Boundary penalty techniques

We examine techniques for enforcing Dirichlet boundary data in finite element solution of boundary-value problems. The common programming strategy of adding a large number to certain diagonal entries and scaling the right-side is compared with penalty methods. By selectively underintegrating the continuous penalty formulation and selecting the penalty parameter ε^?1 optimally as a function of mesh size h we deduce the ‘large number’ strategy and hence show that the optimal rate is preserved. Numerical experiments to study the rates for continuous penalty, underintegrated penalty and ‘large number’ strategies corroborate the argument.     

A finite element method for block adjustment problems of photogrammetry

It is shown that the finite element method can be used advantageously in generating the normal equations of a given photogrammetric network for block adjustments. In this method aerial (or spatial) photographs of a block are processed one at a time, in any random order, to generate the portion of the coefficient matrix between the main diagonal and the variable band and the right hand vector of the normal equations, related with the adjustments to the control points. Any known information related with the adjustments may be imposed, and an internal control point relabelling scheme may be used during the assembly process, in order to minimize the actual computer storage area and the solution time requirements. The paper shows the analogies between the linear equilibrium problems of structural mechanics, and the block adjustment problems of photogrammetry, in order to enable the students of both fields to use the same computer software. In this context, plate-point adjustment matrices and plate-point load vectors for the adjustment problem (corresponding to the element stiffness matrices and the element load vectors of equilibrium problems) are defined and explicit expressions are given.     

Variation in efficiency of parallel algorithms

This paper presents the investigation of the variation in efficiency of a parallel algorithm as a function of the number of processors. A parallel algortithm was developed which predicted the behavior of a typical linear engineering system by solving a set of linear equilibrium equations. Experimental results of the algorithm were obtained by simulating the parallel process on a uniprocessor. The results showed the parallel method to have certain advantages over certain sequential methods, thus showing promise for this parallel algorithm in being competitive against some sequential algorithms.     

Better campus life for visually impaired University students: intelligent social walking system with beacon and assistive technologies

Wireless Networks - Objective of this study is to introduce a novel, low-cost intelligent social walking path support system for visually impaired students in a wide campus area, by employing...     

Evolving Technologies and Strategies for Combating Antibacterial Resistance in the Advent of the Postantibiotic Era

The threats posed by the impending “postantibiotic era” have put forward urgent challenges to be overcome by providing new diagnostic and therapeutic regimes for improved diagnosis and treatment of bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance and incurable bacterial infections are especially important in a society faced with rapid demographic changes. With very few new antibiotics in the drug development pipeline, not being able to match the pace of antimicrobial resistance evolution, developments within other fields such as materials sciences and medical technologies are required to realize innovative antibacterial approaches. This progress report presents recent advances in especially nanotechnology‐based approaches and their concomitant use with complementary antibacterial treatments. Synergistically improved antibacterial activity can be reached by considering novel, promising approaches such as photodynamic and photothermal therapy as well as cold atmospheric pressure treatments as complementary strategies to fight against antibacterial resistance. Moreover, this report describes how these novel technologies can be further improved especially by integration of nanomaterials into the currently applied single modal strategies against bacterial infections.     

A scientific workflow environment for Earth system related studies

Many separate tasks must be performed to configure, run, and analyze Earth system modeling applications. This work is motivated by the complexities of running a large modeling system on a high performance network and the need to reduce those complexities, particularly for the average user. Scientific workflow systems can be used to simplify these task and their relationships, although how to implement such systems is still an open research area. In this paper, we present a methodology to combine a scientific workflow and modeling framework approach to create a standardized work environment and provide a first example of a self-describing Earth system model. We then show the results of an example workflow that is based on the proposed methodology. The example workflow allows running and analyzing a global circulation model on both a grid computing environment and a cluster system, with meaningful abstractions for the model and computing environment. As can be seen through this example, a layered approach to collecting provenance and metadata information has the added benefit of documenting a run in far greater detail than before. This approach facilitates exploration of runs and leads to possible reproducibility.     

The Use of Vacuum Impregnation for Debittering Green Olives

The aim of this research was to assess the possibility of shortening the length of the debittering process for green table olive ‘Domat’ cultivar by vacuum impregnation (VI). For this purpose, debittering was carried out with NaCl (3 %), NaOH (1.5 %) and NaOH (1.5 %) + NaCl (3 %) solutions at atmospheric conditions and under vacuum (68 kPa). The effects of these applications on some physicochemical properties (total dry matter, total ash, titratable acidity, salt, protein, oil, oleuropein, total phenolics, antioxidant activity and colour) of the processed samples were determined. Total dry matter, titratable acidity, salt, protein and oil contents of the samples changed between 24.23 and 27.90, 0.22 and 0.45, 2.27 and 2.58, 0.50 and 1.26 and 6.79 and 9.42 % (w/w), respectively. Colour parameters (lightness (L*); redness (a*); yellowness (b*)) of the processed olives were measured as between 41.72 and 51.29, 15.09 and 13.30 and 22.79 and 34.84, respectively. Hue angles of the processed samples were changed between 59.78 and 68.52. VI was a useful tool for the shortening of the period of debittering process. Use of NaOH combined with NaCl in VI process caused the debittering period to decrease to 6 h. However, reduction of the amount of total phenolic compounds was the highest (21.43 %) in this condition. Use of alkali for debittering caused more dry matter diffusion from olive to the solution. There was no statistically significant difference between the oleuropein and total ash contents of the processed samples (p?<?0.01). Alkali treatment also caused more oil loss from the olives. Antioxidant activity of the samples reduced up to 59.89 %. This research was the first using VI for debittering of olives; further studies are necessary to optimise process conditions of debittering for limiting loss of natural antioxidants and other components and to ensure maximum benefits to the consumer.     

Best partitions of a structure in a given computing environment

For every analysis problem requiring partitioning, there is at least one best one which produces least cost of computing in a given computing environment. Such a partitioning may be identified easily, if one would have a table listing the required number of partitions and their sizes as a function of the available rapid access memory (RAM), and the knowledge of the prevailing unit costs of RAM and peripheral processing units (PPU) in the computing facility. The tables containing partitioning information as a function of available RAM may be generated by small time-shared software which require to scan only once the usual input data of the analysis problem. The generation of such tables costs practically nothing, yet, if the structural analysis software is designed to take advantage of the information provided by them, the analysis cost may be reduced drastically. This paper presents a small time-shared software, called RAMPART, written in BASIC language of HP2000F, to produce tables for partitioning information as a function of RAM request, assuming that the analysis will be carried out by the displacement method using Cholesky decomposition.     

Viscoelastic analysis of a dental metal-ceramic system

Porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) restorations used in prosthetic dentistry contain thermal stresses which develop during the cooling phase after firing. These thermal stresses coupled with the stresses produced by mechanical loads may be the dominant reasons for failures in clinical situations. For an accurate calculation of these stresses, viscoelastic behavior of ceramics at high temperatures should not be ignored. In this study, the finite element technique is used to evaluate the effect of viscoelasticity on stress distributions of a three-point flexure test specimen, which is the current international standard, ISO 9693, to characterize the interfacial bond strength of metal-ceramic restorative systems. Results indicate that the probability of interfacial debonding due to normal tensile stress is higher than that due to shear stress. This conclusion suggests modification of ISO 9693 bond strength definition from one in terms of the shear stress only to that accounting for both normal and shear stresses.