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Corrigendum to “Enhanced lignin extraction and optimisation from oil palm biomass using neural network modelling” [Fuel 293 (2021) 120485] (Fuel (2021) 293, (S0016236121003616), (10.1016/j.fuel.2021.120485))
No full textThe author Syed Ali Ammar Taqvi shows an affiliation with “Neurocomputation Lab, National Centre of Artificial Intelligence, NED University of Engineering and Technology, 75270 Karachi, Pakistan” which has been incorrectly added. Syed Ali Ammar Taqvi only has one affiliation with the Department of Chemical Engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology Karachi, Pakistan. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.</p
A novel simulated annealing trajectory optimization algorithm in an autonomous UAVs-empowered MFC system for medical internet of things devices
No full textThis article investigates a new autonomous mobile fog computing (MFC) system empowered by multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in order to serve medical Internet of Things devices (MIoTDs) efficiently. The aim of this article is to reduce the energy consumption of the UAVs-empowered MFC system by designing UAVs' trajectories. To construct the trajectories of UAVs, we need to consider not only the order of SPs but also the association among UAVs, SPs, and MIoTDs. The above-mentioned problem is very complicated and is difficult to be handled via applying traditional techniques, as it is NP-hard, nonlinear, non-convex, and mixed-integer. To handle this problem, we propose a novel simulated annealing trajectory optimization algorithm (SATOA), which handles the problem in three phases. First, the deployment (i.e., number and locations) of stop points (SPs) is updated and produced randomly using variable population sizes. Accordingly, MIoTDs are associated with SPs and extra SPs are removed. Finally, a novel simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to optimize UAVs' association with SPs as well as their trajectories. The performance of SATOA is demonstrated by performing various experiments on nine instances with 40 to 200 MIoTDs. The simulation results show that the proposed SATOA outperforms other compared state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of saving energy consumption.The author would like to thank Prince Sultan University for their support. Also, the studies at St. Petersburg State University of Telecommunications. prof. M.A. Bonch-Bruevich were supported by the Ministry of Science and High Education of the Russian Federation by the grant 075-15-2022-1137
Development of AVR microcontroller-based antenna measurement tool for student experimentation
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Adapting authoritarianism: institutions and co-optation in Egypt and Syria
No full textThis PhD thesis compares Egypt and Syria’s authoritarian political systems. While the tendency in social science political research treats Egypt and Syria as similarly authoritarian, this research emphasizes differences between the two systems with special reference to institutions and co-optation. Rather than reducibly understanding Egypt and Syria as sharing similar histories, institutional arrangements, or ascribing to the oft-repeated convention that “Syria is Egypt but 10 years behind,” this thesis focuses on how events and individual histories shaped each states current institutional strengthens and weaknesses. Specifically, it explains the how varying institutional politicization or de-politicization affects each state’s capabilities for co-opting elite and non-elite individuals.
Beginning with a theoretical framework that considers the limited utility of democratization and transition theoretical approaches, the work underscores the persistence and durability of authoritarianism. Chapter two details the politicized institutional divergence between Egypt and Syria that began in the 1970s. Chapter three and four examines how institutional politicization or de-politicization affects elite and non-elite individual co-optation in Egypt and Syria. Chapter five discusses the study’s general conclusions and theoretical implications.
This thesis’s argument is that Egypt and Syria co-opt elites and non-elites differently because of the varying degrees of institutional politicization in each governance system. Rather than view one country as more politically developed than the other, this work argues that Syria’s political institutions are more politicized than their Egyptian counterparts. Syria’s political arena is, thus, described as politicized-patrimonialism. Syria’s politicized-patrimonial arena produces uneven co-optation of elites and non-elites as they are diffused through competing institutions. Conversely, the Egyptian political arena remains highly personalized as weak institutions and individuals are manipulated and molded according to the president’s ruling clique. This is referred to as personalized-patrimonialism. As a consequence, Egypt’s political establishment demonstrates more flexibility in ad hoc altering and adapting its arena depending on the emergence of crises.
This study’s theoretical implications suggest that, contrary to modernization and democratization theory’s adage that institutions lead to a political development, politicized institutions within a patrimonial order actually hinder regime adaptation because consensus is harder to achieve and maintain. It is within this context that Egypt’s de-politicized institutional framework advantages its top political elite. In this reading of Egyptian and Syrian politics, Egypt’s personalized political arena is more adaptable than Syria’s. These conclusions do not indicate that political reform is a process underway in either state
Multi-point Time Domain Computation for Crosstalk Prediction in Printed Circuit Board
No full textDetermining the ratio of the mutual inductance and mutual capacitance of a multi conductor transmission line (MTL) on a printed circuit board (PCB) such as in the coplanar stripline is important for predicting and mitigating the crosstalk that can occur in the PCB. However, calculating this value directly from the dimension and the material of the PCB can be difficult. This paper describes the multi-point computation method for determining the mutual inductance and mutual capacitance ratio of a coplanar stripline on a PCB. The model was created and simulated in LTSpice. This value is obtained from the near-end and far-end side parameters of the coplanar stripline. The LTspice simulation result shows that the timedomain multi-point computation result from the near-end and far-end voltage and resistance agrees with the direct calculation from the dimension and the material of the coplanar stripline, with 5% tolerance.</p
Interference of LED Lamps on Narrowband Power Line Communication
No full textThis paper presents the impact of LED lamps on the performance of Narrowband Power Line Communication (NB-PLC) in the CENELEC-A band between 9-95 kHz. NB-PLC in is only one of the many victims of interference in the frequency range 2-150 kHz. Only few emission standards for this frequency range are available, while the number of interference cases is growing rapidly. Most equipment will fail at a specific frequency and/or level. PLC is chosen as a victim, as the performance of the PLC is rated through well-established parameters. One of these is the Frame Error Rate (FER), which is calculated as the ratio between the erroneous frames and total received frames. The number of LED lamps has a strong correlation with the peak amplitude of the current pulses from the LED lamps and the FER of the PLC data frames
A comparative study on suitability of model-free and model-fitting kinetic methods to non-isothermal degradation of lignocellulosic materials
No full textThe thermal kinetic modeling is crucial for development of sustainable processes where lignocellulosic fuels are a part of chemical system and their thermal degradation eventuates. In this paper, thermal decomposition of three lignocellulosic materials (bagasse, rice husk, and wheat straw) was obtained by the thermogravimetric (TG) technique and kinetics was analyzed by both model-fitting and isoconversional (model-free) methods to compare their effectiveness. Two models selected from each class include Arrhenius and Coats–Redfern (model-fitting), and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS) and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) (model-free). The formal model-fitting approach simulating the thermal decomposition of solids by assuming a fixed mechanism was found to be unduly facile. However, activation energy (E) values calculated from two model-fitting techniques were considerably different from each other with a percentage difference in the range of 1.36% to 7.65%. Particularly, both model-fitting methods predicted different reaction mechanism for thermal disintegration of lignocellulosic materials (two-dimensional diffusion (D2) by Arrhenius and one-dimensional diffusion (D1) by Coat–Redfern method). Conversely, the model-free routine offers a transformation of mechanism and activation energy values throughout reaction and is, therefore, more authentic to illustrate the complexity of thermal disintegration of lignocellulosic particles. Based on the model-free kinetic analysis, the lignocellulosic materials may be devised in following order of activation energy: rice husk > bagasse > wheat straw, by both KAS and FWO methods with a percentage difference no more than 0.84% for fractional conversion up to 0.7. Isoconversional approach could be recommended as more realistic and precise for modeling non-isothermal kinetics of lignocellulosic residues compared to model-fitting approach.Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineerin
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