Spectrum Resource Utilization and Security Enhancement in Multi-domain Elastic Optic Networks (MD-EON) Using Memetic Algorithm

Wireless Personal Communications - Routing and Spectrum utilization is a challenging approach when optical signal is used in data transfer. The underlying bandwidth requirements in supporting the...     

Deep learning architectures for land cover classification using red and near-infrared satellite images

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Classification of remotely sensed data requires the modelling of suitable image processing algorithms. The rise of machine learning systems upgraded the...     

Investigation of ferroelectric,piezoelectric and mechanically coupled properties of lead-free (Ba0.85Ca0.15) (Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 ceramics

Lead-free piezoelectric ceramic (Ba_0.85Ca_0.15)(Zr_0.1Ti_0.9)O₃ (BCZT) has been synthesised by solid-state sintering method and the effect of grain size on ferroelectric, piezoelectric, dielectric, mechanical and piezo-electro-mechanical properties was systematically studied. The compacted powders were sintered at three temperatures i.e. 1450°°C, 1500°C and 1550°C for an optimised duration of 5?h and they have exhibited well resolved morphotropic phase boundary with an average grain size ranging from 10 to 25?µm. Enhanced piezoelectric charge, d₃₃ ～ 560 pC/N and voltage, g₃₃ ～ 14.3?mV?m/N coefficients were obtained for the 1450°C sintered BCZT sample. A maximum strain of around ～0.14% was obtained which is comparable to that of lead-based piezoelectrics. Variation of relative permittivity with temperature revealed that the curves are independent of frequency, indicating the typical relaxor ferroelectric nature of the samples. A systematic study on cyclic loading was performed to evaluate piezo-electro-mechanical coefficients at different loads which showed hysteresis behaviour. High value of elastic modulus (E) and hardness (H) i.e. 262.7?±?38.1?GPa and 13.7?±?1.7?GPa were exhibited by samples sintered at 1450°C, which is higher than that of BCZT synthesised by wet-chemical methods. The results are discussed.     

Design of a Mobile Robot Controller using Esterel Tools

Robot controllers are often programmed using either standard sequential programming languages or a robot-specific language, which are then compiled to assembly language specific to the robot. Modern real-time programming languages, on the other hand, are more appropriate to program robots, as they better fit the real-time reactive model of robots. This paper reports on a project to program a non-trivial robot, the Rug Warrior, in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of UNSW, using Esterel, which is a real-time programming language. The approach is illustrated by simulation of a colony of Siberian ants using a group of Rug Warriors.     

CCB-based encapsulation of pyrite for remediation of acid mine drainage

Acid mine drainage (AMD) from abandoned coal mines continues to be one of the most significant environmental problems. Remediation of AMD requires an addition of lime source to decrease the acidity, and grouting the entire mine and encapsulating the pyrite by calcium-rich additives is often employed. Utilization of alkaline coal combustion by-products (CCBs) has gained acceptance in such remediation applications because of their cost-effectiveness. A study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of CCBs to abate acid mine drainage by encapsulation of pyrite. Geomechanical, hydraulic, and environmental tests were performed on grouts prepared with various ratios of CCBs as well as an alternative free lime source, lime kiln dust (LKD). The results indicated that the mechanical properties of grouts were dependent on their free lime contents. Hydraulic conductivities of pyrite-grout columns were relatively high due to the coating of the pyrite rock with the grout rather than the filling of all of the void spaces, as commonly experienced in field applications. The leaching tests indicated that the presence of high amounts of lime in a grout is not solely sufficient to improve the quality of AMD, since the rate of dissolution of a high lime content grout may be slow due to its rapid hardening. Therefore, it is recommended that grouts be selected with consideration of their hardening capacities, as well as the percentage of lime content present in the mixture.     

Inhibitory effect of schematic processing on perceptual encoding.

Hypothesized that although schemata facilitate organized conceptual processing, and hence recall, they simultaneously inhibit perceptual encoding. This inhibitory effect should emerge because schemata allow perceivers to rely on prior knowledge in place of incoming information and because schemata facilitate selective attention. Exps 1 and 2 demonstrated that Ss encode less relevant perceptual information when they are provided with or are able to induce a schema. Exp 3 demonstrated that Ss encode less relevant perceptual information when they are self-schematic in a domain, even though they have better recall for that information. Exp 4 demonstrated that Ss encode less irrelevant perceptual information when they are provided with a schema. Thus, results show that although schemata facilitate recall, they simultaneously inhibit perceptual encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic multimodal assessment of soft skills in social interactions: a review

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Automatic assessment of soft skills is an interesting problem in social computing. Soft skills are essential to any individual for personal and career...