http://www.hindawi.comThe latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation© 2012, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2012/393495/The paper considers a production facility that might deteriorate suddenly at some point during the production run time; after deterioration, nonconforming items are produced in a greater rate compared to the rate before deterioration. Moreover, the production facility may ultimately break down; consequently, the production lot is aborted before completion. If breakdown happens, corrective action is started immediately; otherwise, the production lot is completed and preventive repair is implemented at the end of the production cycle to enhance system reliability. The mathematical model is formulated under general distributions of failure, corrective, and repair times, while the numerical examples are solved under exponential failure and uniform repair times. The formulated model successfully determines the optimal lot size in addition to the optimal process parameters (mean and standard deviation) simultaneously.Muhammad Al-Salamah and Ali AbudariCopyright © 2012 Muhammad Al-Salamah and Ali Abudari. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2012/492415/A dynamic stiffness element for flexural vibration analysis of delaminated multilayer beams is developed and subsequently used to investigate the natural frequencies and modes of two-layer beam configurations. Using the Euler-Bernoulli bending beam theory, the governing differential equations are exploited and representative, frequency-dependent, field variables are chosen based on the closed form solution to these equations. The boundary conditions are then imposed to formulate the dynamic stiffness matrix (DSM), which relates harmonically varying loads to harmonically varying displacements at the beam ends. The bending vibration of an illustrative example problem, characterized by delamination zone of variable length, is investigated. Two computer codes, based on the conventional Finite Element Method (FEM) and the analytical solutions reported in the literature, are also developed and used for comparison. The intact and defective beam natural frequencies and modes obtained from the proposed DSM method are presented along with the FEM and analytical results and those available in the literature.Nicholas H. Erdelyi and Seyed M. HashemiCopyright © 2012 Nicholas H. Erdelyi and Seyed M. Hashemi. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2012/264537/Basic principles of the strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) using the outputs of strapdown gyros and accelerometers are explained, and the main equations are described. A mathematical model of SINS is established, and its Matlab implementation is developed. The theory is illustrated by six examples which are static status, straight line movement, circle movement, s-shape movement, and two sets of real static data.Wen Zhang, Mounir Ghogho, and Baolun YuanCopyright © 2012 Wen Zhang et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/179467/The motion equations of anisotropic media, coupled to the mass conservation and thermoequilibrium equations of fluid, are studied here based on the standard space of physical presentation for thermoelastic dynamics of anisotropic saturated porous solids. By introducing a new compressible thermo-elastic model, a set of uncoupled equations of elastic waves are deduced. The results show that the elastic waves and speeds of elastic waves are affected by both anisotropic subspaces of solids and thermal and compressive coupling coefficients between fluid and solid. Based on these laws, we discuss the propagation behaviour of elastic waves for various anisotropic solids.S. H. GuoCopyright © 2011 S. H. Guo. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/253735/Three versions of Bartlett Lewis rectangular pulse rainfall models, namely, the Original Bartlett Lewis (OBL), Modified Bartlett Lewis (MBL), and 2N-cell-type Bartlett Lewis model (BL2n), are considered. These models are fitted to the hourly rainfall data from 1970 to 2008 obtained from Petaling Jaya rain gauge station, located in Peninsular Malaysia. The generalized method of moments is used to estimate the model parameters. Under this method, minimization of two different objective functions which involve different weight functions, one weight is inversely proportional to the variance and another one is inversely proportional to the mean squared, is carried out using Nelder-Mead optimization technique. For the purpose of comparison of the performance of the three different models, the results found for the months of July and November are used for illustration. This performance is assessed based on the goodness of fit of the models. In addition, the sensitivity of the parameter estimates to the choice of the objective function is also investigated. It is found that BL2n slightly outperforms OBL. However, the best model is the Modified Bartlett Lewis MBL, particularly when the objective function considered involves weight which is inversely proportional to the variance.Ibrahim Suliman Hanaish, Kamarulzaman Ibrahim, and Abdul Aziz JemainCopyright © 2011 Ibrahim Suliman Hanaish et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/469262/Cutting operations using blades can arise in a number of industries, for example, food processing industry, in which cheese, fruit and vegetable, even meat, are involved. Certain questions will rise during these works, such as “why pressing-and-slicing cuts use less force than pressing-only cuts” and “how is the influence of the blade cutting-edge on force”. To answer these questions, this research developed a mathematical expression of the cutting stress tensor. Based on the analysis of the stress tensor on the contact surface, the influence of the blade edge-shape and slicing angle on the resultant cutting force were formulated and discussed. These formulations were further verified using experimental results by robotic cutting of potatoes. Through studying the change of the cutting force, the optimal slicing angle can be obtained in terms of maximum feeding distance and minimum cutting force. Based on the blade sharpness properties and the specific materials, the required cutting force can be predicted. These formulation and experimental results explained the basic theory of blade cutting fracture and further provided the support to optimize the cutting mechanism design and to develop the force control algorithms for the automation of blade cutting operations.Debao Zhou and Gary McMurrayCopyright © 2011 Debao Zhou and Gary McMurray. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/496732/The main aim of this work is to show that such a powerful optimizing tool like evolutionary algorithms (EAs) can be in reality used for the simulation and optimization of a nonlinear system. A nonlinear mathematical model is required to describe the dynamic behaviour of batch process; this justifies the use of evolutionary method of the EAs to deal with this process. Four algorithms from the field of artificial intelligent—differential evolution (DE), self-organizing migrating algorithm (SOMA), genetic algorithm (GA), and simulated annealing (SA)—are used in this investigation. The results show that EAs are used successfully in the process optimization.Tran Trong DaoCopyright © 2011 Tran Trong Dao. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/257539/When a cavitated body moves in shallow water, both flexible free surface and rigid bottom wall will produce great influence on the cavity pattern and hydrodynamics to change the motion attitude and stability of the body. In this paper, a single-fluid multiphase flow method coupled with a natural cavitation model was employed to study the effects of two kinds of boundaries on the natural cavitating flow around a two-dimensional symmetry wedge in shallow water. Within the range of the cavitation number for computation (0.05 ~ 2.04), the cavity pattern would be divided into three types, namely, stable type, transition type and wake-vortex type. The shape of the free surface is fairly similar to that of the cavity's upper surface with well right-and-left symmetry. However, when the immersion depth and the cavitation number are decreasing, the symmetry of the cavity shape is destroyed due to the influence of bottom wall effects. When the cavitation number is less than about 0.1, with the immersion depth going down, free surface effects exerts a stronger influence on the drag coefficient of this 2D wedge, whereas wall effects bring a stronger influence on the lift coefficient.Xin Chen, Ying Chen, Jia-Yi Cao, and Jie LiCopyright © 2011 Xin Chen et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/573715/This paper reveals mathematical models of the simplest Mamdani PI/PD controllers which employ two fuzzy sets (N: negative and P: positive) on the universe of discourse (UoD) of each of two input variables (displacement and velocity) and three fuzzy sets (N: negative, Z: zero, and P: positive) on the UoD of output variable (control output in the case of PD, and incremental control output in the case of PI). The basic constituents of these models are algebraic product/minimum AND, bounded sum/algebraic sum/maximum OR, algebraic product inference, three linear fuzzy control rules, and Center of Sums (CoS) defuzzification. Properties of all these models are investigated. It is shown that all these controllers are different nonlinear PI/PD controllers with their proportional and derivative gains changing with the inputs. The proposed models are significant and useful to control community as they are completely new and qualitatively different from those reported in the literature.Murali Bosukonda and Naresh KelothuCopyright © 2011 Murali Bosukonda and Naresh Kelothu. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/275158/Because of the complicated energy conversion process, ultrasonic motor has remarkable nonlinearity. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve accurate speed control of ultrasonic motor. In general, a good model is the foundation of the accurate control effect. Because of the remarkable non-linearity of ultrasonic motor, the model should also be nonlinear. In this paper, the two-input and one-output steady-state model of ultrasonic motor system is worked out using fuzzy reasoning modeling method. Comparison between experimental data and calculated data of the model prove that the model can well simulate the nonlinear relationship among the amplitude of driving voltage, frequency, and rotating speed.Shi Jingzhuo and Lv LinCopyright © 2011 Shi Jingzhuo and Lv Lin. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/931415/We motivate our study by simulating the particle transport of a thin film deposition process done by PVD (physical vapor deposition) processes. In this paper we present a new model taken into account a self-consistent electrostatic-particle in cell model with low density Argon plasma. The collision model are based of Monte Carlo simulations is discussed for DC sputtering in lower pressure regimes. In order to simulate transport phenomena within sputtering processes realistically, a spatial and temporal knowledge of the plasma density and electrostatic field configuration is needed. Due to relatively low plasma densities, continuum fluid equations are not applicable. We propose instead a Particle-in-cell (PIC) method, which allows the study of plasma behavior by computing the trajectories of finite-size particles under the action of an external and self-consistent electric field defined in a grid of points.Jürgen Geiser and Sven BlankenburgCopyright © 2011 Jürgen Geiser and Sven Blankenburg. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/230983/The experiments and finite element simulations of composite laminate with stitching are carried out. Firstly, the monotonous tensile experiments with and without stitching are conducted to investigate the influence of stitch reinforcement on the composite laminate. Secondly, the finite element method (FEM) is employed to simulate the tensile process of specimens, and the link element is introduced to simulate the stitching. The experiment results shows that the stitching has little influence on the damage load under monotonous tensile load, while there is a significant influence on the changing of strain. The FEM results are consistent with the experiment results, which means that the link element can be used to study the stitching of the composite laminate. The simulation results also show that the distributions of strain are changed obviously due to the existence of the stitching. Research results have a significant role on the design of the composite structures with and without stitching.Yi Wang, Nai Xian Hou, and Zhu Feng YueCopyright © 2011 Yi Wang et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/798960/The objective of this paper is to present a short research about the overall broadband penetration in Greece. In this research, a new empirical deterministic model is proposed for the short-term forecast of the cumulative broadband adoption. The fitting performance of the model is compared with some widely used diffusion models for the cumulative adoption of new telecommunication products, namely, Logistic, Gompertz, Flexible Logistic (FLOG), Box-Cox, Richards, and Bass models. The fitting process is done with broadband penetration official data for Greece. In conclusion, comparing these models with the empirical model, it could be argued that the latter yields well enough statistics indicators for fitting and forecasting performance. It also stresses the need for further research and performance analysis of the model in other more mature broadband markets.Salpasaranis Konstantinos and Stylianakis VasiliosCopyright © 2011 Salpasaranis Konstantinos and Stylianakis Vasilios. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/537464/An improved preconditioning is proposed for viscous flow computations in rotating and nonrotating frames at arbitrary Mach numbers. The key to the current method is the use of both free stream Mach number and rotating Mach number to construct a preconditioning matrix, which is applied to the compressible governing equations written in terms of primitive variables. A Fourier analysis is conducted that reveals the efficacy of the modified preconditioning. Numerical approximations for the convective and diffusive fluxes are detailed based on the preconditioned system of equations. A set of boundary conditions using characteristic variables are described for internal and external flow computations. Numerical validations are performed on four realistic viscous flows in both fixed and rotating frames. The results indicated that the modified preconditioning has a superior performance compared to the original method to predict flows from extremely low to supersonic Mach numbers.Chunhua ShengCopyright © 2011 Chunhua Sheng. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/684034/A computable model of grasping and manipulation of a 3D rigid object with arbitrary smooth surfaces by multiple robot fingers with smooth fingertip surfaces is derived under rolling contact constraints between surfaces. Geometrical conditions of pure rolling contacts are described through the moving-frame coordinates at each rolling contact point under the postulates: (1) two surfaces share a common single contact point without any mutual penetration and a common tangent plane at the contact point and (2) each path length of running of the contact point on the robot fingertip surface and the object surface is equal. It is shown that a set of Euler-Lagrange equations of motion of the fingers-object system can be derived by introducing Lagrange multipliers corresponding to geometric conditions of contacts. A set of 1st-order differential equations governing rotational motions of each fingertip and the object and updating arc-length parameters should be accompanied with the Euler-Lagrange equations. Further more, nonholonomic constraints arising from twisting between the two normal axes to each tangent plane are rewritten into a set of Frenet-Serre equations with a geometrically given normal curvature and a motion-induced geodesic curvature.Suguru Arimoto and Morio YoshidaCopyright © 2011 Suguru Arimoto and Morio Yoshida. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/138143/We examine a simulation model for polymer extrusion filters and determine its sensitivity to filter parameters. The simulator is a three-dimensional, time-dependent discretization of a coupled system of nonlinear partial differential equations used to model fluid flow and debris transport, along with statistical relationships that define debris distributions and retention probabilities. The flow of polymer fluid, and suspended debris particles, is tracked to determine how well a filter performs and how long it operates before clogging. A filter may have multiple layers, characterized by thickness, porosity, and average pore diameter. In this work, the thickness of each layer is fixed, while the porosities and pore diameters vary for a two-layer and three-layer study. The effects of porosity and average pore diameter on the measures of filter quality are calculated. For the three layer model, these effects are tested for statistical significance using analysis of variance. Furthermore, the effects of each pair of interacting parameters are considered. This allows the detection of complexity, where in changing two aspects of a filter together may generate results substantially different from what occurs when those same aspects change separately. The principal findings indicate that the first layer of a filter is the most important.N. Brackett-Rozinsky, S. Mondal, K. R. Fowler, and E. W. JenkinsCopyright © 2011 N. Brackett-Rozinsky et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/739562/It is reasonable to expect that, when two nominally flat rough surfaces are brought into contact by an applied resultant force, they must support, in addition to the compressive load, an induced moment. The existence of a net applied moment would imply noneven distribution of contact force so that there are more asperities in contact over one region of the nominal area. In this paper, we consider the contact between two rectangular rough surfaces that provide normal and tangential contact force as well as contact moment to counteract the net moment imposed by the applied forces. The surfaces are permitted to develop slight angular misalignment, and thereby contact moment is derived. Through this scheme, it is possible to also define elastic contribution to friction since the half-plane tangential contact force on one side of an asperity is no longer balanced by the half-plane tangential force component on the opposite side. The elastic friction force, however, is shown to be of a much smaller order than the contact normal force. Approximate closed-form equations are found for contact force and moment for the contact of rough surfaces.Ali Sepehri and Kambiz FarhangCopyright © 2011 Ali Sepehri and Kambiz Farhang. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/675405/To include user interactions in simulations of product use, the most common approach is to couple human subjects to simulation models, using hardware interfaces to close the simulation-control loop. Testing with virtual human models could offer a low-cost addition to evaluation with human subjects. This paper explores the possibilities for coupling human and artefact models to achieve fully software-based interaction simulations. We have critically reviewed existing partial solutions to simulate or execute control (both human control and product-embedded control) and compared solutions from literature with a proof-of-concept we have recently developed. Our concept closes all loops, but it does not rely on validated algorithms to predict human decision making and low-level human motor control. For low-level control, validated solutions are available from other approaches. For human decision making, however, validated algorithms exist only to predict the timing but not the reasoning behind it. To identify decision-making schemes beyond what designers can conjecture, testing with human subjects remains indispensable.Wilhelm Frederik van der Vegte and Imre HorváthCopyright © 2011 Wilhelm Frederik van der Vegte and Imre Horváth. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/909463/Healthcare currently consumes 17% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and is expected to reach 20% within the coming decade. Confronted with such high costs, sharp demand, and limited capacity, many hospitals now are vying for shorter lengths of stay and are transferring services from inpatient to outpatient facilities. This paper seeks to develop a methodology for constructing effective outpatient appointment scheduling systems. The objective of these appointment systems is to minimize the average total cost function describing total costs incurred by patient waiting and by staff idle time and overtime. In the paper, we will establish that the average total cost function exhibits a unimodal curve. The lowest point of the curve essentially means the lowest average total cost. We will next develop a simulation-based heuristic algorithm for finding an outpatient schedule near the lowest point. In the paper, we present numerical examples using the heuristic based upon a set of predetermined unit costs. Specifically, we find the near optimal interappointment times for schedules, where there are two and three patients in each block, respectively. The current work does not consider possible no shows and walk-ins. Future work will undertake these issues.Song Foh ChewCopyright © 2011 Song Foh Chew. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/356741/This is the continuation of our research on development of a fully nonlinear, dynamically consistent, numerical ship motion model (DiSSEL). In this paper we report our results on modeling ship maneuvering in arbitrary seaway that is one of the most challenging and important problems in seakeeping. In our modeling, we developed an adaptive algorithm to maintain dynamical balances numerically as the encounter frequencies (the wave frequencies as measured on the ship) varying with the ship maneuvering state. The key of this new algorithm is to evaluate the encounter frequency variation differently in the physical domain and in the frequency domain, thus effectively eliminating possible numerical dynamical imbalances. We have tested this algorithm with several well-documented maneuvering experiments, and our results agree very well with experimental data. In particular, the numerical time series of roll and pitch motions and the numerical ship tracks (i.e., surge, sway, and yaw) are nearly identical to those of experiments.Ray-Qing Lin and Weijia KuangCopyright © 2011 Ray-Qing Lin and Weijia Kuang. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/561828/Three-dimensional elastic-plastic contact of two nominally flat rough surfaces is considered. Equations governing the shoulder-shoulder contact of asperities are derived based on the asperity constitutive relations from a finite element model of the elastic-plastic interaction proposed by Kogut and Etsion (2002), in which asperity scale constitutive relations are derived using piecewise approximate functions. An analytical fusion technique is developed to combine the piecewise asperity level constitutive relations. Shoulder-shoulder asperity contact yields a slanted contact force consisting of two components, one in the normal direction and a half-plane tangential component. Statistical summation of the asperity level contact force components and asperity level contact area results in the total contact force and total contact area formulae between two rough surfaces. Approximate equations are developed in closed form for contact force components and contact area.Ali Sepehri and Kambiz FarhangCopyright © 2011 Ali Sepehri and Kambiz Farhang. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/782832/A numerical scheme based on discontinuous Galerkin method is proposed for the two-dimensional shallow water flows. The scheme is applied to model flows with shock waves. The form of shallow water equations that can eliminate numerical imbalance between flux term and source term and simplify computation is adopted here. The HLL approximate Riemann solver is employed to calculate the mass and momentum flux. A slope limiting procedure that is suitable for incompressible two-dimensional flows is presented. A simple method is adapted for flow over initially dry bed. A new formulation is introduced for modeling the net pressure force and gravity terms in discontinuous Galerkin method. To validate the scheme, numerical tests are performed to model steady and unsteady shock waves. Applications include circular dam break with shock, shock waves in channel contraction, and dam break in channel with 45∘ bend. Numerical results show that the scheme is accurate and efficient to model two-dimensional shallow water flows with shock waves.W. Lai and A. A. KhanCopyright © 2011 W. Lai and A. A. Khan. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/754257/This study demonstrates the transient and steady state dynamic loading on teeth within a two-stage gear transmission arising from backlash and geometric manufacturing errors by utilizing a nonlinear multibody dynamics software model. Backlash between gear teeth which is essential to provide better lubrication on tooth surfaces and to eliminate interference is included as a defect and a necessary part of transmission design. Torsional vibration is shown to cause teeth separation and double-sided impacts in unloaded and lightly loaded gearing drives. Vibration and impact force distinctions between backlash and combinations of transmission errors are demonstrated under different initial velocities and load conditions. The backlash and manufacturing errors in the first stage of the gear train are distinct from those of the second stage. By analyzing the signal at a location between the two stages, the mutually affected impact forces are observed from different gear pairs, a phenomenon not observed from single pair of gears. Frequency analysis shows the appearance of side band modulations as well as harmonics of the gear mesh frequency. A joint time-frequency response analysis during startup illustrates the manner in which contact forces increase during acceleration.Andrew Sommer, Jim Meagher, and Xi WuCopyright © 2011 Andrew Sommer et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/101437/This paper develops a GA ANFIS controller design method for temperature control in plastic extrusion system. Temperature control of plastic extrusion system suffers problems related to longer settling time, couple effects, large time constants, and undesirable overshoot. The system is generally nonlinear and the temperature of the plastic extrusion system may vary over a wide range of disturbances. The system is designed with three controllers. The proposed GA ANFIS controller is the most powerful approach to retrieve the adaptiveness in the case of nonlinear system. In this research the control methods are simulated using simulink. Relatively the methodology and efficiency of the proposed method are compared with those of the traditional methods and the results obtained from GA ANFIS controller give improved performance in terms of time domain specification, set point tracking, and disturbance rejection with optimum stability.S. Ravi, M. Sudha, and P. A. BalakrishnanCopyright © 2011 S. Ravi et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/239743/For premature convergence and instability of cultural algorithm in solving function optimization problem, based on cultural algorithm and chaos search optimization, a chaos cultural algorithm (CCA) is proposed. The algorithm model consists of a chaos-based population space and a knowledge-storing belief space, uses normative knowledge and situational knowledge for chaos search and chaos perturbation, respectively, effectively avoids premature convergence of cultural algorithm, and overcomes chaos search optimization's sensitivity to initial values and poor efficiency. Test results show that this algorithm is strong in global search and has good performance in searching efficiency, precision, and stability, especially in solving high-dimensional optimization problem.Jianjia He and Fuyuan XuCopyright © 2011 Jianjia He and Fuyuan Xu. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/696947/This paper presents an application of type-2 fuzzy logic on acoustic emission (AE) signal modeling in precision manufacturing. Type-2 fuzzy modeling is used to identify the AE signal in precision machining. It provides a simple way to arrive at a definite conclusion without understanding the exact physics of the machining process. Moreover, the interval set of the output from the type-2 fuzzy approach assesses the information about the uncertainty in the AE signal, which can be of great value for investigation of tool wear conditions. Experiments show that the development of the AE signal uncertainty trend corresponds to that of the tool wear. Information from the AE uncertainty scheme can be used to make decisions or investigate the tool condition so as to enhance the reliability of tool wear.Qun Ren, Luc Baron, and Marek BalazinskiCopyright © 2011 Qun Ren et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/285108/Numerical simulation of the arc-flow interaction in high-voltage circuit breakers requires a radiation model capable of handling high-temperature participating thermal plasmas. The modeling of the radiative transfer plays a critical role in the overall accuracy of such CFD simulations. As a result of the increase of computational power, CPU intensive methods based on the radiative transfer equation, leading to more accurate results, are now becoming attractive alternatives to current approximate models. In this paper, the predictive capabilities of the finite volume method (RTE-FVM) and the P1 model are investigated. A systematic comparison between these two models and analytical solutions are presented for a variety of relevant test cases. Two implementations of each approach are compared, and a critical evaluation is presented.Matthieu Melot, Jean-Yves Trépanier, Ricardo Camarero, and Eddy PetroCopyright © 2011 Matthieu Melot et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/897618/Kamaniskeg Lake is a long, narrow, and deep small lake located in the northern part of Ontario, Canada. The goals of this paper were to examine various options to improve the water quality in the northern part of the lake by altering the local hydraulic flow conditions. Towards this end, a preliminary screening suggested that the flow circulation could be increased around a central island (Mask Island) in the northern part of the lake by opening up an existing causeway connecting the mainland and central island. Three-dimensional (3D) hydraulic and transport models were adopted in this paper to investigate the hydraulic conditions under various wind forces and causeway structures. The modelling results show that opening the causeway in a few places is unlikely to generate a large flow circulation around the central island. Full circulation only appears to be possible if the causeway is fully removed and a strong wind blows in a favourable direction. The possible reasons for existing water quality variations at the intake of a local WTP (water treatment plant) are also explored in the paper.Cheng He and Quintin RochfortCopyright © 2011 Cheng He and Quintin Rochfort. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/379121/Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are flexible computing frameworks and universal approximators that can be applied to a wide range of forecasting problems with a high degree of accuracy. However, using ANNs to model linear problems have yielded mixed results, and hence; it is not wise to apply them blindly to any type of data. This is the reason that hybrid methodologies combining linear models such as ARIMA and nonlinear models such as ANNs have been proposed in the literature of time series forecasting. Despite of all advantages of the traditional methodologies for combining ARIMA and ANNs, they have some assumptions that will degenerate their performance if the opposite situation occurs. In this paper, a new methodology is proposed in order to combine the ANNs with ARIMA in order to overcome the limitations of traditional hybrid methodologies and yield more general and more accurate hybrid models. Empirical results with Canadian Lynx data set indicate that the proposed methodology can be a more effective way in order to combine linear and nonlinear models together than traditional hybrid methodologies. Therefore, it can be applied as an appropriate alternative methodology for hybridization in time series forecasting field, especially when higher forecasting accuracy is needed.Mehdi Khashei and Mehdi BijariCopyright © 2011 Mehdi Khashei and Mehdi Bijari. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mse/2011/541743/This contribution is dealing with experimental and computational evaluation of the deposition baffle that is transparent to radio frequency (RF) magnetic fields generated by an external antenna in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source but opaque to the deposition of the metal onto a dielectric wall in ionized physical vapor deposition (IPVD) system. Various engineering aspects related to the deposition baffle are discussed. Among the many requirements focus is on specific structure of the slots and analysis to minimize deposition on the baffle (we used a string model for simulating the profile evolution) and deposition through the DB on dielectric components of the ICP source. Transparency of the baffle to RF magnetic fields is computed using a three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic field solver. A simple two-dimensional sheath model is used to understand plasma interactions with the DB slot structure. Performance and possible failure of device are briefly discussed.Jozef Brcka and R. Lee RobisonCopyright © 2011 Jozef Brcka and R. Lee Robison. All rights reserved.