On the coexistence of a primary user with an energy harvesting secondary user: a case of cognitive cooperation

In this paper, we consider a cognitive scenario where an energy harvesting secondary user shares the spectrum with a primary user. The secondary source helps the primary source in delivering its undelivered packets during periods of silence of the primary source. The primary source has a queue for storing its data packets, whereas the secondary source has two data queues: a queue for storing its own packets and the other for storing the fraction of the undelivered primary packets accepted for relaying. The secondary source is assumed to be a battery‐based node, which harvests energy packets from the environment. In addition to its data queues, the secondary user has an energy queue to store the harvested energy packets. The secondary energy packets are used for primary packets decoding and data packets transmission. More specifically, if the secondary energy queue is empty, the secondary source can neither help the primary source nor transmit a packet from the data queues. The energy queue is modeled as a discrete‐time queue with Markov arrival and service processes. Because of the interaction of the queues, we provide inner and outer bounds on the stability region of the proposed system. We investigate the impact of the energy arrival rate on the stability region. Numerical results show the significant gain of cooperation.Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of different circular hole perforations on interlaminar shear strength of a novel fiber metal laminates

This study characterizes surface treated classic type fiber metal laminates (FMLs) interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) based on a glass mat reinforced polyphenylene sulphide composite and an aluminum alloy. The effect of concentration of γ‐glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane surface treatment on ILSS of adhesive bonding between aluminum sheet and composite laminates has been investigated. After determining the silane concentration, novel FML material is manufactured using a compression moulding process which involves aluminum sheets with different circular hole perforations (Array type A and B) with two circular hole diameters (ϕ3 and ϕ5 mm) and two total hole area/closed area: 0.05 and 0.06) to develop mechanical interlocking between aluminum layers and composite laminates. Tensile tests are performed to investigate the effect of different circular hole perforations on ILSS properties of FMLs. Test results show that ILSS is improved with increasing the circular hole diameter and decreased with the number of holes as correlated with undrilled FMLs. Failure modes, damage initiation, and progression of FMLs with different open hole perforations are determined with optical microscope. POLYM. COMPOS., 37:963–973, 2016. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Electrospun nylon 6,6 nanofibers functionalized with cyclodextrins for removal of toluene vapor

Functional nylon 6,6 nanofibers incorporating cyclodextrins (CD) were developed via electrospinning. Enhanced thermal stability of the nylon 6,6/CD nanofibers was observed due to interaction between CD and nylon 6,6. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies indicated the existence of some CD molecules on the surface of the nanofibers. Electrospun nylon 6,6 nanofibers without having CD were ineffective for entrapment of toluene vapor from the environment, whereas nylon 6,6/CD nanofibrous membranes can effectively entrap toluene vapor from the surrounding by taking advantage of the high surface‐volume ratio of nanofibers with the added advantage of inclusion complexation capability of CD presenting on the nanofiber surface. The modeling studies for formation of inclusion complex between CD and toluene were also performed by using ab initio techniques. Our results suggest that nylon 6,6/CD nanofibrous membranes may have potential to be used as air filters for the removal of organic vapor waste from surroundings. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41941.     

A crystal-tolerant fully integrated CMOS low-IF dual-band GPS receiver

This paper presents the design of a dual-band L1/L2 GPS receiver, that can be easily integrated in portable devices (mainly GSM mobile phones). For the ease of integration with GSM wireless systems the receiver can tolerate most of the common GSM crystals, besides the GPS crystals, this will eliminate the need to use another crystal on board. A new frequency plan is presented to satisfy this requirement. A low-IF receiver architecture is used for dual-band operation with analog on-chip image rejection. The receiver is composed of a narrow-band LNA for each band, dual down-conversion mixers, a variable-gain channel filter, a 2-bit analog-to-digital converter, and a fully integrated frequency synthesizer including an on-chip VCO and loop filter. The complex filter can accept IF frequency variation of 10% around 4.092 MHz which allows the use of the commonly used 10/13/26 MHz GSM crystals and all the GPS crystals. The synthesizer generates the LO signals for both L1/L2 bands with an average phase noise of −95 dBc/Hz. The receiver exhibits maximum gain of 112 and 115 dB, noise figures of 4 and 3.6 dB, and input compression points of −76 and −79 dBm for L1 and L2, respectively. An on-chip variable-gain channel filter provides IF image rejection greater than 25 dB and gain control range over 80 dB. The receiver is designed in 0.13 μm CMOS technology and consumes 18 mW from a 1.2-V supply.     

Hierarchical quantization indexing for wavelet and wavelet packet image coding

In this paper, we introduce the quantization index hierarchy, which is used for efficient coding of quantized wavelet and wavelet packet coefficients. A hierarchical classification map is defined in each wavelet subband, which describes the quantized data through a series of index classes. Going from bottom to the top of the tree, neighboring coefficients are combined to form classes that represent some statistics of the quantization indices of these coefficients. Higher levels of the tree are constructed iteratively by repeating this class assignment to partition the coefficients into larger subsets. The class assignments are optimized using a rate-distortion cost analysis. The optimized tree is coded hierarchically from top to bottom by coding the class membership information at each level of the tree. Context-adaptive arithmetic coding is used to improve coding efficiency. The developed algorithm produces PSNR results that are better than the state-of-art wavelet-based and wavelet packet-based coders in literature.     

Osteosclerosis due to endemic fluorosis

Endemic water borne fluorosis is a public health problem in Isparta, a city located in southern Turkey. In order to investigate the association between osteosclerosis and fluorosis, we retrospectively screened the results of lumbar spine and femur neck bone mineral density (BMD) of 1500 patients who were examined before, for any reason in between 2001-2003. Sixty nine patients (67 females and 2 males, mean age 52.6+/-10.2) with vertebra T-scores>or=+2 were found only except a patient with osteoid osteoma in the femur neck (femur T-score+6.64). Thirty-four of the patients could be reexamined with lateral vertebra BMD and investigated for fluorosis and the other etiologic causes of osteosclerosis. Of 34 patients, 14 had either mottled tooth enamel or urine fluoride level greater than 1.5 mg/l. Other etiologic causes were hypothyroidism (2), hypoparathyroidism (1), history of lumbar fracture (1), use of retinoids (1), vitamin D (7), oral calcium preparations (9), and bisphosphanates (3). Lateral lumbar vertebral T-score was greater than+2 in 12 patients (35.3%). Femur T-score was greater than+2 in 7 patients (20.6%). Fourteen patients (41.2%) had lateral vertebral or femur T-score>or=+2. Five (35.7%) of these patients had signs of fluorosis, as discussed before. Mean body mass index of individuals with fluorosis was 36.4+/-7.9 and this result was significantly higher than other osteosclerotic subjects (31.6+/-4.4). In conclusion we believe that approximately one third of the osteosclerosis in our region was due to endemic skeletal fluorosis and obesity may enhance this osteosclerotic type bone changes in endemic fluorosis.     

Quality and ripening changes of Ras cheese made by direct acidification

Trials were carried out to produce Ras cheese of good quality without the use of starter. Cheese was made from pasteurized cow's milk acidified with lactic acid or citric acid to pH 5.8 alone or coupled with mixing the curd with glucono δ lactone (4.5 g/kg curd). Control cheese was made from milk ripened with a starter culture of S. lactis. Resultant cheeses showed poor body and texture, weak flavour intensity and low levels of soluble nitrogen compounds and free volatile fatty acids. Incorporation into the cheese curd of mixtures containing Fromase 100 (fungal protease) and Piccantase B (fungal lipase) or Fromase 100 and Capalase K (animal lipase) enhanced flavour intensity, improved body characteristics and accelerated the formation of both soluble nitrogen compounds and free volatile fatty acids. The organoleptic properties of the experimental cheeses with added enzymes were comparable to those of the control cheese.     

Effect of seed treatments on the chemical composition and properties of two amaranth species: starch and protein

The seeds of two Amaranth species were studied. The starch contents were 543 and 623 g kg^?1 while crude protein contents were 154 and 169 g kg^?1 for Amaranthus caudatus and Amaranthus cruentus seeds, respectively. The effect of several treatments, including cooking, popping and germination and flour air classification on the protein and starch properties were studied. Air classification decreased the starch content and increased the protein content, while heating increased the protein but did not affect the starch content. Germination decreased both starch and protein contents. Amylose content was increased by air classification and heating, but was not affected by germination. It was found that all treatments increased the starch swelling power and reduced the falling number. The resistant starch content was increased in the high protein flour (HPF) fraction and germinated flour compared with the raw flour, while its content decreased in the heat treated seed flours. These processes also affected the starch gelatinization temperature and peak viscosity. The thermal properties of the starch flour were not affected by air classification while gelatinization energy was decreased significantly (by 52.0 and 90.0% and by 70.0 and 95.0%) in cooked and popped A caudatus and A cruentus seed flours, respectively. The gelatinization energy was highest in germinated seeds dried at 90 °C with values of 2.67 and 3.87 J g^?1. Air classification reduced the level of all protein fractions. Thermal treatment decreased the water‐soluble fraction (albumins + globulins) and alcohol‐soluble fraction (prolamins) in both species. The levels of all fractions except the water‐soluble fraction (albumins + globulins) were reduced significantly in both species by germination, which mainly increased the amount of aspartic acid, serine and alanine, while the amounts of threonine, arginine and tyrosine decreased in both species. The polypeptide bands of the HPF in both species were unchanged compared with the raw seed flours, but more intensive coloured bands were observed. Thermal treatments eliminated major and minor bands above 35.0 KDa in both species. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Modelling the strengthening of glass using epoxy based coatings

Glass strength can be increased by applying epoxy based surface coatings. A number of models have been presented in the literature to explain the strengthening afforded by these coatings but until now there has been no clear evidence to definitively support one model over another. In this work, finite element models (FEM) of four-point bending test specimens have been developed. These models have been used to study the strength of cracked uncoated and surface coated specimens in order to identify the strengthening mechanism. The FEM results showed that full filling of the crack using epoxy coating is sufficient to heal the crack if the coating inside the crack is ideally glued to the crack surfaces. It is also shown that under these circumstances the coating modulus is relatively unimportant parameter. FEA results for partially filled cracks show that increasing the filled percentage increases the strengthening. Fractographic analysis of the 10 kg indented and coated samples showed that the fracture surfaces do not follow the median crack symmetric plane and that fracture started from another plane when coated properly, however the fracture surface of these samples still starts from the indentation site. On the other hand, fractographic analysis of the 1 kg indented and properly coated samples showed that the samples failed from their edges which indicate that the crack was overcome. The finite element results show that the diamond imprint resulting from the Vickers indentation play an important role in this type of fracture.