United Nations International Conference on Space-based Technologies for Disaster Management Held in Beijing

The United Nations International Conference on Space-based Technologies for Disaster Management, "Risk Assessment in the Context of Global Climate Change", was held in Beijing during November 7-9, 2012. The conference was co-organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Ministry of Civil affairs (MCA) of the People's Republic of China, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC, China National Space Administration (CNSA),

Development of Key Technologies of Large Hydro Unit in HEC

Introduction to HEC Harbin Electric Machinery Company Limited (HEC) is a pivotal company that produces large electric machinery and accessorial control equipment in China. The hydro units made by HEC have

Symbol RFID Technology to be Deployed at United States Defense Logistics Agency's Distribution Centers Worldwide

Symbol Technologies, Inc., The Enterprise Mobility Company, today announced that it had been selected by ODIN technologies, the leader in the physics of RFID testing, software and deployment, to support its recent contract win with the United States Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the United States Department of Defense’s (DoD) logistics combat support agency that provides supplies and services to America’s military forces worldwide.

A graphics processing unit-based robust numerical model for solute transport driven by torrential flow condition

Solute transport simulations are important in water pollution events.This paper introduces a finite volume Godunovtype model for solving a 4×4 matrix form of the hyperbolic conservation laws consisting of 2D shallow water equations and transport equations.The model adopts the Harten-Lax-van Leer-contact(HLLC)-approximate Riemann solution to calculate the cell interface fluxes.It can deal well with the changes in the dry and wet interfaces in an actual complex terrain,and it has a strong shock-wave capturing ability.Using monotonic upstream-centred scheme for conservation laws(MUSCL)linear reconstruction with finite slope and the Runge-Kutta time integration method can achieve second-order accuracy.At the same time,the introduction of graphics processing unit(GPU)-accelerated computing technology greatly increases the computing speed.The model is validated against multiple benchmarks,and the results are in good agreement with analytical solutions and other published numerical predictions.The third test case uses the GPU and central processing unit(CPU)calculation models which take 3.865 s and 13.865 s,respectively,indicating that the GPU calculation model can increase the calculation speed by 3.6 times.In the fourth test case,comparing the numerical model calculated by GPU with the traditional numerical model calculated by CPU,the calculation efficiencies of the numerical model calculated by GPU under different resolution grids are 9.8–44.6 times higher than those by CPU.Therefore,it has better potential than previous models for large-scale simulation of solute transport in water pollution incidents.It can provide a reliable theoretical basis and strong data support in the rapid assessment and early warning of water pollution accidents.

ANFIS-based Sensor Fusion System of Sit-to-stand for Elderly People Assistive Device Protocols

This paper describes the analysis and design of an assistive device for elderly people under development at the EgyptJapan University of Science and Technology（E-JUST） named E-JUST assistive device（EJAD）.Several experiments were carried out using a motion capture system（VICON） and inertial sensors to identify the human posture during the sit-to-stand motion.The EJAD uses only two inertial measurement units（IMUs） fused through an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems（ANFIS） algorithm to imitate the real motion of the caregiver.The EJAD consists of two main parts,a robot arm and an active walker.The robot arm is a 2-degree-of-freedom（2-DOF） planar manipulator.In addition,a back support with a passive joint is used to support the patient s back.The IMUs on the leg and trunk of the patient are used to compensate for and adapt to the EJAD system motion depending on the obtained patient posture.The ANFIS algorithm is used to train the fuzzy system that converts the IMUs signals to the right posture of the patient.A control scheme is proposed to control the system motion based on practical measurements taken from the experiments.A computer simulation showed a relatively good performance of the EJAD in assisting the patient.