Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Improved Quantitation And Reproducibility In Multi-Pet/Ct Lung Studies By Combining Ct Information, Beverley F. Holman, Vesna Cuplov, Lynn Millner, Raymondo Endozo, Toby M. Maher, Ashley M. Groves, Brian F. Hutton, Kris Thielemans

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Background

Matched attenuation maps are vital for obtaining accurate and reproducible kinetic and static parameter estimates from PET data. With increased interest in PET/CT imaging of diffuse lung diseases for assessing disease progression and treatment effectiveness, understanding the extent of the effect of respiratory motion and establishing methods for correction are becoming more important. In a previous study, we have shown that using the wrong attenuation map leads to large errors due to density mismatches in the lung, especially in dynamic PET scans. Here, we extend this work to the case where the study is sub-divided into several scans, e.g. …

A Structural Optimisation Method For A Soft Pneumatic Actuator, Weiping Hu, Rahim Mutlu, Weihua Li, Gursel Alici

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This study aims to investigate the effects of various design parameters on the actuation performance of a pneumatic network actuator (PNA), optimise its structure using the finite element method (FEM), and subsequently quantify the performance of the resulting actuator topology experimentally. The effects of the structural parameters, including the operation pressure, the wall thickness and the gap between the chambers, bottom layer thickness, and the geometry of the channel cross section, on the deformation and bending angle of the actuator were evaluated to optimise the performance of the pneumatic actuator. A Global Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to investigate …

Experimental Nonlinear Vibrations Of An Mre Sandwich Plate, Jiawei Zhang, Tanju Yildirim, Gursel Alici, Shiwu Zhang, Weihua Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The nonlinear vibration analysis of a magneto-rheological elastomer (MRE) sandwich plate is conducted experimentally. Experiments have been performed in order to construct the frequency-response curves in the vicinity of the fundamental natural frequency of an MRE sandwich plate (plate A) in either the absence or presence of a localised external magnetic field at 3 different geometrical locations, for both small and medium magnetic fields. Furthermore, experiments have also been conducted on a pure aluminium plate (plate B) with an equal thickness to the MRE sandwich plate (plate A) in order to examine the influence of the MRE layer on the …

Predicting The Influence Of Hip And Lumbar Flexibility On Lifting Motions Using Optimal Control, Manish Sreenivasa, Matthew Millard, Idsart Kingma, Jaap H. Van Dieen, Katja Mombaur

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Computational models of the human body coupled with optimization can be used to predict the influence of variables that cannot be experimentally manipulated. Here, we present a study that predicts the motion of the human body while lifting a box, as a function of flexibility of the hip and lumbar joints in the sagittal plane. We modeled the human body in the sagittal plane with joints actuated by pairs of agonist-antagonist muscle torque generators, and a passive hamstring muscle. The characteristics of a stiff, average and flexible person were represented by co-varying the lumbar range-of-motion, lumbar passive extensor-torque and the …

Sintering Of Iron Ores In A Millipot In Comparison With Tablet Testing And Industrial Process, Huibin Li, Di Zhou, David J. Pinson, Paul Zulli, Liming Lu, Raymond Longbottom, Sheng Chew, Brian J. Monaghan, Guangqing Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

To explore the feasibility of small-scale sintering pot testing, a 'millipot' facility (diameter of 53 mm and height of 400 mm) was established and used to examine the sintering performance of iron ores and other non-traditional ferrous materials. The sintering performance of a millipot was examined across a range of different operational conditions (coke rate and suction pressure) and compared with an industrial sinter strand operation. Tablet tests were also performed to assist in the design of the millipot experiments and identify conditions for achieving mineral composition similar to the industrial sinter. For the millipot experiments, the materials used need …

Unconventional Locomotion Of Liquid Metal Droplets Driven By Magnetic Fields, Jian Shu, Shiyang Tang, Zhihua Feng, Weihua Li, Xiangpeng Li, Shiwu Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The locomotion of liquid metal droplets enables enormous potential for realizing various applications in microelectromechanical systems (MEMSs), biomimetics, and microfluidics. However, current techniques for actuating liquid metal droplets are either associated with intense electrochemical reactions or require modification of their physical properties by coating/mixing them with other materials. These methods either generate gas bubbles or compromise the stability and liquidity of the liquid metal. Here, we introduce an innovative method for controlling the locomotion of liquid metal droplets using Lorentz force induced by magnetic fields. Remarkably, utilizing a magnetic field to induce actuation avoids the generation of gas bubbles in …

Experimental And Modeling Investigation On Separation Of Methane From Coal Seam Gas (Csg) Using Hydrate Formation, Yiwei Wang, Ye Deng, Xuqiang Guo, Qiang Sun, Aixian Liu, Guangqing Zhang, Gang Yue, Lanying Yang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The effects of temperature, pressure, initial promoter concentration and coal seam gas/liquid ratio on the separation of methane from coal seam gas were experimentally investigated. Low temperature, high pressure and high promoter concentration lead to high separation efficiency and high recovery rate of CH 4 , but reduce the CH 4 capture selectivity in hydrate. Experimental simulation of a three-stage separation shows that CH 4 can be concentrated from 34.6 to 81.3 mol% in the dissociated gas, while its content is only 7.2 mol% in the residual gas. An innovative model was established to predict the separation performance. The modeling …

Review Of Cybersecurity Frameworks: Context And Shared Concepts, Riza Azmi, William J. Tibben, Khin Than Win

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In an effort to develop strong cyber resilience, international organisations, academic institutions, corporations and countries have been actively working to develop cybersecurity frameworks (CSFs). Such efforts emphasize various perspectives depending on the organisation's intention, while their contents involve the same concept. The aim of this paper is to incorporate the many varied perspectives on CSFs and gather them into a concise view by contrasting different intentions and distilling shared concepts. To do so, this study uses the document analysis method alongside two cycles of coding (descriptive coding and pattern coding) to excerpt 12 extant CSFs. The various intentions can be …

Pricing Puttable Convertible Bonds With Integral Equation Approaches, Song-Ping Zhu, Sha Lin, Xiaoping Lu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

American-style puttable convertible bonds are often priced with various numerical solutions because the predominant complexity arises from the determination of the two free boundaries together with the bond price. In this paper, two forms of integral equations are derived to price a puttable convertible bond on a single underlying asset. The first form is obtained under the Black-Scholes framework by using an incomplete Fourier transform. However, this integral equation formulation possesses a discontinuity along both free boundaries. An even worse problem is that this representation contains two first-order derivatives of the unknown exercise prices, which demands a higher smoothness of …

Model-Based Analysis Of Increased Loads On The Performance Of Activated Sludge And Waste Stabilization Ponds, Long Ho, Cassia Pompeu, Wout Van Echelpoel, Olivier Thas, Peter L. M Goethals

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In a way to counter criticism on low cost-effective conventional activated sludge (AS) technology, waste stabilization ponds (WSPs) offer a valid alternative for wastewater treatment due to their simple and inexpensive operation. To evaluate this alternative with respect to its robustness and resilience capacity, we perform in silico experiments of different peak-load scenarios in two mathematical models representing the two systems. A systematic process of quality assurance for these virtual experiments is implemented, including sensitivity and identifiability analysis, with non-linear error propagation. Moreover, model calibration of a 210-day real experiment with 31 days of increased load was added to the …

Effect Of Annealing On Microstructure And Hardness Of Thin Aluminium Strips Fabricated By Micro Flexible Rolling, Mingshuai Huo, Jingwei Zhao, Haibo Xie, Zhengyi Jiang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Thin strips with varying thicknesses (TSVTs) produced by micro flexible rolling have wide applications in diverse micro manufacturing areas such as micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) and micro system technologies (MST). TSVTs consist of three regions based on different thicknesses, i.e. the thicker, the transition and the thinner zones. Among them, the transition zone plays a key role in evaluating the quality of TSVTs. In the current work, thin 1060 aluminium alloy strips were flexibly rolled under various thickness ratios followed by annealing treatment. The influences of annealing temperature on the microstructural evolution and hardness variation of the transition zone of …

Improving Measurement Sensitivity For A Displacement Sensor Based On Self-Mixing Effect, Yuxi Ruan, Bin Liu, Yanguang Yu, Jiangtao Xi, Qinghua Guo, Jun Tong

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

When a part of light emitted by a laser is back-reflected or back-scattered from an external target and re-enters the laser cavity, both the laser intensity and its wavelength can be modulated. This is so called Self-Mixing Effect (SME). An SME based displacement sensor is featured with compact physical setup and interferometric measurement resolution. However, when a target has a surface with very low reflectivity, the sensing signal is very weak and noisy. The system may even lose its sensing capability. It is desired to develop a method for improving the sensing performance in this case. We propose a configuration …

Detection Of Micro-Defects On Metal Screw Surfaces Based On Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, Limei Song, Xinyao Li, Yangang Yang, Xinjun Zhu, Qinghua Guo, Huaidong Yang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper proposes a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) -based technique for the detection of micro defects on metal screw surfaces. The defects we consider include surface damage, surface dirt, and stripped screws. Images of metal screws with different types of defects are collected using industrial cameras, which are then employed to train the designed deep CNN. To enable efficient detection, we first locate screw surfaces in the pictures captured by the cameras, so that the images of screw surfaces can be extracted, which are then input to the CNN-based defect detector. Experiment results show that the proposed technique can …

Low Carbon Desalination By Innovative Membrane Materials And Processes, Hung Duong, Ashley Ansari, Long D. Nghiem, Thao Pham, Thang Pham

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Seawater and brackish water desalination has been a practical approach to mitigating the global fresh water scarcity. Current large-scale desalination installations worldwide can complementarily augment the global fresh water supplies, and their capacities are steadily increasing year-on-year. Despite substantial technological advance, desalination processes are deemed energy-intensive and considerable sources of CO2emission, leading to the urgent need for innovative low carbon desalination platforms. This paper provides a comprehensive review on innovations in membrane processes and membrane materials for low carbon desalination. In this paper, working principles, intrinsic attributes, technical challenges, and recent advances in membrane materials of the membrane-based desalination processes, …

Advancement In Track Technology - Composite Foundations For Increased Speed And Axle Loads, Buddhima Indraratna, Ngoc Trung Ngo, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The increasing demand for fast heavy haul services with greater axle loads, as well as high speed commuter trains, poses a serious challenge for the stability of tracks on the problematic ground. The use of artificial inclusions such as polymeric geosynthetics for enhanced soil-structure interaction and rubber mats made from recycled rubber tyres to absorb the strain energy and reduce ballast breakage and track damage is described in this paper as a cost-effective option. In this study, a series of large-scale laboratory tests took place to determine how well these geogrids could attenuate the impact, cyclic stress, and corresponding mitigation …

Effect Of Uniaxial Tension On The Microstructure And Texture Of High Mn Steel, Sudipta Pramanik, Azdiar Adil Gazder, Ahmed A. Saleh, Dagoberto Brandao Santos, Elena V. Pereloma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Cold-rolled to 42% thickness reduction and annealed at 500, 625, and 700 C, an Fe-17Mn-3Al-2Si-1Ni-0.06C wt% steel is subjected to uniaxial tension and characterized via digital image correlation and electron back-scattering diffraction. The cold-rolled and 500 C samples return similar microstructures comprising predominantly α0-martensite and remnant e-martensite fractions and a trace fraction of untransformed austenite (γ) before and after uniaxial tension. For the 625 and 700 C samples, uniaxial tension results in the transformation of the initially reverted and recrystallized γ into e and α0- martensite via strain localization. The γ shows the formation of h111iγ, h100iγ double-fiber texture, whereas …

Applying Mechanical Pressure And Skin Stretch Simultaneously For Sensory Feedback In Prosthetic Hands, Benjamin Stephens-Fripp, Rahim Mutlu, Gursel Alici

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

An effective method of communicating sensory feedback for prosthetics is presented using a combination of mechanical pressure and skin stretch, resulting in a mixture of normal and shear force being applied to the human arm. Stimulations were induced on the subject's forearm by three mechanical cranks, each attached to their own servo motor. Three different crank orientations were tested, each producing a different skin stretch direction, with the results showing that shear force/tangential skin stretch applied longitudinally to the forearm was perceived more easily as it produced the best recognition rate. With minimal training, eighteen able-bodied test subjects were able …

Nanosilicon Dioxide Hydrosol As Surfactant For Preparation Of Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials For Thermal Energy Storage In Buildings, Weiguang Su, Jo Darkwa, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Microencapsulated phase change materials (MEPCMs) have been recognized as potential energy storage materials for applications such as balancing of heating and cooling loads in buildings. However, current MEPCMs do suffer from low thermal conductivity and low mechanical strength thus limiting their full potential. Past investigations have shown that nanomaterials could be used as a surfactant for the preparation of O/W emulsion and for thermal enhancement in encapsulation processes of phase change materials. For that reason nanosilicon dioxide hydrosol was selected as a surfactant for the encapsulation of samples of n-octadecane due to its excellent thermal stability and good combination properties …

Cyberknife® Fixed Cone And Iris™ Defined Small Radiation Fields: Assessment With A High-Resolution Solid-State Detector Array, Giordano Biasi, Marco Petasecca, Susanna Guatelli, Martin A. Ebert, Garry Grogan, Benjamin Hug, Jonathan Lane, Vladimir Perevertaylo, Tomas Kron, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Purpose

The challenges of accurate dosimetry for stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) with small unflattened radiation fields have been widely reported in the literature. In this case, suitable dosimeters would have to offer a submillimeter spatial resolution. The CyberKnife^® (Accuray Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA) is an SRT‐dedicated linear accelerator (linac), which can deliver treatments with submillimeter positional accuracy using circular fields. Beams are delivered with the desired field size using fixed cones, the InCise™ multileaf collimator or a dynamic variable‐aperture Iris™ collimator. The latter, allowing for field sizes to be varied during treatment delivery, has the potential to decrease treatment time, …

Autocorrelation Based Transmission Power Control In Wbans, Hongyun Zhang, Farzad Safaei, Le Chung Tran

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this paper, we propose an autocorrelation-based transmission power control (A-TPC) method to increase the transmission reliability and reduce the energy consumption. In A-TPC, data packets from multiple sensor nodes are scheduled in the TDMA-fashion. The transmission power level and the slot scheduling are jointly optimized based on a temporal autocorrelation model. The channel datasets collected from real WBAN daily scenarios are imported into our simulation model to evaluate the performance of A-TPC. Simulation results demonstrate that A-TPC significantly improves the transmission reliability and reduces the energy consumption.

Minimizing Completion Time In Wireless Networks With In-Band Full Duplex Links, Yifei Ren, Kwan-Wu Chin, Sieteng Soh

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

One approach to improve network capacity in future wireless networks is to deploy Access Points (APs) in a dense manner and employ a controller to manage these APs. Another innovation is to equip nodes with an In-Band Full- Duplex (IBFD) radio, which allows them to transmit and receive simultaneously over the same frequency band. A key challenge, however, is interference. To this end, a link scheduler plays a critical role in ensuring the benefits of dense APs deployment and IBFD are not negated by severe interference. Henceforth, this paper proposes three centralized algorithms that aim to drain a given set …

A Privacy-Preserving Fog Computing Framework For Vehicular Crowdsensing Networks, Jiannan Wei, Xiaojie Wang, Nan Li, Guomin Yang, Yi Mu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Recently, the study of road surface condition monitoring has drawn great attention to improve traffic efficiency and road safety. As a matter of fact, this activity plays a critical role in the management of the transportation infrastructure. Trustworthiness and individual privacy affect the practical deployment of the vehicular crowdsensing network. Mobile sensing as well as contemporary applications is made use of problem solving. The fog computing paradigm is introduced to meet specific requirements, including mobility support, low latency, and location awareness. The fog-based vehicular crowdsensing network is an emerging transportation management infrastructure. Moreover, the fog computing is effective to reduce …

Medication Administration Process In A Residential Aged Care Home: An Observational Study, Siyu Qian, Ping Yu, David M. Hailey, Ning Wang, Arnol Bhattacherjee

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Aims: To understand the medication administration process in residential aged care homes.

Background: Understanding actual processes that nurses follow is critical to guide improvement efforts and to develop robust systems to ensure safety in medication administration.

Methods: Seven nurses were observed for 12 morning medication rounds at two units of a residential aged care home in Australia. Observations were guided by an activity theoretical framework.

Results: Nurses followed a common work process to administer medication. This process included actions from preparing medication trolley, locating a resident, preparing and administering medication to this person, documenting the administration, …

Comparison Of Semiautomated Tangential Vmat With 3dcrt For Breast Or Chest Wall And Regional Nodes, Mikel Byrne, Ben Archibald-Heeren, Yunfei Hu, Andrew Fong, Leena Chong, Amy Teh

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Radiotherapy to the breast after surgery sometimes requires adjoining nodes to be included in the treatment volume. In these cases, the traditional approach has been a complex 3-Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy (3DCRT) beam arrangement which can result in significant dose heterogeneity at the beam junctions. A Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) beam arrangement has previously been proposed for breast cases, where the chest wall/breast is treated with a limited angle (partial arc) tangential VMAT technique (Viren et al. [2015] Radiat Oncol. 10:79). In our study, this approach is extended to breast and chest wall cases with adjoining nodes by adding a …

Profile Measurement Using A Self-Mixing Laser Diode, Han Wang, Yuxi Ruan, Lingzhi Cao, Yanguang Yu, Jiangtao Xi, Qinghua Guo, Jun Tong, Jitao Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

When a fraction of external optical feedback re-enters inside cavity of a laser diode (LD), the laser intensity and its wavelength will thus be altered. The LD in this case is often called as a self-mixing laser diode (SMLD). This paper presents an SMLD for profile measurement. The LD is modulated by the injection current in triangular waveform and a target to be measured is installed on a mechanic scanning device. The reflection light by the target contains its surface profile. The profile information is then carried in the laser intensity and can be pickup by a photodiode packaged in …

Behaviour Of Small-Diameter Self-Compacting Concrete-Filled Steel Tubes, Faez Alhussainy, M Neaz Sheikh, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This study explores the effect of length to diameter (L/D) ratio on the axial load capacity of small-diameter self-compacting concrete-filled steel tube (SCFT) specimens. The SCFT specimens with L/D ratio of 2 to 14 were tested. Two different cold-formed steel tubes with diameters of 26·9 and 33·7 mm were used in the construction of the SCFT specimens. The behaviour of the SCFT specimens was compared with the unfilled steel tube (UT) specimens. The axial load capacity of SCFT specimens was found to be higher than the axial load capacity of UT specimens. The compressive failure of SCFT and …

Effects Of Sulphur On The Performance Of An Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor: Biological Stability, Trace Organic Contaminant Removal, And Membrane Fouling, Xiaoye Song, Wenhai Luo, James A. Mcdonald, Stuart J. Khan, Faisal I. Hai, Wenshan Guo, Hao H. Ngo, Long D. Nghiem

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This study investigated the impact of sulphur content on the performance of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) with an emphasis on the biological stability, contaminant removal, and membrane fouling. Removal of 38 trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) that are ubiquitously present in municipal wastewater by AnMBR was evaluated. Results show that basic biological performance of AnMBR regarding biomass growth and the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was not affected by sulphur addition when the influent COD/SO₄²⁻ ratio was maintained higher than 10. Nevertheless, the content of hydrogen sulphate in the produced biogas increased significantly and membrane fouling was …

A Closed-Form Pricing Formula For European Options Under The Heston Model With Stochastic Interest Rate, Xinjiang He, Song-Ping Zhu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this paper, a closed-form pricing formula for European options in the form of an infinite series is derived under the Heston model with the interest rate being another random variable following the CIR (Cox-Ingersoll-Ross) model. One of the main advantages for the newly derived series solution is that we can provide a radius of convergence, which is complemented by some numerical experiments demonstrating its speed of convergence. To further verify our formula, option prices calculated through our formula are also compared with those obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, a set of pricing formulae are derived with the series …

Physical Cleaning Techniques To Control Fouling During The Pre-Concentration Of High Suspended-Solid Content Solutions For Resource Recovery By Forward Osmosis, Ashley Ansari, Faisal I. Hai, Tao He, William E. Price, Long D. Nghiem

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The fouling propensity of digested sludge centrate, and the effectiveness of membrane flushing, air-scouring, and ultrasonication for physical cleaning were systematically evaluated. Accelerated fouling conditions were applied to simulate the long-term and intensive pre-concentration scenario that is required for phosphorus recovery from digested sludge centrate. The results suggest that membrane fouling during forward osmosis operation to pre-concentrate digested sludge centrate is mostly due to the deposition of small mineral crystals and particulate matter on the membrane surface. Both high cross-flow velocity flushing and ultrasonication were effective at preventing membrane fouling under accelerated fouling conditions. Our results also highlight the potential …

A Novel Electrospun, Hydrophobic, And Elastomeric Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene Membrane For Membrane Distillation Applications, Hung Duong, Dan Chuai, Yun Chul Woo, Ho Kyong Shon, Long D. Nghiem, Vitor Sencadas

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this study, a novel hydrophobic, microporous membrane was fabricated from styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymer using electrospinning and evaluated for membrane distillation applications. Compared to a commercially available polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane, the SBS membrane had larger membrane pore size and fiber diameter and comparable membrane porosity. The fabricated SBS showed slightly lower water flux than the PTFE membrane because it was two times thicker. However, the SBS membrane had better salt rejection and most importantly could be fabricated via a simple process. The SBS membrane was also more hydrophobic than the reference PTFE membrane. In particular, as temperature of the reference …