New Energy Management Systems for Battery Electric Vehicles with Supercapacitor

Recently, the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) has been considered to be a proper candidate to terminate the problems associated with fuel-based vehicles. Therefore, the development and enhancement of the BEVs have lately formed an attractive field of study. One of the significant challenges to commercialize BEVs is to overcome the battery drawbacks that limit the BEV’s performance. One promising solution is to hybridize the BEV with a supercapacitor (SC) so that the battery is the primary source of energy meanwhile the SC handles sudden fluctuations in power demand. Obviously, to exploit the most benefits from this hybrid system, an intelligent Energy Management System (EMS) is required. In this thesis, different EMSs are developed: first, the Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller (NMPC) based on Newton Generalized Minimum Residual (Newton/GMRES) method. The NMPC effectively optimizes the power distribution between the battery and supercapacitor as a result of NMPC ability to handle multi-input, multi-output problems and utilize past information to predict future power demand. However, real-time application of the NMPC is challenging due to its huge computational cost. Therefore, Newton/GMRES, which is a fast real-time optimizer, is implemented in the heart of the NMPC. Simulation results demonstrate that the Newton/GMRES NMPC successfully protects the battery during high power peaks and nadirs. On the other hand, future power demand is inherently probabilistic. Consequently, Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) is employed to maximize the battery lifespan while considering the uncertain nature of power demand. The next power demand is predicted by a Markov chain. The SDP approach determines the optimal policy using the policy iteration algorithm. Implementation of the SDP is quite free-to-launch since it does not require any additional equipment. Furthermore, the SDP is an offline approach, thus, computational cost is not an issue. Simulation results are considerable compared to those of other rival approaches. Recent success stories of applying bio-inspired techniques such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to control area have motivated the author to investigate the potential of this algorithm to solve the problem at hand. The PSO is a population-based method that effectively seeks the best answer in the solution space with no need to solve complex equations. Simulation results indicate that PSO is successful in terms of optimality, but it shows some difficulties for real-time application

A New Computational Framework for Efficient Parallelization and Optimization of Large Scale Graph Matching

There are so many applications in data fusion, comparison, and recognition that require a robust and efficient algorithm to match features of multiple images. To improve accuracy and get a more stable result is important to take into consideration both local appearance and the pairwise relationship of features. Graphs are a powerful and flexible data structure, allowing for the description of complex relationships between data elements, whose nodes correspond to salient features and edges correspond to relational aspects between features. Therefore, the problem of graph matching is to find a mapping between the two sets of nodes that preserves the relationships between them as much as possible. This graph-matching problem is mathematically formulated as an IQP problem which solving it is NP-hard, and obtaining exact Optima only plausible for very small data. Therefore, handling large-scale scientific visual data is quite limited, necessitating both efficient serial algorithms, as well as scalable parallel formulations. In this thesis, we first focused on exploring techniques to reduce the computation cost as well as memory usage of Pairwise graph matching by adopting a heuristic pruning strategy together with a redundancy pattern suppression scheme. We also modified the structure of the affinity matrix for minimizing memory requirement and parallelizing our algorithm by employing CPU’s and GPU’s accelerated libraries. Any pair of features with similar distance from first image results in same sub-matrices, therefore instead of constructing the whole affinity matrix, we only built the sub-blocked affinity for those distinct feature distances. By employing this scheme not only saved large memory and reduced computation time tremendously but also, the matrix-vector multiplication of gradient computation performed in parallel, where each block-vector calculation computed independently without synchronization. The accelerated libraries such as MKL, cuSparse, cuBlas and thrust applied to solving the GM problem, following the scheme of the spectral matching algorithm. We also extended our work for Multi-graph imaging, since many tasks require finding correspondences across multiple images. Also, considering more graph improves the matching accuracy. Most algorithms obtain approximate solutions for solving the GM NP-hard problem, result in a weak optimal solution. Therefore, we proposed a new solver, which iteratively modified the affinity matrix and binarized the solution by optimizing the original problem with its integer constraints

Design of multivariable feedback control systems via spectral assignment

The applicability of spectral assignment techniques to the design of multivariable feedback control systems was investigated. A fractional representation design procedure for unstable plants is presented and illustrated with an example. A computer aided design software package implementing eigenvalue/eigenvector design procedures is described. A design example which illustrates the use of the program is explained

Second language attrition: are different nouns equally likely to be lost?

This study aimed at investigating L2 attrition of vocabulary in adult Iranian learners of English at four different proficiency levels. A 40-item vocabulary test measured their productive and receptive vocabulary in and out of context for concrete and abstract nouns with different frequencies. After an interval of 3 months, subjects took the same test. The results revealed that there is no significant difference between the attrition rate of concrete and abstract nouns across different proficiency levels. Moreover, advanced learners who did not participate in classes and had no exposure to English throughout the 3 months interval demonstrated a significant amount of attrition in noncontextualized nouns. Besides, those learners who continued participating in English classes demonstrated attrition in receptive vocabulary but advanced non-continuing learners underwent attrition in productive vocabulary. Additionally, both continuing and noncontinuing learners except advanced ones underwent attrition in low-frequency nouns. These findings suggest that certain words are more vulnerable to attrition and that even learners who are still in the process of learning English are susceptible to it.Este estudio tiene como objeto investigar la pérdida de vocabulario en la segunda lengua en aprendices iraníes adultos de inglés que se encuentran en cuatro niveles distintos de competencia. Un test de 40 ítems medía su vocabulario (nombres concretos y abstractos con diferente frecuencia) a nivel de producción y recepción dentro y fuera de un contexto. Después de un intervalo de 3 meses, los sujetos hicieron el mismo test. Los resultados revelaron que no existe diferencia significativa entre el grado de pérdida de nombres concretos y abstractos en diferentes niveles de competencia. Además, los aprendices más aventajados que no participaron en clases ni estuvieron expuestos a la lengua inglesa durante los tres meses de intervalo mostraron una cantidad de pérdida significativa en nombres no contextualizados. Además, aquellos aprendices que continuaron asistiendo a clases de inglés mostraron una pérdida en recepción de vocabulario mientras que los aprendices avanzados sufrieron pérdidas en vocabulario de producción. Además, los dos grupos, los que siguieron las clases y los que no, a excepción de los de un nivel avanzado, sufrieron pérdidas en nombres de baja frecuencia. Estos hallazgos sugieren que ciertas palabras son más vulnerables ante esa pérdida y que incluso son susceptibles de ello los aprendices que están aún en el proceso de aprendizaje de la lengua inglesa

Information Sources of Students of Psychology

Every year, universities spend a large sum of money on databases and library sources to help with education and research. The main aim is to determine the sources of information utilized by the psychology students at Semnan University to address their information needs. This study is applied research and uses grounded theory to reveal the viewpoints of postgraduate psychology students at Semnan University. The statistical population comprised all postgraduate psychology students at the time of the study (2018-2019). Data collection and analysis were conducted until saturation point, and 50 in-depth interviews were carried out. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and MaxQDA was used for data coding. Interviewing was stopped following 40 interviews due to data saturation, although 10 additional interviews were held with the students, which led to no new data. Based on the open coding, 95 codes were identified and extracted from the data, followed by 27 codes in axial coding. Finally, 10 codes were identified and extracted from the data through the selective coding process.  The results showed that the sources of information for psychology students of Semnan University are their professors, databases, research questionnaire databases, resource ordering, accessible electronic sources, the Internet, audio-visional sources, library, search engines, and professional websites. Psychology students of Semnan University used formal/informal and digital/printed sources of information. These cover many types of information. They need more bibliographic instruction on making greater use of library services prepared for them.https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.20088302.2022.20.1.18.

Tolerance analysis and synthesis by interval constraint networks

This paper proposes interval constraint network and interval propagation techniques for automatic tolerance design. A hierarchical representation is utilized in the interval constraint network. The consistency of a constraint is defined for the purpose of tolerance design. Forward and backward propagation techniques are introduced in the interval constraint network for tolerance analysis and synthesis, respectively. Both a propagation technique for a single constraint and a parallel propagation technique for multiple constraints between two adjacent levels in the network are introduced. Experiments conducted to illustrate the procedures of tolerance analysis and synthesis for the tank problem are described.published_or_final_versio

Error analysis and planning accuracy for dimensional measurement in active vision inspection

This paper discusses the effect of spatial quantization errors and displacement errors on the precision dimensional measurements for an edge segment. Probabilistic analysis in terms of the resolution of the image is developed for 2D quantization errors. Expressions for the mean and variance of these errors are developed. The probability density function of the quantization error is derived. The position and orientation errors of the active head are assumed to be normally distributed. A probabilistic analysis in terms of these errors is developed for the displacement errors. Through integrating the spatial quantization errors and the displacement errors, we can compute the total error in the active vision inspection system. Based on the developed analysis, we investigate whether a given set of sensor setting parameters in an active system is suitable to obtain a desired accuracy for specific dimensional measurements, and one can determine sensor positions and view directions which meet the necessary tolerance and accuracy of inspection.published_or_final_versio

Natural Pore Pressure Fluctuations in a Champlain Clay Deposit

RÉSUMÉ Les argiles Champlain recouvrent les basses terres de la vallée du Saint-Laurent au Québec, dans l’est du Canada. Ces argiles ont été déposées il y a approximativement 12000 à 8500 ans dans la mer Champlain, tard dans la période du Quaternaire. Les argiles Champlain jouent un rôle crucial dans le contrôle des écoulements souterrains. Ces argiles contrôlent et protègent les aquifères sous-jacents des contaminants en provenance de la surface ou des couches plus perméables près de la surface. La conductivité hydraulique (K) est un paramètre fondamental pour estimer la vitesse d’écoulement, la vitesse de migration des contaminants et la consolidation des argiles. Du point de vue de la géotechnique, des valeurs représentatives des paramètres élastiques de l’argile applicables à de très faibles déformations sont nécessaires pour comprendre le comportement de l’argile sous des sollicitations dynamiques.----------ABSTRACT Champlain clays cover the lowlands of the Saint Lawrence River valley in Quebec, in eastern Canada. The clays were deposited approximately from 12000 to 8500 BP (before present) in the Champlain Sea, during the late Quaternary Period. Champlain clay aquitards play a crucial role in defining groundwater regimes; they control recharge and protect underlying aquifers from surface contamination. The clay K value is a fundamental parameter to estimate flow velocity, the rates of contaminant migration, and time-dependent clay deformation. From a geotechnical standpoint, representative values of the clay elastic parameters for very small-strain are needed to understand the dynamic behaviour of clay deposits