Influence of relaying malicious node within cooperative sensing in cognitive radio network

Wireless Networks - Intending to enhance the utilization of the radio spectrum in cognitive radio without inflecting the primary user is a primary issue. Cooperative sensing techniques have been...     

Corrosion Inhibition of Copper-Iron Alloy in Acid Solution Using Cetylpyridinium Bromide as Cationic Surfactant

Protection of Metals and Physical Chemistry of Surfaces - The corrosion and corrosion inhibition of Cu–Fe (20%) alloy are studied in 0.5 M H2SO4. Copper and iron samples are compared to the...     

The bending strength of masonry / Biegezugfestigkeit von Mauerwerk

Bending strength of masonry becomes an important design aspect especially when the walls subjected to lateral loads like, cellar walls which are subject to earth pressure, and façades/ infill walls which are exposed to the wind actions. Bending strength is required wherever the applied load is perpendicular to the wall. It is also required in non‐load‐bearing partition walls, where the load applied in both the normal and perpendicular directions. Besides, the tensile properties of the brick/block and lengthwise parameters related to geometry and materials technology also influence the bending strength of masonry. These include the thickness of the wall, the extent of overlap, and both the shear and the tensile strength of the bond. Consideration must also be given to the possible presence of mortar in the head joints, which can significantly increase bending strength, especially where joints fail. In addition to these materials technology factors, it is very important to observe the realistic influence of the boundary conditions. The degree of fixity is among the factors to be considered in calculation models. In this contribution, two aspects are going to be observed and analysed, namely: the principles of bearing capacity under lateral loading alongside the models derived from these for cellar walls and areas of infill; and the influence of materials technology/geometric parameters on the bending strength of masonry.     

Design and manufacturing of parts for functional prototypes on five-axis milling machines

This paper presents the manufacturing process for complex parts in the aim of building functional prototype mechanisms. Functional prototypes are used during testing in order to validate new product design. Their layouts are very similar to the final product, wherein lies the interest of testing many modifications. The mechanism must respect the functional geometrical requirements and be capable of withstanding forces or, for example, ensuring a tight seal. The principle being proposed consists of decomposing the complex parts into several simple ones that can then be manufactured on a five-axis, high-speed milling machine from thick (approximately 40 mm) sheets made of resistant materials, notably aluminum. The problem at hand is threefold: the choice of slicing in order to avoid cutting functional areas; the choice of both positioning mode and sheet fastening mode; and lastly, the choice of machining process. This paper also presents a detailed application with a machining simulation, using CATIA (Dassault Systèmes) for a five-axis MIKRON UCP 710 milling machine.     

Physical and Mechanical Properties of GdBa2Cu3O7−δ Added with Nanosized CoFe2O4

Superconductor samples of type (CoFe₂O₄) _x GdBa₂Cu₃O_7?δ , 0.0≤x≤0.1 wt.%, were synthesized by the conventional solid-state reaction technique. The prepared samples were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), electrical resistivity, AC magnetic susceptibility, and Vickers microhardness. Phase examination by XRD indicated that the orthorhombic structure of Gd-123 is not affected by nanosized ferrite CoFe₂O₄ addition, whereas the volume fraction of Gd-123 increased with x up to 0.01 wt.%. Morphological investigations by SEM revealed that the porosity among grains decreased as x increased from 0.0 to 0.1 wt.%. The superconducting transition temperature T _c was estimated from electrical resistivity and the AC magnetic susceptibility measurements. A reduction in T _c was observed as x increased from 0.0 to 0.1 wt.%, consisting with the effect of adding magnetic impurities to HTSCs. Room temperature microhardness measurements were carried out at different applied loads (0.5–10 N) for the study of the mechanical performance of the studied samples. The experimental results were analyzed using Meyer’s law, Hays–Kendall approach, elastic/plastic deformation model, and proportional specimen resistance model. The results showed that all the samples exhibited normal indentation size effect, and Vickers microhardness values were increased as nanosized CoFe₂O₄ addition increased. The analysis showed that the proportional specimen resistance model is the best model for computing the load-independent microhardness values of our samples.     

Cellular immune responses of jirds to extracts of life cycle stages and adult excretory secretory products during the early development of Brugia pahangi

The Brugia-jird model of lymphatic filariasis was used to examine the induction of cellular immune responses during the early premicrofilaremic phases of the infection. The intensity of the pulmonary granulomatous inflammatory response (PGRN) was determined by measuring granuloma areas around Sepharose beads coated with parasite extracts which were embolized in the lungs of jirds prior to necropsy. Necropsies were performed at 7, 14, 28, 56, and 150 days postinfection (DPI). These time points correspond to specific developmental changes in the life cycle. Lymphocyte blastogenesis assays were performed using cells from draining renal lymph nodes and splenocytes at 14 and 150 DPI. Soluble extracts of third stage larvae (L3), fourth stage larvae (L4), adult females, adult males, microfilariae (MF), and excretory secretory products (ES) of males and females were used in both measurements of cellular responsiveness. A marked granulomatous response to parasite extracts peaked at 7 DPI or 14 DPI followed by a gradual decrease to a hyporesponsive state at 120 DPI. The response of renal lymph node cells also was significantly elevated at 14 DPI and significantly decreased at > 150 DPI. The splenocyte responses were erratic and did not follow this pattern. Significant differences in PGRN responses to somatic extract preparations were not seen during the early stages of the infection (7, 14, 28 DPI), but those to MF and L3 were significantly less at 56 and 120 DPI. Although PGRN responses to ES followed a similar pattern, these were less than those to the somatic extract. The data indicated that a rapid, intense cell-mediated inflammatory response is induced early during a primary infection and that this response is rapidly downregulated. This downregulation begins prior to the maturation of adult parasites and microfilarial production. The early phase of the cellular response appears to be compartmentalized in that this response was consistently observed in the renal lymph nodes but not in the spleen. Soluble protein components of the parasites responsible for these responses are likely multiple and shared by all life cycle stages.     

Current-feedback operational amplifier with high CMRR

A novel current-feedback operational amplifier, the input stage of which is based on the design and use in a repeated pattern of a current-transfer cell, exhibits performance characteristics superior to those obtained with an established input architecture: in particular, the common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) is 105 dB, and the DC offset voltage less than 200 /spl mu/V.     

Corrosion Inhibition of Zn-Al-Cu Alloy by 2-Aminothiazole

The inhibitive effect of 2-aminothiazole on corrosion of Zn-Al-Cu alloy was investigated in acid, neutral and alkaline media by impedance and polarization techniques. The impedance data were fitted to a simple equivalent circuit model and indicated control by a diffusion process. Satisfactory inhibition was obtained in alkaline and neutral media. On the other hand, quite low inhibition efficiency was observed in acid medium. Increase in concentration of the inhibitor increased the inhibitive effect, whereas the reverse was observed when the temperature was increased. Different adsorption isotherms were tested in neutral and alkaline media, the best fit was obtained for the Freundlich isotherm. The highest value for the free energy change was recorded in alkaline medium in accordance with the high inhibition efficiency observed in this medium.     

A novel current-feedback op-amp exploiting bootstrapping techniques

The operation of the conventional current feedback operational amplifier (CFOA) is reviewed and its performance parameters used as benchmarks in the development of a new input stage architecture that provides a common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) improvement of some 45 dB and offset voltage less than 10 mV.     

Adaptive coordination control strategy of renewable energy sources, hydrogen production unit, and fuel cell for frequency regulation of a hybrid distributed power system

The ‘mismatch losses’ problem is commonly encountered in distributed photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems. It can directly reduce power generation. Hence, PV array reconfiguration techniques have become highly popular to minimize the mismatch losses. In this paper, a dynamical array reconfiguration method for Total-Cross-Ties (TCT) and Series–Parallel (SP) interconnected PV arrays is proposed. The method aims to improve the maximum power output generation of a distributed PV array in different mismatch conditions through a set of inverters and a switching matrix that is controlled by a dynamic and scalable reconfiguration optimization algorithm. The structures of the switching matrix for both TCT-based and SP-based PV arrays are designed to enable flexible alteration of the electrical connections between PV strings and inverters. Also, the proposed reconfiguration solution is scalable, because the size of the switching matrix deployed in the proposed solution is only determined by the numbers of the PV strings and the inverters, and is not related to the number of PV modules in a string. The performance of the proposed method is assessed for PV arrays with both TCT and SP interconnections in different mismatch conditions, including different partial shading and random PV module failure. The average optimization time for TCT and SP interconnected PV arrays is 0.02 and 3 s, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed dynamical reconfiguration is confirmed, with the average maximum power generation improved by 8.56% for the TCT-based PV array and 6.43% for the SP-based PV array compared to a fixed topology scheme.