Wavelet based flickering flame detector using differential PIR sensors

Cataloged from PDF version of article.A Pyro-electric Infrared (PIR) sensor based flame detection system is proposed using a Markovian decision algorithm. A differential PIR sensor is only sensitive to sudden temperature variations within its viewing range and it produces a time-varying signal. The wavelet transform of the PIR sensor signal is used for feature extraction from sensor signal and wavelet parameters are fed to a set of Markov models corresponding to the flame flicker process of an uncontrolled fire, ordinary activity of human beings and other objects. The final decision is reached based on the model yielding the highest probability among others. Comparative results show that the system can be used for fire detection in large rooms. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A preliminary study of representing the inter-occupant diversity in occupant modelling

Significant diversity between occupants and their presence and actions results in major uncertainty with regard to predicting building performance. However, many current occupant modelling approaches – even stochastic ones – suppress occupant diversity by focusing on developing representative occupants. Accordingly, existing approaches tend to limit the ability of stochastic occupant models to provide probabilistic building performance distributions. Using occupancy data from 16 private offices, this paper evaluated three hypotheses: (1) occupant parameters have a continuous distribution rather than discrete; (2) modelling occupants from aggregated data suppresses diversity; and (3) randomly selecting occupant traits exaggerates synthetic population diversity. The paper indicates that samples sizes for the studied occupants would have more appropriately been an order of magnitude higher: hundreds. This introductory paper shows that there are many future research needs with regard to modelling occupants

The diversity challenge in models of occupants' presence in buildings

This contribution is concerned with a number of basic questions regarding inhabitants' presence in buildings: How diverse are office inhabitants' presence patterns? Aside from the differences in the absolute values of the defining markers of such patterns (e.g. arrival and departure times), to which extent do the respective distributions of the marker values differ from inhabitant to inhabitant? Are tendencies regarding presence patterns in one location transferrable to other locations? Can the diversity of presence patterns among the inhabitants be reproduced via the randomisation of the markers' mean values? To explore these questions, we use monitored presence data from two offices in two different locations. The findings point to considerable differences amongst inhabitants and locations. Moreover, an empirically observable diversity of the office workers' presence patterns cannot be simply reproduced based on the randomisation of generic presence patterns

Medicinal plants grown in soil amended with struvite recovered from anaerobically pretreated poultry manure wastewater

ABSTRACT 3--P = 1:1:1, pH = 9.0) was tested as a slow release fertilizer on the growth of four medicinal plants including garden rocket (Eruca sativa), dill (Anethum graveolens), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and parsley (Petroselinum crispum) in a series of labscale greenhouse experiment. Pot trial tests indicated that rates of increase in fresh weights, dry weights and fresh heights of plants grown in soil fertilized with the recovered struvite were determined as 405%, 488%, and 51% for garden rocket; 154%, 191%, and 44% for dill; 152%, 379%, and 27% for fennel; 141%, 208%, and 22% for parsley, respectively, compared to the control pot. Results of a static bioassay test proved that the use of plants cultivated in MAP pots as the feeding material did not cause any acute toxicity symptoms or mortality in guppy fish (Lebistes reticulatus), and all survived and exhibited normal visual responses at the end of 170-h exposure. Findings of this study confirmed that the recovered struvite from UASB effluent provided a valuable slow release fertilizer for the agricultural use, resulting an edible multi-nutrient animal feed

Modelling Acceleration Decisions in Traffic Streams with Weak Lane Discipline: A Latent Leader Approach

Acceleration is an important driving manoeuvre that has been modelled for decades as a critical element of the microscopic traffic simulation tools. The state-of-the art acceleration models have however primarily focused on lane based traffic. In lane based traffic, every driver has a single distinct lead vehicle in the front and the acceleration of the driver is typically modelled as a function of the relative speed, position and/or type of the corresponding leader. On the contrary, in a traffic stream with weak lane discipline, the subject driver may have multiple vehicles in the front. The subject driver is therefore subjected to multiple sources of stimulus for acceleration and reacts to the stimulus from the governing leader. However, only the applied accelerations are observed in the trajectory data, and the governing leader is unobserved or latent. The state-of-the-art models therefore cannot be directly applied to traffic streams with weak lane discipline. This prompts the current research where we present a latent leader acceleration model. The model has two components: a random utility based dynamic class membership model (latent leader component) and a class-specific acceleration model (acceleration component). The parameters of the model have been calibrated using detailed trajectory data collected from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Results indicate that the probability of a given front vehicle of being the governing leader can depend on the type of the lead vehicle and the extent of lateral overlap with the subject driver. The estimation results are compared against a simpler acceleration model (where the leader is determined deterministically) and a significant improvement in the goodness-of-fit is observed. The proposed models, when implemented in microscopic traffic simulation tools, are expected to result more realistic representation of traffic streams with weak lane discipline

Beautiful Mirrors at the LHC

We explore the "Beautiful Mirrors" model, which aims to explain the measured value of $A^b_{FB}$, discrepant at the $2.9\sigma$ level. This scenario introduces vector-like quarks which mix with the bottom, subtly affecting its coupling to the $Z$. The spectrum of the new particles consists of two bottom-like quarks and a charge -4/3 quark, all of which have electroweak interactions with the third generation. We explore the phenomenology and discovery reach for these new particles at the LHC, exploring single mirror quark production modes whose rates are proportional to the same mixing parameters which resolve the $A_{FB}^b$ anomaly. We find that for mirror quark masses $\lesssim 500 GeV, a 14 TeV LHC with 300 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ is required to reasonably establish the scenario and extract the relevant mixing parameters.Comment: version to be published in JHE

A search for resonant production of ttˉt\bar{t} pairs in $4.8\ \rm{fb}^{-1}ofintegratedluminosityof of integrated luminosity of p\bar{p}collisionsat collisions at \sqrt{s}=1.96\ \rm{TeV}$

We search for resonant production of tt pairs in 4.8 fb^{-1} integrated luminosity of ppbar collision data at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV in the lepton+jets decay channel, where one top quark decays leptonically and the other hadronically. A matrix element reconstruction technique is used; for each event a probability density function (pdf) of the ttbar candidate invariant mass is sampled. These pdfs are used to construct a likelihood function, whereby the cross section for resonant ttbar production is estimated, given a hypothetical resonance mass and width. The data indicate no evidence of resonant production of ttbar pairs. A benchmark model of leptophobic Z \rightarrow ttbar is excluded with m_{Z'} < 900 GeV at 95% confidence level.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review D Sep 21, 201

Evidence for t\bar{t}\gamma Production and Measurement of \sigma_t\bar{t}\gamma / \sigma_t\bar{t}

Using data corresponding to 6.0/fb of ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector, we present a cross section measurement of top-quark pair production with an additional radiated photon. The events are selected by looking for a lepton, a photon, significant transverse momentum imbalance, large total transverse energy, and three or more jets, with at least one identified as containing a b quark. The ttbar+photon sample requires the photon to have 10 GeV or more of transverse energy, and to be in the central region. Using an event selection optimized for the ttbar+photon candidate sample we measure the production cross section of, and the ratio of cross sections of the two samples. Control samples in the dilepton+photon and lepton+photon+\met, channels are constructed to aid in decay product identification and background measurements. We observe 30 ttbar+photon candidate events compared to the standard model expectation of 26.9 +/- 3.4 events. We measure the ttbar+photon cross section to be 0.18+0.08 pb, and the ratio of the cross section of ttbar+photon to ttbar to be 0.024 +/- 0.009. Assuming no ttbar+photon production, we observe a probability of 0.0015 of the background events alone producing 30 events or more, corresponding to 3.0 standard deviations.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Precision Top-Quark Mass Measurements at CDF

We present a precision measurement of the top-quark mass using the full sample of Tevatron $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV proton-antiproton collisions collected by the CDF II detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7 $fb^{-1}$. Using a sample of $t\bar{t}$ candidate events decaying into the lepton+jets channel, we obtain distributions of the top-quark masses and the invariant mass of two jets from the $W$ boson decays from data. We then compare these distributions to templates derived from signal and background samples to extract the top-quark mass and the energy scale of the calorimeter jets with {\it in situ} calibration. The likelihood fit of the templates from signal and background events to the data yields the single most-precise measurement of the top-quark mass, \mtop = 172.85 \pm$0.71 (stat)$\pm$0.85 (syst) GeV/c^{2}.$Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

A multi-sensor network for the protection of cultural heritage

The paper presents a novel automatic early warning system to remotely monitor areas of archaeological and cultural interest from the risk of fire. Since these areas have been treasured and tended for very long periods of time, they are usually surrounded by old and valuable vegetation or situated close to forest regions, which exposes them to an increased risk of fire. The proposed system takes advantage of recent advances in multi-sensor surveillance technologies, using optical and infrared cameras, wireless sensor networks capable of monitoring different modalities (e.g. temperature and humidity) as well as local weather stations on the deployment site. The signals collected from these sensors are transmitted to a monitoring centre, which employs intelligent computer vision and pattern recognition algorithms as well as data fusion techniques to automatically analyze sensor information. The system is capable of generating automatic warning signals for local authorities whenever a dangerous situation arises, as well as estimating the propagation of the fire based on the fuel model of the area and other important parameters such as wind speed, slope, and aspect of the ground surface. © 2011 EURASIP