TNT-like explosion and the subsequent blast wave to be simulated, with the possibility of modifying the ground topology by adding a number of obstacles. The numerical model is explored from both a qualitative and quantitative point of view by comparing it to experimental data, with a correct determination of the wave amplitude and phase signature at different key-positions. The pressure and Mach number distributions deduced from simulations in complex congested areas highlight various fluid–solid interactions, such as regular reflections and diffractions. The iso-damage diagrams of different obstacle layouts are also presented and discussed.     

A fast boundary element based solver for localized inelastic deformations

We present a numerical method for the solution of nonlinear geomechanical problems involving localized deformation along shear bands and fractures. We leverage the boundary element method to solve for the quasi-static elastic deformation of the medium while rigid-plastic constitutive relations govern the behavior of displacement discontinuity (DD) segments capturing localized deformations. A fully implicit scheme is developed using a hierarchical approximation of the boundary element matrix. Combined with an adequate block preconditioner, this allows to tackle large problems via the use of an iterative solver for the solution of the tangent system. Several two-dimensional examples of the initiation and growth of shear-bands and tensile fractures illustrate the capabilities and accuracy of this technique. The method does not exhibit any mesh dependency associated with localization provided that (i) the softening length-scale is resolved and (ii) the plane of localized deformations is discretized a priori using DD segments.     

Experimental determination of 3D crack propagation scenario in resistance spot welds of a martensitic stainless steel

International Journal of Fracture - The development of high-performance automotive steels involves increasingly complex chemistries and heat treating sequences, to produce stronger and lighter...