Road Oriented Traffic Information System for Vehicular Ad hoc Networks

Over the last few years, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have gained popularity for their interesting applications. To make efficient routing decisions, VANET routing protocols require road traffic density information for which they use density estimation schemes. This paper presents a distributed mechanism for road vehicular density estimation that considers multiple road factors, such as road length and junctions. Extensive simulations are carried out to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed technique. Simulation results suggested that, the proposed technique is more accurate compared to the existing technique. Moreover, it facilitate VANET routing protocols to increase packet delivery ratio and reduce end-to-end delay.     

Recovery Time and Fault Tolerance Improvement for Circuits mapped on SRAM-based FPGAs

The rapid adoption of FPGA-based systems in space and avionics demands dependability rules from the design to the layout phases to protect against radiation effects. Triple Modular Redundancy is a widely used fault tolerance methodology to protect circuits against radiation-induced Single Event Upsets implemented on SRAM-based FPGAs. The accumulation of SEUs in the configuration memory can cause the TMR replicas to fail, requiring a periodic write-back of the configuration bit-stream. The associated system downtime due to scrubbing and the probability of simultaneous failures of two TMR domains are increasing with growing device densities. We propose a methodology to reduce the recovery time of TMR circuits with increased resilience to Cross-Domain Errors. Our methodology consists of an automated tool-flow for fine-grain error detection, error flags convergence and non-overlapping domain placement. The fine-grain error detection logic identifies the faulty domain using gate-level functions while the error flag convergence logic reduces the overwhelming number of flag signals. The non-overlapping placement enables selective domain reconfiguration and greatly reduces the number of Cross-Domain Errors. Our results demonstrate an evident reduction of the recovery time due to fast error detection time and selective partial reconfiguration of faulty domains. Moreover, the methodology drastically reduces Cross-Domain Errors in Look-Up Tables and routing resources. The improvements in recovery time and fault tolerance are achieved at an area overhead of a single LUT per majority voter in TMR circuits.     

Influence of sintering temperature on secondary phases formation and microwave dielectric properties of Ca2Ce2Ti5O16 ceramics

Ca₂Ce₂Ti₅O₁₆ dielectric ceramics prepared by conventional solid-state ceramic route was investigated. Phase composition and microwave dielectric properties were measured using XRD and Vector network analyzer, respectively. XRD analysis of the calcined and sintered samples revealed the formation of CeO₂ and another unidentified phase (that vanished at ? 1400 °C) as secondary phases along with the parent Ca₂Ce₂Ti₅O₁₆ phase. The amount of the parent Ca₂Ce₂Ti₅O₁₆ phase increased with increasing sintering temperature from 1350 °C to 1450 °C accompanied by a decrease in the apparent density. The density decreased but ? _r and Q _u f _o increased with sintering temperature. An ? _r ～ 81.5, Q _u f _o ～ 5915 GHz and τ _f ～ 219 GHz were achieved for the sample sintered at 1450 °C.     

Synthesis of Boron Nitride Microtubes and Formation of Boron Nitride Nanosheets

Boron nitride microtubes are synthesized in a dual zone quartz tube furnace at 1200°C with ammonia as a reaction atmosphere. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) results show a unique cone-like morphology of the tubes with larger internal space and thin walls structure. The diameters of the tubes were found to be in the range of 1 to ～2 µm with the walls thickness estimated to be from 10 to 100 nm. XPS survey shows N 1 s and B 1 s peaks at 398.7 and 191 eV, respectively, that represent h-BN in the sample. Raman spectroscopy indicates a high-intensity peak at 1372.53 (cm^?1) that corresponds to the E_2g mode of h-BN. Along with the novel tubular morphology of boron nitride microtubes, the present work also explains a mechanism for the formation of boron nitride nanosheets (from boron nitride microtubes) found in the FE-SEM results of the current sample.     

Variable Speed Wind Turbines for Power System Stability Enhancement

This paper investigates possible improvements in grid voltage stability and transient stability with wind energy converter units using modified P/Q control. The voltage source converter (VSC) in modern variable speed wind turbines is utilized to achieve this enhancement. The findings show that using only available hardware for variable-speed turbines improvements could be obtained in all cases. Moreover, it was found that power system stability improvement is often larger when the control is modified for a given variable speed wind turbine rather than when standard variable speed turbines are used instead of fixed speed turbines. To demonstrate that the suggested modifications can be incorporated in real installations, a real situation is presented where short-term voltage stability is improved as an additional feature of an existing VSC high voltage direct current (HVDC) installation     

Classification of Diabetic Macular Edema and Its Stages Using Color Fundus Image

Diabetic macular edema(DME)is a retinal thickening involving the center of the macula.It is one of the serious eye diseases which affects the central vision and can lead to partial or even complete visual loss.The only cure is timely diagnosis,prevention,and treatment of the disease.This paper presents an automated system for the diagnosis and classification of DME using color fundus image.In the proposed technique,first the optic disc is removed by applying some preprocessing steps.The preprocessed image is then passed through a classifier for segmentation of the image to detect exudates.The classifier uses dynamic thresholding technique by using some input parameters of the image.The stage classification is done on the basis of an early treatment diabetic retinopathy study(ETDRS)given criteria to assess the severity of disease.The proposed technique gives a sensitivity,specificity,and accuracy of 98.27%,96.58%,and 96.54%,respectively on publically available database.     

Columnar alteration with prominent apical snouts and secretions: a spectrum of changes frequently present in breast biopsies performed for microcalcifications

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of treatment with an inactivated, gp120-depleted, HIV-1 immunogen (Remune) in 30 Thai subjects infected with HIV-1 subtype E. DESIGN: Sixty-week open-label study. METHODS: Thirty HIV-positive volunteers with CD4 cell counts > or = 300 x 10(6)/l were given intramuscular injections of Remune into the triceps muscle on day 1 and then at weeks 4, 8, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60. RESULTS: Treatment with Remune was well-tolerated and augmented HIV-1-specific immune responses. Furthermore, subjects had a significant increase in CD4 cell count (P < 0.0001), CD4 cell percentage (P < 0.0001), CD8 cell percentage (P < 0.0001), and body weight (P < 0.0001) compared with pretreatment levels. Fourteen subjects with detectable viral load at day 1 showed a decrease at week 60 (P=0.04). Retrospective Western blot analysis showed 23 subjects with increased intensity of antibody bands and 15 patients showed development of new reactivities to HIV proteins, especially towards p17 and p15. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that HIV-specific immune-based therapeutic approaches such as Remune should be further examined in countries with different clades of HIV-1 and where access to antiviral drug therapies is limited.     

SOLVENT EXTRACTION OF PAKISTAN COALS (III) EXTRACTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE EXTRACTS BY SPECTROSCOPIC TECHNIQUES

The Makerwal coal of Pakistan gives higher extractibi1ity with Tetrahydrofuran ( THF ) as compared to Sharigh, Sor-Range and Lakhra coals. The structural characterization of Pakistan coal extracts by FT-IR spectroscopy indicates that all the extracts contained less condensed aromatic rings in comparision to their original coal.     

Superfluid density and critical current of3He in confined geometries

Superfluid³He in severely confined geometries is studied in the Ginzburg-Landau limit. Both A and B phases are analyzed in narrow slabs and in small cylinders. Physically measurable quantities include the superfluid density and the critical current, which are significantly suppressed by the boundaries. Related alterations in the phase diagram are also considered. For small lateral dimensions, the A phase can be favored even well below the polycritical pressure.