Nature-inspired heuristic paradigms for parameter estimation of control autoregressive moving average systems

Neural Computing and Applications - Aim of this research is to explore the strength of evolutionary and swarm intelligence techniques for parameter identification of control autoregressive moving...     

Tuning the magnetic properties of iron-filled carbon nanotubes

We tuned the magnetic properties of iron-filled multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Fe@CNTs) by careful manipulation of the synthesis parameters in a two zone furnace. Due to the small dimensions of iron filling in these samples they have some of the highest values of magnetization saturation reported for Fe@CNTs. Magnetic characterization of the Fe@CNTs revealed that their coercivity can be systematically tuned by varying the pyrolysis temperature, whereas the saturation magnetization can be significantly enhanced by optimization of the sublimation temperature. The rate of argon flow is seen to have little influence on either the saturation magnetization or the coercivity. Furthermore, the study of remnant magnetization as a function of time revealed that magnetization decay rates can be considerably varied.     

Multiple dependent state repetitive group sampling plan for Burr XII distribution

In material engineering application, the failure time of material due to weakness in material (fatigue) is usually caused by repeated variations of stress. The failure time is modeled by statistical distributions. In this article, an attribute multiple state repetitive group sampling plan is developed assuming that the life time follows the Burr Type XII distribution. The plan parameters are determined by considering two points on operating characteristic (OC) curve. Tables are given for the practical use. The advantages of the proposed plan are discussed over the single sampling plans. Examples are given to illustrate the proposed plan.     

Preparation of monodispersed oil-in-water emulsions through semi-metal microfluidic EDGE systems

EDGE (Edge-based Droplet GEneration) emulsification systems with the ability to produce multiple droplets simultaneously from a single nozzle, were used for the preparation of monodispersed oil-in-water emulsions. The devices (with plateau height of 1 µm) were coated with metals (Cu, CuNi and CuNi/Cu) and had different surface roughness and wettability properties. This influenced the emulsification behavior significantly. The large surface roughness of the CuNi/Cu coated system resulted in stronger non-uniform filling of the plateau as compared to the smoother surfaces of Cu and less rough CuNi, and less droplet formation points in the CuNi/Cu coated system relative to the Cu and CuNi systems. The less hydrophilic CuNi surface, however, provided wider pressure stability than the more hydrophilic Cu and CuNi/Cu surface. A narrower pressure stability (Cu surface) and lower number of droplet formation points (CuNi/Cu surface) resulted in lower overall droplet formation frequency when compared with CuNi system. All metal coated EDGE systems reliably produced monodispersed droplets (with sizes being 6 times the plateau height), similar to the silicon-based EDGE systems having much smoother surfaces. The pressure stability for CuNi coated surfaces was wider, while the droplet formation frequency was comparable to that with the silicon system. This indicated that the use of metal is not a limitation in these systems as initially expected, but may be used for more robust and productive emulsification systems, which lend themselves well for scale-out to practical productivity rates.     

Dielectric and electrical properties of La@NiO SNPs for high-performance optoelectronic applications

A successful flash combustion synthesis of NiO spherical nanoparticles with various contents of lanthanum (La) doping (La@NiO SNPs) with remarkably enhanced dielectric and electrical properties are reported. Single phase has been confirmed through X-ray diffraction and FT-Raman spectroscopic analysis. Increasing La content in NiO reduced the crystallite size by 341% to 6.65 nm from 22.70 nm. The composition of elements in the final product was assessed via EDX analysis. Moreover, monophasic La@NiO SNPs synthesis with size reduction was observed using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). A red shift in optical energy gaps (3.52–3.26 eV) was observed with increasing La contents from pure to 10 wt%. Capacitance (109–964 PF), impedance (9.41 × 10⁴–1.67 × 10⁴ kΩ), dielectric constant (100–967), dielectric loss (335–10666), and electrical conductivity (4–5 S/m) values were remarkably improved with La doping. The current (I)–voltage (V) characteristics of pure and La@NiO NPs were performed under the biased voltage of ±20 V. Current was noticed in the range of (3.81 × 10^?4–9.91 × 10^?3 amp) at pure, 1.0, 3.0, 5.0, and 10 wt% of La@NiO NPs. Enhancements in the dielectric and electrical properties of as-synthesized NPs make them suitable for optoelectronics uses.     

Design of a t‐chart using generalized multiple dependent state sampling

In this article, a new t‐chart based on generalized multiple dependent state (GMDS) sampling is proposed for efficient monitoring of a process by assuming that the time between events follows the exponential distribution. The proposed t‐chart has two pair of control limits and utilizes the past sample information with the current sample information. The control chart coefficients are estimated by considering different values of the in‐control average run lengths. The proposed t‐chart is compared with the existing chart by using the out‐of‐control average run length and extra quadratic loss function. The comparison reveals that the proposed charting strategy has better shift detection ability in process mean. An illustrative example is given for the practical implementation of the proposed chart.     

A novel method for vehicle detection in high-resolution aerial remote sensing images using YOLT approach

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Owing to the innovative challenge stood by an intergovernmental military alliance, we have proposed a model to find novel solutions in the areas of data...     

A dual-mode energy efficient encryption protocol for wireless sensor networks

This paper presents a novel link-layer encryption protocol for wireless sensor networks. The protocol design aims to reduce energy consumption by reducing security related communication overhead. This is done by merging security related data of consecutive packets. The merging (or combining packets) based on simple mathematical operations helps to reduce energy consumption by eliminating the requirement to send security related fields in headers and trailers. We name our protocol as the Compact Security Protocol referred to as C-Sec. In addition to energy savings, the C-Sec protocol also includes a unique security feature of hiding the packet header information. This feature makes it more difficult to trace the flow of wireless communication, and helps to minimize the cost of defending against replay attacks. We performed rigorous testing of the C-Sec protocol and compared it with well-known protocols including TinySec, MiniSec, SNEP and Zigbee. Our performance evaluation demonstrates that the C-Sec protocol outperforms other protocols in terms of energy savings. We also evaluated our protocol with respect to other performance metrics including queuing delay and error probability.     

Synthesis by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization and characterization of polyaniline/iron oxide nanoparticle composite

Polyaniline (PANI) is a well‐studied material and is the pre‐eminent electrically conducting organic polymer with the potential for a variety of applications such as in batteries, microelectronics displays, antistatic coatings, electromagnetic shielding materials, sensors and actuators. Its good environmental as well as thermal stability and electrical conductivity tunable by appropriate doping make PANI an ideal active material for several applications. In this paper, we report the synthesis of water‐dispersible colloidal PANI/iron oxide composite nanoparticles using an in situ chemical oxidation polymerization method in a micellar medium of sodium dodecylsulfate, where the cores (iron oxide) are embedded in a PANI matrix layer. Transmission electron micrographs showed evidence of the formation of an iron oxide core/PANI shell composite with a thin layer of PANI over the iron oxide cores. The results of thermogravimetric, Fourier transform infrared and UV‐visible analysis indicated that the iron oxide nanoparticles could improve the composite thermal stability possibly due to the interaction between iron oxide particles and PANI backbone. We believe that the synthetic route described can also be adapted for the assembly of hierarchical structures of other metal oxides or hydroxides onto various cores. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry