Computation of Dielectric Constants and Loss Tangents at ISM Band by Measurements of Transmission Coefficients

1　IntroductionWirelesslocalnetworksareexpandingrapidlyastheresultofincreasingdemandforcomputercom municationsandtheadvancesofdigitalradiosys tems.Newdigitalsystemsarebeingimplementedinmicrowaveandmillimeterwavebands .Whereasthequalityofanaloguesystemsisstronglyrelatedtothereceivedpowerofthesignal,digitalcommunicationsaresensitivetootherperturbations.Inparticular,thedecodingefficiencycanbeimpairedbyintersym bolinterferenceowingtomultipatheffects.Agoodknowledgeofthewidebandchannelisthusneces s…     

Connection Management Protocols for Dynamic Lightpath Provisioning in Future WDM Networks

This paper investigates and compares the performance of two GMPLS-based distributed control and management protocols for dynamic lightpath provisioning in future IP networks. The first protocol is a global information-based link state approach that consists of both an integrated RWA algorithm and a signaling algorithm. Two triggering mechanisms for the LSAs update procedures are considered; one is periodic-based and the other is threshold-based. The second protocol is a local-information based fixed alternate link routing approach where the signaling protocol is closely integrated with the RWA protocols.     

Minimum Autocorrelation Spreading Codes

Intersymbol Interference (ISI) always appears when the communication channel is a multi-path channel. Many methods are used to reduce the effect of ISI. In this paper we focus on the autocorrelation property of the spreading codes and the role it plays in minimizing the ISI effect, where we obtain the spreading codes with minimum autocorrelation property. The results of comparing the average autocorrelation of the obtained codes with that of the well known Hadamard codes show a great enhancement in the performance, where for example, for codes of length 8 a gain of 408% was achieved at one shift, and for codes of length 16 a gain of 530% was achieved at one shift. Ahmad I. Amayrah was born in Amman in 1976. He received his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Jordan in 2003. He works as a lecturer in Al-Balqaa' University Abdallah K. Farraj was born in Amman in 1977. He earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. He is currently working towards a PhD degree at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University. He is a fellow of the Graduate Teaching Academy, Texas A&M University, and he was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship for the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 academic years.     

Remedial measures to control seepage problems in the Kafrein dam, Jordan

The Kafrein dam, 480 m long and 30 m high, is located on the Wadi Kafrein, a few kilometres from the active Jordan Valley fault. The Jordan Valley Authority proposed raising the crest of the existing dam by approximately 7 m and extending the length of the embankment to 554 m, in order to increase its storage capacity by 6 million m³ to a total of 8.5 million m³. The paper discusses the likelihood that existing seepage problems will be exacerbated when the dam is raised and proposes some remedial actions to increase the safety of the dam and minimise both the amount of seepage and any adverse effects. Electronic Publication     

Passivation of silicon by silicon nitride films

It is shown by contactless transient photoconductivity measurements in the microwave frequency range that Si₃N₄ films are an outstanding passivation of the n-type c-Si surface. Si₃N₄ on n-type Si forms an accumulation layer, which acts as an ideally reflecting potential barrier for minority carriers (holes). Due to the small space charge layer capacitance, minority carrier storage at this interface is very limited.In contrast to the latter measurements on p-type Si wafers covered with Si₃N₄ are characterized by storage of excess charge carriers in the surface depletion layer. The stored charge carriers decay slowly. The minority carriers (electrons) collected at the surface show a reduced mobility.     

Watershed characteristics, land use and fabric: The application of remote sensing and geographical information systems

Integrated watershed assessment, especially relying on remote sensing (RS), is a newly established procedure in developing countries. It is proving to be a major component in river‐basin environmental management. The recurrence of environmental problems in the Akkar El Kabir River watershed, as well as the lack of proper data on sources and sinks of pollutants, and the extent of human interference, led to the current study. Advanced geoinformation tools, such as RS and geographical information systems (GIS), prove to be a valuable asset in securing data on the fabric of the Akkar watershed in relation to its natural setting and anthropic interference. This is particularly true in the current study as the river constitutes the boundary between Lebanon and Syria. Remote sensing captures the watershed characteristics and land use on both sides without constraints. The natural fabric includes geology, drainage, hydrogeology, forest and soil. The anthropic fabric includes settlements, utilities, roads, agriculture and land use. If it were not for geoinformation techniques, the task of securing such data would be difficult. Also, these techniques show the impact of malpractices from excessive human interference that result in degradation of land and water quality. Changes in the watershed, such as environmental deterioration, are observed as water pollution, soil erosion, forest decline and socioeconomic imbalance. Obviously, this is the outcome of malpractices in a multisectorial system. A major challenge for RS and GIS is to quantify, model and predict, if possible, the extent of these changes. Remote sensing inherently captures the impact of interaction between nature and human beings. Detection of change is a major indicator that RS can contribute to the evaluation of the state of the environment. The application of it on this watershed reveals that significant changes have occurred over the last 10–15 years, most of which are anthropic.     

Rosemary oil as a corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in 0.5 M sulfuric acid solution

The possibility of using rosemary oil as a corrosion inhibitor of carbon steel in 0.5 M sulfuric acid solution was investigated by determination of weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. It was shown that the inhibition effectiveness increases with an increase in the concentration of oil and a decrease in the temperature. The inhibiting effect of the investigated oil is due to its adsorption on the surface of the steel and complexation. Adsorption is described by a Langmuir isotherm. The effect of the temperature on the corrosion rate was studied in the presence and absence of the oil and the thermodynamic parameters of the corrosion process were calculated.     

The Effect of Annealing Temperature on the Magnetic Properties of Mn x Co1?x Fe2O4 Ferrites Nanoparticles

Mn _x Co_1?x Fe₂O₄ ferrites compounds (0??x??0.6) have been synthesized by a glycol-thermal method from high-purity metals chlorides. Single phase spinel structure of the nanoparticles has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements. The diameters of the as-prepared powders were estimated from XRD and TEM and were found to be in the range: 7 to 13?nm. Room temperature magnetizations were obtained using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) on the as-prepared samples and on samples annealed at 500 and 700?°C. The variation of coercive fields, saturation and remnant magnetizations as a function of composition (x) and grain size have been investigated. ⁵⁷Co M?ssbauer spectra for as-prepared samples were also measured at different temperatures (27, 100, and 200?°C). Significant changes in magnetization properties and M?ssbauer parameters are observed across the composition range studied. The variation of coercive fields and saturation magnetizations appear to critically depend on the particle sizes as the compounds evolve from single domain to multidomain structure.     

Similarity based image selection with frame rate adaptation and local event detection in wireless video sensor networks

Wireless Video Sensor Networks (WVSNs7unding environmental information. Those sensor nodes can locally process the information and then wirelessly transmit it to the coordinator and to the sink to be further processed. As a consequence, more abundant video and image data are collected. In such densely deployed networks, the problem of data redundancy arises when information are gathered from neighboring nodes. To overcome this problem, one important enabling technology for WVSN is data aggregation, which is essential to be cost-efficient. In this paper, we propose a new approach for data aggregation in WVSN based on images and shot similarity functions. It is deployed on two levels: the video-sensor node level and the coordinator level. At the sensor node level the proposed algorithms aim at reducing the number of frames sensed by the sensor nodes and sent to the coordinator. At the coordinator level, after receiving shots from different neighbouring sensor nodes, the similarity between these shots is computed to eliminate redundancies and to only send the frames which meet a certain condition to the sink. The similarity between shots is evaluated based on their color, edge and motion information. We evaluate our approach on a live scenario and compare the results with another approach from the literature in terms of data reduction and energy consumption. The results show that the two approaches have a significant data reduction to reduce the energy consumption, thus our approach tends to overcome the other one in terms of reducing the energy consumption related to the sensing process, and to the transmitting process while guaranteeing the detection of all the critical events at the node and the coordinator levels.