Doing the politics of technological decision making: due process and the debate about identity cards in the U.K.

The U.K. Government, in presenting its proposals for biometric identity cards, made strong claims about the technology and science underlying the proposed National Identity Scheme. In this paper, we use insights from science and technology studies (STS), particularly Latour's ‘Politics of Nature’ argument, to analyse the parliamentary debates about the technological and scientific aspects of the proposals. The authors were part of a team that produced a report that raised a series of perplexities about the Scheme in an attempt to counter the short-circuiting of discussion of these perplexities in the parliamentary debate. The paper analyses the government's attempts at short-circuiting in light of Latour's argument and the introduction of perplexities by our report. It demonstrates the extent to which this form of STS can enhance political debate about technological decisions.     

Analysis and design of a high efficiency bidirectional DC–DC converter for battery and ultracapacitor applications

This paper presents a high efficiency non-isolated bidirectional converter which can be employed as an interface circuit between ultracapacitors or batteries and DC bus voltage. All semiconductor devices in the proposed converter are soft switched while the control circuit remains PWM. So, the energy conversion through the converter is highly efficient. The proposed converter acts as a zero-voltage transition (ZVT) buck to charge an ultracapacitor or battery and acts as a ZVT boost to discharge an ultracapacitor or battery. The performance of the proposed converter with respect to abrupt load and operating mode change is shown through computer simulation results. The results confirm the aforementioned advantages and features of the proposed converter.     

Decentralized robust adaptive-output feedback controller for power system load frequency control

In this paper, a new model reference-decentralized robust adaptive-output feedback controller is proposed for the load frequency control (LFC) of large-scale power systems with unknown parameters. This control strategy requires only local input–output data and can follow random changes in the operating conditions. The controller is designed such that the trajectory errors and the control gains of each area remain uniformly bounded. In the proposed method, firstly an adaptive observer is designed to estimate the state variables and system parameters using local data only. Then a locally linear combination of the estimated states and the model reference states are used to design a robust adaptive-output feedback controller for each area. Simulation results for a three-area power system show that the proposed controller achieves good performance even in the presence of plant parameter changes and system non-linearities. Received: 18 October 2001/Accepted: 24 October 2001     

Investigation of Dynamic and Static Recrystallization Behavior During Thermomechanical Processing in a API-X70 Microalloyed Steel

Recovery and recrystallization phenomena and effects of microalloying elements on these phenomena are of great importance in designing thermomechanical processes of microalloyed steels. Control of these phenomena can lead to manufacturing of products with suitable structures and desirable properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the microstructural evolution occurring during thermomechanical processing through hot compression testing. The niobium carbonitride approximate solution temperature was initially determined to guess the optimum reheating temperature. Then continuous and interrupted compression tests were utilized to physically model the dynamic and static recrystallization (SRX) behavior of the steel during thermomechanical processing. The parameters of the flow stress model and the activation energy of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) were calculated and the effects of deformation conditions on peak strain of DRX were evaluated. In addition, a kinetic study of the static softening of austenite indicated that the plateau occurred in recrystallization fraction-time curves below 1025 °C. This was considered in determining the Static Recrystallization Critical Temperature (SRCT) and construction of the Recrystallization Retardation-Temperature Time (RRTT) diagram for this steel.     

Steel frame optimal design using MHBMO algorithm

Various deterministic and stochastic algorithms have been used as optimization tools in different engineering problems over the last decade. In this regard, the Modified Honey Bee Mating Optimization (MHBMO) algorithm may be considered as a typical swarm-based approach for optimizing numerous problems in engineering fields. In this paper, a design procedure based on the MHBMO technique was developed for discrete optimization of frames consisting W-shapes. The objective function in this research is to obtain the minimum weight of frames subjected to both strength and displacement requirements imposed by the American Institute for Steel Construction (AISC) and Load Resistance Factor Design (LRFD). Several frame examples from the literature were examined to verify not only the suitability of the design procedure but also the robustness of the MHBMO algorithm for frame structure design. The optimum results obtained by the MHBMO algorithm performs the best in comparison with other available techniques in the literature for all three steel frames. In conclusion, the results shows that the MHBMO algorithm is a powerful and applicable optimization method for design of frames consisting W-shapes.     

An attempt to reconstruct the meaning of al‐Tusi's color words

In a text dating between 1259 and 1277, the Persian scholar al‐Tusi presented a systematic arrangement of 26 color terms. We propose a reconstruction of all color terms from al‐Tusi's scheme, in terms of preferred translation, mean CIEL*a^*b^* coordinates and digital representation. This reconstruction is based on a visual experiment with 30 subjects, who identified the Munsell chip best representing each color term. Persian words for which the meaning changed since the time of al‐Tusi were substituted by direct translations. The results show considerable interobserver variability in the colors selected when identifying color terms. This relatively large variation was shown to be a characteristic for memory matching experiments in general. Several specific color terms for which the resulting color variation was particularly large are discussed in more detail, and possible explanations for these variations are proposed. The proposed reconstruction suggests that al‐Tusi's list is largely consistent in modern colorimetric terms, although some large hue shifts are observed for color terms corresponding to green. We found no evidence for blue‐green (“grue”) confusion. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 41, 206–216, 2016     

Evaluating the effect of using different sets of enrichment for FAs on fuel management optimization using CA

In nuclear reactor core design, achieving the optimized arrangement of fuel assemblies (FAs) is the most important step towards satisfying safety and economic requirements. In most studies, nuclear fuel optimizations have been performed by using a finite number of different types of FAs. However the effect of FA numbers with different enrichments and the difference between their maximum and minimum enrichment values can be important and should be evaluated in the optimization process.     

Optoelectronic properties of In-doped SnS thin films

Nanostructured un- and In-doped SnS thin films were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates via an electrochemical deposition technique. The deposited thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and UV–visible spectroscopy. The XRD patterns demonstrated that all deposited thin films are made of polycrystalline SnS particles. The AFM images illustrated a distinct change in the surface topography of the SnS thin films due to In-doping. The PL spectra showed two blue emission peaks and a green emission peak for all samples. Also, they highlighted a PL peak for the In-doped thin films. The incorporation of In-dopant leads to enhance in the optical absorption of SnS lattice. The optical energy band gap (E_g) of the deposited thin films was estimated using UV–vis spectroscopy, which indicated that In-doping decreases the E_g value of SnS thin films by creating defect levels. The photocurrent results demonstrated a higher photocurrent response and photocurrent amplitude for the In-doped SnS samples relative to the un-doped SnS thin film. The Mott–Schottky analysis revealed p-type conductivity for all samples. In addition, the carrier concentration of SnS was increased after In doping. The EIS spectra declared that In-doping improves the rate of charge transfer for SnS thin films. The charge transfer resistance of In-doped SnS decreased compared to the undoped SnS thin film. Finally, according to the J-V characteristics, the conversion efficiency of the In-doped SnS thin films was higher than that of the un-doped SnS sample. Therefore, the optical and electrical performance of SnS thin films were improved due to In-doping.