Design of a Web Based Underwater Acoustic Communication Testbed and Simulation Platform

Wireless Personal Communications - Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are playing a vital role in exploring the unseen underwater (UW) natural resources. However, performance evaluation of...     

Tactile colour pictogram to improve artwork appreciation of people with visual impairments

A recent development in tactile technology enables an improvement in the appreciation of the visual arts for people with visual impairment (PVI). The tactile sense, in conjunction with, or a possibly as an alternative to, the auditory sense, would allow PVIs to approach artwork in a more self‐driven and engaging way that would be difficult to achieve with just an auditory stimulus. Tactile colour pictograms (TCPs), which are raised geometric patterns, are ideographic characters that are designed to enable PVIs to identify colours and interpret information by touch. In this article, three TCPs are introduced to code colours in the Munsell colour system. Each colour pattern consists of a basic cell size of 10 mm × 10 mm to represent the patterns consistently in terms of regular shape. Each TCP consists of basic geometric patterns that are combined to create primary, secondary, and tertiary colour pictograms of shapes indicating colour hue, intensity and lightness. Each TCP represents 29 colours including six hues; they were then further expanded to represent 53 colours. Two of them did not increase the cell size, the other increased the cell size 1.5 times for some colours, such as yellow‐orange, yellow, blue, and blue‐purple. Our proposed TCPs use a slightly larger cell size compared to most tactile patterns currently used to indicate colour, but code for more colours. With user experience and identification tests, conducted with 23 visually impaired adults, the effectiveness of the TCPs suggests that they were helpful for the participants.     

Ternary Blends of Renewable Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil,Advanced Bioethanol,and Marine Gasoil as Potential Marine Biofuel

An alternative for reducing emissions from marine fuel is to blend bio-oil from lignocellulose non-edible feedstocks to diesel fossil fuels. Phase diagrams of the ternary systems were built to represent the transition from heterogeneous regions to homogeneous regions. Four homogeneous blends of bio-oil of eucalyptus-bioethanol-marine gasoil were experimentally characterized with respect to the most important fuel parameters for marine engines: water content, flash point, low heating value, viscosity, and acidity. Blends with closer properties to marine gasoil replacement, lower costs, and environmental impacts should be tested for large engines.     

GC–MS Characterization of Volatile Compounds in Habanero Pepper (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) by Optimization of Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction Conditions

Food Analytical Methods - The habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) is very aromatic and is the hottest pepper in the world. In this study, a headspace solid-phase microextraction/gas...