Energy saving through load balancing of 3-wire loads

In this paper, static var compensators (SVCs) and many load compensation techniques are reviewed. A continuously and linearly controlled compensating susceptance is devised from a switched capacitor bank and a switched reactor bank. The switched capacitor bank is built of four binary weighted thyristor switched capacitors, while the switched reactor bank is built of three binary weighted thyristor switched reactors. Although few switched capacitors and reactor are used, their binary weighted values beside their control scheme make them respond as a continuously and linearly controlled reactive device in capacitive and inductive modes of operation. A load balancing system is constructed of three identical devised compensating susceptances connected in delta-form. It is designed for balancing an 11 kV 50 Hz distribution station. The proposed system is designed and tested on PSpice which is a computer program equivalent in performance to real hardware design. The simulation results of the proposed system have showed significant treatment of severe imbalance conditions

Network Coded Modulation for Two Way Relay Networks

Modern wireless networks use cooperative relaying to expand its coverage area. Wireless relaying allows mobile terminals toparticipate in transmission even when these terminals are not being the initial source or final destination. This can be achieved in differentways ranging from simple conventional relaying to more sophisticated coding at terminal and relay nodes to improve transmissionperformance. The proposed work here studied such system by simulating different coding techniques to be used in two way relay networkcoding (TWRC). Some of these techniques were previously proposed to improve transmission performance in conventional datacommunication systems. BER performance of different arrangements of coding and relaying schemes are evaluated using computersimulation tests. Ideal AWGN channel model and standard wireless channel models for wireless networks are considered in the simulationtests. The results have been shown that coding schemes such as Trellis Coded Modulation (TCM) and Repeat Accumulate (RA) codes aremore suitable in two way relaying networks. Over AWGN, TCM-8PSK improves BER performance by at least 2 dB at high SNR fordifferent relaying arrangements. For fading channels, this advantage is slightly reduced. Regenerative repeating at relay node seems to be apromising arrangement. It seems that there is no sense in using RA codes over fading channels due to its poor performance and relativelylower speed caused by repetitions

Biologically-inspired hierarchical architectures for object recognition

PhD ThesisThe existing methods for machine vision translate the three-dimensional objects in the real world into two-dimensional images. These methods have achieved acceptable performances in recognising objects. However, the recognition performance drops dramatically when objects are transformed, for instance, the background, orientation, position in the image, and scale. The human’s visual cortex has evolved to form an efficient invariant representation of objects from within a scene. The superior performance of human can be explained by the feed-forward multi-layer hierarchical structure of human visual cortex, in addition to, the utilisation of different fields of vision depending on the recognition task. Therefore, the research community investigated building systems that mimic the hierarchical architecture of the human visual cortex as an ultimate objective. The aim of this thesis can be summarised as developing hierarchical models of the visual processing that tackle the remaining challenges of object recognition. To enhance the existing models of object recognition and to overcome the above-mentioned issues, three major contributions are made that can be summarised as the followings 1. building a hierarchical model within an abstract architecture that achieves good performances in challenging image object datasets; 2. investigating the contribution for each region of vision for object and scene images in order to increase the recognition performance and decrease the size of the processed data; 3. further enhance the performance of all existing models of object recognition by introducing hierarchical topologies that utilise the context in which the object is found to determine the identity of the object. Statement ofHigher Committee For Education Development in Iraq (HCED

Biodiesel production from canola oil using TiO2CaO as a heterogenous catalyst

Biodiesel is one of the renewable energy sources that is an alternative to fossil diesel that is non-toxic and produces less CO emissions. Transesterification process is a conventional mechanism to produce biodiesel from vegetable oil with a homogeneous or heterogenous catalyst. However, heterogenous catalysts are considered as more efficient than homogenous catalysts. Recently, TiO2/CaO has been used as a compound heterogenous catalyst to produce biodiesel produce from palm oil, waste cooking oils and algae. In this research, biodiesel was manufactured using canola oil as a feedstock and titanium dioxide / calcium oxide (TiO2/CaO) as a catalyst. The aim of this study is to prepare the catalyst, investigate the transesterification process and measure the chemical and physical biodiesel properties. Catalyst preparation required four stages: dry mixing, wet mixing, water separation and catalyst activation where there were two temperature phases (200 °C and 600 °C). Catalyst mixed with methanol by 1:16 ratio had different mixing time phases (30 minutes, 60 minutes, and 90 minutes). The Transesterification process was by blending the catalyst-methanol mixture with canola oil under 3 phases (4 hours, 5 hours, and 6 hours). The catalyst characterization was by analysis of X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), temperature activation effects and activation time effects. The transesterification process analysis showed that the optimization conditions to produce biodiesel are 600 °C activation catalyst temperature, 90 minutes of catalyst�methanol mixing, 1.5% wt. catalyst concentration and 5 hours of transesterification time. The biodiesel yield was 96.9%. Moreover, new parameters were applied for this research (time and temperature of activation catalyst, catalyst-methanol mixing parameters and transesterification process conditions). Biodiesel properties (kinematic viscosity, flash point and water content) were measured according to ASTM D6751 standards and similarity was 98%. Therefore, biodiesel can be produced from canola oil and TiO2/CaO, but this still needs more studies on several topics such as the blending of canola with multi feedstocks, the ethanol impact and catalyst poisoning in the case of using TiO2-CaO as a catalyst

Genre-based analysis of travel guides: a study on Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The language of travel guides can help highlight the importance of modelling the mind of the readers and changing them from readers to actual clients. This paper reports a genre- based analysis study of a move-structure of online tourist travel guides of three Asian countries: Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Kathpalia’s nine-move structure (1992) for advertising is adopted as a framework to analyse the selected travel guides using Atlas ti (a qualitative data analysis software). Data selection is based on the latest edition of Asian online travel guides. The main purposes of this study are to analyze the move structures, their strategies and communicative purposes, identify the prevalent move(s) in the selected travel guides, as well as to find out whether the selected travel guides have the same move structures. The findings of this study show that the travel guides have different quantity of moves. The prevalent moves in these three travel guides were also identified. Results highlight the diversity and strategies of moves in the online travel guides which are related to the nature of the country, perception and aims of the writer to promote or persuade readers. A brief discussion on these categories, and teaching implications follow these finding

Influence of the Different Carbon and Nitrogen Sources on the Production of Biodiesel by Oleaginous Fungi Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus fumigatus

في الدراسة الحاليه  تمت المقارنه بين تاثير مصادر كربونيه ونتروجينيه مختلفه على النمو ومحتوى الدهون في عزلتين من الفطريات المنتجه للدهون    Aspergillus  terreus و Aspergillus fumigatus  . زرعت العزلتين الفطريه على اوساط زرعيه حاويه على مصادر كربونيه مختلفه السكريات الاحاديه والثنائية والمتعدده  ومصادر نتروجينيه متضمنه الببتون وخلاصة الخميرة  وكانت الاوساط الحاويه على السكروز / خلاصة الخميره  او السكروز / خلاصة الخميره اكثر تاثيرا على انتاجيه الدهون للعزلتين الفطريه خلال فترة حضانه اسبوعين حيث بلغت   اعلى قيمة للكتلة الحيويه المتمثلة بالوزن الجاف (19.6 , 18.8)   (25.8 , 30.5 ) ,   غم / لتر ونسبة الدهون  (1, 0.97 )g/L  , (0.65 , 0.65) غم / لتر لكلا العزلنين الفطريه Aspergillus  terreus   و   Aspergillus fumigatus  على الترتيب ثم تبعتها اوساط الغنيه  بالمالتوز/ خلاصة الخميرة واخيرا النشا  / خلاصة الخميرة . وفيما يخص تحليل الحوامض الدهنيه بواسطه جهاز كروموتوكرافيا الغاز Gas Chromotography   والمنتجه من قبل كلا  العزلتين الفطريتين لوحظ وجود انواع مختلفه تضمنت   Palmitic   Oleic acids , stearic acid   و linoleic acid   اي المشبعه والغير مشبعه. اظهرت النتائج تفاوت في تركيب الحوامض الدهنيه يعتمد على نوع مصادر الكربون والنتروجين , وجود الحوامض الدهنيه المشبعه الاحاديه والغير مشبعه في كلا الفطرين  A. terreus و  A.fumigatusيثبت كونهما مرشحان جيدين في انتاج الديزل الحيوي.In the present study, the growth and total lipid contents of two oleaginous fungal isolates Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus fumigatus were compared in different nitrogen and organic carbon sources.  Artificially the fungi were cultured on media consisting of various mono- or di- or polysaccharides and  peptone or yeast extract as elementary sources for carbon and nitrogen, respectively. Media containing sucrose /yeast extract or glucose/ yeast extract were the most effective for lipid production from fungal, during  two weeks  incubation period, the highest biomass of dry weight was (19.6 , 18.8) g / L , (25.8 , 30.5) g /L  and  lipid yield (1, 0.97 )g/L, (0.65, 0.65) g/ L for two isolates Aspergillus terreus and Aspergillus fumigatus  respectively then followed maltose/ yeast extract then  starch / yeast extract .Analysis of fatty acid produced by two fungal isolates  using Gas Chromatography  showed the existence of a wide range of fatty acids, these fatty acids were together saturated and unsaturated. The results revealed that the unevenness in the fatty acids composition mainly depends on the type of carbon and nitrogen sources. The existence of saturated and mono saturated fatty acids in A.fumigatus, A. terreus prove that they are  good candidate for biodiesel production. The analysis of fatty acid from the fungal growth showed the existence of a wide range of fatty acids   Palmitic ,Oleic acids , stearic acid and linoleic acid     together saturated and unsaturated. The results revealed that the unevenness in the fatty acid composition mainly depends on the type  of carbon  and nitrogen sources. The presence of saturated and mono saturated fatty acid in  A.fumigatus , A. terreus prove that it is a good candidate for biodiesel production

Aerial image segmentation

Image segmentation plays a vital role in applications such as remote sensing. For this example, remote sensing, aerial image segmentation is a special case of image segmentation. There are some unique features of aerial images, like noise in natural landscapes, which need to be addressed in order to obtain an optimal solution. Bushes and rocks are examples of landscape features with diverse and variable pixel values that need to be distinguished by the segmentation process. Smoothing filters present a common solution to address the problem of noise in images, as does aerial image segmentation. There are several image segmentation techniques used for aerial image segmentation. Some of these techniques are more sensitive to noise problems, and are necessary to discriminate between different smoothing filters. In this thesis, a number of different aspects of aerial image segmentation and their solutions are explained. In addition to this, a novel smoothing filter is introduced and compared with other methods using different segmentation techniques. Finally, all of the previous points are applied to a real world problem.Master of Science (MSc) in Computational Science

Behaviour of concrete structures repaired with a novel and sustainable composite jacket

Repairing deteriorating structures is a major challenge for many economies around the world. The use of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composite jackets has become a preferred solution in repairing bridge piles as they can be easily installed and form a robust single-piece repair system providing structural continuity along the hoop direction. Recently, a novel prefabricated glass-FRP (GFRP) jacket with innovative joining system that comprises two interlocking edges was developed. The actual performance of this jacket however is not fully explored and its structural contribution to the repaired structure is yet to be determined. This study focused on investigating the behaviour of damaged reinforced concrete (RC) structures repaired with the novel jacket and evaluating its effectiveness as prefabricated FRP repair system. The grout plays a vital role in transferring the stresses between the damaged concrete structure and the FRP jacket, thus the most suitable grout system is determined as the first study. The effects of three types of grout infills, i.e. cementitious- concrete- and epoxy-based grout, on the structural behaviour of prefabricated GFRP tubes were investigated. The considered grouts have compressive strength and modulus of elasticity ranging from 10 MPa to 70 MPa and from 10 GPa to 35 GPa, respectively, which are the experimental parameters of this stage. The results showed that the brittle failure behaviour of the cementitious and epoxy grouts led to localised failure in the FRP repair system while the progressive cracking and crushing of the concrete infill resulted in effective utilisation of the high strength properties of the composite materials. The developed theoretical model accurately predicts the compressive behaviour of the grout-filled GFRP tubes. From this study, it was also determined that a cementitious grout is a suitable grout system due to its relatively high strength and stiffness as well as its ease of handling and installation. The effectiveness of the novel FRP jacket as a repair system for RC columns with simulated corrosion damage was evaluated as the second study. Large scale circular and square columns were fabricated with 25% and 50% steel corrosion damage, and 50% and 100% concrete cover damage, then repaired with the FRP jacket and tested axially until failure. The results showed that the jacket restored the load-carrying capacity by 99% and 95% for columns with 25% and 50% corrosion damage, respectively, while the repaired columns with 50% and 100% concrete cover damage restored their axial load capacity by 95% and 82%, respectively. Moreover, the FRP jacket was found to be 43% more effective in repairing circular columns than the square columns due to the better confinement provided by the GFRP jacket in the circular than in the square column. Theoretical model predicting the axial strength of repaired columns showed an excellent agreement with the experimental results. Bridge piers are normally subjected to lateral loads from water, tides and waves which create flexural stresses. Thus, the flexural behaviour of seven RC square members with simulated damage repaired with the novel FRP jacket was investigated as the third study. The FRP jacket was found to be more effective in repairing concrete members under flexural load when the damage is located in the compression zone rather than in the tension zone. This effectiveness could be further increased by placing the joint away from the compression zone. The provision of epoxy and coarse aggregates inside the jacket surface improved the stress distribution and cracks propagation in the jacket with grout. A simplified fibre model analysis which considers the confined tensile and compressive properties of the grout reliably predicted the flexural capacity of the damaged beams repaired with the FRP jacket. Finally, Finite Element (FE) analysis was conducted to gain a better understanding of the behaviour of the repaired columns and to evaluate the effect of joint strength on the effectiveness of the repair system. ABAQUS software package was utilised to develop the FE model using the information obtained from the experimental stages as inputs for the model. The behaviour of the repaired columns was simulated accurately by considering the damaged plasticity model for concrete, bilinear behaviour for steel and linear elastic behaviour of the FRP composites. The results of the FE analysis revealed that the joint of the jacket should be placed away from the damaged zone to minimise stress concentration and effectively utilise the jacket as a repair system. Moreover, joint with tensile strength of at least 20% of the novel GFRP jacket’s hoop strength can significantly improve the capacity of the repaired column. The results of this work provided a comprehensive evaluation on the effectiveness of the novel FRP repair system and detailed understanding on the behaviour of the damaged structures where the current system is sufficient for structural repair; however, further improvements are necessary to modify the joint to extend the jacket’s application as a strengthening system. Moreover, this research successfully explored the benefits of this unique system and provided a safe design tools for engineers to effectively utilise the novel FRP jacket in repair applications

Potential involvement of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in the pathogenesis of periodontitis

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition is reportedly important in loss of epithelial integrity and cell migration in inflammatory/infectious diseases and cancer. Since Gram negative anaerobic periodontal pathogens are well-recognized to induce intense inflammatory responses; the present study investigated their ability to induce EMT in vitro. A 2D chronic inflammatory model was developed using either the H400 oral keratinocyte cell-line or primary rat oral keratinocytes which were exposed to heat-killed Fusobacterium nucleatum, Porphyromonas gingivalis and Escherichia coli LPS for up to 8-days. EMT-associated changes were determined using semi-quantitative-RT-PCR, PCR-arrays, ELISA, scratch/transwell migration assays, immunocytochemistry/immunofluorescence, and transepithelial electrical resistance. Chronically stimulated cultures increased extracellular levels of the EMT regulatory cytokines, TGF-β1, TNF-α and EGF, whilst subsequent EMT-induction was indicated by up-regulation of mesenchymal markers, including vimentin and N-cadherin, and concomitant down-regulation of epithelial markers including E-cadherin and β-catenin. In addition, intracellular signaling activity of key EMT regulatory transcription factors, Snail-1 and NF-ĸB, increased following chronic bacterial exposure and was associated with enhanced cellular migratory activity and reduced epithelial barrier integrity. These results indicated for the first time that EMT may be involved in the compromised epithelial barrier function observed during periodontitis pathogenesis which may occur in response to prolonged local bacterial exposure

Corrosion Protection Study of Carbon Steel and 316 Stainless Steel Alloys Coated by Nanoparticles

The Corrosion protection effectiveness of Alimina(Al2O3,50nm)and Zinc oxide (ZnO,30nm) nanoparticales were studied on carbon steel and 316 stainless steel alloys in saline water (3.5%NaCl)at four temperatures: (20,30,40,50 OC)using three electrodes potentiostat. An average corrosion protection efficiencies of 65 %and 80% was achieved using Al2O3 NP's on carbon steel and stainless steel samples respectively, and it seems that no effect of rising temperature on the performances of the coated layers. While ZnO NP'S showed protection efficiency around 65% for the two alloys and little effected by temperature rising on the performanes of the coated layers. The morphology of the coated spesiemses was examined by Atomic force microscope