Implementation of Bluetooth Enabled Home Automation System

Home automation is becoming more and more popular as a concept because it increases productivity by lowering human oversight and labor. Home automation systems allow us to operate a variety of gadgets, including air conditioners, TVs, fans, lights, and more. Furthermore, additional functions like emergency systems, security, alarms, etc. may be incorporated into home automation systems. There are numerous varieties of home automation technologies, including those that are controlled via Bluetooth, the Internet, RF, infrared, and other remotes. Each type comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. For this research, we have programmed and constructed a Bluetooth-controlled home automation device using a Bluetooth-enabled Android phone. The designed device is able to switch enabled home appliances within a 100-meter radius of the phone.&nbsp

Silvopasture: Establishment & management principles for pine forests in the Southeastern United States

Silvopasture is an agroforestry practice that integrates livestock, forage production, and forestry on the same land management unit. Silvopasture systems are deliberately designed and managed to produce a high-value timber product (such as sawtimber) in the long term while providing short-term annual economic benefit from a livestock component through the management of forage or an annual crop component. Well-managed silvopasture systems may also: • Improve overall economic performance of a farm enterprise through diversification and maintaining biodiversity • Maintain or increase tree growth • Improve cool-season grass production • Allow warm-season grass production with careful canopy management • Provide shade for livestock • Produce pine straw for landscaping and mulch • Aid in erosion control • Increase wildlife populations • Improve water quality and water holding capacity • Increase opportunities for recreation • Enhance aesthetics and property values • Provide habitat for turkey and quai

Development of ADOCS controllers and control laws. Volume 2: Literature review and preliminary analysis

The Advanced Cockpit Controls/Advanced Flight Control System (ACC/AFCS) study was conducted by the Boeing Vertol Company as part of the Army's Advanced Digital/Optical Control System (ADOCS) program. Specifically, the ACC/AFCS investigation was aimed at developing the flight control laws for the ADOCS demonstrator aircraft which will provide satisfactory handling qualities for an attack helicopter mission. The three major elements of design considered are as follows: Pilot's integrated Side-Stick Controller (SSC) -- Number of axes controlled; force/displacement characteristics; ergonomic design. Stability and Control Augmentation System (SCAS)--Digital flight control laws for the various mission phases; SCAS mode switching logic. Pilot's Displays--For night/adverse weather conditions, the dynamics of the superimposed symbology presented to the pilot in a format similar to the Advanced Attack Helicopter (AAH) Pilot Night Vision System (PNVS) for each mission phase as a function of ACAS characteristics; display mode switching logic. Findings from the literature review and the analysis and synthesis of desired control laws are reported in Volume 2. Conclusions drawn from pilot rating data and commentary were used to formulate recommendations for the ADOCS demonstrator flight control system design. The ACC/AFCS simulation data also provide an extensive data base to aid the development of advanced flight control system design for future V/STOL aircraft

Rethinking rail track switches for fault tolerance and enhanced performance

© 2016, © IMechE 2016. Railway track switches, commonly referred to as ‘turnouts’ or ‘points,’ are a necessary element of any rail network. However, they often prove to be performance-limiting elements of networks. A novel concept for rail track switching has been developed as part of a UK research project with substantial industrial input. The concept is currently at the demonstrator phase, with a scale (384 mm) gauge unit operational in a laboratory. Details of the novel arrangement and concept are provided herein. This concept is considered as an advance on the state of the art. This paper also presents the work that took place to develop the concept. Novel contributions include the establishment of a formal set of functional requirements for railway track switching solutions, and a demonstration that the current solutions do not fully meet these requirements. The novel design meets the set of functional requirements for track switching solutions, in addition to offering several features that the current designs are unable to offer, in particular to enable multi-channel actuation and rail locking, and provide a degree of fault tolerance. This paper describes the design and operation of this switching concept, from requirements capture and solution generation through to the construction of the laboratory demonstrator. The novel concept is contrasted with the design and operation of the ‘traditional’ switch design. Conclusions to the work show that the novel concept meets all the functional requirements whilst exceeding the capabilities of the existing designs in most non-functional requirement areas

Planning kitchen area wiring

Published November 1977. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Reconfigurable pixel antennas for communications

Premi extraordinari doctorat curs 2012-2013, àmbit Enginyeria de les TICThe explosive growth of wireless communications has brought new requirements in terms of compactness, mobility and multi-functionality that pushes antenna research. In this context, recon gurable antennas have gained a lot of attention due to their ability to adjust dynamically their frequency and radiation properties, providing multiple functionalities and being able to adapt themselves to a changing environment. A pixel antenna is a particular type of recon gurable antenna composed of a grid of metallic patches interconnected by RF-switches which can dynamically reshape its active surface. This capability provides pixel antennas with a recon guration level much higher than in other recon gurable architectures. Despite the outstanding recon guration capabilities of pixel antennas, there are important practical issues related to the performance-complexity balance that must be addressed before they can be implemented in commercial systems. This doctoral work focuses on the minimization of the pixel antenna complexity while maximizing its recon guration capabilities, contributing to the development of pixel antennas from a conceptual structure towards a practical recon gurable antenna architecture. First, the conceptualization of novel pixel geometries is addressed. It is shown that antenna complexity can be signi cantly reduced by using multiple-sized pixels. This multi-size technique allows to design pixel antennas with a number of switches one order of magnitude lower than in common pixel structures, while preserving high multiparameter recon gurability. A new conceptual architecture where the pixel surface acts as a parasitic layer is also proposed. The parasitic nature of the pixel layer leads to important advantages regarding the switch biasing and integration possibilities. Secondly, new pixel recon guration technologies are explored. After investigating the capabilities of semiconductors and RF-MEMS switches, micro uidic technology is proposed as a new technology to create and remove liquid metal pixels rather than interconnecting them. Thirdly, the full multi-parameter recon guration capabilities of pixel antennas is explored, which contrasts with the partial explorations available in the literature. The maximum achievable recon guration ranges (frequency range, beam-steering angular range and polarization modes) as well as the linkage between the di erent parameter under recon guration are studied. Finally, the performance of recon gurable antennas in beam-steering applications is analyzed. Figures-of-merit are derived to quantify radiation pattern recon gurability, enabling the evaluation of the performance of recon gurable antennas, pixel antennas and recon guration algorithms.Award-winningPostprint (published version

Reconfigurable pixel antennas for communications

The explosive growth of wireless communications has brought new requirements in terms of compactness, mobility and multi-functionality that pushes antenna research. In this context, recon gurable antennas have gained a lot of attention due to their ability to adjust dynamically their frequency and radiation properties, providing multiple functionalities and being able to adapt themselves to a changing environment. A pixel antenna is a particular type of recon gurable antenna composed of a grid of metallic patches interconnected by RF-switches which can dynamically reshape its active surface. This capability provides pixel antennas with a recon guration level much higher than in other recon gurable architectures. Despite the outstanding recon guration capabilities of pixel antennas, there are important practical issues related to the performance-complexity balance that must be addressed before they can be implemented in commercial systems. This doctoral work focuses on the minimization of the pixel antenna complexity while maximizing its recon guration capabilities, contributing to the development of pixel antennas from a conceptual structure towards a practical recon gurable antenna architecture. First, the conceptualization of novel pixel geometries is addressed. It is shown that antenna complexity can be signi cantly reduced by using multiple-sized pixels. This multi-size technique allows to design pixel antennas with a number of switches one order of magnitude lower than in common pixel structures, while preserving high multiparameter recon gurability. A new conceptual architecture where the pixel surface acts as a parasitic layer is also proposed. The parasitic nature of the pixel layer leads to important advantages regarding the switch biasing and integration possibilities. Secondly, new pixel recon guration technologies are explored. After investigating the capabilities of semiconductors and RF-MEMS switches, micro uidic technology is proposed as a new technology to create and remove liquid metal pixels rather than interconnecting them. Thirdly, the full multi-parameter recon guration capabilities of pixel antennas is explored, which contrasts with the partial explorations available in the literature. The maximum achievable recon guration ranges (frequency range, beam-steering angular range and polarization modes) as well as the linkage between the di erent parameter under recon guration are studied. Finally, the performance of recon gurable antennas in beam-steering applications is analyzed. Figures-of-merit are derived to quantify radiation pattern recon gurability, enabling the evaluation of the performance of recon gurable antennas, pixel antennas and recon guration algorithms

Computational methods for calculating meiotic recombination from nuclear pedigrees

Meiotic recombination is increasingly an important area for research in genetics. Recombination is critical for the proper segregation of chromosomes, and errors in recombination may result in chromosomal abnormalities and non-disjunction. Both the total number and the pattern of recombination events are known to vary genome-wide and from person to person. Using genome-wide genotype data to detect locations of recombination in individuals is the first necessary tool to study recombination. Earlier methods, e.g. CRI-MAP, used linkage-style modeling on three-generation families and sparse microsatellite markers to detect recombination events. More recently, methods using “streaks” of SNPs showing IBD status on dense GWAS SNP data have been used to score recombination locations in sibships. Here, I have developed a new SNP streak method to score recombination locations in pedigree types not previously handled, such as half-sibling pedigrees, and pedigrees with one or more ungenotyped individuals. We implemented our new method as a Python software package, MBFam. This package analyzes family-based genome-wide association datasets, accepting input data as PLINK binary files, a widely used input format for genetic data. The computation steps involve extraction of recombination probands, detection of recombination events, computation of recombination breakpoint locations and the offspring inheriting each recombination event, while accounting for Mendelian inheritance inconsistency errors and proximate double recombinations. MBFam has been extensively tested on the Mac OSX and Linux platforms. For demonstration purposes, this new method was applied to two family-based GWAS datasets. Recombination intervals scored were used to create sex-specific average recombination counts (ARC) using all new pedigree structures and only the full-sibships. GWASs were conducted for male and female probands for both sets of ARCs. In one of the datasets, the added pedigree structures increased the female proband sample. This new method has the potential to significantly improve sample sizes for recombination studies, eventually leading to a better understanding of the biology of recombination and fertility, and benefitting the design of medical and public health interventions for improving maternal and child health