Architectural,construction and environmental matters of Bahrain's International Formula 1 Circuit

The Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) is considered as one of the best international racing car track in terms of technical aspects and architectural quality. Two Formula 1 races have been hosted in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in 2004 and 2005, at BIC. The BIC had recently won the award of the best international racing car circuit.     

Evaporated Thin Films of CdS and CdTe: Optimization for Photovoltaic Applications

Thin films of cadmium sulphide and cadmium telluride have been prepared by thermal evaporation under various conditions of deposition. These films have been characterized optically. electrically and for structure determination. The results of these characterizations along with the initial results of all thin film CdS/CdTe solar cells are presented in this paper     

Superconductivity and Fluctuation-Induced Conductivity (FIC) Analysis of (Cu0.5Tl0.5?x M x )Ba2Ca2Cu3O10?δ

Superconductivity has been improved by partial substitution of slightly higher electronegative (M=Bi, Hg) elements at Tl sites in (Cu_0.5Tl_0.5?x M _x )Ba₂O_4??? (x=0,0.25) charge reservoir layer of (Cu_0.5Tl_0.5?x M _x )Ba₂Ca₂Cu₃O_10??? superconductor. These samples were characterized by X-ray diffractometry, dc-resistivity, ac-susceptibility, FTIR absorption spectroscopy, and fluctuation-induced conductivity (FIC) analysis. The FIC analysis has been carried out in the light of Aslamasov?CLarkin (AL) theory on the resistivity versus temperature curves of (Cu_0.5Tl_0.5?x M _x )Ba₂Ca₂Cu₃O_10??? superconductor. The microscopic parameters such as cross-over temperature (T _o ), zero-temperature coherence length ?? _c (0), inter-layer coupling (J), and critical exponents (?? _2D and ?? _3D) have been determined from FIC analysis of these samples and tried to correlate them to the superconductivity order parameters. A?direct correlation between the cross-over temperatures (T _o ) and zero resistivity critical temperature {T _c (R=0)} and carrier concentration in these samples has been observed. The improvement in T _c (R=0) and the shift of 3D AL region to higher temperature values with the doping of Bi and Hg have also been observed.     

Laser melting functionally graded composition of Waspaloy<Superscript>®</Superscript> and Zirconia powders

An approach for fabricating functionally graded specimens of supernickel alloy and ceramic compositions via Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is presented. The focus aimed at using the functionally graded material (FGM) concept to gradually grade powdered compositions of Zirconia within a base material of Waspaloy^®. A high power Nd:YAG laser was used to process the material compositions to a high density with gradual but discrete changes between layered compositions. The graded specimens initially consisted of 100% Waspaloy^® with subsequent layers containing increased volume compositions of Zirconia (0–10%). Specimens were examined for porosity and microstructure. It was found that specimens contained an average porosity of 0.34% with a gradual change between layers without any major interface defects.     

Tuning of Dielectric Parameters of (NiFe<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript>)<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>/CuTl-1223 Nano-superconductor Composites by Temperature and Frequency

Nickel ferrite (NiFe₂O₄) nanoparticles and Cu_0.5Tl_0.5Ba₂Ca₂Cu₃O_10?δ (CuTl-1223) superconductor were prepared separately and then mixed in an appropriate ratios at the final stage to obtain (NiFe₂O₄) _x /CuTl-1223 (x = 0, 0.5, and 1.0 wt%) nano-superconductor composites. There was no significant change observed in crystal structure of the host CuTl-1223 superconducting matrix after the addition of NiFe₂O₄ nanoparticles. The value of zero-resistivity critical temperature { T _{c(R = 0)} (K)} was decreased with increasing content of these nanoparticles in these composites. Maximum values of dielectric loss tangent (tanδ) at lowest possible frequency of 40 Hz were increased with the increase of operating temperature, while its values were decreased and become almost zero at higher frequencies for all these samples at all operating temperatures. A peak in dielectric loss tangent was shifted towards lower frequency values with the addition of these nanoparticles in CuTl-1223 superconducting matrix. The dielectric loss tangent peak was also shifted towards lower frequency values in all these samples with increasing operating temperature, which shows the relaxator-like behavior in these samples. The dielectric parameters of these composites can be tuned by frequency, operating temperatures, and nature and content of these nanoparticles.     

How Grain-Boundaries Influence the Intergranular Critical Current Density of Cu1−x Tl x Ba2Ca3Cu4O12−δ Superconductor Thin Films?

The insulating and metallic behavior of the grain-boundary weak links has been studied in thallium rich and the samples with small amount of thallium in the charge reservoir layer of Cu_1−x Tl _x Ba₂Ca₃Cu₄O_12−δ superconductor thin films. The influence of the nature of grain boundaries on the inter-granular critical current density (J _c) has also been investigated. From the power law dependence of H _ac∼(1−T _p/T _c) ⁿ , it was observed that n=1 gives a best fit for the J _c of thallium rich samples and n=2 provides a best fit for the J _c of the samples with small amount of thallium. The polycrystalline thin film samples showing the power law dependence of J _c as n=1 make superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) type while the samples with n=2 follow superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) types of Josephson junctions. The insulating grain boundaries decrease the inter-granular Josephson coupling and hence the transport properties are suppressed.      

Modeling the effect of elastane linear density,fabric thread density,and weave float on the stretch,recovery, and compression properties of bi-stretch woven fabrics for compression garments

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of elastane linear density, thread density, and weave float on the stretch, recovery, and compression properties of bi-stretch woven fabrics for compression garments. Fabric samples were produced using elastane core-spun cotton yarns both in the warp and weft. The elastane linear density, fabric thread density, and weave float size were used as input variables while fabric contraction, subgarment pressure, fabric stretch, and recovery were taken as response variables. Two different elastane linear densities, i.e. 44 and 78 dtex, two different thread densities, and three different weave designs, i.e. 1/1 plain, 2/2 z-twill, and 3/3 z-twill were used. The results of fabric samples were analyzed in Minitab statistical software. The coefficients of determinations (R-sq values) of the regression equations showed good prediction ability of the developed statistical models. The findings of the study may be helpful in deciding appropriate manufacturing specifications of bi-stretch fabrics to attain specific stretch, recovery, and compression properties.     

Personal identification using feature and score level fusion of palm- and fingerprints

The ever increasing demand of security has resulted in wide use of Biometric systems. Despite overcoming the traditional verification problems, the unimodal systems suffer from various challenges like intra class variation, noise in the sensor data etc, affecting the system performance. These problems are effectively handled by multimodal systems. In this paper, we present multimodal approach for palm- and fingerprints by feature level and score level fusions (sum and product rules). The proposed multi-modal systems are tested on a developed database consisting of 440 palm- and fingerprints each of 55 individuals. In feature level fusion, directional energy-based feature vectors of palm- and fingerprint identifiers are combined to form joint feature vector that is subsequently used to identify the individual using a distance classifier. In score level fusion, the matching scores of individual classifiers are fused by sum and product rules. Receiver operating characteristics curves are formed for unimodal and multimodal systems. Equal Error Rate (EER) of 0.538% for feature level fusion shows best performance compared to score level fusion of 0.6141 and 0.5482% of sum and product rules, respectively. Multimodal systems, however, significantly outperform unimodal palm- and fingerprints identifiers with EER of 2.822 and 2.553%, respectively.