Improved automatic tuning of PID controller for stable processes

This paper presents an improved automatic tuning method for stable processes using a modified relay in the presence of static load disturbances and measurement noise. The modified relay consists of a standard relay in series with a PI controller of unity proportional gain. The integral time constant of the PI controller of the modified relay is chosen so as to ensure a minimum loop phase margin of 30. A limit cycle is then obtained using the modified relay. Hereafter, the PID controller is designed using the limit cycle output data. The derivative time constant is obtained by maintaining the above mentioned loop phase margin. Minimizing the distance of Nyquist curve of the loop transfer function from the imaginary axis of the complex plane gives the proportional gain. The integral time constant of the PID controller is set equal to the integral time constant of the PI controller of the modified relay. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is verified by simulation results.     

Determination and Validation of Average Value of National Standard of DC Voltage Using Different Methods at CSIR-NPLI

The aim of this paper is to evaluate and validate the average value of national or secondary standard of DC voltage, using four different methods; comparison, substitution, difference and ratio method. In the paper the custom made automation program developed to control the whole measurement process is discussed as well. The automation system has been developed in the view of achieving maximal quality of metrological performance i.e. minimum measurement uncertainty and maximum reliability. It is found that measurement automation provides reliable and efficient way for the calibration of Zener based standard of DC voltage.     

Capacity Analysis of Orthogonal Pulse-Based TH-UWB Signals

The paper studies the capacities of time hopping ultra wideband (TH-UWB) systems by adopting orthogonal pulse-based modulation schemes in a multipath environment with the consideration of multiple access interference (MAI) and inter symbol interference (ISI). Recently, orthogonal pulse-based modulation schemes such as pulse shape modulation (PSM), biorthogonal PSM (BPSM) and the combination of orthogonal pulse position modulation (OPPM) and BPSM have been proposed for UWB system to reduce ISI and MAI. In this paper, we first investigate the influences of ISI and MAI on the capacities of TH-UWB systems in terms of signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) for high-order modulation schemes based on various sets of orthogonal pulses. How mutual information varies with the number of multipath components (MPCs) is then analyzed. The complete mathematical analysis and simulation results are provided in detail. When maximizing the mutual information, the Gaussian distribution approximate is assumed to describe the characteristics of MAI and ISI. Simulation results are provided to verify the theoretical analysis. Some conclusions are drawn thereafter, such as that capacity depends on the pulse patterns adopted and mutual information varies with inversely proportional to the number of MPCs. We also observed that the capacities of UWB systems for OPPM-BPSM schemes are larger than those of PSM and BPSM schemes.     

ZnO thin films,surface embedded with biologically derived Ag/Au nanoparticles,for efficient photoelectrochemical splitting of water

ZnO thin films, showing nano-ridges at the surface and the top layer embedded with metal (Ag/Au) nanoparticles (MNP), were obtained by sol-gel synthesis, using zinc acetate dihydrate [(CH₃.COO)₂Zn.2H₂O] as precursor. The method involved prior synthesis of Ag and Au nanoparticles via biological reduction of AgNO₃ and HAuCl₄, respectively, using algae Spirulina platensis. The XRD analysis indicated dominant evolution of wurtzite ZnO phase. Low-angle shift in peaks, seen with nanoparticles embedded films, indicated partial diffusion of metals into ZnO lattice. Band gap energy was least affected and lied in the expected range. AFM and SEM analysis revealed the surface topography and morphology, while EDX analysis confirmed the elemental stoichiometry and existence of Ag/Au nanoparticles in samples. Significant gain in photoelectrochemical current using MNP embedded films is largely accountable to the improvement in electrical conductance and the role played by metal nanoparticles in charge-carrier separation, collection and transport.     

A triple-mode hexa-standard reconfigurable TI cross-coupled ΣΔ modulator

Hardware reconfigurability is an attractive solution for modern multi-standard wireless systems. This paper analyses the performance and implementation of an efficient triple-mode hexa-standard reconfigurable sigma-delta (∑?) modulator designed for six different wireless communication standards. Enhanced noise-shaping characteristics and increased digitisation rate, obtained by time-interleaved cross-coupling of ∑? paths, have been utilised for the modulator design. Power/hardware efficiency and the capability to acclimate the requirements of wide hexa-standard specifications are achieved by introducing an advanced noise-shaping structure, the dual-extended architecture. Simulation results of the proposed architecture using Hspice shows that the proposed modulator obtains a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 83.4/80.2/67.8/61.5/60.8/51.03 dB for hexa-standards, i.e. GSM????????/Bluetooth/GPS/WCDMA/WLAN/WiMAX standards with significantly less hardware and low operating frequency. The proposed architecture is implemented in 45 nm CMOS process using a 1 V supply and 0.7 V input range with a power consumption of 1.93 mW. Both architectural- and transistor-level simulation results prove the effectiveness and feasibility of this architecture to accomplish multi-standard cellular communication characteristics.     

Bioactivity of gelatin coated magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles: in vitro evaluation

Current research explores formation of bone like apatite on gelatin coated magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (GIOPs) to evaluate the bioactivity of the material. The GIOPs were soaked in simulated body fluid (SBF) and the apatite formation on the surface was investigated in regular interval of time. Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) and x-ray diffraction spectroscopic (XRD) analyses were done to investigate the chemical changes and field emission-scanning electron microscopic (FE-SEM) analysis was done to investigate the morphological changes occurring on the surface of the GIOPs after soaking in different time intervals. The kinetic studies of the apatite growth in SBF suggest that initially calcium and phosphorous ions were deposited to the surface of the GIOPs from the SBF leading to formation of amorphous Ca/P particles. Later, after 9 days of the incubation the amorphous particles were fused to form needle and blade like crystalline structures of bone like apatite.     

Software effort estimation using ensemble of hybrid search-based algorithms based on metaheuristic algorithms

Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering - Software effort estimation is an essential task for software organizations to allocate resources efficiently during the development of software and...     

Decoder driven side information generation using ensemble of MLP networks for distributed video coding

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This paper proposes an ensemble of multi-layer perceptron (MLP) networks for side information (SI) generation in distributed video coding (DVC). In the proposed...     

Joint signal detection and synchronization for OFDM based cognitive radio networks and its implementation

Wireless Networks - In the cooperative cognitive radio networks (CRN), often secondary user (SU) relays the information of primary user (PU) as a rewarding relay to improve diversity gain of PU...     

Enhancing Data Rates of TH-UWB Systems Using M-ary OPPM-BPSM Modulation Scheme: A System Perspective

This paper proposes and studies a combined modulation scheme for time hopping ultra wideband (TH-UWB) radio system based on orthogonal pulse position modulation (OPPM) and biorthogonal pulse shape modulation (BPSM). The proposed scheme offers a high data rate with satisfactory system performance by using high-level multi-dimensional modulation schemes. It allows one to increase the number of orthogonal pulses in each pulse position and, consequently, be able to adopt shorter pulse repetition intervals than those used in conventional M-ary OPPM or M-ary biorthogonal PPM (BPPM) modulation schemes. The performance is analyzed by using characteristic function and Gaussian approximation in additive white Gaussian and multipath scenarios, respectively. The proposed scheme reduces multiple access interference considerably in multi-user environments. Finally, simulation results are provided to validate the theoretical results.