Transforming Vulnerability Indexing for Saltwater Intrusion into Risk Indexing through a Fuzzy Catastrophe Scheme

Mapping vulnerability to Saltwater Intrusion (SWI) in coastal aquifers is studied in this paper using the GALDIT framework but with a novelty of transforming the concept of vulnerability indexing to risk indexing. GALDIT is the acronym of 6 data layers, which are put consensually together to invoke a sense of vulnerability to the intrusion of saltwater against aquifers with freshwater. It is a scoring system of prescribed rates to account for local variations; and prescribed weights to account for relative importance of each data layer but these suffer from subjectivity. Another novelty of the paper is to use fuzzy logic to learn rate values and catastrophe theory to learn weight values and these together are implemented as a scheme and hence Fuzzy-Catastrophe Scheme (FCS). The GALDIT data layers are divided into two groups of Passive Vulnerability Indices (PVI) and Active Vulnerability Indices (AVI), where their sum is Total Vulnerability Index (TVI) and equivalent to GALDIT. Two additional data layers (Pumping and Water table decline) are also introduced to serve as Risk Actuation Index (RAI). The product of TVI and RAI yields Risk Indices. The paper applies these new concepts to a study area, subject to groundwater decline and a possible saltwater intrusion problem. The results provide a proof-of-concept for PVI, AVI, RAI and RI by studying their correlation with groundwater quality samples using the fraction of saltwater (f_sea), Groundwater Quality Indices (GQI) and Piper diagram. Significant correlations between the appropriate values are found and these provide a new insight for the study area.

     

Selective harmonic elimination method for wide range of modulation indexes in multilevel inverters using ICA

Selective harmonic elimination（SHE） in multilevel inverters is an intricate optimization problem that involves a set of nonlinear transcendental equations which have multiple local minima. A new advanced objective function with proper weighting is proposed and also its efficiency is compared with the objective function which is more similar to the proposed one. To enhance the ability of the SHE in eliminating high number of selected harmonics, at each level of the output voltage, one slot is created. The SHE problem is solved by imperialist competitive algorithm（ICA）. The conventional SHE methods cannot eliminate the selected harmonics and satisfy the fundamental component in some ranges of modulation indexes. So, to surmount the SHE defect, a DC-DC converter is applied. Theoretical results are substantiated by simulations and experimental results for a 9-level multilevel inverter. The obtained results illustrate that the proposed method successfully minimizes a large number of identified harmonics which consequences very low total harmonic distortion of output voltage.     

Thermal antioxidative kinetics of sesamol in triacylglycerols and fatty acid methyl esters of sesame,olive, and canola oils

Oxidation kinetics of the triacylglycerols (TAGs) and fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) of sesame, olive, and canola oils were studied in the presence of the different concentrations of sesamol (0.1%–0.16%) at 60, 80, and 100°C. Sesamol increased the temperature coefficient, T_C, and Q₁₀ number of the TAGs more significantly compared to the FAMEs. All the sesamol-added TAG and FAME systems, respectively, of the olive, canola, and sesame oils, respectively, exerted increased values of the Arrhenius (activation energy, E_a, and frequency factor, A) and Eyring (enthalpy, ΔH⁺⁺, and entropy, ΔS⁺⁺) equation parameters. Sesamol improved the Gibbs free energy (ΔG⁺⁺) of the activated complex formation in the canola, sesame, and olive systems, respectively, and the effect was greater in the FAMEs.     

Preparation and characterization of poly(vinyl alcohol)/gum tragacanth/cellulose nanocomposite film

The effects of gum tragacanth obtained from two species of Astragalus Gossypinus (GT-G) and A. Parrowianus (GT-P) at two levels of 10% and 30% combined with cellulose nanofibers (CNF; 5%) on the physico-mechanical and structural properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposite film were investigated in this study. The water solubility and water vapor permeability of the films decreased with increasing the content of both gums, especially in the film containing 30% GT-P. The highest values of the tensile strength (39.3 MPa) and elongation at break (445%) belonged to the treatment containing 10% GT-P (90/10P/0). The FTIR and DSC analyses confirmed good interactions between GT and PVA in the 90/10P/0 treatment. SEM images indicated the dense structure of this film as the optimum treatment. Although the presence of CNF in the films containing GT-G improved some properties, especially the Young modulus, it impaired all the functional properties of nanocomposite GT-P film.     

A process model for robotic disc grinding

Automation of deburring and cleaning of castings is desirable for many reasons. The major reasons are dangerous working conditions, difficulties in finding workers for cleaning sections, and improved profitability. A suitable robot cell capable of using different tools, such as cup grinders, disc grinders and rotary files, is the solution. This robot should be completed with sensors in order to keep the quality of the cleaned surface at an acceptable level. Although using sensors simplifies both the programming and quality control there are still other problems that need to be solved. These involve selection of machining data, e.g. feeding rate and grinding force in a force controlled operation based on parameters such as tool type, disc grinder and geometry. In order to decrease the programming time, a process model for disc grinders has been developed. This article investigates this process model and pays attention to problems such as wavy or burned surfaces and the effect of a robot's repetition accuracy in the results obtained. Many aspects treated in this article are quite general, and can be applied in other types of grinding operations.     

An entropy-based persistence barcode

In persistent homology, the persistence barcode encodes pairs of simplices meaning birth and death of homology classes. Persistence barcodes depend on the ordering of the simplices (called a filter) of the given simplicial complex. In this paper, we define the notion of “minimal” barcodes in terms of entropy. Starting from a given filtration of a simplicial complex K, an algorithm for computing a “proper” filter (a total ordering of the simplices preserving the partial ordering imposed by the filtration as well as achieving a persistence barcode with small entropy) is detailed, by way of computation, and subsequent modification, of maximum matchings on subgraphs of the Hasse diagram associated to K. Examples demonstrating the utility of computing such a proper ordering on the simplices are given.     

Delay and link utilization aware routing protocol for wireless multimedia sensor networks

Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) consist of networks of interconnected devices involved in retrieving multimedia content, such as, video, audio, acoustic, and scalar data, from the environment. The goal of these networks is optimized delivery of multimedia content based on quality of service (QoS) parameters, such as delay, jitter and distortion. In multimedia communications each packet has strict playout deadlines, thus late arriving packets and lost packets are treated equally. It is a challenging task to guarantee soft delay deadlines along with energy minimization, in resource constrained, high data rate WMSNs. Conventional layered approach does not provide optimal solution for guaranteeing soft delay deadlines due to the large amount of overhead involved at each layer. Cross layer approach is fast gaining popularity, due to its ability to exploit the interdependence between different layers, to guarantee QoS constraints like latency, distortion, reliability, throughput and error rate. The paper presents a channel utilization and delay aware routing (CUDAR) protocol for WMSNs. This protocol is based on a cross-layer approach, which provides soft end-to-end delay guarantees along with efficient utilization of resources. Extensive simulation analysis of CUDAR shows that it provides better delay guarantees than existing protocols and consequently reduces jitter and distortion in WMSN communication.     

Short‐Time Linear Quadratic Form Technique for Estimating Fast‐Varying Parameters in Feedback Loops

The precision of a closed‐loop controller system designed for an uncertain plant depends strongly upon the maximum extent to which it is possible to track the trend of time‐varying parameters of the plant. The aim of this study is to describe a new parameter estimation algorithm that is able to follow fast‐varying parameters in closed‐loop systems. The short‐time linear quadratic form (STLQF) estimation algorithm introduced in this paper is a technique for tracking time‐varying parameters based on short‐time analysis of the regressing variables in order to minimize locally a linear quadratic form cost function. The established cost function produces a linear combination of errors with several delays. To meet this objective, mathematical development of the STLQF estimation algorithm is described. To implement the STLQF algorithm, the algorithm is applied to a planar mobile robot with fast‐varying parameters of inertia and viscous and coulomb frictions. Next, performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed against noise effects and variation in the type of parameters.     

Comparative evaluation of performance measures for human driving skills

In this paper, we evaluate the adequacy of several performance measures for the evaluation of driving skills between different drivers. This work was motivated by the need for a training system that captures the driving skills of an expert driver and transfers the skills to novice drivers using a haptic-enabled driving simulator. The performance measures examined include traditional task performance measures, e.g., the mean position error, and a stochastic distance between a pair of hidden Markov models (HMMs), each of which is trained for an individual driver. The emphasis of the latter is on the differences between the stochastic somatosensory processes of human driving skills. For the evaluation, we developed a driving simulator and carried out an experiment that collected the driving data of an expert driver whose data were used as a reference for comparison and of many other subjects. The performance measures were computed from the experimental data, and they were compared to each other. We also collected the subjective judgement scores of the driver’s skills made by a highly-experienced external evaluator, and these subjective scores were compared with the objective performance measures. Analysis results showed that the HMM-based distance metric had a moderately high correlation between the subjective scores and it was also consistent with the other task performance measures, indicating the adequacy of the HMM-based metric as an objective performance measure for driving skill learning. The findings of this work can contribute to developing a driving simulator for training with an objective assessment function of driving skills.     

U-shaped energy loss curves utilization for distributed generation optimization in distribution networks

We propose novel techniques to find the optimal achieve the maximum loss reduction for distribution networks location, size, and power factor of distributed generation （DG） to Determining the optimal DG location and size is achieved simultaneously using the energy loss curves technique for a pre-selected power factor that gives the best DG operation. Based on the network＇s total load demand, four DG sizes are selected. They are used to form energy loss curves for each bus and then for determining the optimal DG options. The study shows that by defining the energy loss minimization as the objective function, the time-varying load demand significantly affects the sizing of DG resources in distribution networks, whereas consideration of power loss as the objective function leads to inconsistent interpretation of loss reduction and other calculations. The devised technique was tested on two test distribution systems of varying size and complexity and validated by comparison with the exhaustive iterative method （EIM） and recently published results. Results showed that the proposed technique can provide an optimal solution with less computation.