Room-temperature metal stamping by microfluidics

We show the possibility to fabricate highly controlled metal micropatterns on a variety of substrates, such as semiconducting or metallic materials, exploiting a combination of spontaneous galvanic displacement reactions with microfluidics. The process is reliable and quite versatile and allows the fabrication of complex patterns of different metals on a number of substrates in few minutes on a conventional laboratory bench.     

Linear circuits: a measurement‐based approach

This paper proposes a new measurement‐based approach that can solve synthesis problems in unknown linear circuits. The method makes use of a small number of measurements to determine the functional dependency of any circuit signal or variable on any set of design variables. Once the functional dependency is obtained, the design requirements can be applied to find the design parameter values. The results are described for linear direct current and alternating current circuits. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of kinetics and transport mechanism of solvents through natural rubber composites containing organically modified gadolinium oxide

The solvent transport properties of the prepared composites were analysed using solvents of varying cohesive energy density and the effect of both modified as well as unmodified filler on the sorption and diffusion behaviour of NR vulcanisates has been investigated. It is found that the equilibrium uptake decreases with increase in filler content, as anticipated owing to the restrictions offered by the filler for solvents to diffuse into the polymer matrix. The mechanism of transport in natural rubber composites was carefully tracked and it was found to exhibit an anomalous mode of solvent transport where the polymer relaxation is in par with the rate of diffusion. Theoretical modelling of the swelling parameters was done and the results were found to be in agreement with existing models. The excellent swelling resistance coupled with the simultaneous improvement in mechanical properties would definitely pave way for the utilisation of these composites as barrier membranes.     

Dielectric and conducting behavior of pyrene functionalized PANI/P(VDF‐co‐HFP) blend

Herein, we present the dielectric and electrical conductivity properties of the partially miscible polymer blend prepared using pyrene functionalized polyaniline (pf‐PANI) and poly(vinylidene fluoride‐co‐hexafluoro propylene) (PVDF‐co‐HFP). The blend mostly retains the fluorescent nature of pf‐PANI as well as can be moldable and possesses good damping property. The dielectric properties have been investigated as a function of temperature at three different frequencies and the plausible origin of polarization responsible for dielectric behavior in this blend has been identified. The experimental results of dielectric measurements are compared with theoretical models and discussed. The surface morphology of the samples has been examined with a scanning electron microscope. The electrical conductivity has also been studied as a function of temperature and explained in terms of hopping of charge carriers/interconnected networks. The combined dielectric and conductivity results together with scanning electron microscope micrographs, reveal that there is hindrance to achieve percolation threshold even after pf‐PANI addition of 57 vol % and subsequent thermal treatment. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 44077.     

Agility and production flow layouts: An analytical decision analysis

The term ‘agile manufacturing’ has referred to operational aspects of a manufacturing company concerning their ability to produce customized products at mass production prices and with short lead times. A core issue faced within agile manufacturing is the need for appropriate and supporting production and operations systems. Many design dimensions of agility and agile manufacturing exist. To help attain this goal for integrating the many design dimensions, operations infrastructure and capacity must be carefully planned to manage production flow, and thus production layout planning takes on an increasingly important role. Given the importance of these dimensions in response to agility, this paper seeks to make a contribution by providing insights into a decision aid for evaluating production flow layouts that support and enhance the agile manufacture of products. Layout design has a significant impact on the performance of a manufacturing or service industry system and has been an active research area for many decades. Strategic evaluation of production layouts requires consideration of both qualitative and quantitative factors (managerial, organizational, and technical). This paper makes use of the Analytical Network Process (ANP) which captures interdependencies among different criteria, sub-criteria and dimensions, an evident characteristic of production flow layouts in complex agile manufacturing environments. An application case study exemplifying the practical usefulness of this type of model describes how management, after implementation of the model, made a mid-course correction related to the production layout initially selected.     

Finite Horizon Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Integrated Navigation with RF Beacon Measurements

We develop a Finite Horizon Maximum Likelihood Estimator (FHMLE) that fuses Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and radio frequency (RF) measurements over a sliding window of finite length for three‐dimensional navigation. Available RF data includes pseudo–ranges, angles of transmission (AoT), and Doppler shift measurements. The navigation estimates are obtained by solving a finite‐dimensional nonlinear optimization using a primal‐dual interior point algorithm (PDIP). The benefits of the proposed estimation method are highlighted using simulations results comparing the FHMLE approach with an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), in a scenario where an aircraft approaches a carrier, with RF measurements from beacons aboard the carrier, and low‐cost IMU measurements aboard the aircraft. When the Geometric Dilution of Precision is large, we found that the FHMLE is able to achieve smaller estimation errors than the UKF, which tends to carry a bias throughout the trajectory.     

A middleware‐transparent approach to developing distributed applications

An innovative middleware‐transparent approach to developing distributed applications is presented. The approach uses an aspect‐oriented software development technique to separate an application's middleware‐independent functionality from its middleware‐specific functionality. Application elements that are specific to the middleware are localized in aspects that can be seamlessly integrated into middleware‐independent application designs. The middleware‐transparent approach is used to decouple business functionality from middleware‐specific functionality. The decoupling allows developers to change middleware application elements without significantly modifying business functionality. Middleware technologies such as Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI), Jini, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) remote procedure call (RPC) and .Net are used as examples to illustrate the approach. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two-echelon fuzzy stochastic supply chain for the manufacturer–buyer integrated production–inventory system

This paper deals with two-echelon integrated procurement production model for the manufacturer and the buyer integrated inventory system. The manufacturer procures raw material from outside suppliers (not a part of supply chain) then proceed to convert it as finished product, and finally delivers to the buyer, who faces imprecise and uncertain, called fuzzy random demand of customers. The manufacturer and the buyer work under joint channel, in which a centralized decision maker makes all decisions to optimize the joint total relevant cost (JTRC) of entire supply chain. In this account, in one production cycle of the manufacturer we determine an optimal multi-ordering policy for the buyer. To be part of this, we first derive the JTRC in stochastic framework, and then extend it in fuzzy stochastic environment. In order to scalarize the fuzzy stochastic JTRC, we use an evaluation method wherein randomness is estimated by probabilistic expectation and fuzziness is estimated by possibilistic mean based on possibility evaluation measure. To derive the optimal policies for both parties, an algorithm is proposed. A numerical illustration addresses the situations of paddy procurement, conversion to rice and fulfillment of uncertain demand of rice. Furthermore, sensitivity of parameters is examined to illustrate the model and algorithm.     

Improved exponential observer design for one‐sided Lipschitz nonlinear systems

This paper investigates the exponential observer design problem for one‐sided Lipschitz nonlinear systems. A unified framework for designing both full‐order and reduced‐order exponential state observers is proposed. The developed design approach requires neither scaling of the one‐sided Lipschitz constant nor the additional quadratically inner‐bounded condition. It is shown that the synthesis conditions established include some known existing results as special cases and can reduce the intrinsic conservatism. For design purposes, we also formulate the observer synthesis conditions in a tractable LMI form or a Riccati‐type inequality with equality constraints. Simulation results on a numerical example are given to illustrate the advantages and effectiveness of the proposed design scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An evolutionary lion optimization algorithm‐based image compression technique for biomedical applications

Recently, medical image compression becomes essential to effectively handle large amounts of medical data for storage and communication purposes. Vector quantization (VQ) is a popular image compression technique, and the commonly used VQ model is Linde–Buzo–Gray (LBG) that constructs a local optimal codebook to compress images. The codebook construction was considered as an optimization problem, and a bioinspired algorithm was employed to solve it. This article proposed a VQ codebook construction approach called the L2‐LBG method utilizing the Lion optimization algorithm (LOA) and Lempel Ziv Markov chain Algorithm (LZMA). Once LOA constructed the codebook, LZMA was applied to compress the index table and further increase the compression performance of the LOA. A set of experimentation has been carried out using the benchmark medical images, and a comparative analysis was conducted with Cuckoo Search‐based LBG (CS‐LBG), Firefly‐based LBG (FF‐LBG) and JPEG2000. The compression efficiency of the presented model was validated in terms of compression ratio (CR), compression factor (CF), bit rate, and peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR). The proposed L2‐LBG method obtained a higher CR of 0.3425375 and PSNR value of 52.62459 compared to CS‐LBG, FA‐LBG, and JPEG2000 methods. The experimental values revealed that the L2‐LBG process yielded effective compression performance with a better‐quality reconstructed image.