THE DISEASES AND PESTS CONTROL IN THE FARMING CULTURES, USING BIOPRODUCTS

The making of a performant agriculture is influenced among other things by the applicative working technologies, the phyto-sanitary protection having an important role within these technologies.The current research and studies concerning the methods and equipments of applying of phyto-sanitary treatments, are enrolled in the new trends for applying a long lasting agriculture; the phyto-sanitary protection represents one of the main sources of the environment poluation resources.In the first part of the work is presented a syntesis of the aspects concerning the impact of the phytosanitary treatments used in agriculture upon environment, the methods used these days for diseases and pests control and the future  trends  with referrence to the technologies and products used in  the agricultural ecological practice and at the end are presented products already used or being at the begining using phase

Numerical and experimental transition results evaluation for a morphing wing and aileron system

A new wing-tip concept with morphing upper surface and interchangeable conventional and morphing ailerons was designed, manufactured, bench and wind tunnel tested. The development of this wing tip model was performed in the frame of an international CRIAQ project, and the purpose was to demonstrate the wing upper surface and aileron morphing capabilities in improving the wing tip aerodynamic performances. During numerical optimization with ‘in-house’ genetic algorithm software, and during wind tunnel experimental tests, it was demonstrated that the air flow laminarity over the wing skin was promoted, and the laminar flow was extended with up to 9% of the chord. Drag coefficient reduction of up to 9% was obtained when the morphing aileron was introduced

Epidemiology of fractures in Armenia: development of a country-specific FRAX model and comparison to its surrogate

Summary: Fracture probabilities derived from the surrogate FRAX model for Armenia were compared to those from the model based on regional estimates of the incidence of hip fracture. Disparities between the surrogate and authentic FRAX models indicate the importance of developing country-specific FRAX models. Despite large differences between models, differences in the rank order of fracture probabilities were minimal. Objective: Armenia has relied on a surrogate FRAX model based on the fracture epidemiology of Romania. This paper describes the epidemiology of fragility fractures in Armenia used to create an Armenia-specific FRAX model with an aim of comparing this new model with the surrogate model. Methods: We carried out a population-based study in two regions of Armenia (Ararat and Vayots Dzor representing approximately 11% of the country’s population). We aimed to identify all low-energy fractures: retrospectively from hospital registers in 2011–2012 and prospectively in 2013 with the inclusion of primary care sources. Results: The differences in incidence between the surveys with and without data from primary care suggested that 44% of patients sustaining a hip fracture did not receive specialized medical care. A similar proportion of forearm and humeral fractures did not come to hospital attention (48 and 49%, respectively). Only 57.7% of patients sustaining a hip fracture were hospitalized. In 2013, hip fracture incidence at the age of 50 years or more was 201/100,000 for women and 136/100,000 for men, and age- and sex-specific rates were incorporated into the new “authentic” FRAX model for Armenia. Compared to the surrogate model, the authentic model gave lower 10-year fracture probabilities in men and women aged less than 70 years but substantially higher above this age. Notwithstanding, there were very close correlations in fracture probabilities between the surrogate and authentic models ( >  0.99) so that the revisions had little impact on the rank order of risk. Conclusion: A substantial proportion of major osteoporotic fractures in Armenia do not come to hospital attention. The disparities between surrogate and authentic FRAX models indicate the importance of developing country-specific FRAX models. Despite large differences between models, differences in the rank order of fracture probabilities were minimal

Intelligent control of a morphing wing Part 1: Design phase

The paper describes the design phase of an intelligent controller for a new morphing mechanism using smart materials made of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) for the actuators. After a brief presentation of the morphing wing system, the controller purposes are discussed. The morphing system requirements and the behaviour of SMA actuators lead to a fuzzy logic Proportional-Integral- Derivative for the controller architecture. The output error and the change in error are used as controller inputs, while the electrical current is used as command variable (controller output). In the chosen architecture, the inputs and outputs designed membership functions, and the inference rules allow the control of both cooling and heating SMA phases. In this way, the electrical current given by the controller is approximately 0 A for the cooling phase, and have higher values for the heating phase depending by the values of controller inputs. In the fuzzy logic controller input-output mapping, [-1, 1] interval is chosen as the universe for all inputs signals, while the [0, 2.5] interval is used for output signal. Numerical simulations impose a number of three membership functions for each of the two inputs, three membership functions for the output, and five inference rules. The shapes of the inputs membership functions are s-function, \u3c0-function, respectively z-function, while the product fuzzy inference and the center average defuzzifier are applied (Sugeno).Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Controller and aeroelasticity analysis for a morphing wing

The main objectives of this research work are: the design and the wind tunnel testing of a controller for a new morphing mechanism using smart materials made of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) for the actuators, and the aero-elasticity studies for the morphing wing. The finally obtained configuration for the controller is a combination of a bi-positional controller (on-off) and a PI (proportional-integral) controller, due to the two phases (heating and cooling) of the SMA wires' interconnection. Firstly, the controller is used for the open loop development step of a morphing wing project, while, further, it is included as an internal loop in the closed loop architecture of the morphing wing system. In the controller design procedure four step are considered: 1) SMA actuators model numerical simulation for different loading force cases; 2) linear system approximation in the heating and cooling phases using Matlab's System Identification Toolbox and the numerical values obtained in the first step; 3) selecting the controller type and its tuning for each of the two SMA actuators' phases - heating and cooling; and 4) integration of the two controllers just obtained into a single controller. For the controller validation three actions are taken: 1) numerical simulation; 2) bench testing; and 3) wind tunnel testing. For the third part of this study, aeroelastic studies, the purpose is to determine the flutter conditions in order to be avoided during wind tunnel tests. These studies show that aeroelastic instabilities for the morphing configurations considered appears at Mach number 0.55, which is higher than the wind tunnel Mach number limit speed of 0.3. \ua9 2011 by Ruxandra Botez.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Intelligent control of a morphing wing Part 2: Validation phase

The paper presents the numerical and experimental validation of an intelligent controller for a new morphing mechanism using smart materials made of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) for the actuators. A brief presentation of the finally adopted controller architecture precedes its validation exposure consisting in numerical simulations, experimental bench tests, and wind tunnel tests. The Matlab/Simulink software is used to tune the controller through numerical simulation and after that to be experimentally implemented. In the physical model development, two Programmable Switching Power Supplies AMREL SPS 100-33 and a Quanser Q8 data acquisition card are used. The feedback signals in the control loop are provided by two Linear Variable Differential Transformer potentiometers monitoring the actuators' positions. Also, six thermocouples allow supervising of the SMA wires temperatures. In order to obtain the desired skin deflections, the power supplies are controlled using the acquisition card outputs.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

An intelligent controller based fuzzy logic techniques for a morphing wing actuation system using shape memory alloy

The paper presents a way to control the actuation lines of a morphing wing using an intelligent controller based on fuzzy logic techniques. The strong non-linear character of the used actuators, made from some smart materials, and the numerical simulations achieved in the design phase provides for the controller a fuzzy logic Proportional-Integral-Derivative architecture seconded by a conventional On-Off controller. The input-output mapping of the fuzzy model is designed, taking account of the system's error and its change in error. The shapes chosen for the inputs' membership functions are triangular, while the product fuzzy inference and the center average defuzzifier are applied (Sugeno). After the controller tuning, three validation steps are done: a numerical one, followed by other two experimentally. For the experimental validation, bench tests and wind tunnel tests are performed. The bench test experimental validation is made in laboratory conditions, in the absence of aerodynamic forces, for different actuation commands. In the wind tunnel tests, are also experimentally validated the optimized airfoils with the theoretically- determined airfoils obtained earlier. Both the transition point real time position detection and visualization are realized in wind tunnel tests. Copyright \ua9 2011 by Ruxandra M Botez.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye