Prospects for the In Situ detection of Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS by Solar Orbiter

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft will pass approximately downstream of the position of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) in late May and early June 2020. We predict that the spacecraft may encounter the comet's ion tail around 2020 May 31-June 1, and that the comet's dust tail may be crossed on 2020 June 6. We outline the solar wind features and dust grain collisions that the spacecraft's instruments may detect when crossing the comet's two tails. Solar Orbiter will also pass close to the orbital path of C/2020 F8 (SWAN) on 2020 May 22, but we believe that it is unlikely to detect any material associated with that comet.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur

Modeling Large Deformation and Failure of Expanded Polystyrene Crushable Foam Using LS-DYNA

In the initial phase of the research work, quasistatic compression tests were conducted on the expanded polystyrene (EPS) crushable foam for material characterisation at low strain rates (8.3×10-3~8.3×10-2 s−1) to obtain the stress strain curves. The resulting stress strain curves are compared well with the ones found in the literature. Numerical analysis of compression tests was carried out to validate them against experimental results. Additionally gravity-driven drop tests were carried out using a long rod projectile with semispherical end that penetrated into the EPS foam block. Long rod projectile drop tests were simulated in LS-DYNA by using suggested parameter enhancements that were able to compute the material damage and failure response precisely. The material parameters adjustment for successful modelling has been reported

The Development of a School Management Software Module

In the near future, Jim Corbett School will have a larger number of students as the number of students is increasing every year as the population of the city grows. Key to Jim Corbett School success will be to have an automated system which can take care of most of tedious manual efforts put in by the personnel.  We need to adopt a quick and efficient system to take care of all our manual time consuming exercises. The development and implementation of an automated system will lead to better time management. On the other hand it will also bring in the efficiency in most of the covered fields. This solution will involve the development of a relational database in the FileMaker Pro software platform. To achieve this goal, significant efforts will need to be invested in the development of an all-encompassing process flow diagram. This development will lead to the development of repository tables in which data will be collected and stored. The integration of these repository tables into the process flow diagram will lead the developer to the establishment of a data relationship map; hence a relational database has been proposed as a potential solution to the management of the school with respect to development growth. Successful completion of the relational database solution will involve the development of agile scripting, a software development style in which the developer controls the user’s fate through clever manipulation of the user’s navigational and transactional options within the database dashboard

Reinforced Concrete Beams with Drop-in- Ends of Vertical and Inclined Reinforcement and having Pockets Loaded by In-Plane Static Forces

This research presents an experimental investigation on the behaviour of RC dapped end beams with loaded openings that have been strengthened initially with four different techniques including steel fibre concrete, inclined crossed bars, jacketing with steel plates and the composite section technique. Ten specimens with a rectangular opening at the midspan are tested under in-plane point load within opening. Such beams are categorized into two groups with five specimens per group. The dapped end zone of the first group is reinforced with standard vertical stirrups, while for the other groups inclined bar reinforcement has been used. Two main parameters have been considered which are the detailing of the reinforcement around the opening and the effect of inclusion of the dapped ends. The response has been discussed in terms the first cracking load, ultimate load, maximum deflection, failure modes, load-deflection curves, crack patterns, crack width, to recognize the optimum strengthening proposal of the opening. Results indicated that the modified reinforcement configurations of the dapped ends yielded better response and the ultimate load increased when adopting the composite section method in (21-23%) relative to the conventional beams.  Regarding strengthening by steel SFRC method, an improvement in load capacity by (8-10%) has been observed. Whereas, strengthening with crossed inclined bars yielded an enhancement of (8.5-11%). Furthermore, using steel plates increases the load capacity by about (11-13%)

Reinforced Concrete Beams with Drop-in- Ends of Vertical and Inclined Reinforcement and having Pockets Loaded by In-Plane Static Forces

This research presents an experimental investigation on the behaviour of RC dapped end beams with loaded openings that have been strengthened initially with four different techniques including steel fibre concrete, inclined crossed bars, jacketing with steel plates and the composite section technique. Ten specimens with a rectangular opening at the midspan are tested under in-plane point load within opening. Such beams are categorized into two groups with five specimens per group. The dapped end zone of the first group is reinforced with standard vertical stirrups, while for the other groups inclined bar reinforcement has been used. Two main parameters have been considered which are the detailing of the reinforcement around the opening and the effect of inclusion of the dapped ends. The response has been discussed in terms the first cracking load, ultimate load, maximum deflection, failure modes, load-deflection curves, crack patterns, crack width, to recognize the optimum strengthening proposal of the opening. Results indicated that the modified reinforcement configurations of the dapped ends yielded better response and the ultimate load increased when adopting the composite section method in (21-23%) relative to the conventional beams.  Regarding strengthening by steel SFRC method, an improvement in load capacity by (8-10%) has been observed. Whereas, strengthening with crossed inclined bars yielded an enhancement of (8.5-11%). Furthermore, using steel plates increases the load capacity by about (11-13%)

On Link Availability Probability of Routing Protocols for Urban Scenario in VANETs

This paper presents the link availability probability. We evaluate and compare the link availability probability for routing protocols; Ad hoc On-demand Distance vector (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) and Fisheye State Routing (FSR) for different number of connections and node density. A novel contribution of this work is enhancement in existing parameters of routing protocols; AODV, DSR and FSR as MOD-AODV, MOD-DSR and MOD-FSR. From the results, we observe that MOD-DSR and DSR outperform MOD-AODV, AODV, MODOLSR and OLSR in terms of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Average End-to End Delay (AE2ED), link availability probability at the cost of high value of Normalized Routing Overhead (NRO).Comment: IEEE Conference on Open Systems (ICOS2012)", Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 201

Optical spectroscopy characterization of nano-scale photonic structures

Current micro-scale electronics technology has been approaching rapidly towards its technological limit. This has shifted the focus towards nano-scale technology in recent years. More and more researchers around the globe are working in pursuit of bringing nano-scale technology into mainstream. The research carried out here is a small step towards a similar goal. The remarkable optical properties exhibited by certain nano-scale structures are in stark contrast to their bulk form and this provides the basis for this research. Two kinds of nanostructures are developed and investigated for their optical properties. One of these is nanofibers processed from a polymer known as polyaniline (PANI). The focus of this study is to investigate its optical and conductive properties under different conditions of doping environments, temperature and polymerization conditions. Optical characterization technique such as UV-Visible spectroscopy is developed to carry out the investigation. The developed nanofibers have been demonstrated to possess optical and conductive properties to be dependent on doping variables. Study of these optical properties could prove very useful in the development of electrochromic devices and gas sensors. Later in the research, UV-Visible spectroscopy has been improved into a low cost Raman spectroscopy setup which is validated by experimentation carried out on some samples. The second type of nano-structure developed and investigated, is an array of nanoparticles of noble metals such as gold and silver. Such an array is shown to exhibit a phenomenon called plasmon resonance effect when excited by light. UV-Visible spectroscopy technique is utilized to investigate this effect for metal nano-arrays. A biologically nano-structured surface (wing of an insect called cicada) is used as the substrate for the fabrication of metal array. A serious attempt has also been made to do 'Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)', making use of the metal nano-array developed. This technique improves the raman lines intensities of certain less sensitive samples such as thiophenol, which are known to give weak raman lines. This is carried out by adsorbing the sample on the metal nano-array

Inflation in Pakistan Revisited

A notable development in recent years in Pakistan's economic scene has been the sharp pickup in the rate of inflation. In particular, Pakistan has experienced sustained inflation (changes in the CPI) hovering between 11.0 to 13.0 percent range during the last three years (1993-94 to 1995-96). The persistence of inflation at double-digit rates over the three successive years has attracted considerable attention of academics and policy-makers. Not surprisingly, one of the thorniest issues in Pakistan's policy arena today is how to put inflation under effective control. Recent studies on inflation in Pakistan broadly agree on the key factors influencing the rate of inflation, namely, the growth in money supply, the supply side bottlenecks, the adjustment in government-administered prices, the imported inflation (exchange rate adjustment), escalations in indirect taxes, and inflationary expectations. However, these studies do not concur on the relative importance of each of these factors as determinants of inflation. While Nasim (1995) and Hossain (1990) find money supply as the principal factors underlying the rising inflation rate in Pakistan, others suggest that food prices followed by government administered fuel/energy prices and indirect taxation are the primary impetus for the upward inflationary spira1.

Design and implementation home security system and monitoring by using wireless sensor networks WSN/internet of things IOT

The dramatic advancments on communication and networking technologies have led to the emergence of Internet-of-Things (IoT). IoT technology has opened the door for various applications. In particular, the home automation was one of the common applications that took the advantage of IoT. Several research efforts have addressed the home automation system using IoT covering wide range of functionalities. One of the concerning tasks is providing a secure system that can give alarms for suspicious activities within the house. This paper presents a secure house system based on IoT where several activities are being sensed and detected. Specifically, gas, humidity, body temperature and motion have been considered within the sensing based on two main types of micro-controller including Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Consequentially, an Android prototype has bene developed in order to give an interactive interface for warning the house owner regarding any suscpicious activities. Results of simulation demonstrated the efficancy of the proposed syste