Blockchain Based Transaction System with Fungible and Non-Fungible Tokens for a Community-Based Energy Infrastructure

Renewable energy microgeneration is rising leading to creation of prosumer communities making it possible to extract value from surplus energy and usage flexibility. Such a peer-to-peer energy trading community requires a decentralized, immutable and access-controlled transaction system for tokenized energy assets. In this study we present a unified blockchain-based system for energy asset transactions among prosumers, electric vehicles, power companies and storage providers. Two versions of the system were implemented on Hyperledger Fabric. Assets encapsulating an identifier or unique information along with value are modelled as non-fungible tokens (NFT), while those representing value only are modelled as fungible tokens (FT). We developed the associated algorithms for token lifecycle management, analyzed their complexities and encoded them in smart contracts for performance testing. The results show that performance of both implementations are comparable for most major operations. Further, we presented a detailed comparison of FT and NFT implementations based on use-case, design, performance, advantages and disadvantages. Our implementation achieved a throughput of 448.3 transactions per second for the slowest operation (transfer) with a reasonably low infrastructure.

Factors Affecting the Adoption of Moodle in Gulf Universities

The study examined the Moodle system adoption by the students in three Gulf universities “Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain” and examines the students' perceptions towards this system from the framework of two theories: The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). This study is descriptive survey research. The convenience sampling technique was adopted in the selection of 231 respondents from the sampled universities. The results revealed that the students used the Moodle system for many purposes such as doing assignments, to check upcoming events, downloading the course materials and to participate in discussions with my instructors. The results also revealed that the most impactful perceived ease of use factors: easy usage, flexibility and interaction. Finally, the study is suggested to investigate academic concerns and needs to develop the usage of Moodle in Arabian and Gulf universities

Features of the Computational Implementation of the Algorithm for Estimating the Lyapunov Exponents of Systems with Delay

We consider the computational implementation of the algorithm for Lyapunov exponents spectrum numerical estimation for delay differential equations. It is known that for such systems, as well as for boundary value problems, it is not possible to prove the well-known Oseledets theorem which allows us to calculate the required parameters very efficiently. Therefore, we can only talk about the estimates of the characteristics in some sense close to the Lyapunov exponents. In this paper, we propose two methods of linearized systems solutions processing. One of them is based on a set of impulse functions, and the other is based on a set of trigonometric functions. We show the usage flexibility of these algorithms in the case of quasi-stable structures when several Lyapunov exponents are close to zero. The developed methods are tested on a logistic equation with a delay, and these tests illustrate the “proximity” of the obtained numerical characteristics and Lyapunov exponents.

Maintaining a Constant Charging Duration Independent of Battery Capacity for Battery Pack by Designing a Fast DC Charger

This article proposes a novel strategy for developing a new structure for a lithium-ion battery pack fast charger which aims to achieve fast DC charging, based on the topology of a boost converter. The proposed charger has been designed considering using fewer electronic components at lower cost. Varying initial charging percentage of the Li-ion cells has not been addressed in this article, an equal initial charging percentage of each Li-ion cell is assumed. Performance of the proposed structure of the charger has been tested using a simulation environment. This strategy has shown that this structure ensures scalability of this charger, while using the utility grid (220V, 50Hz) as a main power source for this charger has ensured practical usage flexibility. The results of this research are presented and discussed. These results have shown the outstanding performance and response of this charger.

DEVELOPMENT OF BICYCLE AND MOTORCYCLE CARRIAGE FOR GOODS MOBILITY IN RURAL AREAS OF NIGERIA

The challenges of carrying agricultural loads and forestry products were rightly identified as essentially the rural dwellers burden. Little efforts have been made to have an adaptive mobility frame (attached to bicycle and motorcycle) to carry goods and products from the point of harvest to the point of sales (the markets), a situation that leads to systematic rot of agriculture products on the farms, leading to low revenue and productivity of the rural people. Therefore, the goal of this research is to develop an improved carriage (trailer) to bicycle and motorcycle for goods mobility in rural areas of Nigeria. The design criteria for these trailers include: lightness in weight; ease of usage; flexibility; adaptability with various bicycle and motorcycle types; low cost of engineering materials, durability and availability of materials; and it is required that the trailer carries 200 kg load on smooth road (tarred and untarred). Factors considered for this design include; weight of the rider, weight of bicycle and motorcycle, type of road, type of load and factor of safety. Three different trailer designs were developed for the bicycle namely fixed plate design (FPD), convertible plate design (CPD) and wire mesh design (WMD), while the motorcycle trailers developed are the fixed plate design (FPD) and the convertible plate design (CPD). The hitch system used for the WMD bicycle trailer was a conventional universal joint and collar attached to the trailer front frame and the hitch system for the bicycle and motorcycle FPD and CPD comprises an annular of heavy duty cylindrical cone housing and a bolt. These designs are due in part to their simplicity, availability and ease of replacement for rural dwellers. Preliminary evaluations have shown satisfactory performance based on the load carrying capacity; stability of the trailer, bicycle and motorcycle turning ability; comfort of the operator and ease of disassembling the hitch system. A proper usage of the trailers presented in this study will boost the health and wealth of farmers and other rural dweller users.

A Miniature Wildlife Tracking UAV Payload System Using Acoustic Biotelemetry

Studying the biological processes of wildlife and how they react and prevail with human population growth and development has become very important to sustain species and prevent extinction. Wildlife tracking has become a very important tool in this matter by giving researchers an idea of animal territory and habitat. However, the process of finding the animal after it has been tagged can be very tedious and costly. To make this tracking process more efficient, researchers at Utah State University (USU) are developing a low cost RF telemetry system for wildlife tracking using an autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for triangulation and geo-location of the target. The use of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for wildlife tracking offer many advantages such as cost reduction, human effort reduction and data acquisition efficiency due to the usage flexibility offered by the system in comparison to conventional methods. This paper presents the design of this tracking system, and shows some experimental data.

AN IMPLANT FOR A VISUAL CORTICAL STIMULATOR

We present the design of an implantable micro-stimulator intended for a cortical visual prosthesis. The device is composed of several integrated modules to be assembled on a thin and flexible substrate providing placement flexibility on the cortex. The stimulator provides the user with significant usage flexibility, supplying biphasic current pulses using either monopolar or bipolar configurations, with single or distributed return electrode, and having a fixed or dynamic reference voltage. Monitoring of electrode-tissue interface condition is possible by measuring both simulation currents and voltages at any electrode for enhanced safety, and for enabling troubleshooting after implantation. In order to avoid erroneous stimulation to be executed, potentially caused by the implant's wireless transcutaneous power transfer, constant parameters stored in volatile memory are constantly monitored, and in case of data corruption, stimulation is automatically disabled. A power efficient recovery and regulation circuit is proposed for providing dual supply voltages. Also, a bidirectional wireless link with data rates up to 1.5 Mbps and 500 kbps, downlink and uplink respectively, has been designed for use with a 13.56 MHz carrier. Performances attained with a prototype, combined with the stimulator module's configurable communication protocol, are suitable for a cortical implant having more than 1000 stimulation sites, which is expected to be sufficient for providing blind subjects with a useful vision.

A Novel Technique for Analyzing Hydraulic Transients by Method of Characteristics

In analyzing hydraulic transients in complex pipeline systems by method of characteristics, existing approaches can not be fully satisfactory regard to numerical accuracy, computation speed, and application flexibility and simplicity. Trying to overcome this shortcomings, the paper puts forward a novel technique: in node computations, variable time steps are used, the common for boundaries and the different for lines; in every computation cycle, analyses of boundary nodes are always prior to that of interior ones, while simulation times of interior nodes are always prior to that of boundary ones; in solution of boundaries, only interpolation is used. Explanations and numerical experiments demonstrate its usage flexibility and simplicity, simulation accuracy, and executing time saving. It is specially suitable to analyses of complex systems.