Bow-Tie Microstrip Antenna Design

In this paper, the bow-tie microstrip antennas have been designed with two different angles of 40° and 80°. An investigaton on the effect of the angle to the return loss and radiation patterns had been carried out. The impedance matching network with the niicrostrip transmission line feeding was used in this study. Simulation and measurement results for the return loss and radiation patterns were presented

An ultrafast 1 x M all-optical WDM packet-switched router based on the PPM header address

This paper presents an all-optical 1 x M WDM router architecture for packet routing at multiple wavelengths simultaneously, with no wavelength conversion modules. The packet header address adopted is based on the pulse position modulation (PPM) format, thus enabling the use of only a singlebitwise optical AND gate for fast header address correlation. It offers multicast as well as broadcast capabilities. It is shown that a high speed packet routing at 160 Gb/s can be achieved with a low channel crosstalk (CXT) of ~ -27 dB at a channel spacing of greater than 0.4 THz and a demultiplexer bandwidth of 500 GHz

A methodological proposal to investigate the long term storage of pollutants in freshwater sediment biofilms and their response to environmental disturbances.

This research will review novel methodologies for understanding the behaviour of microbial communities and their role in pollution storage. Freshwater sediments are inhabited by attached microbial communities (biofilms) which are responsible for the majority of a river's metabolic activity. Biofilms thus provide valuable information on the environmental quality of the river and its surrounding areas. Despite remediation of freshwater sediments, biofilms can still store large quantities of pollutants. Biofilms have the exceptional capacity to adjust to new conditions including natural and anthropogenic environmental disturbances. Gaining a more comprehensive understanding of biofilm behaviour is therefore fundamental to developing improved management strategies. The initial focus of this research will be in the River Doe Lea in North East Derbyshire. The River Doe Lea extends 18km from the South at its source near Tibshelf, to the North at its discharge at the River Rother. In the 1990s the River was famed for having the highest level of dioxins in the world, 27 times higher than the second most polluted. The acute cause of this was a single pollutant event, however the river has also been subjected to long term anthropogenic pollution through industry, agriculture, transport (railways, M1) and wastewater pollution. While previous studies by the Environment Agency have focused on the flow, chemical, biological and ecological quality of the river, no research has been conducted into the role and behaviour of biofilms

Double stratification effects on unsteady electrical MHD mixed convection flow of nanofluid with viscous dissipation and Joule heating

The problem of unsteady mixed convection electrical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow and heat transfer induced due to nanofluid over a permeable stretching sheet using Buongiorno model is investigated. The transverse electric and magnetic fields are considered in the flow field, while in the heat convection is associated with the thermal radiation, heat generation/absorption, viscous and Ohmic dissipations, and chemical reaction is incorporated in the mass diffusion. A similarity transformation is used to reduce the boundary layer governing equations which are partial differential equations to nonlinear differential equations and then solved numerically using implicit finite difference scheme. The nanofluid velocity and temperature are sensitive to an increase in the electric field, which resolved the problem of sticky effects due to the magnetic field. Destructive chemical reaction increases the level nanoparticles concentration while reversed behave happened in the case of the generative chemical reaction. Heat source boosts the fluid temperature while as opposite occurred with the heat sink. Thermal and concentration stratifications decreased the fluid temperature and the nanoparticles concentration profiles. Buoyancy ratio parameter reduced the Nusselt and Sherwood numbers whereas mixed convection parameter increases for higher values. A comparison with the previous study available in literature has been done and found an excellent agreement with the published dat

Generating Electricity using PV/FC Hybrid System

A reliable electrical energy supply is a prerequisitefor improving the standard economic and quality of life levels in acountry. As is the case in many countries, it is uneconomical toconnect these villages to the existing grid, the installation of standaloneelectrical power generators has become common practice. Asa result, diesel stand-alone power generators see widespread use inthese remote locales, which, whilst fit for their intended purpose,unfortunately suffer from several drawbacks, including instabilityin regards to everyday oil prices and a number of environmentalissues. The implementation of a PV/FC hybrid power system couldbe one potential alternative to help solve these problems. Therefore,this paper presents PV/FC system control strategies. This study isespecially important in terms of envisioning the future energysupply needs. By using HOMER the proposed control strategiesand suggested components of a PV/FC system would be able toproduce a satisfactory outcome

Challenges and drivers for data mining in the AEC sector

Purpose: This paper explores the current challenges and drivers for data mining in the AEC sector. Design/methodology/approach: Following a comprehensive literature review, the data mining concept was investigated through a workshop with industry experts and academics. Findings: The results showed that the key drivers for using data mining within the AEC sector is associated with the sustainability, process improvement, market intelligence, cost certainty and cost reduction, performance certainty and decision support systems agendas in the sector. As for the processes with the greatest potential for data mining application, design, construction, procurement, forensic analysis, sustainability and energy consumption and reuse of digital components were perceived as the main process areas. While the key challenges were perceived as being, data issues due to the fragmented nature of the construction process, the need for a cultural change, IT systems used in silos, skills requirements and having clearly defined business goals. Originality/value: With the increasing abundance of data, business intelligence and analytics and its related concepts, data mining and big data have captured the attention of practitioners and academics for the last 20 years. On the other hand, and despite the growing amount of data in its business context, the AEC sector still lags behind in utilising those concepts in its end products and daily operations with limited research conducted to explore those issues at the sector level. This paper investigates the main opportunities and barriers for Data Mining in the AEC sector with a practical focus. Keywords: Business analytics, Data Mining, Data Analytics, AEC, Facilities Managemen

Corrosion Inhibition Study of Mild Steel in Acidic Medium by Antibiotic Drugs: a Comparative Study

- A comparison of the inhibiting efficiency of antibiotic drugs (ciprofloxacin, cloxacillin, and amoxicillin) on the corrosion of mild steel in 1 mol·L−1 HCl were studied at room temperature using mass loss measurement. The main reason is probably be due to the formation of protective coverage by the inhibitor as other authors reported previously. Adsorption characteristics of the inhibitor has also been studied using simple equation and it was found that drugs inhibits the corrosion of mild steel by being adsorbed on the surface of mild steel by a physical adsorption mechanism. The adsorption of drugs on the mild steel surface was found to be spontaneous and obey the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. It was observed that the test drug has a promising inhibitory action in acid medium against corrosion of mild steel. Moreover it was revealed that an inhibition efficiency of 80.1 % can be achieved with 3×10-3M ciprofloxacin drug treatment on mild steel