Engineering Commons^™

Lattice Boltzmann Method Modeling Of Magnetic Water-Based Nanofluid Through A Permeable Three-Dimensional Enclosure, M Sheikholeslami, S Shehzad, Ahmad Shafee, F Abbasie, R Kandasamy, Zhixiong Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this work, the mesoscopic theory is invoked to depict nanoparticle transportation through a porous cavity. Different amounts of Lorentz forces, Rayleigh number and permeability on the working fluid treatment have been examined. Al₂O3-H₂O is selected including the Brownian motion effect. Isokinetic, streamlines, and isotherms contours are various shapes of outputs. Results illustrate that the increase in magnetic forces lead to an increase in the conduction mode. Dispersing nanoparticles aids to increase the Hartmann number.

On The Use Of Sprays To Intercept Airborne Embers During Wildfires, Alan Green, Nigel Kaye

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This technical note outlines an initial assessment of the feasibility of using water sprays to intercept and extinguish airborne embers, as a means to protect buildings during wildfires. An analytical model was developed to calculate the probability of inter-particle collisions within two intersecting streams of particles, and was then applied to a range of test cases involving embers and water droplets. Results from this simplified analysis indicated that water sprays could effectively protect buildings from 'ember attack' in this manner, but only when either: i) large water flow rates were used (in the order of 1 L s⁻¹ per …

Removal Of Hg(Ii) In Aqueous Solutions Through Physical And Chemical Adsorption Principles, Mengdan Xia, Zhixin Chen, Yao Li, Chuanhua Li, Nasir M. Ahmad, Waqas A. Cheema, Shenmin Zhu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Adsorption has been the focus of research on the treatment of heavy metal mercury pollution since it is among the most toxic heavy metals in existence. The US EPA has set a mandatory discharge limit of 10 μg Hg L^-1 for wastewater and for drinking water a maximum accepted concentration of 1 μg Hg L^-1. Physical adsorption and chemical adsorption are the two major mechanisms of adsorption methods used for mercury removal in aqueous sources. The recent decades' research progress is reviewed to elaborate varieties of adsorption materials ranging from materials with large surface area for physical …

Experiential Probabilistic Assessment Of Cloud Services, Mahdi Fahmidehgholami, Ghassan Beydoun, Graham C. Low

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Substantial difficulties in adopting cloud services are often encountered during upgrades of existing software systems. A reliable early stage analysis can facilitate an informed decision process of moving systems to cloud platforms. It can also mitigate risks against system quality goals. Towards this, we propose an interactive goal reasoning approach which is supported by a probabilistic layer for the precise analysis of cloud migration risks to improve the reliability of risk control. The approach is illustrated using a commercial scenario of integrating a digital document processing system to Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

Metamorphic Relations For Enhancing System Understanding And Use, Zhi Q. Zhou, Liqun Sun, Tsong Yueh Chen, Dave Towey

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Modern information technology paradigms, such as online services and off-the-shelf products, often involve a wide variety of users with different or even conflicting objectives. Every software output may satisfy some users, but may also fail to satisfy others. Furthermore, users often do not know the internal working mechanisms of the systems. This situation is quite different from bespoke software, where developers and users usually know each other. This paper proposes an approach to help users to better understand the software that they use, and thereby more easily achieve their objectives - even when they do not fully understand how the …

Ea-Gans: Edge-Aware Generative Adversarial Networks For Cross-Modality Mr Image Synthesis, Biting Yu, Luping Zhou, Lei Wang, Yinghuan Shi, Jurgen Fripp, Pierrick Bourgeat

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is a widely used medical imaging protocol that can be configured to provide different contrasts between the tissues in human body. By setting different scanning parameters, each MR imaging modality reflects the unique visual characteristic of scanned body part, benefiting the subsequent analysis from multiple perspectives. To utilize the complementary information from multiple imaging modalities, cross-modality MR image synthesis has aroused increasing research interest recently. However, most existing methods only focus on minimizing pixel/voxel-wise intensity difference but ignore the textural details of image content structure, which affects the quality of synthesized images. In this paper, we …

Improving The Security Of The Drs Scheme With Uniformly Chosen Random Noise, Arnaud Sipasseuth, Thomas Plantard, Willy Susilo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

At PKC 2008, Plantard et al. published a theoretical framework for a lattice-based signature scheme. Recently, after ten years, a new signature scheme dubbed as the Diagonal Reduction Signature (DRS) scheme was presented in the NIST PQC Standardization as a concrete instantiation of the initial work. Unfortunately, the initial submission was challenged by Yu and Ducas using the structure that is present on the secret key noise. In this paper, we are proposing a new method to generate random noise in the DRS scheme to elimite the aforementioned attack, and all subsequent potential variants.

Vitamin D Deficiency During Pregnancy And Its Associated Factors Among Third Trimester Malaysian Pregnant Women, Fui Chee Woon, Yit Siew Chin, Intan Hakimah Ismail, Marijka Batterham, Amir Latiff, Wan Ying Gan, Geeta Appannah, Siti Hussien, Muliana Edi, Meng Tan, Yoke Mun Chan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Background Despite perennial sunshine, vitamin D deficiency is prevalent among Malaysians especially pregnant women. This study determines the vitamin D status and its associated factors among third trimester pregnant women attending government health clinics in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Methods Information on socio-demographic characteristics, obstetrical history, and sun exposure were obtained through face-to-face interviews. Vitamin D intake was assessed using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration was measured and classified as deficient (< 30 nmol/L), insufficient (30-50 nmol/L), and sufficient ( ≥ 50 nmol/L).

Results Of the 535 pregnant women recruited, 42.6% were vitamin D deficient. They consumed an average of 8.7 ± 6.7 μg of …

Evaluation Of In-Depth Energy Modelling For The Design And Operation Of A Net-Positive Energy Solar Decathlon House, Brendan Banfield, Clayton Mcdowell, Duane A. Robinson, Ashish P. Agalgaonkar

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The Solar Decathlon is an international competition that challenges collegiate teams from around the world to design and build functioning, sustainable, solar powered houses. The competition is split into ten sub-contests which vary from competition to competition. Contests are a combination of juried (judged by a panel experts) or measured (such as energy usage and thermal comfort) contests. This paper will focus on the measured contests, in particular; energy management, comfort conditions and house functioning. To ensure optimal house performance during the competition, extensive energy and thermal modelling is required to ensure the solar PV and on-site energy storage can …

An Electromagnetic Variable Inertance Device For Seat Suspension Vibration Control, Donghong Ning, Shuaishuai Sun, Haiping Du, Weihua Li, Nong Zhang, Minyi Zheng, Liang Luo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper designs and builds an electromagnetic variable inertance (VI) device for a heavy duty vehicle seat suspension to reduce the vibration transferred to driver bodies. The conventional semi-active vibration control mainly applies the variable damping (VD) and variable stiffness (VS) devices. The VI device is equivalent to an inerter with the capability to vary its inertance, which is a new semi-active system inspired by the VS device design. The VI device consists of a transmission device, a VD device and two flywheels. By varying the damping of the VD device, the equivalent inertance of the VI device is controllable …

The Effect Of An Air Gap On A 2d Monolithic Silicon Detector For Relative Dosimetry, Kananan Utitsarn, Z A. Alrowaili, Nauljun Stansook, Giordano Biasi, Martin G. Carolan, Michael L. F Lerch, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of an air gap on the Magic Plate (MP512) response and optimize this gap for relative dosimetry in photon and electron beams. Materials and methods: MP512 is a 2D monolithic silicon detector manufactured on a p-Type substrate. The array consists of 512 pixels with 0.5 x 0.5 mm2 size and 2 mm pitch with an overall dimension of 52 x 52 mm2. The signal ratio (SR) as a function of beam size and the percentage were measured with MP512 in 6 MV and 10 MV photon beams. The enhanced dynamic wedge (EDW) beam profile measurements …

Nonlinear Optical Response Of The Alpha-T-3 Model Due To The Nontrivial Topology Of The Band Dispersion, Lei Chen, Jack Zuber, Zhongshui Ma, C Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

We study the electronic contribution to the nonlinear optical response of the α-T3 model. This model is an interpolation between a graphene (α = 0) and dice (α = 1) lattice. Using a second-quantized formalism, we calculate the first- and third-order responses for a range of α and chemical potential values as well as considering a band gap in the first-order case. Conductivity quantization is observed for the first-order, while higher-order harmonic generation is observed in the third-order response with the chemical potential determining which applied field frequencies both quantization and harmonic generation occur at. We observe a range of …

Microstructure And Water Distribution In Catalysts For Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells, Elucidated By Contrast Variation Small-Angle Neutron Scattering, Satoshi Koizumi, Satoru Ueda, Takumi Inada, Yohei Noda, Robert A. Robinson

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

By using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) reinforced by scanning electron microscopy, the fine structure of catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells has been investigated. The experimental data resulting from contrast variation with mixed light and heavy water (H2O/D2O) are well described by a core-shell model with fluctuations in concentration between water and Nafion. In particular, SANS obtained with the mixed water ratio 30/70, which corresponds to a matching point between mixed water and Nafion, shows a broad scattering maximum, which is attributed to a 5 nm-thick Nafion shell on the surface of the larger carbon particles. After swelling by water, …

Metamorphic Robustness Testing: Exposing Hidden Defects In Citation Statistics And Journal Impact Factors, Zhi Q. Zhou, T.H. Tse, Matt Witheridge

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

We propose a robustness testing approach for software systems that process large amounts of data. Our method usesmetamorphic relations to check software output for erroneous input in the absence of a tangible test oracle. We use this technique to testtwo major citation database systems: Scopus and the Web of Science. We report a surprising finding that the inclusion of hyphensin paper titles impedes citation counts, and that this is a result of the lack of robustness of the citation database systems in handlinghyphenated paper titles. Our results are valid for the entire literature as well as for individual fields such …

Combination Model Of Heterogeneous Data For Security Measurement, Xiuze Dong, Yunchuan Guo, Fenghua Li, Liju Dong, Arshad Khan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Measuring security is a core step for guaranteeing security of network and information systems. Due to massiveness and heterogeneity of measurement data, it is difficult toclassify and combinethem on demand. In thispaper, consideringimplication relationship of metrics, we propose a combination model and combination policy for security measurement. Several examples demonstrate the effectiveness of our model.

Primary Choroidal Lymphoma Diagnosed With 27-Gauge Pars Plana Vitrectomy Choroidal Biopsy, Andrew Kam, Justin Galvin, Svetlana Cherepanoff, Andrew Alexis Miller, Adrian Fung

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Currently, transvitreal fine-needle aspiration biopsy is the most widely used tissue biopsy technique in cases of suspected intraocular lymphoma due to its relative simplicity and low trauma. The small sample produced, however, may be inadequate for diagnostic and prognostic analyses due to mechanical artefacts, insufficient material, or sampling errors. Small case series have demonstrated choroidal biopsy via vitrectomy to be safe and effective. With smaller-gauge vitrectomy instruments, visual recovery is rapid, and post-operative inflammation and conjunctival scarring is minimised. Furthermore, smaller-gauge instrumentation does not appear to affect the diagnostic yield of biopsies for intraocular lymphoma in vitro. We report a …

A Mixture Of Coal Wash And Fly Ash As A Pavement Substructure Material, Dong Wang, Miriam Tawk, Buddhima Indraratna, Ana Heitor, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The reuse of waste materials in engineering projects has become the subject of many research efforts worldwide as it provides economical as well as environmental benefits. Coal wash (CW) and fly ash (FA) are example waste materials that can be used as alternative aggregates in transportation infrastructure projects, specifically as base and subbase materials in roads. Class C FA has been extensively used as a stabilizing material due to its hardening potential. However, Class F fly ash, a non­pozzolanic material when used alone, has not been considered in past research projects. In this study, Class F fly ash is mixed …

Leveraging Bert To Improve The Fears Index For Stock Forecasting, Linyi Yang, Yang Xu, Tin L. Ng, Ruihai Dong

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Financial and Economic Attitudes Revealed by Search (FEARS) index reflects the attention and sentiment of public investors and is an important factor for predicting stock price return. In this paper, we take into account the semantics of the FEARS search terms by leveraging the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), and further apply a self-attention deep learning model to our refined FEARS seamlessly for stock return prediction. We demonstrate the practical benefits of our approach by comparing to baseline works.

Microstructure And Mechanical Properties Of Large-Volume Gradient-Structure Aluminium Sheets Fabricated By Cyclic Skin-Pass Rolling, Hai Liang Yu, Cheng Lu, Anh Kiet Tieu, Hui Jun Li, Ajit R. Godbole, Xiong Liu, Charlie Kong

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Materials of a gradient structure have been shown to possess both high strength and high ductility. To date, materials of a gradient structure can only be produced in small quantities. In this paper, we report a novel 'cyclic skin-pass rolling' (CSPR) technique capable of producing sheets of gradient structure in large quantities. Both experimental and analytical/numerical investigations are reported. In the experiments on aluminium sheets, the outer layer was subjected to 40 passes of CSPR with a reduction ratio of 1% per pass. After CSPR, the sample surface shows an ultrafine-grained microstructure with a mean grain size of 206 nm, …

Lubricant As A Sticking-Scale Inhibitor On High Temperature Sliding Contact, Hoang Bach Tran, Anh Kiet Tieu, Shanhong Wan, Hongtao Zhu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Sticking oxide scale is one of the most serious concerns on moving steel surfaces at elevated temperature. However, there has been limited research dedicated to overcoming this issue. In the present work, pin-on-disc testing was carried out to reveal the effects of lubrication on wear characteristics of High Speed Steel sliding against Stainless Steel 316 at 700 °C. Apart from improved friction behavior, the use of inorganic lubricant significantly inhibits material transfer onto the HSS surface which otherwise suffers growing adhered scale during dry sliding contact. In addition, it was found that prolonged exposure to lubrication induces phase transformation of …

Channel Covariance Matrix Estimation Via Dimension Reduction For Hybrid Mimo Mmwave Communication Systems, Rui Hu, Jun Tong, Jiangtao Xi, Qinghua Guo, Yanguang Yu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Hybrid massive MIMO structures with lower hardware complexity and power consumption have been considered as potential candidates for millimeter wave (mmWave) communications. Channel covariance information can be used for designing transmitter precoders, receiver combiners, channel estimators, etc. However, hybrid structures allow only a lower-dimensional signal to be observed, which adds difficulties for channel covariance matrix estimation. In this paper, we formulate the channel covariance estimation as a structured low-rank matrix sensing problem via Kronecker product expansion and use a low-complexity algorithm to solve this problem. Numerical results with uniform linear arrays (ULA) and uniform squared planar arrays (USPA) are provided …

Experimental Study On Flow Resistance Over Rigid Vegetated Channel, Xiao Liu, Liang Tang, Yu Han, Jian Chen, Shu-Qing Yang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Vegetation is an important part of the ecological channel, and flow structure over vegetation in ecological channel is rather complex. The vegetation resistance to flow is affected by many factors, and there is still no general calculation method to express it. Thus, it is necessary to explore the mechanism of flow resistance over vegetation in open channel. In this paper, the rigid cylindrical sticks arranged in the open channel were used to simulate the stems of non-submerged vegetation in order to investigate the effects of vegetation on the flow. Through theoretical analysis and experimental verification, it shows the form drag …

Gwas Hints At Pleiotropic Roles For Flowering Locus T In Flowering Time And Yield-Related Traits In Canola, Harsh Raman, Rosy Raman, Yu Qiu, Avilash Yadav, Sridevi Sureshkumar, Lauren Borg, Maheswaran Rohan, David Wheeler, Oliver Owen, Ian Menz, Sureshkumar Balasubramanian

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Background: Transition to flowering at the right time is critical for local adaptation and to maximize grain yield in crops. Canola is an important oilseed crop with extensive variation in flowering time among varieties. However, our understanding of underlying genes and their role in canola productivity is limited.

Results: We report our analyses of a diverse GWAS panel (300-368 accessions) of canola and identify SNPs that are significantly associated with variation in flowering time and response to photoperiod across multiple locations. We show that several of these associations map in the vicinity of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) paralogs …

Toward High-Performance Hybrid Zn-Based Batteries Via Deeply Understanding Their Mechanism And Using Electrolyte Additive, Junnan Hao, Jun Long, Bo Li, Xiaolong Li, Shilin Zhang, Fuhua Yang, Xiaohui Zeng, Zhanhong Yang, Wei Kong Pang, Zaiping Guo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Aqueous hybrid Zn-based batteries (ZIBs), as a highly promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries for grid application, have made considerable progress recently. However, few studies have been reported that investigate their working mechanism in detail. Here, the operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction is employed to thoroughly investigate the operational mechanism of a hybrid LiFePO₄(LFP)/Zn battery, which indicates only Li⁺ extraction/insertion from/into cathode during cycling. Based on this system, a cheap electrolyte additive, sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate, is proposed to effectively enhance its electrochemical properties. The influence of the additive on the Zn anode and LFP cathode is comprehensively studied, …

Development And Evaluation Of A Comfort-Oriented Control Strategy For Thermal Management Of Mixed-Mode Ventilated Buildings, Massimo Fiorentini, Gianluca Serale, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Alfonso Capozzoli, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The paper presents the development, implementation and performance investigation via simulations and experiments of a comfort-oriented control strategy for natural ventilation and mechanical air conditioning management of a mixed-mode building. The proposed comfort-oriented control strategy determines whether it would be possible to operate in natural ventilation mode or in mechanical heating/cooling. The control algorithm calculates first the optimal opening percentage of the windows according to adaptive thermal comfort criteria. If natural ventilation cannot guarantee the thermal comfort requirements and mechanical conditioning is required, the algorithm dynamically optimises the heating or cooling set-point targeting a defined Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) index …

Solving Scheduling Problem In A Distributed Manufacturing System Using A Discrete Fruit Fly Optimization Algorithm, Xiaohui Zhang, Xinhua Liu, Shufeng Tang, Grzegorz Krolczyk, Zhixiong Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This study attempts to optimize the scheduling decision to save production cost (e.g., energy consumption) in a distributed manufacturing environment that comprises multiple distributed factories and where each factory has one flow shop with blocking constraints. A new scheduling optimization model is developed based on a discrete fruit fly optimization algorithm (DFOA). In this new evolutionary optimization method, three heuristic methods were proposed to initialize the DFOA model with good quality and diversity. In the smell‐based search phase of DFOA, four neighborhood structures according to factory reassignment and job sequencing adjustment were designed to help explore a larger solution space. …

Metamorphic Exploration Of An Unsupervised Clustering Program, Sen Yang, Dave Towey, Zhi Q. Zhou

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Machine learning has been becoming increasingly popular and widely-used in various industry domains. The presence of the oracle problem, however, makes it difficult to ensure the quality of this kind of software. Furthermore, the popularity of machine learning and its application has attracted many users who are not experts in this field. In this paper, we report on using a recently introduced method called metamorphic exploration where we proposed a set of hypothesized metamorphic relations for an unsupervised clustering program, Weka, to enhance understanding of the system and its better use.

The Impact Of A Dot: Case Studies Of A Noise Metamorphic Relation Pattern, Chaohua Wu, Liqun Sun, Zhi Q. Zhou

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

We propose a 'noise' metamorphic relation pattern (MRP), which is a sub-pattern under the more general MRP 'symmetry.' We conduct case studies with real-life systems in three different application domains (obstacle perception in autonomous systems, machine translation, and named entity recognition) to show the usefulness of the 'noise' MRP for software verification and validation.

Radial Consolidation Analysis Using Delayed Consolidation Approach, Pankaj Baral, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn, Buddhima Indraratna, Serge Leroueil, Jian-Hua Yin

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

No abstract provided.

Fiber Element Simulation Of Interaction Behavior Of Local And Global Buckling In Axially Loaded Rectangular Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Slender Columns Under Fire Exposure, Ghanim Mohammed Kamil, Qing Quan Liang, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Slender rectangular thin-walled concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns in composite building structures exposed to fire may experience the interaction of local and global buckling. Numerical investigations on the interaction buckling responses of such columns under fire exposure have been rarely reported. This paper describes a fiber-based computational model for the prediction of the fire-resistance and interaction responses of local and global buckling of concentrically-loaded slender CFST columns made of rectangular sections exposed to fire. The thermal analysis is undertaken to calculate the distribution of temperatures in the column cross-section considering the effects of the air gap between concrete and steel, …