Development of a distributed collaborative design framework within peer-to-peer environment

Distributed collaborative design and manufacture enables manufacturing organizations to maintain competitiveness in the fiercely competitive global industry. This requires that the distributed system not only maintains data consistency across globally-distributed locations seamlessly, but also allows team members to access the storage system and computing resources transparently and securely. Current grid applications mainly based on client-server architecture are inflexible and rigid for fast changing collaborations among manufacturers, especially for small and medium enterprises. In this paper, a distributed collaborative design framework is presented with a hybrid of grid and peer-to-peer technology. In order to access computational resources for design, analysis and process simulation, a meta-scheduler is designed and implemented. It helps in resource discovery and optimal utilization of resources. A test bed is established, based on the framework proposed to demonstrate a distributed collaborative design and manufacturing environment.     

An E-Business Audit Service Model in the B2B Context

This research studies E-business audit as a specialized service rendered in an information technology intensive environment. A service model is used to research the E-business audit context. Here auditing is viewed as a specialized technical service conducted in the context of E-business technologies, business processes, and people involved in E-business transactions. The specialized audit service is provided to the E-Business transacting firms that in most cases involve transactions between customers and suppliers. A field study of information technology auditors showed that both knowledge of the business processes and of the technologies were critical for them to render reliable and accurate E-business audit findings. The results showed the need for higher training levels in advanced IT methods and tools for technology auditors in rendering IT audit judgments for the business-to-business (B2B) context. Thus, these results provided support for the service model that calls for the appropriate knowledge and use of technologies, business processes, and people in providing service.     

Parametric shape optimization techniques based on Meshless methods: A review

In the product development process, structural optimization plays vital role because it deals with size, shape and topology of the structures. However, structural performance greatly depends on its geometric shape and hence structural shape optimization has remained one of the most active research areas since early 1970s. Conventional parametric shape optimization technique employs grid-based numerical tools like FEM and BEM for structural analysis, which experiences some innate limitations like mesh distortion and frequent remeshing, element locking and poor approximation while dealing with large shape changes during the optimization process. Meshless Methods (MMs) can alleviate these issues when used as a structural analysis tool in shape optimization. In last two decades, MMs have been explored for structural shape optimization along with various deterministic and stochastic optimization algorithms. The objective of present work is twofold, first is to review advanced parametric shape optimization techniques which are based on MMs like Element Free Galerkin (EFG) method and Reproducing Kernel Particle Method (RKPM) for linear elastic, thermoelastic, hyperelastic, frictional contact and structure dynamics optimization problems and second is to emphasize benefits of meshless techniques in shape optimization. Based on the review, the article presents some critical observations including Design Sensitivity Analysis (DSA) in meshless environment, numerical integration techniques in MMs and benefits of coupled FEM-MM approach in shape optimization. At the end, promising future research directions in shape optimization field based on MMs are presented along with concluding remarks.     

Measurements of Particulate (PM2.5), BC and Trace Gases Over the Northwestern Himalayan Region of India

Ambient trace gases (NH₃, NO, NO₂ and SO₂) and black carbon (BC) were measured along with particulate matter (PM_2.5) over the northwestern Himalayan region (Palampur, Kullu, Shimla, Solan and Nahan) of Himachal Pradesh (HP), India in a campaign mode during 12–22 March 2013 to evaluate the ambient air quality of the region. The average mixing ratio of ambient NH₃, NO, NO₂ and SO₂ were recorded as 7.1 ± 2.6, 3.1 ± 1.3, 3.9 ± 1.4 and 1.7 ± 0.7 ppb respectively over the northwestern Himalayan region. The average concentration of BC was estimated as 2.2 ± 0.5 µg m^?3 over the region whereas average concentration of PM_2.5 mass was estimated as 41.8 ± 7.9 µg m^?3. The spatial variation of ambient trace gases (NH₃, NO, NO₂ and SO₂), BC and PM_2.5 over the northwestern Himalayan region, India reveals that the region is mainly influenced by local activities, i.e., tourism activities, agricultural activities, biomass burning and vehicular emission. A significant positive linear correlation of NH₃ and NH₄ ⁺ with SO₄ ^2?, NO₃ ^? and Cl^? (NH₄ ⁺ vs. SO₄ ^2? , r ² = 0.652; NH₄ ⁺ vs. NO₃ ^?, r ² = 0.701; and NH₄ ⁺ vs. Cl^?, r ² = 0.627) of the PM_2.5 indicates the possible formation of (NH₄)₂SO₄, NH₄NO₃ and NH₄Cl aerosols over the region.     

Application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for total carbon quantification in soil samples

The increase of greenhouse gas (i.e., CO(2)) levels in the atmosphere has caused noticeable climate change. Many nations are currently looking into methods of permanent underground storage for CO(2) in an attempt to mitigate this problem. The goal of this work is to develop a process for studying the total carbon content in soils before, during, and after CO(2) injection to ensure that no leakage is occurring or to determine how much is leaking if it is occurring and what effect it will have on the ecosystem between the injection formation and the atmosphere. In this study, we quantitatively determine the total carbon concentration in soil using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). A soil sample from Starkville, Mississippi, USA was mixed with different amounts of carbon powder, which was used as a calibration for additional carbon in soil. Test samples were prepared by adding different but known amounts of carbon powder to a soil sample and then mixing with polyvinyl alcohol binder before being pressed into pellets. LIBS spectra of the test samples were collected and analyzed to obtain optimized conditions for the measurement of total carbon in soil with LIBS. The total carbon content in the samples was also measured by a carbon analyzer, and the data (average of triplicates) were used as a reference in developing calibration curves for a modified version of the single linear regression model and the multiple linear regression model. The calibration data were then used to determine the total carbon concentration of an unknown sample. This work is intended to be used in the initial development of a miniaturized, field-portable LIBS analyzer for CO(2) leak detection.     

Improving the Local Search Ability of Spider Monkey Optimization Algorithm Using Quadratic Approximation for Unconstrained Optimization

Spider monkey optimization (SMO) algorithm, which simulates the food searching behavior of a swarm of spider monkeys, is a new addition to the class of swarm intelligent techniques for solving unconstrained optimization problems. The purpose of this article is to study the performance of SMO after incorporating quadratic approximation (QA) operator in it. The proposed version is named as QA‐based spider monkey optimization (QASMO). An experimental study has been carried out to check the validity and applicability of QASMO. For validation purpose, the performance of QASMO is tested over a benchmark set of 46 scalable and nonscalable problems, and results are compared with the original SMO algorithm. In order to test the applicability of the proposed algorithm in solving real‐life optimization problems, one of the most challenging optimization problems, namely, Lennard–Jones (LJ) problem is considered. LJ clusters containing atoms from three to ten have been taken into consideration, and results are presented. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to apply SMO and its proposed variant on a real‐life problem. The results demonstrate that incorporation of QA in SMO has positive effects on its performance in terms of reliability, efficiency, and accuracy.     

Influence of heating source on the efficacy of lignocellulosic pretreatment - A cellulosic ethanol perspective

Three different heating devices (Hot plate (HP), Autoclave (AC) & Microwave (MW)) were tested for their efficiency to pretreat garden biomass (GB), a lignocellulosic substrate. Effectiveness of different modes of heat on pretreatment was assessed taking into consideration the yield of reducing sugar (RS), recovery of cellulose after pretreatment, conversion of hemicellulose into reducing sugar, changes in the ultra structure of GB tissues, changes in the crystallinity of GB etc. The results indicated that all three heating devices are useful for pretreatment, however, the efficacy of MW on GB was found be better than AC and HP. A maximum of 53.95% of cellulose recovery was obtained in case of MW heating along with 46.97% of reducing sugar yield. This when compared to AC and HP is significantly higher (more than 10% increase) and time saving (only 15 min reaction time) as well.     

Privacy-preserving federated learning for scalable and high data quality computational-intelligence-as-a-service in Society 5.0

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Training supervised machine learning models like deep learning requires high-quality labelled datasets that contain enough samples from various categories and...     

Characterization of model anaerobic adhesive cure using real-time fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and dielectric spectroscopy

A technique has been developed based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in the attenuated total reflectance (ATR) mode, which is suitable for the investigation of the heterogeneous cure of surface-initiated redox polymerizations in thin and thick bondline situations. The results of the investigations into the surface-catalyzed and anaerobically promoted cure of some model adhesives using this method are reported. The systems under investigation were designed to exhibit different levels of cure heterogeneity or “cure through volume” (CTV) so that the influence of the bondline thickness and the formulation variables may be assessed. The analysis of the data provides evidence that supports our concept of the heterogeneous cure distribution existing in the form of a cure gradient. This concept of a cure gradient is developed further using dielectric spectroscopy. Here the cure gradient is characterized in terms of the parameters obtained using an empirical equation to fit the dielectric relaxation data. The results obtained using the infrared and dielectric spectroscopic methods are in satisfactory agreement and are shown to be most informative in characterizing and quantifying the CTV performance of the model anaerobic adhesives. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.