Formulation of mobile agents for integration of supply chain using the KLAIM concept

With the ever-growing use of the internet for electronic commerce and data mining type applications, there seems to be a need for new network computing paradigms that can overcome the barriers posed by network congestion and unreliability. Mobile agent programming is a paradigm that enables programs to move from one host to another, do the processing locally and return results asynchronously. In this article, mobile computing is implemented by the use of a kernel programming language, Kernel Language for Agent Interaction and Mobility (KLAIM), to coordinate efficiently and streamline the functionality of a supply chain in terms of data transactions. The proposed KLAIM-based approach addresses the issues relating to mobility, integrity, privacy and security, which are a prime concern when operating in an open environment as normally encountered in a supply chain network. The proposed approach is supported by an example case study where an attempt is made to expedite and streamline the information transaction of a supply chain related to an automotive industry.     

Thermal properties of knitted fabrics made from cotton and regenerated bamboo cellulosic fibres

This paper presents the thermal properties of different knitted fabric structures made from cotton, regenerated bamboo and cotton-bamboo blended yarns. Three blends of fibres (100% cotton, 50:50 cotton: bamboo and 100% bamboo) were used to produce three yarn counts (30 tex, 24 tex and 20 tex). Each of these yarns was used to manufacture three types of knitted structures namely plain, rib and interlock. It was found that the thermal conductivity of knitted fabrics generally reduces as the proportion of bamboo fibre increases. For the same fibre blend proportion, the thermal conductivity was lower for fabrics made from finer yarns. The thermal conductivity and thermal resistance values of interlock fabric was the maximum followed by the rib and plain fabrics. The water vapour permeability and air permeability of knitted fabrics increase as the proportion of bamboo fibre increases. The air permeability and water vapour permeability values were higher for plain fabric as compared to those values of rib and interlock fabrics.     

SoC based floating point implementation of differential evolution algorithm using FPGA

This paper presents floating point design and implementation of System on Chip (SoC) based Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm using Xilinx Virtex-5 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The hardware implementation is carried out to enhance the execution speed of the embedded applications. Intellectual Property (IP) of DE algorithm is developed and interfaced with the 32-bit PowerPC 440 processor using processor local bus (PLB) of Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA. In the proposed architecture the algorithmic parameters of DE are scalable. The software and hardware implementation of the DE algorithm is carried out in PowerPC embedded processor and hardware IP respectively. The optimization of numerical benchmark functions and system identification in control systems are implemented to verify the proposed hardware SoC platform. The performance of the IP is measured in terms of acceleration gain of the DE algorithm. The optimization problems are solved by using floating point arithmetic in both embedded processor and hardware. The experimental result concludes that the hardware DE IP accelerates the execution speed approximately by 200 times compared to equivalent software implementation of DE algorithm on PowerPC 440 processor. Further, as a case study an Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) based system identification task on SoC using the developed hardware accelerator is implemented.     

Mechanical properties of natural fibre-reinforced composites

Natural fibres were initially used in composite materials to predominately improve bulk and reduce cost rather than improving mechanical properties. But the environmental problems associated with the production and use of synthetic fibres have changed the scenario. In the previous decade, natural fibres have been extensively used as reinforcement materials for both synthetic and bio-degradable matrices. Natural fibre reinforcements have mostly improved flexural and impact properties, but tensile strength improvement has been marginal and has been an area of investigation. Many attempts have been made towards improving mechanical properties, with efforts directed at improving the interface, newer methods of production of composites, new modelling techniques etc. In this detailed review, an attempt is made to critically analyse the various research efforts directed towards improving the mechanical properties of natural fibre reinforced composites.     

Small signal parameter extraction of MESFET using quantum particle swarm optimization

This paper discusses a novel technique to extract small signal equivalent circuit model parameters of GaAs MESFET device based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. Three different variants of PSO namely basic PSO, Delta well quantum PSO (DQPSO) and Harmonic well quantum PSO (HQPSO) are implemented and compared. We find that these techniques extract the 16-element small signal model parameters of MESFET accurately. The simulations show that these algorithms are robust and are able to extract physically meaningful values for all circuit elements. The efficiency of this approach is demonstrated by the results that provide a good fit between measured and modeled S-parameter data over a frequency range of 0.5-25 GHz. Comparative results indicate that both DQPSO and HQPSO give good quality of solutions. We also find that basic PSO algorithm is better than DQPSO and HQPSO for all the performance evaluation parameters, i.e. mean, standard deviation, amplitude and phase relative error and computational time.     

Controlling disease in migratory bird population: a probable solution through mathematical study

The role of migratory birds in an eco-system cannot be ignored. It becomes more important if they carry a disease. Chatterjee and Chattopadhyay proposed and analysed a three component one season eco-epidemiological model consisting of susceptible migratory birds, infective migratory birds and their predator population (see Chatterjee, S. and Chattopadhyay, J., Role of migratory bird populations in a simple eco-epidemiological model, Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical systems, in press). They assumed that the recovered infective birds become susceptible again. But, it is observed that in diseases like salmonella and WNV, the recovered birds develop a permanent immunity. Keeping this in mind we modify the model of Chatterjee and Chattopadhyay by adding a recovered class. The main objective of this work is to observe the role of recovery and immunity in such a system. Numerical simulations for a hypothetical set of parameter values are presented to illustrate the analytical findings. It is observed that to obtain a disease free system proper vaccination and proper predation are necessary. The second factor was mentioned in the paper of Chatterjee and Chattopadhyay.     

Cooperative wideband sensing based on cyclostationary features with multiple malicious user elimination

Spectrum sensing is an essential concept in cognitive radio. To overcome the single node sensing issue that arises due to channel impediments, cooperative/multinode sensing is being used. Although cooperation among multiple cognitive users enhances the sensing performance, presence of few malicious cognitive users may severely degrade the efficiency of the system. In this paper, generalized extreme studentized deviate (GESD) and adjusted box-plot (ABP) methods are introduced to increase the sensing reliability of cooperative network by eliminating multiple malicious cognitive users. The performance of the cyclostationary feature detection method is compared with the energy detection method under different channel impediments. The simulation results are carried out with false alarm probability of 0.01 and a detection probability of 0.9. The simulation results reveal that there is a significant improvement in cooperative sensing performance by elimination of multiple malicious user in the network.     

Exploiting similarities across multiple dimensions for author name disambiguation

Scientometrics - In bibliometric analysis, ambiguity in author names may lead to erroneous aggregation of records. The author name disambiguation techniques attempt to address this issue by...     

Microstructural,magnetic, and hyperfine characterizations of Cu-doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

We have investigated the structural and magnetic properties of polycrystalline Cu-substituted cobalt ferrite (Cu_xCo_1−xFe₂O₄: x = 0.00, 0.15, 0.30, 0.45, 0.60) nanoparticles, synthesized via chemical coprecipitation method. The prepared samples were of single phase as confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. The mean crystallite size ranged from 44 to 65 nm was obtained using Scherrer's formula. M-T curves revealed that the Curie temperature of all the samples was above room temperature and it was found to decrease with increasing Cu concentration, which was supported by Mössbauer spectra. Field cooled (FC) hysteresis curves showed ferrimagnetic nature at 5 K and room temperature. It was observed that careful variation of Cu concentration in cobalt ferrite lead to weak A-B interaction with tunable magnetic properties.