Determination of palaeotectonic and neotectonic features around the Menderes Massif and the Gediz Graben (western Turkey) using Landsat TM image

Western Turkey contains both spectacular palaeotectonic and neotectonic features of the Anatolian block. The first of these features is the Menderes Massif, a huge metamorphic terrain comprising various lithologies; the second is the Gediz Graben, one of the most well‐known extensional features that formed during the neotectonic period of Turkey's complex geological history. In the study area, approximately E–W‐trending Neogene grabens, such as the Gediz, obliquely subdivide palaeotectonic massifs (such as the NE–SW‐oriented Menderes Massif) and mélange rocks. The terms Menderes Massif and Gediz Graben indicate different products of different tectonic regimes.

In this study, lithological components of the region were determined using a Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image. Band‐ratioing and principal component analysis (PCA) were chosen for lithological discrimination of the outcropping geological units. After processing, PCA gave the best results in terms of lithological differentiation. Furthermore, certain band‐ratio colour composites (5/7, 5/4, 4/1) are sensitive to lithological differences in RGB (red, green and blue) space and thus provide a general understanding of the distribution of rock‐forming minerals, such as known hydroxyl‐bearing and ferric iron minerals, as well as the vegetative characteristics of the region. However, a structural‐analysis study, including visual inspection and edge‐enhancement techniques, played a complementary role in the geological analysis of the region. Outcrops of the Menderes Massif metamorphic rocks, mélange rocks and Neogene cover associated with the Gediz Graben are favourable for remote sensing studies in so far as they allow ease of interpretation and geological evaluation by researchers. One of the most notable results derived from this study was the discrimination of younger neotectonic, fluviatile occurrences from the palaeotectonic Menderes Massif metamorphic rocks and Izmir–Ankara Suture Zone mélange rocks. Additionally, boundaries of the active Gediz Graben have been delineated.     

Determination of neotectonic features of the Karasu Basin (SE Turkey) and their relationship with Quaternary volcanic activity using Landsat ETM+ imagery

The junction between the East Anatolian and the Dead Sea fault zones lies close to an unstable F: Transform fault (FFF) triple junction where the African, Eurasian and Arabian plates meet in south-eastern Turkey. The Karasu Basin is an ephemeral rifted structure located close to the junction of these plate boundaries and is expressed by a range of tectono-morphological features. This study uses remote sensing to define tectonic structures and discriminate volcanic rocks linked to rifting within the basin using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) imagery. Prior to advanced image processing stages, images were corrected to eliminate atmospheric scattering effects and determine the best band combination for multi-spectral processing techniques based on statistical methods. Following pre-processing stages, edge detection filters were applied to derive tectonic structures defining the basin. The Brovey transformation, a statistical data merging method, was used to combine reflective multi-spectral bands with the Landsat ETM+?panchromatic band. This method fuses higher spatial data with data of lower spatial value. The western margin of the Karasu Basin is defined by the left-lateral Amanos Fault Zone with a contemporary motion (c. –0.4 mm a^?1) probably accommodating most of the left-lateral strike-slip motion between Arabian and African plates on the northern continuation of the Dead Sea Fault Zone. The rift zone has been the site of extensive recent volcanism concentrated within the Brunhes Chron (<0.78 Ma) and linked to fault block rotations between the intracontinental master faults. The boundaries of this activity are defined here using a regolith mapping technique.     

Vector channels for smart antennas. Measurements, statisticalmodeling, and directional properties in outdoor environments

In wireless communications, smart antenna systems that employ antenna arrays coupled with adaptive signal-processing techniques at the basestation improve capacity, coverage, and trunking efficiency. However, design and performance analysis of smart antenna systems strongly depend on channel propagation characteristics of signals present at the antenna array, the so-called vector channels. Here, variation of narrow-band vector channels (spatial signatures) due to a moving terminal is studied in typical suburban settings. Vector channel measurements are taken using a real-time smart antenna system with a uniform circular array at the basestation and a mobile transmitter at several locations. Two different wireless scenarios, namely, pedestrian and car mobile, are implemented to emulate the random movement of the mobile user. In each scenario, the mobile transmitter locations are chosen so that there exists line-of-sight (LOS), nonline-of-sight (NOLOS), or both LOS and NOLOS (mixed) propagation to the basestation. We find that in all cases, the Beta distribution can be used to empirically represent the spatial signature correlations and that large spatial diversity exists in NOLOS cases compared to LOS cases. Also, direction-of-arrivals mostly do not change much with movement in a suburban environment     

FPGA Based Implementation and Comparison of Beamformers for CDMA2000

For the integration of smart antennas into third generation code division multiple access (CDMA) base stations, it still remains as a challenging task to implement smart antenna algorithms on programmable processors. In this paper, we study implementations of some CDMA compatible beamforming algorithms, namely least mean square (LMS), constant modulus (CM), and space code correlator (SCC) algorithms, using Xilinx??s Virtex family FPGAs. This study exhibits feasibility of implementing even simple, practical, and computationally small algorithms based on today??s most powerful FPGA technologies. 16 and 32 bits floating point implementations of the algorithms are investigated using both Virtex II and Virtex IV FPGAs. CDMA2000 reverse link baseband signal format is used in the signal modeling. Randomly changing fading and Direction-of-arrivals (DOAs) of multipaths are considered as a channel condition. The implementation results in terms of beamforming accuracy, FPGA resource utilization, weight vector computation time, and DOA estimation error are presented. Beamformer weight vectors using LMS and CM can be computed within less than 20 ??s on Virtex II FPGA and 10 ??s on Virtex IV FPGA, and using SCC it can be achieved within less than 22 ??s on Virtex IV FPGA. These results show that FPGAs provide approximately 500 times faster speed in implementations than our previous work with DSPs.     

Using GPS to measure ground complex permittivity

In personal satellite communications, ground specular reflection may be received along with the direct signal. To characterise this effect at L-band, fade measurements were taken over grass and asphalt surfaces using a GPS receiver. By matching experimental results to a simulation, ground electrical characteristics were derived, showing a novel method for their measurement     

Adsorption of boron from aqueous solutions using fly ash: batch and column studies

In the present paper, boron removal from aqueous solutions by adsorption was investigated. Fly ash particle size used in adsorption experiments was between 250 and 400 microm. During the experimental part of this study, the effect of parameters such as pH, agitation time, initial boron concentration, temperature, adsorbent dosage and foreign ion on boron removal were observed. In addition, adsorption kinetics, adsorption isotherm studies and column studies were made. Maximum boron removal was obtained at pH 2 and 25 degrees C. Thermodynamic parameters such as change in free energy (DeltaG degrees), enthalpy (DeltaH degrees), entropy (DeltaS degrees) were also determined. As a result of the kinetic studies, it was observed that the adsorption data conforms to the second degree kinetics model. In the isotherm studies, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied and it was determined that the experimental data conformed to Langmuir isotherm model. Batch adsorbent capacity (q(o)) was calculated as 20.9 mg/g. The capacity value for column study was obtained by graphical integration as 46.2 mg/g. The Thomas and the Yoon-Nelson models were applied to experimental data to predict the breakthrough curves and to determine the characteristics parameters of the column useful for process design.     

A Practical Space-Code Correlator Receiver for DSP Based Software Radio Implementation in CDMA2000

Development of practical algorithms for beamforming in 3G CDMA systems and their software radio implementations are still a challenging task, which will facilitate upgrading of traditional base stations into smart antenna capable 3G base stations. In this paper, we propose a practical space-code correlator (SCC) receiver structure for its software radio implementation a DSP. SCC’s advantage comes from the fact that it doesn’t require any training sequence or learning parameter as in other algorithms (LMS or CM). DSP implementations of the SCC are performed using Texas Instruments C67xx family platforms. In the simulations, reverse link base band signal format of CDMA2000 is used and the effects of different array topologies (uniform linear array-ULA or uniform circular array-UCA) are considered. The implementation results regarding beamforming accuracy, weight vector computation time (execution time), search resolution effect on DOA estimation accuracy, DSP resource utilization, and received SINR are presented. The results show that DSP based SCC beamformer can estimate weight vectors within less than 10 ms with DOA search resolution of 2° especially when C6713 DSP is used. With faster DSPs and larger search resolutions, execution time could be significantly reduced as well. It provides comparable SINR performance with LMS and CM algorithms.

Interference analysis and capacity for forward link 3G CDMA network with adaptive antennas

In code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, the capacity of forward link (FL) communication to mobile receivers is limited primarily by co‐channel interference (CCI). Adaptive antenna arrays (AAAs) that use antenna arrays along with advanced signal processing at the base station (BS) have been proposed to mitigate this limitation. For a 3G CDMA cellular network, where each BS equipped with an AAA serves mixture of voice and data users within its coverage, we study FL capacity and investigate the effects of different factors (array topology, multipath angle spread, data rate, and beamforming algorithm) on this capacity under Rayleigh fading channel. By modeling the instantaneous signal‐to‐interference power ratio received at the mobile, we derive the system outage equation that considers blocking of either desired voice or data user. Simulation results show that for the same element spacing and number of antenna elements per cell, the uniform circular array (UCA) topology results in larger capacity than the sectorized uniform linear array (ULA) topology does, and that a larger angle spread or data user rate reduces FL capacity. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Removal of boron from aqueous solutions by batch adsorption on calcined alunite using experimental design

In the present paper, boron removal from aqueous solutions by batch adsorption was investigated and 2(3) full factorial design was applied. Calcined alunite was used as adsorbent. In the study, three parameters affected the performance and two levels of these parameters were investigated. The chosen parameters were temperature (25 and 45 degrees C, respectively), pH (3 and 10) and mass of adsorbent (0.5 g adsorbent per 25 mL solution and 1g adsorbent per 25 mL solution). The significance of the effects was checked by analysis of variance (statistical software, MINITAB-Version 15). The model-function equation for boron adsorption on calcined alunite was obtained. The results showed that temperature, pH and mass of adsorbent affected boron removal by adsorption. Boron removal increased with increasing pH and adsorbent dosage, but decreased with increasing temperature. The optimum conditions were found as pH 10, adsorbent dosage=1g of calcined alunite per 25 mL solution and temperature=25 degrees C by using factorial design. In addition, the effects of parameters such as calcination temperature, pH, temperature, adsorbent dosage and initial boron concentration on boron removal were investigated. The adsorption isotherm studies were also performed. Maximum adsorbent capacity (q(0)) was calculated as 3.39 mg/g. Thermodynamic parameters such as change in free energy (DeltaG degrees), enthalpy (DeltaH degrees) and entropy (DeltaS degrees) were also determined.     

Data communication in ATM networks

An increasing number of customers require LAN access with high bandwidth and low delay over long distances. To satisfy these needs, several high-speed network techniques have been developed. Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is superior compared to other networking technologies, as it offers high bandwidth and is scalable in the sense that the bandwidth capacity of an ATM system is not fundamentally limited to the technology itself. Initial ATM installations will operate as subnetworks of existing networks and MAC layer protocols. One of the main challenges in ATM is the transparent support of existing connectionless LAN services. Several activities have been launched within international standard bodies and forums to specify ways of providing data communication services over ATM. Most notable examples are Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) and the similar Connectionless Broadband Data Service (CBDS) supported mostly by public network service providers. But also other approaches such as IP over ATM, and LAN emulation that show more adherence to the existing local and campus area networking paradigms. The article presents the requirements and architecture of the LAN emulation service. It describes the alternative methods for carrying IP packets over ATM, a public broadband service architecture and CBDS. The traffic management aspects of the data communication services are also discussed