Performance prediction of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell using the ANFIS model

In this study, the performance (current–voltage curve) prediction of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is performed for different operational conditions using an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). First, ANFIS is trained with a set of input and output data. The trained model is then tested with an independent set of experimental data. The trained and tested model is then used to predict the performance curve of the PEMFC under various operational conditions. The model shows very good agreement with the experimental data and this indicates that ANFIS is capable of predicting fuel cell performance (in terms of cell voltage) with a high accuracy in an easy, rapid and cost effective way for the case presented. Finally, the capabilities and the limitations of the model for the application in fuel cells have been discussed.     

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for Foreign-Invested Construction Enterprises: A China Study

China has been attracting overseas construction enterprises with its vast expanding business market. The country is further opening its construction market to overseas businesses as the result of its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. In line with this development, there are an increasing number of foreign-invested construction enterprises (FICEs) entering into the market. Using Porter’s competitiveness factor analysis method, this paper identifies the FICEs’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the Chinese construction market. Data used in the analysis stem from multiple sources including statistical reports, literature review, regulations and policies, and interviews with construction professionals. These findings should provide a valuable reference for overseas construction enterprises who are interested in developing business in the Chinese construction market.     

The severity of drunken driving as perceived by drunken drivers

Men convicted of drunken driving rated this particular offence as significantly less serious than men from a control group who had no convictions for drunken driving offences. Instead of shame and guilt feelings preventing the person from committing further acts of drunken driving, prosecution and court appearance seems to have a detrimental effect on the offender's attitudes to this type of criminal behaviour.     

Ferroelectric ceramics for information storage and display

The electrooptic properties of hot-pressed lead zirconate titanate ceramics and their applications are reviewed. Coarse-grained, bismuth-doped ceramics with average grain size greater than 2 ?m have light scattering properties that can be varied by switching the orientation of the ferroelectric polarization. Fine-grained bismuth-or lanthanum-doped ceramics have an effective birefringence that can be varied either by applying an external electric field (conventional electrooptic effect) or by partially switching the remanent polarization (electrooptic memory effect). Ba, Sn, or La modifications of the lead zirconate titanate system produce materials with improved switching characteristics and electrooptic effects similar to those of fine-grained bismuth-or lanthanum-doped ceramics. Lanthanum modified lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) is significantly more transparent than other electrooptic ceramics. The PLZT system includes materials with electrooptic memory and either linear or quadratic electrooptic effects. The electrooptic properties of modified lead zirconate titanate ceramics, especially PLZT, combined with localized switching and modulation capabilities are particularly suitable for information storage and display devices.

     

Influence of some hypnotist and subject variables on hypnotic susceptibility.

Randomly assigned 48 21-56 yr. Old females to 1 of 4 groups given different information with regard to a hypnotist's warmth and experience. The 6 male graduate student hypnotists had previously been judged on their objective warmth and competent appearance. Following structuring, all ss underwent individual hypnotic induction. As predicted, ss run by the objectively warmer, more competent appearing es obtained significantly higher susceptibility scores. Structured warmth produced significant differences only in ss run by the objectively less warm es. Both structured warmth and experience affected ss' subjective impressions of whether they thought they had been hypnotized. The complex relationship between antecedent variables and the various objective and subjective dependent indicators of hypnotic phenomena are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrical analogue for a partial differential equation

The electrical analogue provides a useful approach to the solution of Partial Differential Equations. A general purpose analogue for PDEs would be a useful peripheral for a small digital computer, enabling it to handle quickly, cheaply and with reasonable accuracy problems which otherwise require substantial computational time on large machines.In this paper the author discusses the design of an analogue for ?²U + U_x = 0, suitable for further extension as a computer controlled general analogue. It is shown that AC networks, using capacitors as passive elements, offer substantial advantages over other analogues. The use of buffer amplifiers at each node greatly simplifies the unilateral impedance problem, but introduces unidirectional error components. These errors are analysed, and specifications for suitable amplifiers are obtainedExperimental results on small (20 node, 90 node) models confirm the satisfactory performance of the analogue, and the author predicts that large scale (> 900 nodes) models will yield results accurate to better than 99.9%, with less than 100 ms settling times     

Micro devices assembly using virtual environments

In this paper, the design and development of a physical and virtual environment to support assembly of micron sized devices is discussed. Micro assembly involves handling and assembling of micron sized parts (10⁻⁶ m). As manual assembly of micron-sized parts is difficult and tedious, the design of computer assisted micro-assembly techniques becomes crucial. An Integrated Physical and Virtual Reality (VR) environment has been created to aid in the assembly of such micro devices, which supports the establishment of an interface between a virtual and physical micro assembly work cell. The overall architecture and the various modules implemented in this environment are outlined in this paper.     

Verification of cardiac tissue electrophysiology simulators using an N-version benchmark

Ongoing developments in cardiac modelling have resulted, in particular, in the development of advanced and increasingly complex computational frameworks for simulating cardiac tissue electrophysiology. The goal of these simulations is often to represent the detailed physiology and pathologies of the heart using codes that exploit the computational potential of high-performance computing architectures. These developments have rapidly progressed the simulation capacity of cardiac virtual physiological human style models; however, they have also made it increasingly challenging to verify that a given code provides a faithful representation of the purported governing equations and corresponding solution techniques. This study provides the first cardiac tissue electrophysiology simulation benchmark to allow these codes to be verified. The benchmark was successfully evaluated on 11 simulation platforms to generate a consensus gold-standard converged solution. The benchmark definition in combination with the gold-standard solution can now be used to verify new simulation codes and numerical methods in the future.