Performance analysis of two‐way wireless‐powered Amplify‐and‐Forward relaying in the presence of co‐channel interference

In this paper, we investigate the performance assessment of a bidirectional relaying system using energy harvesting techniques. We assume independent and nonidentically distributed (i.n.i.d.) Nakagami‐m fading channels where the amplify‐and‐forward relay is subject to co‐channel interference (CCI) due to transmissions of other transmitters. Two different scenarios, namely, scenario I and scenario II are evaluated. In scenario I, both end‐sources provide the required energy for the relay, whereas the relay also harvests energy from the co‐channel interferes. Then, in the first phase of cooperation, both end‐sources send the information to the relay, and after amplifying the received signal, relay transfers information to the appropriate destination in the second time‐slot. In the scenario II, both end‐sources harvest energy from the relay. After that, the information cooperative transmission is done similar to the first scenario. For both considered scenarios, tight closed‐form expressions of outage probability, symbol error probability, ergodic capacity, and throughput are obtained at arbitrary signal‐to‐noise‐ratios (SNRs). To get more insights, simplified high SNR results for both scenarios are also deduced where the diversity orders are obtained. Monte Carlo simulation results are presented to validate the correctness of our proposed analysis. Our results explicitly demonstrate that the first scenario has a better performance than the second one in the medium and high SNR region, whereas the second scenario outperforms the first one in the low SNR regime.     

Prediction of fracture loads in PMMA U‐notched specimens using the equivalent material concept and the theory of critical distances combined criterion

This paper provides a methodology for the prediction of fracture loads in notched materials that combines the equivalent material concept with the theory of critical distances. The latter has a linear‐elastic nature and requires material calibration in those cases where the non‐linear material behaviour is significant. The calibration may be performed by fracture testing on notched specimens or a combination of fracture testing and simulation. The proposed methodology sets out to define an equivalent linear‐elastic material on which the theory of critical distances may be applied through its basic formulation and without any previous fracture testing and/or simulation. It has been applied to PMMA single edge notch bending specimens containing U‐notches, providing accurate predictions of fracture loads.     

An enhanced possibilistic programming approach for reliable closed-loop supply chain network design

Most of current logistics network design models in the literature typically assume that facilities are always available and absolutely reliable while in practice, they are always subject to several operational and disruption risks. This paper proposes a reliable closed-loop supply chain network design model, which accounts for both partial and complete facility disruptions as well as the uncertainty in the critical input data. The proposed model is of mixed integer possibilistic linear programming type that aims to minimise simultaneously the total cost of opening new facilities and the expected cost of disruption scenarios. An enhanced possibilistic programming approach is proposed to deal with the epistemic uncertainty in input data. Furthermore, the p-robustness criterion is used to limit the cost of disruption scenarios and protect the designed network against random facility disruptions. Several numerical experiments along with sensitivity analyses on uncertain parameters are conducted to illustrate the significance and applicability of the developed model as well as the effectiveness of the proposed solution approach. Our results demonstrate that operational and disruption risks considerably affect the whole structure of the designed network and they must be taken into account when designing a reliable closed-loop logistics network.     

A bandwidth-efficient and fair CSMA/TDMA based multichannel MAC scheme for V2V communications

Designing QoS-aware medium access control (MAC) scheme is a challenging issue in vehicular ad hoc networks. Proportional fairness and bandwidth utilization are among the significant requirements that should be taken into account by a MAC scheme. In this paper, a bandwidth-efficient and fair multichannel MAC protocol is proposed to address these two requirements, specifically in vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The proposed scheme is based on clustering of vehicles and exploits time division multiple access (TDMA) method alongside the carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance mechanism to allocate DSRC-based resources in a different manner from IEEE 802.11p/IEEE 1609.4 protocols. It divides each channel into aligned dynamic-sized time frames. In each time frame, in a fully TDMA-based period, transmission opportunities are assigned to vehicles letting them have dedicated transmissions on the service and control channels. The maximum number of transmission opportunities per each frame is determined by the cluster head (CH) based on a defined optimization problem which aims at maximizing both proportional fairness and bandwidth utilization. Furthermore, the bandwidth utilization is assumed to be enhanced more through reallocation of unused transmission opportunities in each time frame, using a proposed reallocation algorithm. The proposed MAC protocol is treated as a lightweight scheme such that various types of unicast, multicast and broadcast communications are possible within the cluster without involving the CH. Evaluation results show that the proposed scheme has more than 90 % achievement in terms of proportional fairness and bandwidth utilization simultaneously, and in this case, has a considerable superiority over TC-MAC. In addition, using the proposed scheme, the satisfaction level of vehicles is preserved appropriately.     

LTL is closed under topological closure

We constructively prove that for every LTL formula φ, the smallest safety property containing the property expressed by φ is also expressible in LTL. It immediately follows that LTL admits the safety-liveness decomposition: any property expressed by an LTL formula is equivalent to the intersection of a safety property and a liveness property, both of them expressible in LTL. Our proof is based on constructing a minimal deterministic counter-free Büchi automaton that recognizes the smallest safety property containing the property expressed by φ.     

Market_based grid resource allocation using new negotiation model

This paper presents a new negotiation model for designing Market- and Behavior-driven Negotiation Agents (MBDNAs) that address computational grid resource allocation problem. To determine the amount of concession for each trading cycle, the MBDNAs are guided by six factors: (1) number of negotiator's trading partners, (2) number of negotiator's competitors, (3) negotiator's time preference, (4) flexibility in negotiator's trading partner's proposal, (5) negotiator's proposal deviation from the average of its trading partners’ proposals, and (6) previous concession behavior of negotiator's trading partner. In our experiments, we compare grid resource consumer (GRC) of type MBDNAs (respectively grid resource owner (GRO) of type MBDNAs) with MDAs (Market Driven Agents) in terms of the following metrics: total tasks complementation and average utility (respectively resource utilization level and average utility). The results show that by taking the proposed factors into account, MBDNAs of both types make a more efficient concession amount than MDAs and are, therefore, considered an appropriate mechanism for grid resource allocation in different grid workloads and market types.     

An iterative integrated framework for thermal–visible image registration,sensor fusion,and people tracking for video surveillance applications

In this work, we propose a new integrated framework that addresses the problems of thermal–visible video registration, sensor fusion, and people tracking for far-range videos. The video registration is based on a RANSAC trajectory-to-trajectory matching, which estimates an affine transformation matrix that maximizes the overlapping of thermal and visible foreground pixels. Sensor fusion uses the aligned images to compute sum-rule silhouettes, and then constructs thermal–visible object models. Finally, multiple object tracking uses blobs constructed in sensor fusion to output the trajectories. Results demonstrate the advantage of our proposed framework in obtaining better results for both image registration and tracking than separate image registration and tracking methods.     

Volume Expansion of Compacted Graphite Iron Induced by Pearlite Decomposition and the Effect of Oxidation at Elevated Temperature

Engine cylinder blocks and heads, made of compacted graphite iron, are subjected to prolonged periods of cyclic heating and cooling. These conditions may give rise to the decomposition of the pearlite matrix accompanied by the formation of lower-density graphite and oxides, which will lead to an increase of material volume. The microstructural instability deteriorates the physical and mechanical properties of CGI and accordingly the thermal fatigue properties. In the present work it was shown that the extent and mechanism of volume change are drastically affected by the presence of an oxide atmosphere. It was found that after annealing under atmospheric conditions internal oxidation largely inhibited the progress of pearlite decomposition and therefore much smaller growth rates were obtained as compared to those observed under vacuum conditions in the dilatometer. After 16 h of annealing time at 700 °C in vacuum, the CGI samples exhibited 6 times faster growth kinetics as compared to annealing in open atmosphere.     

Recent developments in the organization goals conformance using ontology

Organizational goals serve as the most important achievement target in every organization. Even though some researchers have developed the concept of the organization goals, but structuring the organization goals model is always questionable by the way it is being used. In this paper, we propose ontology to develop a unified model for the organization goals structure. We review the recent literature on the organization modelling and ontology development as an effort to evaluate the organization goals using a metrics for the achievement of the organization goals. We suggest that the metrics is important to identify the relevant organization data in relation to the organization goals conformance. In order to achieve this purpose, we investigate various associated concepts and organize the literature based on the organization goals, organization ontology and metrics model. We observe our proposed models are important for domain experts and entrepreneurs to evaluate the relevant organization data and to assist them in decision making. In summary, the contribution of this survey may serve as a first step in understanding the evaluation of the organization data for the achievement of the organization goals.