Physical Violence Detection Based on Distributed Surveillance Cameras

Mobile Networks and Applications - In recent years, physical violence detection has become a research hotspot in the area of human activity recognition. With the improvement and full coverage of...     

An Evaluation of the Crosier's CUSUM Control Chart with Estimated Parameters

We evaluate the performance of the Crosier's cumulative sum (C‐CUSUM) control chart when the probability distribution parameters of the underlying quality characteristic are estimated from Phase I data. Because the average run length (ARL) under estimated parameters is a random variable, we study the estimation effect on the chart performance in terms of the expected value of the average run length (AARL) and the standard deviation of the average run length (SDARL). Previous evaluations of this control chart were conducted while assuming known process parameters. Using the Markov chain and simulation approaches, we evaluate the in‐control performance of the chart and provide some quantiles for its in‐control ARL distribution under estimated parameters. We also compare the performance of the C‐CUSUM chart to that of the ordinary CUSUM (O‐CUSUM) chart when the process parameters are unknown. Our results show that large number of Phase I samples are required to achieve a quite reasonable performance. Additionally, the performance of the C‐CUSUM chart is found to be superior to that of the O‐CUSUM chart. Finally, we recommend the use of a recently proposed bootstrap procedure in designing the C‐CUSUM chart to guarantee, at a certain probability, that the in‐control ARL will be of at least the desired value using the available amount of Phase I data. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Familial giant hemangiomas of the liver. Study of a family and review of the literature

In this report we present for the first time strong evidence for autosomal-dominant inheritance of grant liver hemangiomas. Furthermore, we review the current literature about incidence, pathogenesis, clinics, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of LH. A large family of Italian origin is described where three female patients in three successive generations suffered from large symptomatic LH. In addition, two other female relatives exhibited asymptomatic LH on sonographic scans. The restriction of the disease to the female gender could be explained by a sex-dependent difference in penetrance or expressivity of a presumable "liver-hemangioma" gene, or by known proliferative factors such as female sex hormones. We also observed an increased incidence of adenomas of the thyroidea among members with or without LH of the presented family. This uncommon familial association has also not yet been described and its genetic aspects are discussed.     

Electrical and spectrophotometric properties of charge transfer complexes of picric acid and some aniline derivatives

The charge transfer complexes produced by the reaction between picric acid and some aniline derivatives were prepared. The prepared charge transfer complexes (CTC) were investigated using infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy aiming to throw more light on their molecular structure. It was proved that a proton transfer interaction takes place between PiOH and x-Ph.NH₂ leading to the formation of PiO^} and x-Ph.NH₃ ⁺ ions. The normal -¹ electronic interaction takes place by transferring an electron from the aniline ring to the picric acid. The semiconducting properties of the CTC were investigated. All the prepared complexes were proved to have a semiconducting character within the temperature range investigated.     

Can lanthanum doping enhance catalytic performance of silver in direct propylene epoxidation over NaMoAg/SiO_2?

In the attempt to reduce surface free energy of silica to improve interaction of silica with silver, silica was doped by different amounts of low surface energy lanthanum, La_2O_3, through impregnation. The doped and undoped silica were used as supports for preparation of Na/Ag/Mo/La_2O_3-SiO_2 catalysts. Catalytic performances of the catalysts were evaluated in direct epoxidation of propylene(DPO) using molecular oxygen under atmospheric pressure and without adding hydrogen. Adding 5 wt%La to the Na/Ag/Mo/SiO_2 catalyst improves both the catalysts electivity in DPO and its stability over 20h of time-on-stream.The characterization results show that La_2O_3 species interact strongly with silver particles on the silica surface which result in significant improvement in the dispersion profile of silver and marked decrease in the size of silver nanoparticles(AgNPs). The estimated mean diameter of AgNPs is ca. 4.0 nm in Na/Ag/Mo/5 wt%La_2O_3-SiO_2, which is smaller than that(53.9 nm) found in Na/Ag/SiO_2. The presence of subnanometer AgNPs on Ag/La_2O_3-SiO_2 prior addition of MoO_3 and NaCl to the sample can enhance the mutual electronic synergism between Ag, MoO_3 and Na for selective production of propylene oxide.     

Robust SVM-direct torque control of induction motor based on sliding mode controller and sliding mode observer

This paper proposes a design of control and estimation strategy for induction motor based on the variable structure approach. It describes a coupling of sliding mode direct torque control (DTC) with sliding mode flux and speed observer. This algorithm uses direct torque control basics and the sliding mode approach. A robust electromagnetic torque and flux controllers are designed to overcome the conventional SVM-DTC drawbacks and to ensure fast response and full reference tracking with desired dynamic behavior and low ripple level. The sliding mode controller is used to generate reference voltages in stationary frame and give them to the controlled motor after modulation by a space vector modulation (SVM) inverter. The second aim of this paper is to design a sliding mode speed/flux observer which can improve the control performances by using a sensorless algorithm to get an accurate estimation, and consequently, increase the reliability of the system and decrease the cost of using sensors. The effectiveness of the whole composed control algorithm is investigated in different robustness tests with simulation using Matlab/Simulink and verified by real time experimental implementation based on dS pace 1104 board.     

Review of the phase change material (PCM) usage for solar domestic water heating systems (SDWHS)

The shortage in energy resources combined with the climb in greenhouse emissions is the main incentive beyond the deployment of solar energy resource in various applications. One of the most successful applications is the utilization of solar energy in the domestic water heating systems (DWHS) because 70% of the consumed energy in the residential segment is utilized for space heating and appliances in cold climates 1 . However, the full deployment of solar energy in domestic water heating is only possible when an energy storage system with acceptable price is available. Recently a new tendency for deploying phase change materials (PCMs) as an energy storage system is introduced in several solar DWHS. These systems are known as integrated PCM in solar DWHS and offer several advantages including high storage capacity, low storage volume, and isothermal operation during the charging and discharging phases. The present study reviews various techniques utilized for integrating the PCM in solar water heating systems and the utilized methods for enhancing the heat transfer characteristics of the PCM through the usage of extended surfaces and high conductive additives. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parameters extraction of PEMFC's model using manta rays foraging optimizer

In this article, a recently developed bio-inspired based manta rays foraging optimizer (MRFO) is attempted for reliable and accurate extraction of the model uncertain parameters of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The parameter estimation is formulated as a non-linear optimization problem subject to set of restrictions. The great development and tremendous revolution of computation heuristic-based algorithms are the impetus of the authors to apply the MRFO to solve this constrained optimization problem resulting in a precise PEMFC model. Three case studies of typical field PEMFC stacks namely Ballard type Mark V, NedStack type PS6, and Horizon type H-12. Various I to V datasets are demonstrated to appraise the performance of MRFO among other recent optimizers available in the literature. To be objective and for sake of quantifications, the best scores of minimum fitness values are 0.8533, 2.1360, and 0.0966 for the later said PEMFC stacks, correspondingly. At a later stage, production of various characteristics under varying operating conditions such as changeable cell temperature and regulating pressures are established using the generated best values of PEMFCs model. Further calculations of statistical indices are performed to validate the robustness of obtained results by the MRFO. Through comprehensive performance assessments, it can be confirmed that MRFO is very promising tool for the effective extraction of PEMFCs' model and suggested to be applied for solving other engineering problems.