Value-added services in next-generation SONET/SDH networks

Advances in next-generation SONET/SDH have introduced novel features for generic protocol framing/encapsulation, virtual concatenation, inverse multiplexing, dynamic circuit adjustment, and so on. In turn, these provisions have enabled much improved multi-tiered service provisioning and are viewed very favorably by carriers, particularly incumbents. This article looks at this evolved framework with a particular focus on value-added services creation. Results from a sample performance evaluation study also are presented to quantify some of the achievable gains.     

Intra-ONU bandwidth scheduling in Ethernet passive optical networks

Quality-of-service (QoS) support in Ethernet passive optical networks (EPON) is a crucial concern. However, most studies have only focused on optical line terminal (OLT) capacity allocation amongst multiple optical network units (ONU), and the further issue of intra-ONU allocation remains open. In this work a novel decentralized intra-ONU solution is presented using virtual-time schedulers. Results confirm good performance for a wide range of input traffic classes and loads.     

Assessment of Equity and Adequacy of Water Delivery in Irrigation Systems Using Remote Sensing-Based Indicators in Semi-Arid Region, Morocco

The irrigation performance criteria of equity and adequacy are of primary concern for irrigation managers. The input data required at various scales to assess irrigation performance, often not available, need costly intensive field campaigns. Remote sensing techniques, used to directly estimate crop evapotranspiration (ETc), became recently an attractive option to assess irrigation performance from individual fields to irrigation scheme or river basin scale. In this study, ETc maps were obtained by combining the FAO-56 dual approach with relationships between crop biophysical variables and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), using high spatial resolution time series of SPOT and Landsat images. This approach was applied for 2002/2003 growing season in Haouz plain, Morocco. Remote sensing-based indicators, reflecting equity and adequacy of the irrigation water delivery were estimated. Adequacy was determined according to Relative Irrigation supply (RIS), Depleted Fraction (DF) and Relative Evapotranspiration (RET) and equity according to the coefficient of variation of ETc. The analysis of these indicators exhibits a great variability among fields. Variability in irrigation performance at all levels, associated factors and possible improvements are discussed. This study demonstrates how remote sensing-based estimates of water consumption provide better estimates of irrigation performance at different scales than the traditional field survey methods.     

Characterizations and electrical conductivity of (poly[vinyl chloride])/(poly[ethylene oxide]) conductive films: The effect of carbon black loading and poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether

The effect of carbon black (CB) loading filled (poly[vinyl chloride])/(poly[(ethylene oxide]) (PVC/PEO) conductive films with and without poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether (PEGDE) was studied. The PVC/PEO/CB and PVC/PEO/PEGDE/CB conductive films were prepared by a solution casting method. The results indicate that the addition of PEGDE of PVC/PEO/CB/PEGDE conductive films exhibited higher tensile properties, electrical conductivity, and thermal stability compared with PVC/PEO/CB conductive films. The scanning electron microscope micrographs of PVC/PEO/PEGDE/CB conductive films showed a rough surface and a good distribution of CB on the surface of PVC/PEO/CB conductive films. Fourier‐transform infrared spectrum showed that the interaction between the PVC/PEO films and the CB‐PEGDE phase on the surface of the conductive films does not change the functional group of the PVC/PEO/PEDGE/CB conductive films. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 24:139–146, 2018. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Influence of silicoating,etching and heated glaze treatment on the surface of Y-TZP and its impact on bonding with veneering ceramic

The study aimed to investigate the influence of surface treatments of Y-TZP on its topography and their impact on shear bond strength (SBS) of Y-TZP to veneering porcelain. Thirty-four zirconia cubes (Cercon) (10 × 10 × 10 mm³) were divided randomly into 3 groups (n = 11) according to the different surface treatments, Silica Coating (SC); Hot Solution Etching (HE); and Heat Treatment after porcelain glaze and powder application (GP). Porcelain application (IPs e.max) was performed after surface treatment using a standardized technique. Porcelain application (Ceramco-3) was also performed on 10 metal cubes (I BOND 2) as controls (MC). Specimens were subjected to thermocycling (5–55 °C, 20,000 cycles) followed by SBS testing in a universal testing machine. Surface topography was assessed by scanning electron microscopy and surface roughness (Image J). SC developed significantly higher SBS (42.10 ± 5.84 MPa) of Y-TZP to veneering ceramics compared to treatment by HE (24.0 ± 6.4 MPa), GP (23.30 ± 4.72), and the MC (29.3 ± 5.4 MPa) control (p < 0.05). SBS among HE, GP and MC specimens was comparable (p > 0.05). Y-TZP specimens treated with SC and HE showed high surface roughness compared to GP. Silicoating of Y-TZP prior to veneering can potentially reduce the high failure rates of zirconia-based restorations by enhancing the chemical bond between the core and the veneer materials.     

A Study of Approaches to Hypertext Categorization

Hypertext poses new research challenges for text classification. Hyperlinks, HTML tags, category labels distributed over linked documents, and meta data extracted from related Web sites all provide rich information for classifying hypertext documents. How to appropriately represent that information and automatically learn statistical patterns for solving hypertext classification problems is an open question. This paper seeks a principled approach to providing the answers. Specifically, we define five hypertext regularities which may (or may not) hold in a particular application domain, and whose presence (or absence) may significantly influence the optimal design of a classifier. Using three hypertext datasets and three well-known learning algorithms (Naive Bayes, Nearest Neighbor, and First Order Inductive Learner), we examine these regularities in different domains, and compare alternative ways to exploit them. Our results show that the identification of hypertext regularities in the data and the selection of appropriate representations for hypertext in particular domains are crucial, but seldom obvious, in real-world problems. We find that adding the words in the linked neighborhood to the page having those links (both inlinks and outlinks) were helpful for all our classifiers on one data set, but more harmful than helpful for two out of the three classifiers on the remaining datasets. We also observed that extracting meta data from related Web sites was extremely useful for improving classification accuracy in some of those domains. Finally, the relative performance of the classifiers being tested provided insights into their strengths and limitations for solving classification problems involving diverse and often noisy Web pages.     

A survey on Urdu and Urdu like language stemmers and stemming techniques

Stemming is one of the basic steps in natural language processing applications such as information retrieval, parts of speech tagging, syntactic parsing and machine translation, etc. It is a morphological process that intends to convert the inflected forms of a word into its root form. Urdu is a morphologically rich language, emerged from different languages, that includes prefix, suffix, infix, co-suffix and circumfixes in inflected and multi-gram words that need to be edited in order to convert them into their stems. This editing (insertion, deletion and substitution) makes the stemming process difficult due to language morphological richness and inclusion of words of foreign languages like Persian and Arabic. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of different algorithms and techniques of stemming Urdu text and also considering the syntax, morphological similarity and other common features and stemming approaches used in Urdu like languages, i.e. Arabic and Persian analyzed, extract main features, merits and shortcomings of the used stemming approaches. In this paper, we also discuss stemming errors, basic difference between stemming and lemmatization and coin a metric for classification of stemming algorithms. In the final phase, we have presented the future work directions.     

Control of Discrete‐Time Systems Composed of Linear Blocks in Series with Saturation Components

We consider the problem of controlling cascade systems consisting of two linear dynamic blocks and two saturation elements arranged according to the N‐L‐N‐L series configuration. A cascade controller is considered and its performances are formally analyzed using input–output stability tools. In addition to global boundedness of all signals of the closed‐loop system, the controller is formally shown to enjoy a l₂ ‐tracking performance in presence of arbitrary‐shape inputs (i.e. reference signal, disturbance).     

Parameter optimization for unconstrained object functions — a bibliography

The paper reviews and categorizes the available parameter optimization techniques for unconstrained object functions. The subject is put into perspective by basing the review on the philosophies behind the techniques. A generic tree is provided to facilitate cross-referencing of the bibliography. A discussion of optimization techniques, methods and modifications made to them is included in the text and illustrated in the tree. Various classes of object function are defined and applicability of optimization methods to these is both discussed and illustrated.