An improved adaptive dual prediction scheme for reducing data transmission in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Networks - Currently one of the main problem for wireless networks is the medium access control. Hence, the number of data transmissions in wireless sensor networks should be optimized to...     

Detection of Electrical Fault in Medium Voltage Installation Using Support Vector Machine and Artificial Neural Network

Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing - Infrared thermography plays an important role in the inspection of electrical installations allowing to avoid failures and breakdowns. Condition...     

Extended equivalent linear model (X-ELM) to assess liquefaction triggering: Application to the City of Urayasu during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

This paper proposes a hybrid iterative approach to evaluating the liquefaction potential and settlements when liquefaction is not triggered for a saturated sand deposit subjected to seismic motion. The proposed method is a combination of an equivalent linear dynamic analysis and an empirical pore pressure build-up model. The two concepts are combined to account for the increase of pore-water pressure in the dynamic response. This extended equivalent linear model, or X-ELM, introduces a parameter $\chi$ identified by means of an extensive set of computations and observations. The approach has been validated in the case of Urayasu City during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The X-ELM enables the assessment of the triggering of the soil liquefaction of 12 representative soil profiles, namely, four profiles representing non-liquefied grounds in the old town of Urayasu and eight profiles representing the liquefaction-prone grounds in the reclaimed area of the city. The X-ELM computed areas of triggered liquefaction or non-liquefaction are found to be in good agreement with qualitative observations and in-situ measured responses.     

Photocatalytic degradation of two volatile fatty acids in an annular plug-flow reactor; kinetic modeling and contribution of mass transfer rate

This study investigates the influence of inlet concentration and of flow rate on the degradation rate of two Volatile Fatty Acids (butyric and propionic acids). TiO2-coated nonwoven fiber textile was used as the photocatalyst in an annular plug-flow reactor at laminar flow regime. The kinetic follows a Langmuir-Hinshelwood form. The oxidation rate increased with the flow rate, which emphasizes the influence of the mass transfer. A first design equation is proposed considering that the mass transfer could be neglected. Despite a good accuracy of the model, the determined kinetic constants are dependent on the flow rate which highlights the contribution of the mass transfer rate on the global degradation rate. Thus, a new design equation which includes the mass transfer rate was developed. Using this model, the degradation rate can be determined for any given flow rate. Moreover, it allows the estimation of the contribution of mass transfer and chemical reaction steps at given experimental conditions; and thus providing an interesting tool for reactor optimization or design.     

Preparation of Nano-TiO2/Diatomite Composites by Non-hydrolytic Sol–Gel Process and its Application in Photocatalytic Degradation of Crystal Violet

Silicon - The dispersion of anatase TiO2 on diatomic material was a prospective route to avoid agglomerates of these particles. In this work, the TiO2/diatomite composites were prepared using a...     

Exploring simultaneous perturbation profiles in milk yield and body weight reveals a diversity of animal responses and new opportunities to identify resilience proxies

Livestock husbandry aims to manage the environment in which animals are reared to enable them to express their production potential. However, animals are often confronted with perturbations that affect their performance. Evaluating effects of these perturbations on animal performance could provide metrics to quantify and understand how animals cope with their environment, and therefore to better manage them. Body weight (BW) and milk yield (MY) dynamics over lactation may be used for this purpose. The goal of this study was to estimate an unperturbed performance trajectory using a differential smoothing approach on both MY and BW time series, and then to identify the perturbations and extract their phenotypic features. Daily MY and BW records from 490 primiparous Holstein cows from 33 commercial French herds were used. From the fitting procedure, estimated unperturbed performance trajectories of BW and MY were clustered into 3 groups. After the fitting procedure, 1,754 deviations were detected in the MY time series and 964 were detected in the BW time series across all cows. Overall, 425 of these deviations were detected during the same period (±10 d) in both MY and BW time series, 76 of which started at the same time. Results suggest that combining various individual dynamic measures and revealing the relationship that exists between them could be of great value in obtaining reliable estimates of resilience components in large populations.     

Wireless sensor networks for rehabilitation applications: Challenges and opportunities

Rehabilitation supervision has emerged as a new application of wireless sensor networks (WSN), with unique communication, signal processing and hardware design requirements. It is a broad and complex interdisciplinary research area on which more than one hundred papers have been published by several research communities (electronics, bio-mechanical, control and computer science). In this paper, we present WSN for rehabilitation supervision with a focus on key scientific and technical challenges that have been solved as well as interdisciplinary challenges that are still open. We thoroughly review existing projects conducted by several research communities involved in this exciting field. Furthermore, we discuss the open research issues and give directions for future research works. Our aim is to gather information that encourage engineers, clinicians and computer scientists to work together in this field to tackle the arising challenges. We believe that bridging researchers with different scientific backgrounds could have a significant impact on the development of WSN for rehabilitation and could improve the way rehabilitation is provided today.     

Finite element analysis of linear plates buckling under in-plane patch loading

The elastic buckling load is physically important in design because it is actually the critical step in the changing plate configuration that will eventually lead to complete failure. The present work investigates the problem of linear buckling of simply supported thin plates subjected to patch compression. In order to satisfy the boundary conditions in a rigorous way, the authors chose the finite element method using the exact stress distribution throughout the plate.In the present paper, the stability problem treated using the total energy is briefly outlined. The plate modelling is made by means of an eight noded rectangular element and a reduction of variable strategy is applied to estimate the number of degrees of freedom leading to little or no loss in seeking solution accuracy.The buckling coefficient is determined for different load cases applied to a range of plate with various edge ratios. The achieved results are summarised through different graphs representing variation of the buckling coefficient against the plate ratio for each load case treated. A comparison with previous works is made. Finally, it is shown that the resolution of the plate buckling problem using true stress distribution with the finite element method leads to a good agreement with results previously obtained by means of analytical methods using an exact stress distribution.