Simultaneous measurement of temperature and strain with long period grating pairs using low resolution detection

An investigation showing the performance of compact long period grating (LPG) pairs under demanding experimental conditions, making comparisons with the use of single LPGs for the simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature is presented. In this work, a LPG pair (LPGP) sensor comprising two weak (2.5 dB each) LPGs, 13 mm apart, was compared against the performance of two single LPG sensors (LPG1 & LPG2) with coupling strengths of 2.5 dB and 12.5 dB, respectively. All the LPG sensors used were subjected to extreme conditions arising from the fabrication, by choosing a high amplitude mask period with short physical length LPGs, and the high temperature annealing processes. In addition, a low resolution detection instrument was used to capture the spectra under study. Results have shown that the LPGP is 40 times better than the first single LPG used (LPG1) and three times better than the second LPG (LPG2). Using the error analysis methodology of Brady et al., the temperature and strain errors due to the uncertainty of the wavelength measurement for each of the LPG1, LPG2, and LPGP were compared with the typical performance of various fibre Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensor schemes under similar testing conditions. It was found that LPGPs offer the best performance especially when using low resolution detection instrumentation.     

The provision of online public goods: Examining social structure in an electronic network of practice

Electronic networks of practice are computer-mediated social spaces where individuals working on similar problems self-organize to help each other and share knowledge, advice, and perspectives about their occupational practice or common interests. These interactions occur through message postings to produce an on-line public good of knowledge, where all participants in the network can then access this knowledge, regardless of their active participation in the network. Using theories and concepts of collective action and public goods, five hypotheses are developed regarding the structural and social characteristics that support the online provision and maintenance of knowledge in an electronic network of practice. Using social network analysis, we examine the structure of message contributions that produce and sustain the public good. We then combine the results from network analysis with survey results to examine the underlying pattern of exchange, the role of the critical mass, the quality of the ties sustaining participation, the heterogeneity of resources and interests of participants, and changes in membership that impact the structural characteristics of the network. Our results suggest that the electronic network of practice chosen for this study is sustained through generalized exchange, is supported by a critical mass of active members, and that members develop strong ties with the community as a whole rather than develop interpersonal relationships. Knowledge contribution is significantly related to an individual's tenure in the occupation, expertise, availability of local resources and a desire to enhance one's reputation, and those in the critical mass are primarily responsible for creating and sustaining the public good of knowledge. Finally, we find that this structure of generalized exchange is stable over time although there is a high proportion of member churn in the network.     

Geometrical approach of planar hyper-redundant manipulators: Inverse kinematics,path planning and workspace

A new method for inverse kinematics for hyper-redundant manipulators is proposed in this paper to plan the path of the end-effector. The basic idea is that for a given smooth path consisting of points close enough to each other; computing the inverse kinematics for these points is carried out geometrically using the proposed method. In this method, the angles between the adjacent links are set to be the same, which makes lining up of two or more joint axes impossible; therefore, avoiding singularities. The manipulability index has been used to show how far the manipulator from the singularity configuration is. The determination of the workspace of the manipulator using the proposed method has been presented in this paper. The simulation results have been carried out on a planar and a three dimensional manipulators. The effectiveness of the proposed method is clearly demonstrated by comparing its result with results calculated by the well-known method of measuring manipulability which is used for singularity avoidance for the last two decades.     

Artificial Neural Networks for Prediction of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia

In this study, we have proposed an artificial neural network (ANN) model to estimate and forecast the number of confirmed and recovered cases of COVID-19 in the upcoming days until September 17, 2020. The proposed model is based on the existing data (training data) published in the Saudi Arabia Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation—Demographics. The Prey-Predator algorithm is employed for the training. Multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPNN) is used in this study. To improve the performance of MLPNN, we determined the parameters of MLPNN using the prey-predator algorithm (PPA). The proposed model is called the MLPNN–PPA. The performance of the proposed model has been analyzed by the root mean squared error (RMSE) function, and correlation coefficient (R). Furthermore, we tested the proposed model using other existing data recorded in Saudi Arabia (testing data). It is demonstrated that the MLPNN-PPA model has the highest performance in predicting the number of infected and recovering in Saudi Arabia. The results reveal that the number of infected persons will increase in the coming days and become a minimum of 9789. The number of recoveries will be 2000 to 4000 per day.     

Two-Phase Bidirectional Dual-Relay Selection Strategy for Wireless Relay Networks

In this article, we introduce a new bi-directional dual-relay selection strategy with its bit error rate (BER) performance analysis. During the first step of the proposed strategy, two relays out of a set of N relay-nodes are selected in a way to optimize the system performance in terms of BER, based on the suggested algorithm which checks if the selected relays using the max-min criterion are the best ones. In the second step, the chosen relay-nodes perform an orthogonal space-time coding scheme using the two-phase relaying protocol to establish a bi-directional communication between the communicating terminals, leading to a significant improvement in the achievable coding and diversity gain. To further improve the overall system performance, the selected relay-nodes apply also a digital network coding scheme. Furthermore, this paper discusses the analytical approximation of the BER performance of the proposed strategy, where we prove that the analytical results match almost perfectly the simulated ones. Finally, our simulation results show that the proposed strategy outperforms the current state-of-the-art ones.     

Steam reforming of methanol over ruthenium impregnated ceria,alumina and ceria–alumina catalysts

The wet impregnation method was used to prepare different ruthenium promoted Ce–Al catalysts. These catalysts were used in the steam reforming of methanol reaction (SRM). The effects of the reaction temperature (200–400 C) and the catalyst composition were studied for optimization reasons. The steam to methanol molar ratio was kept constant (S/M = 2). The promotion of cerium/aluminum oxides with Ru enhanced their catalytic activity. The catalytic test results showed that the Ru/Ce combination was the most beneficial. The synergy between Ru and cerium oxide led to the formation of active sites with excellent redox properties. For high active phase content, the 5 RuCe catalyst exhibited the highest hydrogen production amount with no CO formation. This catalyst was kept under stream for 5 days at 400 C, and no significant deactivation was observed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Partial replacement of sodium chloride with potassium chloride in marinated rabbit meat

This study was aimed at evaluating the consequences of sodium chloride reduction by potassium chloride up to 50% on technological, sensorial and microbiological traits of marinated rabbit meat. In total, 226 rabbit loin meat samples were obtained and subjected to vacuum tumbling using solutions with different NaCl/KCl ratios. Replacing of sodium chloride up to 30% by potassium chloride did not change microbiological traits (total aerobic mesophilic and lactic acid bacteria maximum cell loads), sensorial acceptability (perceived saltiness and overall liking) and technological traits (pH, colour, texture, cooking loss and yield). Otherwise, reduction in sodium chloride to 50% significantly decreased perceived saltiness (4.15 vs. 4.73; P < 0.05) and reduced microbial shelf life by 1 day when compared to control, even if there was still no effect on technological traits. In conclusion, it is feasible imparting an added value for processed rabbit meat products by reduction in sodium content that could increase market interest.     

Automatic analysis of human posture equilibrium using empirical mode decomposition

The present study proposes a new approach for the assessment of the human balance control. This approach is based on the decomposition of the center of pressure displacement using empirical mode decomposition (EMD) that provides an effective time-frequency analysis of non-stationary signals. Twenty-eight healthy subjects performed quiet standing in four conditions—feet apart/together with respect to eyes open/closed—while recording the stabilometric signals in the anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) directions. The EMD method decomposes each stabilometric signal into several subsignals called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Stabilogram-diffusion analysis technique is applied to generate the diffusion curve of each IMF signal. Each diffusion curve is modeled as a second-order system and provides representative features, such as the gain parameter. Analysis of the gain parameter shows the major effect of visual input and feet conditions on the strategy to control/stabilize the balance. Significant differences were found between young and elderly, and between women and men. In addition, the impact of feet position seems to be higher in ML direction than in AP direction.