Progressive delamination growth analysis using discontinuous layered element

In this paper, a fracture mechanic approach is used to analyze delamination propagation between layers of composite laminates. A finite element method based on layer-wise theory is extended for the analysis of delamination growth. In this approach, delamination is modeled by jump discontinuity conditions at the interfaces. The layer-wise finite element is developed to calculate the strain energy release rates based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). A procedure is proposed to handle the progressive delamination of laminates. Finally, analyses of the edge delamination propagation for several composite laminates are performed and the corresponding failure stresses are calculated. The predicted results are compared with the available experimental and numerical results. It is shown that the predicted failure stresses using this method are comparable with those obtained using interface elements.     

ISDN frame relay and its congestion control

Frame relay is a new ISDN (integrated services digital network) packet mode bearer service which is expected to provide an efficient means of information transport using high-speed transmission media. Several new applications requiring high bandwidth, such as file transfer, video and packetized voice, are suitable candidates to use this streamlined protocol. However, as there are no control frames present within the network for traffic flow management, congestion may arise during periods of peak offered loads. Efficient congestion control mechanisms are needed to make the frame relay effective. In this paper, after a brief discussion of the frame relay protocol, we consider the congestion problem in networks using this protocol and evaluate the performance. Specifically, we consider static and dynamic window flow control methods and develop models to determine the throughput under various load conditions. The throughput of the static window flow control model is determined by computing the frame loss probability and the virtual retransmission time, which is the time between arrivals of retransmitted frames at the destination. The frame loss probability is calculated by modelling the bottleneck resource as a finite state Markov chain. The results are validated by simulation. Furthermore, to analyse the dynamic interactions between the virtual circuits and their effect on the throughput and delay characteristics, we develop a simulation model which incorporates a dynamic window congestion control mechanism. It is shown that when the offered load is high, the performance of dynamic window flow control is superior to that of static window flow control.     

Ambulatory system for human motion analysis using a kinematic sensor: monitoring of daily physical activity in the elderly

A new method of physical activity monitoring is presented, which is able to detect body postures (sitting, standing, and lying) and periods of walking in elderly persons using only one kinematic sensor attached to the chest. The wavelet transform, in conjunction with a simple kinematics model, was used to detect different postural transitions (PTs) and walking periods during daily physical activity. To evaluate the system, three studies were performed. The method was first tested on 11 community-dwelling elderly subjects in a gait laboratory where an optical motion system (Vicon) was used as a reference system. In the second study, the system was tested for classifying PTs (i.e., lying-to-sitting, sitting-to-lying, and turning the body in bed) in 24 hospitalized elderly persons. Finally, in a third study monitoring was performed on nine elderly persons for 45-60 min during their daily physical activity. Moreover, the possibility-to-perform long-term monitoring over 12 h has been shown. The first study revealed a close concordance between the ambulatory and reference systems. Overall, subjects performed 349 PTs during this study. Compared with the reference system, the ambulatory system had an overall sensitivity of 99% for detection of the different PTs. Sensitivities and specificities were 93% and 82% in sit-to-stand, and 82% and 94% in stand-to-sit, respectively. In both first and second studies, the ambulatory system also showed a very high accuracy (> 99%) in identifying the 62 transfers or rolling out of bed, as well as 144 different posture changes to the back, ventral, right and left sides. Relatively high sensitivity (> 90%) was obtained for the classification of usual physical activities in the third study in comparison with visual observation. Sensitivities and specificities were, respectively, 90.2% and 93.4% in sitting, 92.2% and 92.1% in "standing + walking," and, finally, 98.4% and 99.7% in lying. Overall detection errors (as percent of range) were 3.9% for "standing + walking," 4.1% for sitting, and 0.3% for lying. Finally, overall symmetric mean average errors were 12% for "standing + walking," 8.2% for sitting, and 1.3% for lying.     

Controlled Theophylline Release from Microcapsules of Acrylic & Methacrylic Acid Ester Copolymer

The goal of this work was to develop a suitable method for microencapsulation of theophylline using copolymer of acrylate and methacrylate ester (EUDRAGIT) as the coating material. The effect of protective colloids on the process of microencapsulation was evaluated. The in vitro studies revealed significant control of drug release for the developed dosage form. Individually, the polymer coated drug particles of different core: coat ratio and different proportions of protective colloids were found to influence the pharmacokinetic parameters as revealed from the in vivo bioavailability studies in gastric-emptying controlled rabbits. In vivo bioavailability data were compared using Westlake's confidence limit.     

Automatic target scoring system using machine vision

This paper reports on the development of a machine vision system for assessing targeting accuracy of ballistic, projectile-firing, weapon systems. The machine vision system developed here can monitor the target continuously, report precise quantitative targeting information, and simultaneously provide a color-coded display of impacts. The only other automated target scoring system on the market today is based on the analysis of acoustic signatures of projectiles using a heavily instrumented target. The proposed vision-based technique, in contrast, is inherently passive, requiring little or no modification of the existing set up.     

The influence of 3-glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane on the rheological and in-vitro behavior of injectable composites containing 64S bioactive glass,chitosan, and gelatin

The effect of cross-linker 3-glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) on the injectability, bioactivity, rheology, washout resistance, and cellular behavior of bio-nano composite pastes containing a sol–gel derived bioactive glass (BG), chitosan (Cn), and gelatin (Gel), were studied. The results indicated that the structural integrity of the samples in the stimulated body fluid (SBF) was improved from 80% to 90% with the increase in the GPTMS content. In addition, the viscosity and injectability of the paste were affected, so that the later changed from 96% to 73% and the former changed from 132 × 10³ to 210 × 10³ Pa.s, with addition of 20 wt% GPTMS. Furthermore, the bioactivity of the pastes was improved with the use of GPTMS. No toxicity was observed in the cellular studies of the GPTMS containing paste after 7 days, and the cells kept their shape and were attached firmly to the paste surface. The results of the present work showed that the use of GPTMS was beneficial in enhancing the properties of injectable paste.     

A numerical study of reactive pollutant dispersion in street canyons with green roofs

Roof greening is a new technique for improvement of outdoor thermal environment which influences air quality through its impacts on thermal and flow field. In order to examine effects of green roofs on reactive pollutant dispersion within urban street canyons, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was employed which contained NO-NO₂-O₃ photochemistry and energy balance models. Simulations were performed for street canyons with different aspect ratios (H/W) of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 such that leaf area density (LAD) of green roofs changed. It was found that roof greening led distribution of pollutants to alter for H/W = 0.5 and 1.0 cases in such a manner that their averaged concentrations had small variations as LAD changed. However, by increasing LAD in H/W = 2.0, ventilation efficiency of nitrogen oxides increased since the flow was enhanced within the canyon. Additionally, averaged concentration of ozone in H/W = 2.0 increased with increasing LAD, owing to downward flux of ozone at roof level. Results show that roof greening is a good strategy which can be used in order to improve air quality and thermal environment, especially within deep street canyons.     

Data hiding in MPEG-2 bitstream by creating exceptions in code space

In this work, we have developed a file-size preserving algorithm to hide data directly in MPEG-2 bitstreams without violating the syntax. The approach is based on the realization that embedding of a bit directly in the bitstream can be achieved by creating an exception in the code space. An exception is created by inserting code words not occurring in the original content into the bitstream. Because the entropy-coded segment of MPEG-2 is fully used, every valid code word appears somewhere in the video. However, exceptions can still be created by recognizing that there are certain variable length codes (VLC) that never occur together in any video block. These are unused VLC pairs and although they vary from stream to stream, they always exist. It is then possible to embed one bit of data by forcing an unused pair in a block subject to a number of constraints, including transparency, file-size preservation and quality metric. The list of unused pairs constitutes a secure key that can be identified by pointer. This pointer can be efficiently encoded for sharing through a secure download. The content-dependence of the key allows a secure exchange of information because each key is valid only for the corresponding video. Because the cover video still uses standard VLCs, the marked bitstream is transparent to external observers. Application areas for the proposed approach are metadata binding and general data hiding when the size of the key is less important than the security and value of attaching data to content. Examples are surveillance video footage and medical applications.     

Design of code division multiple access filters based on sampled fiber Bragg grating by using global optimization algorithms

In this article, we focus on the design of code division multiple access filters (used in data transmission) composed of a particular optical fiber called sampled fiber Bragg grating (SFBG). More precisely, we consider an inverse problem that consists in determining the effective refractive index profile of an SFBG that produces a given reflected spectrum. In order to solve this problem, we use an original multi-layers semi-deterministic global optimization method based on the search of suitable initial conditions for a given optimization algorithm. The results obtained with our optimization algorithms are compared, in term of complexity and final design, with those given by an hybrid genetic algorithm (the method generally considered in the literature for designing SFBGs).     

An experimental study on the performance and emission characteristics of a CI engine fuelled with Jatropha biodiesel and its blends with diesel

The performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine using mixture of jatropha biodiesel and mineral diesel have been experimentally investigated. It is observed that brake specific fuel consumption increases with higher percentage of biodiesel in the blends. Brake thermal efficiency decreases with the increased percentage of biodiesel in the blends. The maximum efficiency is found to be 29.6% with pure diesel and 21.2% with pure biodiesel. Carbon mono-oxide and hydrocarbon emissions are improved with the addition of biodiesel to diesel. NO_x emission is found to be increased with pure biodiesel by 24% compared to mineral diesel.