Traffic video‐based intelligent traffic control system for smart cities using modified ant colony optimizer

Road traffic congestion is a serious problem in today's world and it happens because of urbanization and population growth. The traffic reduces the transport efficiency in the city, increases the waiting time and travel time, and also increases the usage of fuel and air pollution. To overcome these issues this papers propose an intelligent traffic control system using the Internet of Vehicles (IoV). The vehicles or nodes present in the IoV can communicate between themselves. This technique helps in determining the traffic intensity and the best route to reach the destination. The area of study used in this paper is Vellore city in Tamilnadu, India. The city map is separated into many segments of equal size and Ant Colony Algorithm (AOC) is applied to the separated maps to find the optimal route to reach the destination. Further, Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to calculate the traffic density and to model the heavy traffic. The proposed algorithm performs better in finding the optimal route when compared to that of the existing path selection algorithms. From the results, it is evident that the proposed IoV‐based route selection method provides better performance.     

Estimation of equilibrium surface precipitation constants for trivalent metal sorption onto hydrous ferric oxide and calcite

Equilibrium constants for modeling surface precipitation of trivalent metal cations (M³⁺) onto hydrous ferric oxide and calcite were estimated from linear correlations of standard state Gibbs free energies of formation, () of the surface precipitates. The surface precipitation reactions were derived from Farley et. al. [K.J. Farley, D.A. Dzombak, F.M.M. Morel, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 106 (1985) 226] surface precipitation model, which are based on surface complexation model coupled with solid solution representation for surface precipitation on the solid surface. The values were correlated through the following linear free energy relations and where ‘ss’ stands for the end-member solid component of surface precipitate, is in kJ/mol, r_M³⁺ is the Shannon-Prewitt radius of M³⁺ in a given coordination state (nm), and is the non-solvation contribution to the Gibbs free energy of formation of the aqueous M³⁺ ion. Results indicate that the above surface precipitation correlations are useful tools where experimental data are not available.     

A Strategic Decision Model for the Justification of Technology Selection

In this paper a new approach to the decision making on technology selection is proposed. In this approach a strategic decision-making model is used in which the tangible benefits of a technology are evaluated by addressing both cost and time dimensions, and the intangible benefits are evaluate d using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). In AHP, experts in the functional area give judgemental values required for the comparison matrices. However, the opinions of the experts may deviate, and also a single estimate is not realistic, hence, in this approach of evaluating alternative technology, a range of judgemental values are taken and three different levels are considered in the range. The change in the preference level of the alternatives with the change in objective factor weightage ( _), and the range of _ at which the transition in the choice of technology takes place, are analysed, which assists the decision maker. ID="A1"Correspondance and offprint requests to: Dr M. Punniyamoorthy, Department of Management Studies, Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirrapalli 620015, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail: puniya@rect.ernet.in     

Nonlinear Buckling and Postbuckling of Cable-Stiffened Prestressed Domes

Nonlinear buckling phenomenon of a novel type of structure, namely, a prestressed dome, is investigated using a nonlinear finite-element model. A prestressed dome is formed by buckling its individual flat members into arch frame works, and then the structure may be stiffened by cable loops in the circumferential direction. A corotational formulation of a 3D beam element, and a cable element, which is modeled as a catenary between connected points in the dome, are used to develop an algorithm for nonlinear stability analysis of the system by considering large displacements and rotations. The incremental load technique using a Newton-Raphson iteration scheme in conjunction with Crisfield's modified arc-length method is utilized to trace the nonlinear path of equilibrium. Buckling of prestressed domes with different numbers and locations of cable stiffeners are studied, and the results show that skeletal domes with stiffeners buckle at much higher loads than the corresponding unstiffened domes.     

Applied ontologies and standards for service robots

Service robotics is an emerging application area for human-centered technologies. The rise of household and personal assistance robots forecasts a human–robot collaborative society. One of the robotics community’s major task is to streamline development trends, work on the harmonization of taxonomies and ontologies, along with the standardization of terms, interfaces and technologies. It is important to keep the scientific progress and public understanding synchronous, through efficient outreach and education. These efforts support the collaboration among research groups, and lead to widely accepted standards, beneficial for both manufacturers and users. This article describes the necessity of developing robotics ontologies and standards focusing on the past and current research efforts. In addition, the paper proposes a roadmap for service robotics ontology development. The IEEE Robotics & Automation Society is sponsoring the working group Ontologies for Robotics and Automation. The efforts of the Working group are presented here, aiming to connect the cutting edge technology with the users of these services—the general public.     

P System Implementation of Dynamic Programming Stereo

Designing parallel versions of sequential algorithms has attracted renewed attention, due to recent hardware advances, including various general-purpose multi-core and many-core processors, as well as special-purpose FPGA implementations. P systems consist of networks of autonomous cells, such that each cell transforms its input signals in accord with its symbol-rewriting rules and feeds the output results into its immediate neighbours. Inherent massive intra- and inter-cell parallelisms make P systems a prospective theoretical testbed for designing efficient parallel and parallel-sequential algorithms. This paper discusses the capabilities of P systems to implement the symmetric dynamic programming stereo (SDPS) matching algorithm, which explicitly accounts for binocular or monocular visibility of 3D surface points. Given enough cells, the P system implementation speeds up the inner algorithm loop from O(nd) to O(n+d), where n is the width of a stereo image and d is the disparity range. The implementation gives also an insight into a more general SDPS that accounts for a possible multiplicity of solutions of the ill-posed problem of optimal stereo matching.     

Potential probiotic characterization and effect of encapsulation of probiotic yeast strains on survival in simulated gastrointestinal tract condition

The present study is focused on probiotic characterization of four yeasts viz. Pichia barkeri VIT-SJSN01, Yarrowia lipolytica VIT-ASN04, Wickerhamomyces anomalus VIT-ASN01 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae VIT-ASN03 isolated from food samples based on their auto-aggregation, co-aggregation ability and haemolytic activity. All the yeast strains showed good self-adhering and co-adhering potentiality with a value index of greater than 85%. None of the strains exhibited haemolysis which confirmed their non-pathogenic nature. Yeast strains were encapsulated in sodium alginate, sodium alginate coated with chitosan and sodium alginate-gelatinized with starch. Size and morphology of the beads and capsules were determined using SEM analysis. Encapsulation output and viability under storage condition was investigated. It was found that probiotic yeasts encapsulated in sodium alginate beads, chitosan coated beads and microcapsules showed better survival to simulated gastrointestinal conditions compared to free cells.     

Justification of automatic storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) in a heavy engineering industry

In this paper the authors attempt to modify the Brown Gibson Plant location model to consider the objective factors and applied analytic hierarchical process to consider the subjective factors in the decision process of selecting automatic storage and retrieval systems in place of traditional storage systems.