Pedestrian Height Estimation and 3D Reconstruction Using Pixel-resolution Mapping Method Without Special Patterns

Machine Intelligence Research - Extracting the three-dimensional (3D) information including location and height of a pedestrian is important for vision-based intelligent traffic monitoring systems....     

Lewis acid catalyzed diesel‐like fuel production from raw corn oil

The pyrolysis of raw corn oil in the absence and presence of Lewis acids was carried out at 500°C. The catalytic effect of AlCl₃ was better than that of FeCl₃. The physico‐chemical properties of diesel‐like fuels produced by Lewis acid catalyzed are close to that of commercial diesel fuel. The diesel‐like fuels obtained from catalytic runs can be evaluated as diesel fuels. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of electroless nickel coating on the electrochemical hydrogen storage characteristics of Al and Zr including Mg-based alloys

Mg₂Ni, Mg_1.5Al_0.5Ni, Mg_1.5Zr_0.5Ni and Mg_1.5Al_0.2Zr_0.3Ni alloys were synthesized by the mechanical alloying and the effect of electroless Ni coatings on the electrochemical hydrogen storage characteristics of these alloys were investigated. X-ray diffraction studies showed that the Ni particles formed on the alloy surface during the electroless coating resulted in the formation of two new broad Ni peaks. The application of the Ni coating improved the capacity retention rates of all the alloys. This improvement was attributed to the hydrogen diffusion pathways provided by the external Ni particles. The capacity retention of the coated Mg₂Ni alloy was relatively lower than those of the coated Al and Zr including alloys. This observation was assumed to arise from the contribution of the underlying electrocatalytically active Ni sites formed as a result of the dissolution of the disseminated Al and Zr oxides throughout the Mg(OH)₂ layer to the alloy capacity retention rate. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy experiments indicated that the Ni crystals nucleated during the electroless coating make the alloy surface more catalytic for the electrochemical charge transfer reactions.     

Development and validation of an automated FEM-based design optimization tool for continuum compliant structures

International Journal of Mechanics and Materials in Design - This paper presents a design optimization method for continuum compliant structures. The developed optimization tool enables automated...     

A mobile renewable house using PV/wind/fuel cell hybrid power system

A photovoltaic/wind/fuel cell hybrid power system for stand-alone applications is proposed and demonstrated with a mobile house. This concept shows that different renewable sources can be used simultaneously to power off-grid applications. The presented mobile house can produce sufficient power to cover the peak load. Photovoltaic and wind energy are used as primary sources and a fuel cell as backup power for the system. The power budgeting of the system is designed based on the local data of solar radiation and wind availability. Further research will focus on the development of the data acquisition system and the implementation of automatic controls for power management.     

Autonomous precision agriculture through integration of wireless underground sensor networks with center pivot irrigation systems

Precision agriculture (PA) refers to a series of practices and tools necessary to correctly evaluate farming needs. The accuracy and effectiveness of PA solutions are highly dependent on accurate and timely analysis of the soil conditions. In this paper, a proof-of-concept towards an autonomous precision irrigation system is provided through the integration of a center pivot (CP) irrigation system with wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs). This Wireless Underground Sensor-Aided Center Pivot (WUSA-CP) system will provide autonomous irrigation management capabilities by monitoring the soil conditions in real time using wireless underground sensors. To this end, field experiments with a hydraulic drive and continuous-move center pivot irrigation system are conducted. The results are used to evaluate empirical channel models for soil-air communications. The experiment results show that the concept of WUSA-CP is feasible. Through the design of an underground antenna, communication ranges can be improved by up to 400% compared to conventional antenna designs. The results also highlight that the wireless communication channel between soil and air is significantly affected by many spatio-temporal aspects, such as the location and burial depth of the sensors, soil texture and physical properties, soil moisture, and the vegetation canopy height. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work on the development of an autonomous precision irrigation system with WUSNs.     

Daily peak ozone forecast in Istanbul

In this study, we attempt to develop an ozone forecast model using two different approaches. The first approach is to use a multiple linear regression method and the second is to use a feed-forward artificial neural network. Models are developed for the ozone period of April through to September of the years 2002 and 2003 and verified for May to August 2004. In both models, 19 predictors are used. Calculated agreement indices (AI) for the model development period are 0.82 for the linear regression model and 0.88 for the artificial neural network model. On the other hand, AI values decrease to 0.53 and 0.64 for the validation period. Poor performance of the models in the validation phase might be due to the different maximum daily ozone averages of these two periods. While the average of maximum ozone values is 61.1 μg m^?3 in the model development phase, it is 42.2 μg m^?3 in the model validation phase.     

Synthesis and characterization of boehmitic alumina coated graphite by sol–gel method

Non-wettability property makes graphite a good protecting material against the molten metal and/or slag. Properties like high oxidation potential between 600 and 1200 °C and non-wettability with water at room temperatures limits the usage of graphite in castable refractory applications. In this study, sol–gel method, which is a relatively cheaper process, was used. Boehmitic sol was obtained by hydrolyzing and peptiziting the alkoxide AIP (aluminum isopropoxide) used as alumina source. Then natural flake graphite was mixed with the boehmitic solution for coating of graphite. At 120 °C boehmitic sol coated graphite was dried and gelled. Then heat threaded at 550 °C for γ-Al₂O₃ transformation of boehmite. Products that obtained from the studies were characterized with FTIR and XRD tests. Alumina coated graphite samples were made by repeating the same steps and TG analysis were made to investigate the oxidation behaviour of the samples. Finally, SEM–EDS analyses were carried out to investigate the microscopic properties of the alumina coated graphite powders.     

Electrochemical hydrogen storage characteristics of Mg1.5Al0.5−xZrxNi (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) alloys synthesized by mechanical alloying

Mg_1.5Al_0.5−xZr_xNi (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) type alloys were synthesized by mechanical alloying and their electrochemical hydrogen storage characteristics were investigated. X-ray diffraction studies showed that Zr facilitated the amorphization of Mg₂Ni phase, while Al retarded the amorphization of this phase. The increase in the Zr content was observed to bring about significant improvement in the discharge capacities at all the ball milling durations. The stepwise replacement of Al with Zr, however, caused considerable reduction in the initial discharge capacities of the alloys. Despite the adverse effect of Al on the initial discharge capacity, it prevented the rapid degradation of Mg₂Ni phase with the charge/discharge cycles. When the beneficial effects of Zr and Al were combined by designing Mg_1.5Al_0.5−xZr_xNi type alloys, Mg_1.5Al_0.2Zr_0.3Ni alloy was found to have the highest discharge capacity at almost all the charge/discharge cycle steps. Among the obtained capacity retaining rates, Mg_1.5Al_0.4Zr_0.1Ni alloy had the best performance. This alloy has kept at least 50% of its initial discharge capacity at 20th cycle. The analysis by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed that the charge transfer resistances of Al-rich alloys were low at high depth of discharges. This observation was attributed to the formation of the porous unstable Mg(OH)₂ layer due to the intercalation of Al₂O₃ layers, which have the high rate of solubility in strongly basic solutions, and thus the exposition of the underlying electrocatalytically active Ni sites.     

An OWA Operator‐Based Cumulative Belief Degrees Approach for Credit Rating

Credit lenders utilize credit rating approaches to provide a classification system for characterizing credit borrowers. In order to measure the borrowers’ credibility, that is, ability and willingness to repay the debt, there are many financial and non‐financial criteria that should be considered. The basic aim of this study is to propose a multiple‐criteria credit rating approach that integrates different kinds of information and represents the borrowers’ credibility as a distribution among all the credit ratings. The cumulative belief degree approach is proposed for this purpose. Since all the available information is used in the final representation, a distribution‐based credit rating approach is expected to strengthen the lender's inference competency. In order to eliminate subjectivity in the weighting of criteria, an ordered weighted averaging operator is used. Additionally, the credit rating distribution can be transformed into a single credit rating by considering a threshold value. This study proposes a goodness‐of‐fit test to handle the subjectivity and difficulty of setting the threshold value. The applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated by analyzing the credibility of selected Turkish firms from the stock exchange market of Turkey.