2013 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT), 2013
Today's process industries typically utilise a very large set of multidisciplinary , connected, h... more Today's process industries typically utilise a very large set of multidisciplinary , connected, heterogeneous systems composed of a large number of components, from individual sensors to whole control, monitoring and supervisory control systems. The use of such process control systems spans a wide range of application domains from traditional process industries to power distribution and residential applications. Regardless of the application, the design, implementation, optimised operation, maintenance and monitoring of such complex systems is often difficult to effectively achieve. Therefore, there is a need for the migration of such systems to scalable and modular plug and play platforms supported by effective engineering tools. This paper outlines a distributed modular service-based approach to the implementation of a real-time residential automation system application composed of heating, home automation and vehicle parking systems. The main focus of this paper is on the design and simulation of this System of Systems (SoS) focusing on the home parking, heating and vehicle monitoring application components and their interactions. The use of a component-based engineering approach is reported on providing 3D modelling and simulation capabilities prior to the physical implementation of the system, and from which the orchestration logic can be automatically generated. A potential toolkit for SOA-based application design and deployment is suggested.
This paper describes an estimation method which can be used to determine relative changes in a pe... more This paper describes an estimation method which can be used to determine relative changes in a person’s relaxation/stress state for edutainment purposes. As the edutainment context implies sensor measurements might be inaccurate and subject to different alignment and reading errors. The method accounts these problems by supporting variable number of sensors while maintaining the scale of the resultant value. The device to implement the proposed method includes a single electrode EEG headset, a resistance measurement sensor and a pulse oximeter. The method yields dimensionless resultant values which are comparable between multiple test subjects. The resultant value also reacts quickly to different disturbances in the person’s stress and relaxation levels. The applications of this research can be utilized in different relaxing exercises and for example as an athlete’s mental exercise tool.
This article envisions a connective framework to support the engineering of cyber-physical produc... more This article envisions a connective framework to support the engineering of cyber-physical production systems (CPPSs) in smart manufacturing through the use of a set of digital twins consistent with the real system throughout its lifecycle.
Agribusiness venture has huge contribution in the economy to foster rural development in the nati... more Agribusiness venture has huge contribution in the economy to foster rural development in the nation. The current agribusiness venture in India is mainly in the nature of food processing units. They have implications on food security and essential necessities of human beings. The current article aims at recognizing qualities, shortcomings, opportunities, and threats for agribusiness ventures with economic and financial perspectives in India. The article also proposes sufficient agribusiness entrepreneurship strategies, for example, price adjustment strategy and programmers for tending to factors that obstruct the development and improvement of agribusiness entrepreneurship in India.
Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are driverless material handling systems used for transportatio... more Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are driverless material handling systems used for transportation of pallets and line side supply of materials to provide flexibility and agility in shop-floor logistics. Scheduling of shop-floor logistics in such systems is a challenging task due to their complex nature associated with the multiple part types and alternate material transfer routings. This paper presents a decision support system capable of supporting shop-floor decision-making activities during the event of manufacturing disruptions by automatically adjusting both AGV and machine schedules in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs). The proposed system uses discrete event simulation (DES) models enhanced by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled digital integration and employs a nonlinear mixed integer programming Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find near-optimal production schedules prioritising the just-in-time (JIT) material delivery performance and energy efficiency of the material transp...
Smart manufacturing is the modern form of manufacturing that utilises Industry 4.0 enablers for d... more Smart manufacturing is the modern form of manufacturing that utilises Industry 4.0 enablers for decision making and resources planning by taking advantage of the available data. Therefore, the state of the art technologies are either replaced or improved using the newly introduced manufacturing paradigm. In practice, condition monitoring is an ongoing activity that preserves the manufacturing facility capability to deliver its production aims and decrease the production discontinuity as much as possible. Against this background, this paper discusses the state of the art condition monitoring and proposes a framework of fault detection and decision making at different levels namely component and station. The introduced framework relies on Virtual Engineering (VE) and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) in smart manufacturing environments. The application of the suggested methodology and its implementation is demonstrated in a case study of a battery module assembly line.
Complexity in manufacturing systems still remains a challenge and leads to operational issues and... more Complexity in manufacturing systems still remains a challenge and leads to operational issues and increased production cost. In this paper, drivers of complexity and typical symptoms of complex manufacturing systems are identified. A comprehensive review of studies published within the last two decades to assess manufacturing system complexity are presented. The key contributions of this review are: 1) a classification of complexity assessment methods based on perceived complexity symptoms; 2) a comprehensive review of assessment methods with cross-evaluation to identify appropriate use based on available data; 3) recommendations for the wider academic and industrial community, based on research trends identified in the literature, as to how complexity assessment should be addressed in the future. It is concluded that the assessment of complexity is necessary so that it can be controlled effectively, however the industry suffers from a lack of practical tools to support in this endeavour. [
IECON 2016 - 42nd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, 2016
Current challenges in production automation requires the involvement of new technologies like IoT... more Current challenges in production automation requires the involvement of new technologies like IoT, SoS and local automation clouds. The objective of this paper is to address the actual process of defining a cloud based automation system. The objective of this paper is to address one of the challenges involved in establishing and managing a cloud based automation system. Three key capabilities have been identified as required to create the expected benefits of local automation clouds; 1) capturing of plant design 2) capturing and distributing configuration and deployment information 3) coordinating information exchange. This paper addresses the capturing and distribution of configuration and deployment information. For this purpose a SOA service is proposed, the ConfigurationStore, following the principles of the Arrowhead Framework. The service is accompanied by a deployment methodology and a bootstrapping procedure. These are discussed for several types of automation technology, e.g. PLC's, sensors, actuators. A qualitative evaluation of the proposed approach is made for four use cases; Building automation, Manufacturing automation, Process automation and IoT devices. Concluding the usability for large-scale deployment and configuration of Industrial Internet of Things.
Accommodating frequent product changes in a short period of time is a challenging task due to lim... more Accommodating frequent product changes in a short period of time is a challenging task due to limitations of the contemporary engineering approach to design, build and reconfigure automation systems. In particular, the growing quantity and diversity of manufacturing information, and the increasing need to exchange and reuse this information in an efficient way has become a bottleneck. To improve the engineering process, digital manufacturing and Product, Process and Resource (PPR) modelling are considered very promising to compress development time and engineering cost by enabling efficient design and reconfiguration of manufacturing resources. However, due to ineffective coupling of PPR data, design and reconfiguration of assembly systems are still challenging tasks due to the dependency on the knowledge and experience of engineers. This paper presents an approach for data models integration that can be employed for coupling the PPR domain models for matching the requirements of pr...
Cell phones are a pervasive new communication technology, especially among college students. This... more Cell phones are a pervasive new communication technology, especially among college students. This paper examines college studentsÕ cell phone usage from a behavioral and psychological perspective. Utilizing both qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (survey) approaches, the study suggests these individuals use the devices for a variety of purposes: to help them feel safe, for financial benefits, to manage time efficiently, to keep in touch with friends and family members, et al. The degree to which the individuals are dependent on the cell phones and what they view as the negatives of their utilization are also examined. The findings suggest people have various feelings and attitudes toward cell phone usage. This study serves as a foundation on which future studies will be built.
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Jan 24, 2015
Regorafenib is a standard-care option for treatment-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer that ... more Regorafenib is a standard-care option for treatment-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer that increases median overall survival by 6 weeks compared with placebo. Given this small incremental clinical benefit, we evaluated the cost-effectiveness of regorafenib in the third-line setting for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer from the US payer perspective. We developed a Markov model to compare the cost and effectiveness of regorafenib with those of placebo in the third-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Health outcomes were measured in life-years and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). Drug costs were based on Medicare reimbursement rates in 2014. Model robustness was addressed in univariable and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Regorafenib provided an additional 0.04 QALYs (0.13 life-years) at a cost of $40,000, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $900,000 per QALY. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for regorafenib was > $550,...
Ulmus pumila tree-dominated temperate savanna, which is distributed widely throughout the forest-... more Ulmus pumila tree-dominated temperate savanna, which is distributed widely throughout the forest-steppe ecotone on the Mongolian Plateau, is a relatively stable woody-herbaceous complex ecosystem in northern China. Relatively more attention has been paid to the degradation of typical steppe areas, whereas less focus has been placed on the succession of this typical temperate savanna under the present management regime. In this study, we established 3 sample plots 100 m×100 m in size along a gradient of fixed distances from one herder's stationary site and then surveyed all the woody plants in these plots. A spatial point pattern analysis was employed to clarify the spatial distribution and interaction of these woody plants. The results indicated that old U. pumila trees (DBH ≥ 20 cm) showed a random distribution and that medium U. pumila trees (5 cm ≤ DBH < 20 cm) showed an aggregated distribution at a smaller scale and a random distribution at a larger scale; few or no juven...
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1999
Reduction of radio occultation data to retrieve atmospheric profiles (T-p(r)) requires knowledge ... more Reduction of radio occultation data to retrieve atmospheric profiles (T-p(r)) requires knowledge or assumption of the horizontal structure of the atmosphere. In the case of terrestrial planets the atmosphere in the vicinity of ray periapsides usually is assumed to be spherically symmetric. This assumption leads to an integral transform relationship between the profiles of refractivity versus radius and the total bending angle versus the asymptotic closest approach of rays, where the latter is directly obtainable from occultation frequency data and trajectory information. Occultation studies of the giant planets have demonstrated that departures from spherical symmetry, if not accounted for, can result in serious errors in derived T-p(r) profiles. We analyze errors in atmospheric profiles due to large-scale departures from spherical symmetry. For analytic convenience we represent departures from spherical symmetry as locally spherical structures with center of curvature offset in three dimensions from the center of mass, from which follow analytic expressions for errors in bending angle and impact parameter as functions of the offset and trajectory parameters. Since these expressions are not restricted to any specific occultation type, it is easy to identify the geometrical configurations and the specific trajectory parameters that enhance or suppress these errors. Errors in bending angle and impact parameter carry over into the refractivity and radius profiles, while at the same time, new errors are introduced because the bending angle versus impact parameter profile is integrated along a nonvertical path in the presence of large-scale departures from spherical symmetry, to obtain refractivity and radius profiles. Similarly, refractivity and radius errors propagate into the temperature and pressure profiles, while a nonvertical path of integration in the presence of horizontal gradients provides another opportunity for new errors to be introduced. We estimate that fractional errors in temperature profiles can be as large as a few percent for the Martian atmosphere above 20 km, decreasing in magnitude closer to the surface. For Earth, such errors are estimated to be less than 1% above 30 km. In the lower parts of Earth's atmosphere, however, and especially in the lower troposphere, these errors can be very sensitive to horizontal gradients and hence highly variable; typically, the error magnitude remains less than 2% for the dry regions of Earth's troposphere. We have not addressed the effect on errors of water vapor gradients, or of more extreme structures such as sharp weather fronts. A small variation on this approach can incorporate errors due to imprecise knowledge of the transmitter and receiver trajectories.
Journal of Automated Methods and Management in Chemistry, 2005
Clinical chemistry analyser is a high-performance microcontroller-based photometric biochemical a... more Clinical chemistry analyser is a high-performance microcontroller-based photometric biochemical analyser to measure various blood biochemical parameters such as blood glucose, urea, protein, bilirubin, and so forth, and also to measure and observe enzyme growth occurred while performing the other biochemical tests such as ALT (alkaline amino transferase), amylase, AST (aspartate amino transferase), and so forth. These tests are of great significance in biochemistry and used for diagnostic purposes and classifying various disorders and diseases such as diabetes, liver malfunctioning, renal diseases, and so forth. An inexpensive clinical chemistry analyser developed by the authors is described in this paper. This is an open system in which any reagent kit available in the market can be used. The system is based on the principle of absorbance transmittance photometry. System design is based around 80C31 microcontroller with RAM, EPROM, and peripheral interface devices. The developed sy...
A novel device to produce ethyl cellulose fibres, an important biomaterial in modern food process... more A novel device to produce ethyl cellulose fibres, an important biomaterial in modern food processing, using a glass needle in a modified electrospinning setup has been investigated. The effect of applied voltage on the fibre aspect ratio was analysed during electrospinning with a metallic (stainless steel) needle and then compared with that obtained with a glass-steel needle combination. A distinct difference in fibre diameter was observed between the two needle setups for the same processing conditions. A detailed quantitative study of the fibre length and diameter with respect to applied voltage was also carried out in order to determine any relationship between the needle material and the resulting electrospun fibres. There was an increase in fibre diameter in the case of steel-steel needle electrospinning with increasing applied voltage while a decrease in fibre diameter was observed with glass-steel needle electrospinning for the same voltage.
The version presented here is a working paper or pre-print that may be later published elsewhere.... more The version presented here is a working paper or pre-print that may be later published elsewhere. If a published version is known of, the above WRAP url will contain details on finding it.
In this paper, we study three-point boundary value problems of nonlinear fractional differential ... more In this paper, we study three-point boundary value problems of nonlinear fractional differential equations. Existence and uniqueness results are obtained by using standard fixed point theorems. Some examples are given to illustrate the results.
The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 2020
The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer's post-pu... more The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer's post-purchase psychological state by examining the influence of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance, taking into account the mediating role of impulse buying behavior. The current study addresses several gaps in literature. Firstly, it is hard to find the direct impact of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Secondly, to the best of our knowledge, few studies have investigated the mediating role of impulse buying behavior in consumer research. A sample of 256 respondents was collected from Pakistani retail consumers. The statistical findings of this study show that sales promotion has a significant positive effect on the impulse buying behavior and post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, results indicate that emotional brand attachment has a negative influence on impulse buying behavior but has a significant positive impact on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Meanwhile, impulse buying behavior is a potential mediator between sales promotion, emotional brand attachment, and post-purchase cognitive dissonance relationships. The moderating role of Gender describes that the positive relationship between sales promotion and post-purchase cognitive dissonance will be stronger for women as compared to men at a higher level of sales promotion.
2013 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT), 2013
Today's process industries typically utilise a very large set of multidisciplinary , connected, h... more Today's process industries typically utilise a very large set of multidisciplinary , connected, heterogeneous systems composed of a large number of components, from individual sensors to whole control, monitoring and supervisory control systems. The use of such process control systems spans a wide range of application domains from traditional process industries to power distribution and residential applications. Regardless of the application, the design, implementation, optimised operation, maintenance and monitoring of such complex systems is often difficult to effectively achieve. Therefore, there is a need for the migration of such systems to scalable and modular plug and play platforms supported by effective engineering tools. This paper outlines a distributed modular service-based approach to the implementation of a real-time residential automation system application composed of heating, home automation and vehicle parking systems. The main focus of this paper is on the design and simulation of this System of Systems (SoS) focusing on the home parking, heating and vehicle monitoring application components and their interactions. The use of a component-based engineering approach is reported on providing 3D modelling and simulation capabilities prior to the physical implementation of the system, and from which the orchestration logic can be automatically generated. A potential toolkit for SOA-based application design and deployment is suggested.
This paper describes an estimation method which can be used to determine relative changes in a pe... more This paper describes an estimation method which can be used to determine relative changes in a person’s relaxation/stress state for edutainment purposes. As the edutainment context implies sensor measurements might be inaccurate and subject to different alignment and reading errors. The method accounts these problems by supporting variable number of sensors while maintaining the scale of the resultant value. The device to implement the proposed method includes a single electrode EEG headset, a resistance measurement sensor and a pulse oximeter. The method yields dimensionless resultant values which are comparable between multiple test subjects. The resultant value also reacts quickly to different disturbances in the person’s stress and relaxation levels. The applications of this research can be utilized in different relaxing exercises and for example as an athlete’s mental exercise tool.
This article envisions a connective framework to support the engineering of cyber-physical produc... more This article envisions a connective framework to support the engineering of cyber-physical production systems (CPPSs) in smart manufacturing through the use of a set of digital twins consistent with the real system throughout its lifecycle.
Agribusiness venture has huge contribution in the economy to foster rural development in the nati... more Agribusiness venture has huge contribution in the economy to foster rural development in the nation. The current agribusiness venture in India is mainly in the nature of food processing units. They have implications on food security and essential necessities of human beings. The current article aims at recognizing qualities, shortcomings, opportunities, and threats for agribusiness ventures with economic and financial perspectives in India. The article also proposes sufficient agribusiness entrepreneurship strategies, for example, price adjustment strategy and programmers for tending to factors that obstruct the development and improvement of agribusiness entrepreneurship in India.
Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are driverless material handling systems used for transportatio... more Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are driverless material handling systems used for transportation of pallets and line side supply of materials to provide flexibility and agility in shop-floor logistics. Scheduling of shop-floor logistics in such systems is a challenging task due to their complex nature associated with the multiple part types and alternate material transfer routings. This paper presents a decision support system capable of supporting shop-floor decision-making activities during the event of manufacturing disruptions by automatically adjusting both AGV and machine schedules in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs). The proposed system uses discrete event simulation (DES) models enhanced by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled digital integration and employs a nonlinear mixed integer programming Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find near-optimal production schedules prioritising the just-in-time (JIT) material delivery performance and energy efficiency of the material transp...
Smart manufacturing is the modern form of manufacturing that utilises Industry 4.0 enablers for d... more Smart manufacturing is the modern form of manufacturing that utilises Industry 4.0 enablers for decision making and resources planning by taking advantage of the available data. Therefore, the state of the art technologies are either replaced or improved using the newly introduced manufacturing paradigm. In practice, condition monitoring is an ongoing activity that preserves the manufacturing facility capability to deliver its production aims and decrease the production discontinuity as much as possible. Against this background, this paper discusses the state of the art condition monitoring and proposes a framework of fault detection and decision making at different levels namely component and station. The introduced framework relies on Virtual Engineering (VE) and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) in smart manufacturing environments. The application of the suggested methodology and its implementation is demonstrated in a case study of a battery module assembly line.
Complexity in manufacturing systems still remains a challenge and leads to operational issues and... more Complexity in manufacturing systems still remains a challenge and leads to operational issues and increased production cost. In this paper, drivers of complexity and typical symptoms of complex manufacturing systems are identified. A comprehensive review of studies published within the last two decades to assess manufacturing system complexity are presented. The key contributions of this review are: 1) a classification of complexity assessment methods based on perceived complexity symptoms; 2) a comprehensive review of assessment methods with cross-evaluation to identify appropriate use based on available data; 3) recommendations for the wider academic and industrial community, based on research trends identified in the literature, as to how complexity assessment should be addressed in the future. It is concluded that the assessment of complexity is necessary so that it can be controlled effectively, however the industry suffers from a lack of practical tools to support in this endeavour. [
IECON 2016 - 42nd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, 2016
Current challenges in production automation requires the involvement of new technologies like IoT... more Current challenges in production automation requires the involvement of new technologies like IoT, SoS and local automation clouds. The objective of this paper is to address the actual process of defining a cloud based automation system. The objective of this paper is to address one of the challenges involved in establishing and managing a cloud based automation system. Three key capabilities have been identified as required to create the expected benefits of local automation clouds; 1) capturing of plant design 2) capturing and distributing configuration and deployment information 3) coordinating information exchange. This paper addresses the capturing and distribution of configuration and deployment information. For this purpose a SOA service is proposed, the ConfigurationStore, following the principles of the Arrowhead Framework. The service is accompanied by a deployment methodology and a bootstrapping procedure. These are discussed for several types of automation technology, e.g. PLC's, sensors, actuators. A qualitative evaluation of the proposed approach is made for four use cases; Building automation, Manufacturing automation, Process automation and IoT devices. Concluding the usability for large-scale deployment and configuration of Industrial Internet of Things.
Accommodating frequent product changes in a short period of time is a challenging task due to lim... more Accommodating frequent product changes in a short period of time is a challenging task due to limitations of the contemporary engineering approach to design, build and reconfigure automation systems. In particular, the growing quantity and diversity of manufacturing information, and the increasing need to exchange and reuse this information in an efficient way has become a bottleneck. To improve the engineering process, digital manufacturing and Product, Process and Resource (PPR) modelling are considered very promising to compress development time and engineering cost by enabling efficient design and reconfiguration of manufacturing resources. However, due to ineffective coupling of PPR data, design and reconfiguration of assembly systems are still challenging tasks due to the dependency on the knowledge and experience of engineers. This paper presents an approach for data models integration that can be employed for coupling the PPR domain models for matching the requirements of pr...
Cell phones are a pervasive new communication technology, especially among college students. This... more Cell phones are a pervasive new communication technology, especially among college students. This paper examines college studentsÕ cell phone usage from a behavioral and psychological perspective. Utilizing both qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (survey) approaches, the study suggests these individuals use the devices for a variety of purposes: to help them feel safe, for financial benefits, to manage time efficiently, to keep in touch with friends and family members, et al. The degree to which the individuals are dependent on the cell phones and what they view as the negatives of their utilization are also examined. The findings suggest people have various feelings and attitudes toward cell phone usage. This study serves as a foundation on which future studies will be built.
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Jan 24, 2015
Regorafenib is a standard-care option for treatment-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer that ... more Regorafenib is a standard-care option for treatment-refractory metastatic colorectal cancer that increases median overall survival by 6 weeks compared with placebo. Given this small incremental clinical benefit, we evaluated the cost-effectiveness of regorafenib in the third-line setting for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer from the US payer perspective. We developed a Markov model to compare the cost and effectiveness of regorafenib with those of placebo in the third-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Health outcomes were measured in life-years and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). Drug costs were based on Medicare reimbursement rates in 2014. Model robustness was addressed in univariable and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Regorafenib provided an additional 0.04 QALYs (0.13 life-years) at a cost of $40,000, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $900,000 per QALY. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for regorafenib was > $550,...
Ulmus pumila tree-dominated temperate savanna, which is distributed widely throughout the forest-... more Ulmus pumila tree-dominated temperate savanna, which is distributed widely throughout the forest-steppe ecotone on the Mongolian Plateau, is a relatively stable woody-herbaceous complex ecosystem in northern China. Relatively more attention has been paid to the degradation of typical steppe areas, whereas less focus has been placed on the succession of this typical temperate savanna under the present management regime. In this study, we established 3 sample plots 100 m×100 m in size along a gradient of fixed distances from one herder's stationary site and then surveyed all the woody plants in these plots. A spatial point pattern analysis was employed to clarify the spatial distribution and interaction of these woody plants. The results indicated that old U. pumila trees (DBH ≥ 20 cm) showed a random distribution and that medium U. pumila trees (5 cm ≤ DBH < 20 cm) showed an aggregated distribution at a smaller scale and a random distribution at a larger scale; few or no juven...
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1999
Reduction of radio occultation data to retrieve atmospheric profiles (T-p(r)) requires knowledge ... more Reduction of radio occultation data to retrieve atmospheric profiles (T-p(r)) requires knowledge or assumption of the horizontal structure of the atmosphere. In the case of terrestrial planets the atmosphere in the vicinity of ray periapsides usually is assumed to be spherically symmetric. This assumption leads to an integral transform relationship between the profiles of refractivity versus radius and the total bending angle versus the asymptotic closest approach of rays, where the latter is directly obtainable from occultation frequency data and trajectory information. Occultation studies of the giant planets have demonstrated that departures from spherical symmetry, if not accounted for, can result in serious errors in derived T-p(r) profiles. We analyze errors in atmospheric profiles due to large-scale departures from spherical symmetry. For analytic convenience we represent departures from spherical symmetry as locally spherical structures with center of curvature offset in three dimensions from the center of mass, from which follow analytic expressions for errors in bending angle and impact parameter as functions of the offset and trajectory parameters. Since these expressions are not restricted to any specific occultation type, it is easy to identify the geometrical configurations and the specific trajectory parameters that enhance or suppress these errors. Errors in bending angle and impact parameter carry over into the refractivity and radius profiles, while at the same time, new errors are introduced because the bending angle versus impact parameter profile is integrated along a nonvertical path in the presence of large-scale departures from spherical symmetry, to obtain refractivity and radius profiles. Similarly, refractivity and radius errors propagate into the temperature and pressure profiles, while a nonvertical path of integration in the presence of horizontal gradients provides another opportunity for new errors to be introduced. We estimate that fractional errors in temperature profiles can be as large as a few percent for the Martian atmosphere above 20 km, decreasing in magnitude closer to the surface. For Earth, such errors are estimated to be less than 1% above 30 km. In the lower parts of Earth's atmosphere, however, and especially in the lower troposphere, these errors can be very sensitive to horizontal gradients and hence highly variable; typically, the error magnitude remains less than 2% for the dry regions of Earth's troposphere. We have not addressed the effect on errors of water vapor gradients, or of more extreme structures such as sharp weather fronts. A small variation on this approach can incorporate errors due to imprecise knowledge of the transmitter and receiver trajectories.
Journal of Automated Methods and Management in Chemistry, 2005
Clinical chemistry analyser is a high-performance microcontroller-based photometric biochemical a... more Clinical chemistry analyser is a high-performance microcontroller-based photometric biochemical analyser to measure various blood biochemical parameters such as blood glucose, urea, protein, bilirubin, and so forth, and also to measure and observe enzyme growth occurred while performing the other biochemical tests such as ALT (alkaline amino transferase), amylase, AST (aspartate amino transferase), and so forth. These tests are of great significance in biochemistry and used for diagnostic purposes and classifying various disorders and diseases such as diabetes, liver malfunctioning, renal diseases, and so forth. An inexpensive clinical chemistry analyser developed by the authors is described in this paper. This is an open system in which any reagent kit available in the market can be used. The system is based on the principle of absorbance transmittance photometry. System design is based around 80C31 microcontroller with RAM, EPROM, and peripheral interface devices. The developed sy...
A novel device to produce ethyl cellulose fibres, an important biomaterial in modern food process... more A novel device to produce ethyl cellulose fibres, an important biomaterial in modern food processing, using a glass needle in a modified electrospinning setup has been investigated. The effect of applied voltage on the fibre aspect ratio was analysed during electrospinning with a metallic (stainless steel) needle and then compared with that obtained with a glass-steel needle combination. A distinct difference in fibre diameter was observed between the two needle setups for the same processing conditions. A detailed quantitative study of the fibre length and diameter with respect to applied voltage was also carried out in order to determine any relationship between the needle material and the resulting electrospun fibres. There was an increase in fibre diameter in the case of steel-steel needle electrospinning with increasing applied voltage while a decrease in fibre diameter was observed with glass-steel needle electrospinning for the same voltage.
The version presented here is a working paper or pre-print that may be later published elsewhere.... more The version presented here is a working paper or pre-print that may be later published elsewhere. If a published version is known of, the above WRAP url will contain details on finding it.
In this paper, we study three-point boundary value problems of nonlinear fractional differential ... more In this paper, we study three-point boundary value problems of nonlinear fractional differential equations. Existence and uniqueness results are obtained by using standard fixed point theorems. Some examples are given to illustrate the results.
The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 2020
The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer's post-pu... more The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer's post-purchase psychological state by examining the influence of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance, taking into account the mediating role of impulse buying behavior. The current study addresses several gaps in literature. Firstly, it is hard to find the direct impact of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Secondly, to the best of our knowledge, few studies have investigated the mediating role of impulse buying behavior in consumer research. A sample of 256 respondents was collected from Pakistani retail consumers. The statistical findings of this study show that sales promotion has a significant positive effect on the impulse buying behavior and post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, results indicate that emotional brand attachment has a negative influence on impulse buying behavior but has a significant positive impact on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Meanwhile, impulse buying behavior is a potential mediator between sales promotion, emotional brand attachment, and post-purchase cognitive dissonance relationships. The moderating role of Gender describes that the positive relationship between sales promotion and post-purchase cognitive dissonance will be stronger for women as compared to men at a higher level of sales promotion.
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