Seminar Paper :: Engineering Seminar Topics

ICICI BANK AND THEIR CREDIT CARD PLANS

2012-09-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

ICICI Bank is India's second-largest bank with total assets of Rs. 3,446.58 billion (US$ 79 billion) at March 31, 2007 and profit after tax of Rs. 31.10 billion for fiscal 2007. ICICI Bank is the most valuable bank in India in terms of market capitalization and is ranked third amongst all the companies listed on the Indian stock exchanges in terms of free float market capitalization*. The Bank has a network of about 950 branches and 3,300 ATMs in India and presence in 17 countries.
ICICI Bank offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its specialized subsidiaries and affiliates in the areas of investment banking, life and non-life insurance, venture capital and asset management. The Bank currently has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Russia and Canada, branches in Singapore, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka.

ICICI Bank's equity shares are listed in India on Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited and its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

ICICI Bank was originally promoted in 1994 by ICICI Limited, an Indian financial institution, and was its wholly-owned subsidiary. Financial institution from non-Japan Asia to be listed on the NYSE.

ICICI BANK- PREMIUM CARDS

ICICI BANK Premium Credit Card
ICICI BANK Co-branded Credit Card
ICICI BANK- Classic Credit Card
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ICICI Bank Corporate Credit Cards

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The most powerful retail credit card in India.

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Classic Cards:

ICICI Bank Sterling Silver Credit Card

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Ø Zero Lost Card liability.

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Ø Balance transfer at 1.75%.

Ø Comprehensive Travel Benefits.

Ø Most powerful catalogue based rewards Program.

Ø Accepted at over 22 million merchant establishments globally.

Ø Mobile Alerts and Statement by E-mail.

ICICI Bank American Express Green credit card

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Ø Personal accident insurance.

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Ø Option to contribute your Rewards points to your Help age India

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Corporate Credit Cards

ICICI Bank Corporate Cards

The ICICI Bank Corporate cards give you another opportunity to recognize your senior executive in a very special way by nominating them to become Card Members.

The Corporate Card Programme is exclusively designed to be an effective tool in managing customer companies and employees’s business expenses. The card system also gives you valuable information, in the form of month reports, on individual card member expenses and also cumulative expenses by various Merchant Establishment categories. And of course card member get to enjoy all the benefits and privileges that come with an ICICI Bank Corporate Card.

Powerful Benefits from ICICI Bank Corporate Cards:-

Benefits to the company:

Ø Corporate Identity

Ø Management MIS

Ø Cost Saving

Ø Reduced Administration Burden

Ø Choice of Individual corporate Liability.

Benefits to Employees

Ø Convenience

Ø Security\insurance cover

Ø World class service

Ø Membership Rewards

Other Benefits to Card Members:-

Ø Free Teleoptima Calling Card for use overseas with discounts on airtime and a cost saving tariff plan

Ø Overseas Insurance Cover

Ø Emergency Assistance Services that enables Card Members to obtain emergency legal\medical referrals while traveling overseas.

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Ø Anything customer can buy on ICICI Card could be free. When customer will use American Express Card can win whatever customer purchase. From gas and groceries to meals, air tickets or holiday bills. Every ten days 25 lucky card members will have a winning transaction credited back to their Card account.

Ø For Medical Emergencies like surgeries, accidents and sudden illnesses, ICICI brings family PLUS, a complete insurance plan that is flexible enough to cover every member of family.

Ø The freedom and convenience of anywhere, anytime banking with “ICICI Bank Internet Banking” services.

Service Charge, Eligibility and Age Criteria for ICICI Credit Card

Cards	Service charges		Eligibility criteria
	On Revolving Credit	Late Payment Fee	Salaried	Self-employed
Amway / Big Bazaar / BPL Mobile / HPCL Silver / Mini / Pru Life / Sterling Silver / Trinethra / True Blue / True Value / Affinity / Cash card -silver	2.95%	25%	Rs. 60,000/- p.a.	Rs. 50,000/- p.a
Solid Gold / HPCL Gold / Affinity Gold / Cash Card -Gold	2.95%	25%	Rs. 1,20,000/- p.a.	Rs. 1,00,000/- p.a.
American Express® Green	2.75%	25%	Rs. 1,20,000/- p.a.	Rs. 1,20,000/- p.a.
American Express® Gold	2.5%	25%	Rs. 3,00,000/- p.a.	Rs. 3,00,000/- p.a.

Age Criteria

	Minimum Age	Maximum Age
Salaried	18	70
Retired	N\A	70
Self Employed	18	65

CARDS	JOINGING FEE	ANNUAL FEE	SUPPLEMENTRY FEE
ICICI Bank-Solid Gold card	Rs 300\-	Rs 1,500\-	Rs 750\-
ICICI Bank-American Express® Gold	Rs 500\-	Rs 2,000\-	Rs 1000\-
ICICI Bank-HPCL Gold	Rs 300\-	Rs 1500\-	Rs 750\-
ICICI Bank-BPL Mobile Card	Nil	Rs 750\-	Rs 375\-
ICICI Bank- Amway Card	Nil	Rs 750\-	Rs 375\-
ICICI Bank- Big Bazar Card	Nil	Rs 500\- on renewal Rs 750\-	First Add on Card Free, on renewal Rs 150\-
ICICI Bank-Trinethra Card	Nil	Rs 750\-	Rs 375\-

Electronics & computer science seminar topics - 15

2012-08-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

3D Printing Technology

2012-08-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material. It is also known as rapid prototyping, is a mechanized method whereby 3D objects are quickly made on a reasonably sized machine connected to a computer containing blueprints for the object. The 3D printing concept of custom manufacturing is exciting to nearly everyone. This revolutionary method for creating 3D models with the use of inkjet technology saves time and cost by eliminating the need to design; print and glue together separate model parts. Now, you can create a complete model in a single process using 3D printing. The basic principles include materials cartridges, flexibility of output, and translation of code into a visible pattern.

Typical 3D Printer

3D Printers are machines that produce physical 3D models from digital data by printing layer by layer. It can make physical models of objects either designed with a CAD program or scanned with a 3D Scanner. It is used in a variety of industries including jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education and consumer products.

History of 3d Printing

The technology for printing physical 3D objects from digital data was first developed by Charles Hull in 1984. He named the technique as Stereo lithography and obtained a patent for the technique in 1986.

While Stereo lithography systems had become popular by the end of 1980s, other similar technologies such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and Selective

Laser Sintering (SLS) were introduced.

In 1993, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) patented another technology, named "3 Dimensional Printing techniques", which is similar to the inkjet technology used in 2D Printers.

In 1996, three major products, "Genisys" from Stratasys, "Actua 2100" from 3D

Systems and "Z402" from Z Corporation were introduced. In 2005, Z Corp. launched a breakthrough product, named Spectrum Z510, which was the first high definition color 3D Printer in the market.

Another breakthrough in 3D Printing occurred in 2006 with the initiation of an open source project, named Reprap, which was aimed at developing a self-replicating 3D printer.

Current 3D Printing Technologies

Stereo lithography - Stereo lithographic 3D printers (known as SLAs or stereo lithography apparatus) position a perforated platform just below the surface of a vat of liquid photo curable polymer. A UV laser beam then traces the first slice of an object on the surface of this liquid, causing a very thin layer of photopolymer to harden. The perforated platform is then lowered very slightly and another slice is traced out and hardened by the laser. Another slice is then created, and then another, until a complete object has been printed and can be removed from the vat of photopolymer, drained of excess liquid, and cured.

Fused deposition modeling - Here a hot thermoplastic is extruded from a temperature-controlled print head to produce fairly robust objects to a high degree of accuracy.

Selective laser sintering (SLS) - This builds objects by using a laser to selectively fuse together successive layers of a cocktail of powdered wax, ceramic, metal, nylon or one of a range of other materials.

Multi-jet modeling (MJM) - This again builds up objects from successive layers of powder, with an inkjet-like print head used to spray on a binder solution that glues only the required granules together. The V-Flash printer, manufactured by Canon, is low-cost 3D printer. It’s known to build layers with a light-curable film. Unlike other printers, the VFlash builds its parts from the top down.

Desktop Factory is a startup launched by the Idea lab incubator in Pasadena,

California.

Fab@home, an experimental project based at Cornell University, uses a syringe to deposit material in a manner similar to FDM. The

inexpensive syringe makes it easy to experiment with different materials from glues to cake frosting.

Inkjet 3D printing

It creates the model one layer at a time by spreading a layer of powder (plaster, or resins) and inkjet printing binder in the cross-section of the part. It is the most widely used 3-D Printing technology these days and the reasons beyond that are stated below.

This technology is the only onethat

· Allows for the printing of full color prototypes.

Unlike stereo lithography, inkjet 3D printing is optimized for speed, low cost, and ease-of-use.

No toxic chemicals like those used in stereo lithography are required.

Minimal post printing finish work is needed; one needs only to use the printer itself to blow off surrounding powder after the printing process.

Allows overhangs and excess powder can be easily removed with an air blower.

MANUFACTURING A MODEL WITH THE 3D PRINTER

The model to be manufactured is built up a layer at a time. A layer of powder is automatically deposited in the model tray. The print head then applies resin in the shape of the model. The layer dries solid almost immediately. The model tray then moves down the distance of a layer and another layer of power is deposited in position, in the model tray. The print head again applies resin in the shape of the model, binding it to the first layer. This sequence occurs one layer at a time until the model is complete

Benefits of 3D Printing

The most successful companies have adopted 3D printing as a critical part of the iterative design process to:

Increase Innovation

· Print prototypes in hours, obtain feedback, refine designs and repeat the cycle until designs are perfect.

Improve Communication

· Hold a full color, realistic 3D model in your hands to impart infinitely more

information than a computer image.

· Create physical 3D models quickly, easily and affordably for a wide variety of applications.

Speed Time to Market

· Compress design cycles by 3D printing multiple prototypes on demand, right in your office.

Reduce Development Costs

· Cut traditional prototyping and tooling costs.

· Identify design errors earlier.

· Reduce travel to production facilities.

Win Business

· Bring realistic 3D models to prospective accounts, sponsors and focus groups

Conclusion

Nothing communicates ideas faster than a three-dimensional part or model. With a 3D printer you can bring CAD files and design ideas to life – right from your desktop. Test form, fit and function – and as many design variations as you like – with functional parts.

In an age in which the news, books, music, video and even our communities are all the subjects of digital dematerialization, the development and application of 3D printing reminds us that human beings have both a physical and a psychological need to keep at least one foot in the real world. 3D printing has a bright future, not least in rapid prototyping (where its impact is already highly significant), but also in medicine the arts, and outer space. Desktop 3D printers for the home are already a reality if you are prepared to pay for one and/or build one yourself. 3D printers capable of outputting in color and multiple materials also exist and will continue to improve to a point where functional products will be able to be output. As devices that will provide a solid bridge between cyberspace and the physical world, and as an important manifestation of the Second Digital Revolution, 3D printing is therefore likely to play some part in all of our futures.

A Double Claw Robotic End-Effector Design

2012-08-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

Today faster and cheaper computer processors make robots smarter and less expensive. Researchers are working to make robots move and ‘think’ more efficiently. Although most robots in use today are designed for specific tasks, the goal is to make universal which can to do anything a human can do.

DEFINITION OF A ROBOT

The definition of an industrial robot given by the Robotics Industries Association (R.I.A.) is, ‘A reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks’. ISO defines Robot as: ‘Robot is an automatically controlled, re programmable, multi-purpose machine with several reprogram able axes which is either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation application’.

END EFFECTORS

End effector is a device or tool that’s connected to the end of a robot arm. The end effector is a part of robot arm that is designed to inter act with the environment. The exact nature of this device depends on the application of the robot. The structure of an end effector and the nature of the programming and hardware that drives it depend on the task the robot will be performing. Robotic end effectors are a device that attaches to the robot arm and enables the general purpose robot to perform a specific task. End-effectors function as robotic hands. These tools are typically connected to robot flanges, such as wrists, to perform applications.

End effectors are also known as:

Robotic accessories
Robotic peripherals
Robotic tools
End of arm tooling (EOAT).

GRIPPERS

Gripper design considerations are crucial in producing a functional and cost effective product for rehabilitation applications. This gripper is designed to be mounted to any robotic arm, and in particular, wheelchair mounted robotic arms that are used to enhance the manipulation capabilities of individuals with disabilities that are using power wheelchairs. Most grippers of similar objectives use two fingers for grasping, but the dexterity of these fingers limit the use of the gripper. This project attempts to provide a new design with enough dexterity to widen the range of grasping tasks that are used in the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) in an effort to improve performance and usability.

This work focuses on people who have limited or no upper extremity mobility due to spinal cord injury or dysfunction, or genetic predispositions. Robotic aides used in these applications vary from advanced limb orthosis to robotic arms. Persons that can benefit from these devices are those with severe physical disabilities, which limit their ability to grasp and manipulate objects. These devices increase self-sufficiency, and reduce dependence on caregivers.

The main objective of this work is to design and fabricate a gripper that is capable of grasping various door handles and knobs, cylindrical and spherical objects, tapered and conical objects, rectangular and odd-shaped objects, sheets of paper, light switches and buttons, and other larger objects up to four inches in width that are commonly used for activities of daily living. As a criterion, the gripping force objective was set to roughly ten pounds of force. The gripper was to be mounted on the end of a robotic arm which was

connected to a wheelchair. This factor limited the gripper’s size and weight, so design ideas were kept simple but effective. 3-D models of the considered designs were created using Pro/E and then later printed out to scale using a Rapid Prototype printer for design adjustments before building the actual gripper.

GRIPPER HARDWARE DESIGN

In designing a gripper, functionality is very important, and it remains one of the main factors considered in most robotics applications. If the design has good functionality, minimal cost, high durability, and the aesthetic characteristics are met, a good product is likely to be produced. In order to decide on a good design for a gripper, several aspects have to be inspected, such as the tasks required by the mechanism, size and weight limitations, environment to be used in as well as material selection. Some of

the ADL tasks that will be performed using the gripper are opening doors, grasping a glass to drink from, flipping on a light switch, pushing and turning buttons and knobs, holding books and similar objects, handling tiny objects such as a CD or loose sheets

of paper, or holding a small ball.

PADDLE DESIGN

Specific considerations were taken in the attempt to optimize the functionality of the gripper. It was decided early on that the gripper would utilize parallel motion generated from a dual four bar mechanism attached to each side of the two fingers creating 8 links between the gripper surfaces and the driving mechanism itself. As a start, the gripper’s fingers (paddles) were first put into consideration. Through the required tasks expected out of the overall device the gripper’s surfaces were designed to be varied for the adequate handling and use of household objects mentioned. For those items, the profile was decided initially to be angled as shown in figure 3.1. The angled surface was designed to constrain and secure handled objects, and the middle opening was meant to secure spherical objects. When opening a spring-loaded door, the two teeth at the tip of the paddles can secure the handle during the robot motion, and make the grasping force independent of the closing force of the gripper.

A rounded surface was later implemented in the place of the angled paddle surfaces as shown in figure 3.2, which would give the gripper a softer look as well as better function while grasping objects. A spherically channeled surface was decided to be placed in the center of the paddle surface with the intention to contour to spherical door knobs. Small protrusions were added to the end of each paddle at the tip of the gripper for grasping smaller objects allowing added dexterity and the operations of press buttons and toggle switches. The tips were specifically made narrow for precision operations and rounded off to prevent the marring of surfaces that they would come in contact with. Optional protrusions extending toward the center of the grip at the tip of one of the paddles was added to allow objects such as door handles and door knobs to be pulled open with more security, rather than relying on friction and the locking of the mechanisms grip alone. The other paddle would have a small opening for the protrusions to go through when closing the gripper is required as seen at the bottom of Figure 3.2.

An extra flat surface placed closer to the driver mechanism would be beneficial in grasping larger rectangular objects such as boxes or books. By relying on the finger tips of the gripper alone to grasp larger objects, a greater moment would be generated on the driving mechanism and higher stresses induced in the links to achieve the same amount of gripping force attainable from a location closer to the driving mechanism itself. Figure3.3 shows these changes to the paddles.

As a final modification to the paddles, a spring hinge was added to the back of the flat paddle surface, near the hinge location, to allow for a small amount of torsional rotation. The thought behind this modification was for an added degree of freedom in the paddles to allow for a better grasp on tapered objects such as cups and for self-adjustment. Four main contact surfaces were intended for this gripper: The spherical area at the center of the paddles for spherical objects, the two round surfaces on both sides of the paddle for handling cylindrical and tapered objects, the two flat surfaces at the bottom and top of the paddles for handling rectangular and large objects, and the paddles’ tips for handling small objects, switches, knobs and sheets of paper.

Adaptive Brain Interfaces (ABI)

2012-08-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Adaptive Brain Interfaces (ABI) is a part of European Union Information Technology’s ESPRIT programme, with the central aim of extending the capabilities of physically-impaired people to access new services and opportunities. The ABI is a portable brain-computer interface based on the analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and interface of P300 based speller.

A cap with a few integrated electrodes acquires brain signals that are pre-processed and sent to a computer for further analysis. The portable brain interface has an embedded neural network classifier that recognizes what mental task the wearer is concentrating on. It does so by analyzing continuous variations of EEG signals over several cortical areas of the brain. Each mental task is associated to a simple command. This enables people to communicate using their brain activity, as the interface only requires users to be conscious of their thoughts and to concentrate sufficiently on the mental expression of the commands required to carry out the desired task. So, by composing command sequences (thoughts), the user can read a web page, interact with games, turn on appliances, or even guide a wheelchair.

Brain interface will be most successful when it is adapted to its owner. The approach is based on a mutual learning process where the user and the ABI interface are coupled together and adapt to each other. The neural network has been specifically designed to cope with the challenging problem of recognizing mental tasks from spontaneous on-line EEG signals. Although the immediate application of ABI is to help physically disabled or impaired people by increasing their independence and facilitating access to the Information Society, the benefits of such a system are extensive. Anyone can use it for other purposes, e.g. health and safety concerns (e.g. monitoring a person's level of alertness). ABI could also contribute to the medical diagnosis of brain disorders.

This report presents a subject-independent EEG(Electroencephalogram) classification technique and its application to a P300 based word speller. It also presents use of signals recorded from the brain to operate robotic or prosthetic devices. Both invasive and noninvasive approaches have proven effective. Achieving the speed, accuracy, and reliability necessary for real-world applications.

INTRODUCTION

Adaptive Brain Interface (ABI) is a human computer interface system that accepts voluntary commands directly from the brain to interact with the surrounding environment or to do a particular task. Sometimes it is called a direct neural interface, Brain computer interface or a brain-machine interface. It is a direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. BCIs were aimed at assisting, augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. The approach, on which the ABI is based, as the name implies, is the adaptiveness. That means that both the system and the user adapt to each other as explained before. In ABI the adaptive part is the local neural classifier which is responsible for classifying input signal, and the user adapts by training in the chosen mental tasks which he/she finds most comfortable and effective to use. Second important approach is that this system should also work reliably outside laboratory environment, i.e. in normal everyday life. This calls for an easy to use, wearable (small and light) system.When compared with other BCIs, one of the ABI’s areas of good performance is the time required for training. User can acquire good control over the system just in five days.

Each mental task is associated to a simple command such as "select right item". This enables people to communicate using their brain activity, as the interface only requires users to be conscious of their thoughts and to concentrate sufficiently on the mental expression of the commands required to carry out the desired task. So, by composing command sequences (thoughts), the user can read a web page, interact with games, turn on appliances, or even guide a wheelchair. For example, the interface can be used to select letters from a virtual keyboard on a computer screen and write a message. The ABI project seeks to develop individual brain interfaces. The same system is not suitable for everybody, as no two people are identical, either physically or psychologically. This means that an interface will be most successful when it is adapted to its owner. The approach is based on a mutual learning process where the user and the ABI interface are coupled together and adapt to each other.

RESEARCH HISTORY WITH FACTS

1990:

Monkeys in North Carolina have remotely operated a robotic arm 600 miles away in MIT's Touch Lab using their brain signals.The feat is based on a neural-recording system. In that system, tiny electrodes implanted in the animals' brains detected their brain signals as they controlled a robot arm to reach for a piece of food.

According to the scientists from Duke University Medical Center, MIT and the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center, the new system could form the basis for a brain-machine interface that would allow paralyzed patients to control the movement of prosthetic limbs.The Internet experiment "was a historic moment, the start of something totally new," Mandayam Srinivasan, director of MIT's Touch Lab, said in a November 15 story in the Wall Street Journal.The work also supports new thinking about how the brain encodes information, by spreading it across large populations of neurons and by rapidly adapting to new circumstances.

In the Nature paper, the scientists described how they tested their system on two owl monkeys, implanting arrays of as many as 96 electrodes, each less than the diameter of a human hair, into the monkeys' brains. The technique they used allows large numbers of single neurons to be recorded separately, then combines their information using a computer coding algorithm. The scientists implanted the electrodes in multiple regions of the brain's cortex, including the motor cortex from which movement is controlled. They then recorded the output of these electrodes as the animals learned reaching tasks, including reaching for small pieces of food.

2000

Two monkeys have been trained to eat morsels of food using a robotic arm controlled by thoughts that are relayed through a set of electrodes connecting the animal's brain to a computer, scientists have announced. The astonishing feat is being seen as a major breakthrough in the development of robotic prosthetic limbs and other automated devices that can be manipulated by paralysed patients using mind control alone.

"The monkey learns by first observing the movement,which activates the brain cells as if he were doing it. It's a lot like sports training, where trainers have athletes first imagine that they are performing the movements they desire," Dr Schwartz said. The robotic arm used in the experiment had five degrees of freedom – three at the shoulder, one at the elbow and one at the hand, which was supposed to emulate the movement of the human arm.

The training of the monkeys took several days using food as rewards. Previous work by the group has concentrated on training monkeys to move cursors of a Computer screen but the latest study using a robotic arm involved a more complicated system of movements, the scientists said.

After the above mentioned discovery P300 samples have been invented. P300 is an endogenous, positive polarity component of the evoke-related-potential (ERP) developed in the brain in response to infrequent/oddball auditory, visual or somato-sensory stimuli in a stream of frequent stimuli. Farwell and Donchin first demonstrated the use of P300 for brain computer interfaces (BCIs) . In the paradigm, the computer displays a matrix of cells representing different letters, and flashes each row and column alternately. A user trying to input a letter needs to pay attention to the letter for a short while. In this process, when the row/column containing the intended letter flashes, a P300 will be elicited in EEG, which can then be detected for word spelling by an appropriate algorithm. It is recognized that large inter-subject variations exist among people. For example, the amplitude and latency exists in both normals as well as clinical populations. And this has been linked to individual differences in cognitive capability. Therefore, from the pattern recognition viewpoint, computational P300 models build for one person would not apply well to another person. To solve this problem existing P300-based BCIs all use a direct method to solve this problem by training subject-specific P300 models. Thus, before a person can operate the BCIs, he/she needs to go through a special training process. In that process, the person usually follows instructions to stare at a particular cell at a given time, while his concurrent EEG is recorded. With the recorded data, a computer algorithm performs signal analysis and learns the subject-specific P300 model. However, this process is normally tedious and complicated.

2004:

Brain interfacing has been tried on humans in 2004.Matt Nagle was the first person to get this technology implemented. He has been paralysed and he used this technology to move a robotic arm to do different tasks.

WORKING OF ADAPTIVE BRAIN INTERFACE

Electrodes placed on the scalp or within the head acquire signals from the brain, and the BCI system processes them to extract specific signal features that reflect the user’s intent. The BCI translates these features into commands that operate a device—for example, a word-processing program, speech synthesizer, robotic arm, or wheelchair.

It works because of the way our brains function. Our brains are filled with neurons, individual nerve cells connected to one another by dendrites and axons. Every time we think, move, feel or remember something, our neurons are at work. That work is carried out by small electric signals that zip from neuron to neuron as fast as 250 mph [source: Walker]. The signals are generated by differences in electric potential carried by ions on the membrane of each neuron.

Although the paths the signals take are insulated by something called myelin, some of the electric signal escapes. Scientists can detect those signals with the help of tools like electrodes in EEG, interpret what they mean and use them to direct a device of some kind. The electrodes measure minute differences in the voltage between neurons. The signal is then amplified and filtered. In current BCI systems, it is then interpreted by a computer program.

Brain Fingerprinting Technology

2012-08-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

Brain fingerprinting is based on finding that the brain generates a unique brain wave pattern when a person encounters a familiar stimulus Use of functional magnetic resonance imagingin lie detection derives from studies suggesting that personsasked to lie show different patterns of brain activity thanthey do when being truthful. Issues related to the use of suchevidence in courts are discussed. The author concludes thatneither approach is currently supported by enough data regardingits accuracy in detecting deception to warrant use in court.

Dr. Lawrence A. Farwell has invented, developed, proven, and patented the technique of Farwell Brain Fingerprinting, a new computer-based technology to identify the perpetrator of a crime accurately and scientifically by measuring brain-wave responses to crime-relevant words or pictures presented on a computer screen. Farwell Brain Fingerprinting has proven 100% accurate in over 120 tests, including tests on FBI agents, tests for a US intelligence agency and for the US Navy, and tests on real-life situations including actual crimes.

In the field of criminology, a new lie detector has been developed in the United States of America. This is called “brain fingerprinting”. This invention is supposed to be the best lie detector available as on date and is said to detect even smooth criminals who pass the polygraph test (the conventional lie detector test) with ease. The new method employs brain waves, which are useful in detecting whether the person subjected to the test, remembers finer details of the crime. Even if the person willingly suppresses the necessary information, the brain wave is sure to trap him, according to the experts, who are very excited about the new kid on the block.

Introduction:

Brain Fingerprinting is a controversial proposed investigative technique that measures recognition of familiar stimuli by measuring electrical brain wave responses to words, phrases, or pictures that are presented on a computer screen. Brain fingerprinting was invented by Lawrence Farwell. The theory is that the suspect's reaction to the details of an event or activity will reflect if the suspect had prior knowledge of the event or activity. This test uses what Farwell calls the MERMER ("Memory and Encoding Related Multifaceted Electroencephalographic Response") response to detect familiarity reaction. One of the applications is lie detection. Dr. Lawrence A. Farwell has invented, developed, proven, and patented the technique of Farwell Brain Fingerprinting, a new computer-based technology to identify the perpetrator of a crime accurately and scientifically by measuring brain-wave responses to crime-relevant words or pictures presented on a computer screen. Farwell Brain Fingerprinting has proven 100% accurate in over 120 tests, including tests on FBI agents, tests for a US intelligence agency and for the US Navy, and tests on real-life situations including actual crimes..

What is Brain Fingerprinting?

Brain Fingerprinting is designed to determine whether an individual recognizes specific information related to an event or activity by measuring electrical brain wave responses to words, phrases, or pictures presented on a computer screen. The technique can be applied only in situations where investigators have a sufficient amount of specific information about an event or activity that would be known only to the perpetrator and investigator. In this respect, Brain Fingerprinting is considered a type of Guilty Knowledge Test, where the "guilty" party is expected to react strongly to the relevant detail of the event of activity.

Existing (polygraph) procedures for assessing the validity of a suspect's "guilty" knowledge rely on measurement of autonomic arousal (e.g., palm sweating and heart rate), while Brain Fingerprinting measures electrical brain activity via a fitted headband containing special sensors. Brain Fingerprinting is said to be more accurate in detecting "guilty" knowledge distinct from the false positives of traditional polygraph methods, but this is hotly disputed by specialized researchers.

Technique

The person to be tested wears a special headband with electronic sensors that measure the electroencephalography from several locations on the scalp. In order to calibrate the brain fingerprinting system, the testee is presented with a series of irrelevant stimuli, words, and pictures, and a series of relevant stimuli, words, and pictures. The test subject's brain response to these two different types of stimuli allow the testor to determine if the measured brain responses to test stimuli, called probes, are more similar to the relevant or irrelevant responses.

The technique uses the well known fact that an electrical signal known as P300 is emitted from an individual's brain approximately 300 milliseconds after it is

confronted with a stimulus of special significance, e.g. a rare vs. a common stimuls or a stimulas the proband is asked to count. The novel interpretation in brain fingerprinting is to look for P300 as response to stimuli related to the crime in

question e.g., a murder weapon or a victim's face. Because it is based on EEG signals, the system does not require the testee to issue verbal responses to questions or stimuli.

Brain fingerprinting uses cognitive brain responses, brain fingerprinting does not depend on the emotions of the subject, nor is it affected by emotional responses. Brain fingerprinting is fundamentally different from the polygraph (lie-detector), which measures emotion-based physiological signals such as heart rate, sweating, and blood pressure. Also, unlike polygraph testing, it does not attempt to determine whether or not the subject is lying or telling the truth.

How Brain Fingerprinting works

Farwell Brain Fingerprinting works as follows. Words or pictures relevant to a crime are flashed on a computer screen, along with other, irrelevant words or pictures. Electrical brain responses are measured non-invasively through a patented headband equipped with sensors. Dr. Farwell has discovered that a specific brain-wave response called a MERMER (memory and encoding related multifaceted electroencephalographic response) is elicited when the brain processes noteworthy information it recognizes. Thus, when details of the crime that only the perpetrator would know are presented, a MERMER is emitted by the brain of a perpetrator, but not by the brain of an innocent suspect. In Farwell Brain Fingerprinting, a computer analyzes the brain response to detect the MERMER, and thus determines scientifically whether or not the specific crime-relevant information is stored in the brain of the suspect.

Conclusion

Brain Fingerprinting is a revolutionary new scientific technology for solving crimes, identifying perpetrators, and exonerating innocent suspects, with a record of 100% accuracy in research with US government agencies, actual criminal cases, and other applications. The technology fulfills an urgent need for governments, law enforcement agencies, corporations, investigators, crime victims, and falsely accused, innocent suspects.

Why Banks Are Holding Excess reserves

2012-08-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Reserves are essential for Banks but excess holding of Reserves become problem for Banks and Customer both. Title of this project is-“Why Banks Are Holding Excess reserves.” Reserves are funds held by depositary institutions that can be used to meet the institution’s legal reserve requirement.

The quantity of reserves in the US banking system has risen dramatically. Some observers analyzed this effect and said-Federal Reserves policies have been failed for providing credits to household & firms. Others argued that the high level of reserves will be inflationary.

Some observers have expressed concern that the large quantity of reserves will lead to an increase in the inflation rate unless the Federal Reserve acts to remove them quickly once the economy begins to recover. Meltzer (2009), for example, worries that “the enormous increase in bank reserves — caused by the Fed’s purchases of bonds and mortgages — will surely bring on severe inflation if allowed to remain.”

When the economy begins to recover, firms will have more profitable opportunities to invest, increasing their demands for bank loans. Consequently, banks will be presented with more lending opportunities that are profitable at the current level of interest rates. As banks lend more, new deposits will be created and the general level of economic activity will increase. Objective of this study is to understand the Bank’s credit terms and lending policies.

In this project study we are collecting data from secondary method of data collection. We are using Websites, Articles & Magazines.

After doing this study we would be able to understand that a large increase in Bank reserves need not be inflationary because the payment of interest on reserves allows the Federal Reserves to adjust short term interest rates. When economy recovers, firms have more profitable opportunities to invest and banks will provide more lending options, so that economy will increase. To partially offset this growth in Reserves US Govt.-Introduced the supplementary financing program (SEP) And in case of Japanese Banks-Reserves have reduced by two thirds by raising the call rate to its level prior to the Zero interest rate policy. Bad loans have decreased by 50%.

Reserves are funds held by Banks for future transactions. Banks have to provide more and more credit to customers because cash flow in market is necessary for proper running of Economy and financial position of country.

Type of Research:

In this study we are using secondary method of data collection. Primary method can be used but it has some restrictions. In secondary Research we are collecting data from Websites, Articles and Newspaper. We are collecting data from secondary sources and after analyzing the data we are using in this project study.

Qualitative research:

It is unstructured approach. The study is classified as quality if the purpose of the study is to describe a situation, problem and information is gathered through the use of variable if analysis is done to establish variable in situation, problem without quantifying it. The extent of utilization of services is a qualitative aspect as it involves estimating the number of people who use the services.

Quantitative Research:

It is structured approach where everything that form research process-objectives, design, sample size, questions that research plan to ask to respondent is pre-determined

Scope Of Study:

Meltzer (2009), for example, worries that “the enormous increase in bank reserves — caused by the Fed’s purchases of bonds and mortgages — will surely bring on severe inflation if allowed to remain.” Feldstein (2009) expresses similar concern that “when the economy begins to recover, these reserves can be converted into new loans and faster money growth” that will eventually prove inflationary.

Under a traditional operational framework, where the central bank influences interest rates and the level of economic activity by changing the quantity of reserves, this concern would be well justified. Now that the Federal Reserve is paying interest on reserves, however, matters are different.

As banks lend more, new deposits will be created and the general level of economic activity will increase. Left unchecked, this growth in lending and economic activity may generate inflationary pressures. Under a traditional operating framework, where no interest is paid on reserves, the central bank must remove nearly all of the excess reserves from the banking system in order to arrest this process. Only by removing these excess reserves can the central bank limit banks’ willingness to lend to firms and households and cause short-term interest rates to rise.

Paying interest on reserves breaks this link between the quantity of reserves and banks’ willingness to lend. By raising the interest rate paid on reserves, the central bank can increase market interest rates and slow the growth of bank lending and economic activity without changing the quantity of reserves.

In other words, paying interest on reserves allows the central bank to follow a path for short-term interest rates that is independent of the level of reserves. By choosing this path appropriately, the central bank can guard against inflationary pressures even if financial conditions lead it to maintain a high level of excess reserves.

Introduction/Overview:

Since September 2008, the quantity of reserves in the U.S. banking system has grown dramatically, as shown in Figure 1.1 Prior to the onset of the financial crisis, required reserves were about $40 billion and excess reserves were roughly $1.5 billion. Excess reserves spiked to around $9 billion in August 2007, but then quickly returned to pre-crisis levels and remained there until the middle of September 2008.

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, however, total reserves began to grow rapidly, climbing above $900 billion by January 2009. As the figure shows, almost all of the increase was in excess reserves. While required reserves rose from $44 billion to $60 billion over this period, this change was dwarfed by the large and unprecedented rise in excess reserves.

Why are banks holding so many excess reserves? What do the data in Figure 1 tell us about current economic conditions and about bank lending behavior? Some observers claim that the large increase in excess reserves implies that many of the policies introduced by the Federal Reserve in response to the financial crisis have been ineffective. Rather than promoting the flow of credit to firms and households, it is argued, the data shown in Figure 1 indicate that the money lent to banks and other intermediaries by the Federal Reserve since September 2008 is simply sitting idle in banks’ reserve accounts.

Edlin and Jaffee (2009), for example, identify the high level of excess reserves as either the “problem” behind the continuing credit crunch or “if not the problem, one heckuva symptom” (p.2). Commentators have asked why banks are choosing to hold so many reserves instead of lending them out, and some claim that inducing banks to lend their excess reserves is crucial for resolving the credit crisis.

This view has lead to proposals aimed at discouraging banks from holding excess reserves, such as placing a tax on excess reserves (Sumner, 2009) or setting a cap on the amount of excess reserves each bank is allowed to hold (Dasgupta, 2009). Mankiw (2009) discusses historical concerns about people hoarding money during times of financial stress and mentions proposals that were made to tax money holdings in order to encourage lending. He relates these historical episodes to the current situation by noting that “[w]ith banks now holding substantial excess reserves, [this historical] concern about cash hoarding suddenly seems very modern.”

In this edition of Current Issues, we examine how the types of policies recently implemented by the Federal Reserve, such as lending to banks and other firms, should be expected to affect the level of excess reserves.

We use a series of simple examples to illustrate the impact such policies have on the balance sheets of individual banks and on the level of reserves, both required and excess, in the banking system. The examples show that the answer to the question in our title is actually quite simple. The total level of reserves in the banking system is determined almost entirely by the actions of the central bank and is not affected by private banks’ lending decisions.

The liquidity facilities introduced by the Federal Reserve in response to the crisis have created a large quantity of reserves. While changes in bank lending behavior may lead to small changes in the level of required reserves, the vast majority of the newly-created reserves will end up being held as excess reserves almost no matter how banks react.

In other words, the quantity of excess reserves depicted in Figure 1 reflects the size of the Federal Reserve’s policy initiatives, but says little or nothing about their effects on bank lending or on the economy more broadly. This conclusion may seem strange, at first glance, to readers familiar with textbook presentations of the money multiplier. After presenting our examples, we discuss the traditional view of the money multiplier and why it does not apply in the current environment, where reserves have increased to unprecedented levels and the Federal Reserve has begun paying interest on those reserves.

We also argue that a large increase in the quantity of reserves in the banking system need not be inflationary, since the central bank can adjust short-term interest rates independently of the level of reserves and in case of Japanese Banks-

Japanese banks have chronically held excess reserves since the late ‘90s. Figure 1 illustrates the ratio of actual reserves to required reserves for commercial banks as a whole. The increasing trend in the excess reserve ratio has been conspicuous since the summer of 2001, and this ratio reached a high of 5.88 in October 2003.

The excess reserve ratio typically parallels the supply of reserves. In fact, the reserve supply began to increase when the Bank of Japan announced that it would provide ample funds to push down the uncollateralized overnight call rate, or short-term inter-bank money market rate, as low as possible, in February 1999. This action is known as the “zero-interest-rate policy.”

Furthermore, the reserve supply drastically increased after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) switched its operating target for money market operations from the uncollateralized overnight call rate to the outstanding balances of the current accounts held at the BOJ. The target level of outstanding balances of the BOJ’s current accounts was valued at around five trillion yen , but then rose to between 30 and 35 trillion yen.

However, it should be noted that the reserve supply does not necessarily automatically create a demand for reserves. The aim of this study, therefore, was to shed light on the demand side of reserves and to conduct an empirical investigation into why commercial banks hold excess reserves. In actual fact, banks have their own motives for holding excess reserves. We identified two factors that may have affected banks’ reserve demands since the late ‘90s.

The first of these factors is the nearly zero level of the call rate: the uncollateralized overnight call rate was pushed down to its minimum level after the adoption of the zero-interest-rate policy. Reserves and call loans are close substitutes; as a result, banks have more incentive to hold reserves when the call rate is very low.

The second relevant factor is the instability of the financial system. Ever since the outbreak of financial institution debacles in the late ‘90s, depositors have been very cautious about choosing which banks to deposit their money in.

This implies that, in general, once the balance sheet of a bank deteriorates, depositors will switch deposits from one bank to another, more healthy one. Therefore, banks with fragile balance sheets have an incentive to hold reserves, for precautionary reasons.2 incorporating these factors; we constructed a simple theoretical model of bank reserve demand. Using a panel dataset for banks, we estimated these banks’ optimal demand functions for reserves, as derived from the theoretical model. The quantitative importance of the aforementioned two factors was evaluated by means of a simulation analysis, based on the parameter estimates in the banks’ reserve demand functions.

Using a theoretical model, we were able to derive each bank’s optimal demand for reserves, which is a decreasing function of the short-term interest rate and an increasing function of the bank’s financial health, represented by either its bad loan ratio or the rate of change in its share price. It turned out that both factors significantly impact banks’ reserve demands, as suggested by the theoretical model. Quantitatively, the effect of the short-term interest rate on reserve demand was quite large.

We found that raising the call rate to 0.25%, its level just before the adoption of the zero-interest-rate policy, decreased the demand for excess reserves in the banking sector as a whole by as much as 55-70%. The effect of a bank’s financial health on its excess reserve demand was also significant. Excess reserves were reduced by 13-27% when the bad loan ratio was halved; this constitutes the goal to be attained by the end of FY 2004 in the Program for Financial Revival, under the Koizumi Administration.

Concept:

This study is concerned to-“Why Banks Are Holding Excess reserves.” Reserves are funds held by depositary institutions that can be used to meet the institution’s legal reserve requirement. These funds are held either as balances on deposit at the Federal Reserve or cash in the Bank vault’s or ATMs.Reserves that are applied towards an institution’s legal requirement are called required, while any additional Reserves are called excess.

Reason for existence of Fractional Reserve System

According to the United States' Federal Reserve, fractional reserve banking provides benefits to the economy and the banking system:

The fact that banks are required to keep on hand only a fraction of the funds deposited with them is a function of the banking business. Banks borrow funds from their depositors (those with savings) and in turn lend those funds to the banks’ borrowers (those in need of funds).

Banks make money by charging borrowers more for a loan (a higher percentage interest rate) than is paid to depositors for use of their money. If banks did not lend out their available funds after meeting their reserve requirements, depositors might have to pay banks to provide safekeeping services for their money. For the economy and the banking system as a whole, the practice of keeping only a fraction of deposits on hand has an important cumulative effect. Referred to as the fractional reserve system, it permits the banking system to create money.

Thus, fractional reserve banking is a consequence of bank lending, as a bank necessarily has cash reserves that are only a fraction of deposits when it lends some of those deposits out. The fractional reserve system allows banks to act as Financial intermediaries — facilitating the movement of funds from savers to investors in society Small savers often cannot lend or invest their meager savings, for want of knowledge and sufficient capital to make a loan.

Likewise, without financial intermediaries, borrowers must seek out someone who can loan them the exact amount they need, instead of being able to draw on several loans from different small savers. Savers also face significant risk as individual investors, since if they lend to a single firm or individual, that entity can collapse, leaving the saver penniless. Furthermore, if they act as individual lenders, savers must wait for their loans to mature before recouping their money; a bank can make their deposits available at any time.

There are also significant Economy of scale in banks making investment and lending decisions, as they have access to knowledge and expertise which individual investors or lenders generally do not. Without fractional-reserve banking, a great deal of money would sit idle, as savers stored up their money, while entrepreneurs went without much-needed capital.

According to mainstream economic theory, fractional-reserve banking also benefits the economy by providing regulators with powerful tools for manipulating the money supply and interest rates, which many see as essential to a healthy economy. Moreover, the existence of fractional-reserve banking allows either the central bank or individual banks (under a free banking regime) to create money at will, allowing the supply of money to adjust to changing demand for money. A full-Reserve Banking system with a fixed money supply would result in deflation as the economy grows.

However, this deflation is likely to have deleterious consequences if some prices are stickier than others; in particular, wages are often significantly stickier than other prices. Most economists believe that given wage stickiness, the adjustment costs of deflation are significantly higher than an equivalent inflation.

As such, mainstream economic thinking prefers the inflation brought about by fractional-reserve banking to the necessary deflation of a full-reserve banking policy regime. Member banks which fall under the umbrella of the main central bank benefit from different bankruptcy regulation than a typical business. It is for this reason that the demand deposits of most banks will retain their value in spite of circumstances which would otherwise jeopardize their credit-worthiness.

How Fractional Reserve System works

The nature of modern banking is such that the cash reserves at the bank available to repay demand deposits need only be a fraction of the demand deposits owed to depositors. In most legal systems, a demand deposit at a bank (e.g. a checking or savings account) is considered a loan to the bank (instead of a bailment) repayable on demand that the bank can use to finance its investments in loans and interest bearing securities.

Banks make a profit based on the difference between the interest they charge on the loans they make, and the interest they pay to their depositors. Since a bank lends out most of the money deposited, keeping only a fraction of the total as reserves, it necessarily has less money than the account balances of its depositors.

The main reason customers deposit funds at a bank is to store savings in the form of a demand claim on the bank. Depositors still have a claim to full repayment of their funds on demand even though most of the funds have already been invested by the bank in interest bearing loans and securities. Holders of demand deposits can withdraw all of their deposits at any time. If all the depositors of a bank did so at the same time a bank run would occur, and the bank would likely collapse.

Due to the practice of central banking this is a rare event today, as central banks usually guarantee the deposits at commercial banks, and act as lender of last resort when there is a run on a bank. However, there have been some recent bank runs: the Northen Rock crisis of 2007 in the United Kingdom is an example.

The collapse of Washington mutual bank in September 2008, the largest bank failure in history, was preceded by a "silent run" on the bank, where depositors removed vast sums of money from the bank through electronic transfer. However, in these cases, the banks proved to have been insolvent at the time of the run. Thus, these bank runs merely precipitated failures that were inevitable in any case.

In the absence of crises that trigger bank runs fractional-reserve banking usually functions smoothly because at any one time relatively few depositors will make cash withdrawals simultaneously compared to the total amount on deposit, and a cash reserve can be maintained as a buffer to deal with the normal cash demands from depositors seeking withdrawals. In addition, in a normal economic environment, cash is steadily being introduced into the economy by the Central Bank and new funds are steadily being deposited into the commercial banks.

However, if a bank is experiencing a financial crisis, and net redemption demands are unusually large over a period of time, the bank will run low on cash reserves and will be forced to raise additional funds to avoid running out of reserves and defaulting on its obligations.

A bank can raise funds from additional borrowings (e.g. by borrowing from the money market or using lines of credit held with other banks), or by selling assets, or by calling in short-term loans. If creditors are afraid that the bank is running out of cash or is insolvent, they have an incentive to redeem their deposits as soon as possible before other depositors access the remaining cash reserves before they do, triggering a cascading crisis that can result in a full-scale Bank-run.

Conclusion

We began this article with a question: Why are banks holding so many excess reserves? We then used a simple example to illustrate the answer to this question in two steps. First, the Federal Reserve’s new liquidity facilities have created, as a byproduct, a large quantity of reserves and these reserves can only be held by banks.

Second, while the lending decisions and other activities of banks may result in small changes in the level of required reserves, the vast majority of the newly-created reserves will end up being held as excess reserves almost no matter what banks do. The central message of the article is that the data in Figure 1 only reflect the size of the Federal Reserve’s policy initiatives; they say almost nothing about the effects these initiatives have had on bank lending or on the level of economic activity.

We also discussed the importance of paying interest on reserves when the level of excess reserves is unusually high, as the Federal Reserve began to do in October 2008. Paying interest on reserves allows a central bank to maintain its influence over market interest rates independent of the quantity of reserves created by its liquidity facilities.

The central bank can then let the size of these facilities be determined by conditions in the financial sector, while setting its target for the short-term interest rate based on macroeconomic conditions. This ability to separate monetary policy from the quantity of bank reserves is particularly important during the recovery from a financial crisis.

We empirically investigated why Japanese banks held excess reserves in the late ‘90s. We were able to pin down two factors that explain the demand for excess reserves: a low short-term interest rate, or call rate, and banks’ fragile financial health. The nearly zero call rates substantially increased the demand for reserves, and the high bad loans ratio also contributed to the observed increase in reserve holdings.

CARBON CREDITS

2012-08-06T11:10:00.000-07:00

1.1 Carbon credits are a key component of national and international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). Carbon trading is an application of an emissions trading (Emissions trading is an administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants approach) & Greenhouse gas emissions are capped and then markets are used to allocate the emissions among the group of regulated sources. The idea is to allow market mechanisms to drive industrial and commercial processes in the direction of low-emissions or less "carbon intensive" approaches than are used when there is no cost to emitting CO₂ and other GHGs into the atmosphere. Since GHG mitigations projects generate credits, this approach can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.

There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis. These carbon offsetters purchase the credits from an investment fund or a carbon development company that has aggregated the credits from individual projects. The quality of the credits is based in part on the validation process and sophistication of the fund or development company that acted as the sponsor to the carbon project. This is reflected in their price; voluntary units typically have less value than the units sold through the rigorously-validated Clean Development Mechanism.

1.2 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialized countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment (called Annex B countries) to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. A crucial feature of an approved CDM carbon project is that it has established that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reductions credits, a concept known as "additionality".

The CDM allows net global greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced at a much lower global cost by financing emissions reduction projects in developing countries where costs are lower than in industrialized countries. However, in recent years, criticism against the mechanism has increased.

2. BACKGROUND

Burning of fossil fuels is a major source of industrial greenhouse gas emissions, especially for power, cement, steel, textile, fertilizer and many other industries which rely on fossil fuels (coal, electricity derived from coal, natural gas and oil). The major greenhouse gases emitted by these industries are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs), etc, all of which increase the atmosphere's ability to trap infrared energy and thus affect the climate.

The concept of carbon credits came into existence as a result of increasing awareness of the need for controlling emissions.

The mechanism was formalized in the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement between more than 170 countries, and the market mechanisms were agreed through the subsequent Marrakesh Accords. The mechanism adopted was similar to the successful US Acid Rain Program to reduce some industrial pollutants

3. EMISSION ALLOWANCES

The Protocol agreed 'caps' or quotas on the maximum amount of Greenhouse gases for developed and developing countries, listed in its Annex I. In turn these countries set quotas on the emissions of installations run by local business and other organizations, generically termed 'operators'. Countries manage this through their own national 'registries', which are required to be validated and monitored. Each operator has an allowance of credits, where each unit gives the owner the right to emit one metric tonne of carbon dioxide or other equivalent greenhouse gas. Operators that have not used up their quotas can sell their unused allowances as carbon credits, while businesses that are about to exceed their quotas can buy the extra allowances as credits, privately or on the open market. As demand for energy grows over time, the total emissions must still stay within the cap, but it allows industry some flexibility and predictability in its planning to accommodate this.

By permitting allowances to be bought and sold, an operator can seek out the most cost-effective way of reducing its emissions, either by investing in 'cleaner' machinery and practices or by purchasing emissions from another operator who already has excess 'capacity'.

Since 2005, the Kyoto mechanism has been adopted for CO₂ trading by all the countries within the European Union under its European Trading Scheme (EU ETS) with the European Commission as its validating authority. From 2008, EU participants must link with the other developed countries that ratified Annex I of the protocol, and trade the six most significant anthropogenic greenhouse gases. In the United States, which has not ratified Kyoto, and Australia, whose ratification came into force in March 2008, similar schemes are being considered.

4. KYOTO PROTOCOL

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted by more than 150 countries at the third session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997. It is an international treaty containing binding constraints on greenhouse gas emissions and, mechanisms aimed at cutting the cost of reducing emissions and establish global markets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission permits. Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries and countries with economies in transition will reduce their combined GHG emissions by at least five per cent below their 1990 levels by the first commitment 2008 to 2012. The most important GHG is carbon dioxide (CO2) whose emissions are mainly related to combustion of fossil fuels.

The developed countries commit themselves to reducing their collective emissions of six key greenhouse gases by at least 5%. This group target will be achieved through cuts of 8% by Switzerland, most Central and East European states, and the European Union (the EU will meet its target by distributing different rates among its member states); 7% by the US; and 6% by Canada, Hungary, Japan, and Poland. Russia, New Zealand, and Ukraine are to stabilize their emissions, while Norway may increase emissions by up to 1%, Australia by up to 8%, and Iceland 10%. The six gases are to be combined in a "basket", with reductions in individual gases translated into "CO₂ equivalents" that are then added up to produce a single figure.

Each country’s emissions target must be achieved by the period 2008-2012. It will be calculated as an average over the five years. "Demonstrable progress" towards meeting the target must be made by 2005. Cuts in the three most important gases – carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂0) - will be measured against a base year of 1990 (with exceptions for some countries with economies in transition).

Cuts in three long-lived industrial gases – hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆) - can be measured against either a 1990 or 1995 baseline. (A major group of industrial gases, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are dealt with under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.)

Actual emission reductions will be much larger than 5%. Compared with emissions levels projected for the year 2000, the richest industrialized countries (OECD members) will need to reduce their collective output by about 10%. This is because many of these countries will not succeed in meeting their earlier non-binding aim of returning emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000; their emissions have in fact risen since 1990. While the countries with economies in transition have experienced falling emissions since 1990, this trend is now reversing.

Therefore, for the developed countries as a whole, the 5% Protocol target represents an actual cut of around 20% when compared with the emissions levels that are projected for 2010 if no emissions-control measures are adopted.

Countries have a certain degree of flexibility in how they make and measure their emissions reductions. In particular, an international "emissions trading" regime is established allowing industrialized countries to buy and sell emissions credits amongst themselves. They will also be able to acquire "emission reduction units" by financing certain kinds of projects in other developed countries through a mechanism known as Joint Implementation. In addition, a "Clean Development Mechanism" for promoting sustainable development enables industrialized countries to finance emissions-reduction projects in developing countries and receive credit for doing so.

The Protocol shall enter into force on the ninetieth day after the date on which not less than 55 Parties to the Convention, incorporating Annex I Parties which accounted in total for at least 55 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions for 1990 from that group, have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.
The Kyoto protocol and the states that ratified the protocol could be found at the following.

4.1 The Kyoto Mechanisms encompass the following three instruments:

1. Joint Implementation (JI, Article 6 Kyoto Protocol) projects in other Annex B countries that lead to Emission Reduction Units (ERUs),

2. Projects in countries without emission targets Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Article 12 Kyoto Protocol) that lead to Certified Emission reductions (CERs), and

3. International Emission Trading (IET, Article 17 Kyoto Protocol) of Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) among Annex B countries.

The concepts of JI and CDM refer to project based co-operations between two countries, where GHG emission reductions take place in the country with lower marginal abatement costs. In other words, a country that has adopted a quantified GHG emission reduction or limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol can fulfils parts of this commitment on the territory of another country where the costs are lower. The CDM envisages a project co-operation between industrialized countries with commitments (Annex I countries) and developing countries (non-Annex I countries), which have exempted from quantified commitments under the Protocol (JI refers to a project-based co-operation between two industrialized countries).

The main benefits that can be expected from the project-based Kyoto mechanisms are, on the one hand, that they potentially reduce industrialized countries’ costs of meeting the Kyoto Protocol targets, whereas, on the other hand, they are to support the host countries objectives regarding sustainable development.

With the help of CDM, countries which have set themselves an emission reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex I countries) can contribute to the financing of projects in developing countries (non-Annex I countries) which do not have a reduction target. Contributing to the sustainable development of the host country, the project should reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The achieved emission reductions can be used by the Annex I country in order to meet its reduction target.

20. CONCLUSION

Carbon credits have become entrenched in the broader climate change debate; however, fundamental scientific and methodological problems persist. While these remain unresolved, they have the potential to seriously undermine the financial and environmental value of any carbon credits scheme. The danger is that reducing emissions at source and re-capturing carbon through sequestration are being treated by government and industry as equivalent policy options. ET should not be a mechanism that facilitates the transfer of fossilized carbon locked away for millions of years over to short-term biotic sinks. For this reason, the issue of carbon sinks is currently undermining the integrity of carbon credits and the creation of a carbon trading market.

Carbon credits are now a key component of national and international emissions trading schemes. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse effect emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets at the prevailing market price. Credits can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.

There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis. These carbon off-setters purchase the credits from an investment fund or a carbon development company that has aggregated the credits from individual projects. The quality of the credits is based in part on the validation process and sophistication of the fund or development company that acted as the sponsor to the carbon project.

Carbon credits create a market for reducing greenhouse emissions by giving a monetary value to the cost of polluting the air. Emissions become an internal cost of doing business and are visible on the balance sheet alongside raw materials and other liabilities or assets. The ultimate objective of regulating pollution through MBIs is improved environmental quality.

Design Analysis Fabrication and Testing of Composite Leaf Spring

2012-08-06T11:09:00.001-07:00

The subject gives a brief look on the suitability of composite leaf spring on vehicles and their advantages. Efforts have been made to reduce the cost of composite leaf spring to that of steel leaf spring. The achievement of weight reduction with adequate improvement of mechanical properties has made composite a very replacement material for convectional steel. Material and manufacturing process are selected upon on the cost and strength factor. The design method is selected on the basis of mass production.

From the comparative study, it is seen that the composite leaf spring are higher and more economical than convectional leaf spring.

In order to conserve natural resources and economize energy, weight reduction has been the main focus of automobile manufacturers in the present scenario. Weight reduction can be achieved primarily by the introduction of better material, design optimization and better manufacturing processes. The suspension leaf spring is one of the potential items for weight reduction in automobiles as it accounts for 10% - 20% of the unsprung weight. This achieves the vehicle with more fuel efficiency and improved riding qualities. The introduction of composite materials was made it possible to reduce the weight of leaf spring without any reduction on load carrying capacity and stiffness. Since, the composite materials have more elastic strain energy storage capacity and high strength to weight ratio as compared with those of steel, multi-leaf steel springs are being replaced by mono-leaf composite springs. The composite material offer opportunities for substantial weight saving but not always be cost-effective over their steel counterparts.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Investigation of composite leaf spring in the early 60’s failed to yield the production facility because of inconsistent fatigue performance and absence of strong need for mass reduction. Researches in the area of automobile components have been receiving considerable attention now. Particularly the automobile manufacturers and parts makers have been attempting to reduce the weight of the vehicles in recent years. Emphasis of vehicles weight reduction in 1978 justified taking a new look at composite springs. Studies are made to demonstrate viability and potential of FRP in automotive structural application. The development of a liteflex suspension leaf spring is first achieved. Based on consideration of chipping resistance base part resistance and fatigue resistance, a carbon glass fiber hybrid laminated spring is constructed. A general discussion on analysis and design of constant width, variable thickness, composite leaf spring is presented. The fundamental characteristics of the double tapered FRP beam are evaluated for leaf spring application. Recent developments have been achieved in the field of materials improvement and quality assured for composite leaf springs based on microstructure mechanism. All these literature report that the cost of composite; leaf spring is higher than that of steel leaf spring. Hence an attempt has been made to fabricate the composite leaf spring with the same cost as that of steel leaf spring.

Material properties and design of composite structures are reported in many literatures. Very little information are available in connection with finite element analysis of leaf spring in the literature, than too in 2D analysis of leaf spring. At the same time, the literature available regarding experimental stress analysis more. The experimental procedures are described in national and international standards. Recent emphasis on mass reduction and developments in materials synthesis and processing technology has led to proven production –worthy vehicle equipment.

MATERIALS SELECTION

Materials constitute nearly 60%-70% of the vehicle cost and contribute to the quality and the performance of the vehicle. Even a small amount in weight reduction of the vehicle, may have a wider economic impact. Composite materials are proved as suitable substitutes for steel in connection with weight reduction of the vehicle. Hence, the composite material have been selected for leaf spring design.

FIBRES SELECTION

The commonly used fibers are carbon, glass, keviar, etc.. Among these, the glass fiber has been selected based on the cost factor and strength. The types of glass fibers are C-glass,S-glass and E-glass. The C-glass fiber is designed to give improved surface finish.S-glass fiber is design to give very high modular, which is used particularly in aeronautic industries. The E-glass fiber is a high quality glass, which is used as standard reinforcement fiber for all the present systems well complying with mechanical property requirements. Thus, E-glass fiber was found appropriate for this application.

RESINS SELECTION

In a FRP leaf spring , the inter laminar shear strengths is controlled by the matrix system used . since these are reinforcement fibers in the thickness direction , fiber do not influence inter laminar shear strength. Therefore, the matrix system should have good inter laminar shear strength characteristics compatibility to the selected reinforcement fiber. Many thermo set resins such as polyester, vinyl ester, azpoxy resin are being used for fiber reinforcement plastics(FRP) fabrication . Among these resin systems, epoxies show better inter laminar shear strength and good mechanical properties. Hence, epoxide is found to be the best resins that would suit this application. different grades of epoxy resins and hardener combinations are classifieds , based on the mechanical properties.

Among these grades , the grade of epoxy resin selected is Dobeckot 520 F and the grade of hardener used for this application is 758. Dobeckot 520 F is a solvent less epoxy resin.

Which in combination with hardener 758 cures into hard resin . Hardener 758 is a low viscosity polyamine . Dobeckot 520 F , hardener 758 combination is characterized by

q Good mechanical and electrical properties.

q Faster curing at room temperature.

q Good chemical resistance properties .

PROPERTIES OF E-GLASS / EPOXY COMPOSITE

By considering the property variation in the tapered system improper bonding and improper curing, etc. some constant of property value are reduced from calculated values using equations. The material properties for E-glass / Epoxy composite for 60% of fiber volume is given below: -

PROPERTIES VALUES

Tensile modulus along X direction (Ex),MPa 14000

Tensile modulus along Y direction (Ey),MPa 6030

Tensile modulus along Z direction (Ez),MPa 1530

Tensile strength of the material,MPa 800

Compressive strength of the material,MPa 450

Shear modulus along XY direction(Gxy),MPa 2433

Shear modulus along YZ direction(Gyz),MPa 1600

Shear modulus along ZX direction(Gzx),MPa 2433

Flexural modulus of the material,MPa 40000

Flexural strength of the material,MPa 1000

Poisson ratio along XY direction(NUxy) 0.217

Poisson ratio along YZ direction(NUyz) 0.366

Poisson ratio along ZX direction(NUzx) 0.217

Mass density of the material (ρ),Kg/mm³ 2 * 10

DESIGN SELECTION

The leaf spring behaves like a simply supported beam and the flexural analysis is done considering it as a simply supported beam. The simply supported beam is subjected to both bending stress and transverse shear stress. Flexural rigidity is an important parameter in the leaf spring design and test out to increase from two ends to the center.

CONSTANT THICKNESS, VARYING WIDTH DESIGN

In this design the thickness is kept constant over the entire length of the leaf spring while the width varies from a minimum at the two ends to a maximum at the center.

CONSTANT WIDTH, VARYING THICKNESS DESIGN

In this design the width is kept constant over the entire length of the leaf spring while the thickness varies from a minimum at the two ends to a maximum at the center.

CONSTANT CROSS-SELECTION DESIGN

In this design both thickness and width are varied through out the leaf spring such that the cross-section area remains constant along the length of the leaf spring.

Out of the above mentioned design concepts, the constant cross-section design method is selected due to the following reasons:-

¨ Due to its capability for mass production and accommodation of continuous reinforcement of fibers.

¨ Since the cross-section area is constant through out the leaf spring, same quantity of reinforcement fibre and resin can be fed continuously during manufacture.

¨ Also this is quite suitable for filament winding process.

COMPUTER ALGORITHM

A computer algorithm using C language has been developed for the design of constant cross-section leaf spring. The design requirements of composite leaf spring are given below.

Parameter Values

1. Static load acting on the spring, (W),N 2500

2. Static deflection of the spring, mm 100

3. Distance between eyes (2L), mm 1153

4. Camber, mm 160

5. Spring rate of the leaf spring(K),N/mm 25

In constant cross-section on design both the thickness and width are varied through to the leaf spring such that the cross-section area remains constants. Considering the bearing strength of the steel plate, the calculated thickness of the leaf at the bolted ends(tc)is 7.5 mm.Based on the leaf interchangeability in mounting the rear axel, the width at the center (bm)is chosen as 30 mm and corresponding thickness (tm) 31 mm .Stress and deflections are calculated from the theory of bending. The output of computer algorithm is the dimensions(breath and thickness) of leaf spring at various distances from the center. The dimensional details can be utilized in developing models for finite element analysis and mould making process.

CONCLUSION

1. The composite leaf spring is designed according to constant cross-section area method.

2. The 3-D model of the composite leaf spring is analyzed using finite element analysis.

3. Static test has been conducted to predict the stress and displacement at different locations for various load value.

4. The results of the FEM analysis are verified with the test results.

5. A comparative study has been made between composite and steel leaf springs with respect to weight, riding quality, cost and strength.

From the study it is seen that the composite leaf spring are lighter and more economical than that of conventional steel leaf springs for similar performance. Hence, the composite leaf springs are the suitable replacements to the convectional leaf springs.

Challenges in the Migration to 4G

2012-08-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

The approaching 4G (fourth generation) mobile communication systems are projected to solve still-remaining problems of 3G (third generation) systems and to provide a wide variety of new services, from high-quality voice to high-definition video to high-data-rate wireless channels. The term 4G is used broadly to include several types of broadband wireless access communication systems, not only cellular telephone systems. One of the terms used to describe 4G is MAGIC—Mobile multimedia, Anytime anywhere, Global mobility support, Integrated wireless solution, and Customized personal service. As a promise for the future, 4G systems, that is, cellular broadband wireless access systems, have been attracting much interest in the mobile communication arena. The 4G systems not only will support the next generation of mobile service, but also will support the fixed wireless networks.

The mobile communication generations has traversed a long way through different phases of evolution since its birth early in the 1970s. the steady global boom in the number of mobile users each year has periodically spurned the development of more and more sophisticated technologies trying to strike the right chord primarily in terms of provision of seamless global roaming, quality services and
high data rate. today numerous different generation technologies with their individual pros and cons are existing globally. the coming era of 4g systems is foreseeing a potential smooth merger of all these heterogeneous technologies with a natural progression to support seamless cost-effective high data rate global roaming, efficient personalized services, typical user-centric integrated service model, high Qos(quality of service) and overall stable system performance. However, every step in such technological advancements presents huge research challenges. this article aims to focus upon some of these potential challenges along with different proposed feasible and non-feasible solutions in the areas of mobile terminals and users, mobile services, mobile and wireless access networks, and communication, in order to give an in-depth view of the next-generation communication systems.

1.1 Aim of the Seminar

Due to the increase in demand for speed, multimedia support and other resources, the wireless world is looking forward for a new generation technology to replace the third generation. This is where the fourth generation wireless communication comes into play. 4G wireless communication is expected to provide better speed, high capacity, lower cost and IP based services. The main aim of 4G wireless is to replace the current core technology with a single universal technology based on IP. Yet there are several challenges that inhibits the progress of 4G and researchers throughout the world are contributing their ideas to solve these challenges. This project deals with understanding the features and challenges for 4G.

With the rapid development of wireless communication networks, it is expected that fourth-generation mobile systems will be launched within decades. 4G mobile systems focus on seamlessly integrating the existing wireless technologies including GSM, wireless LAN, and Bluetooth. This contrasts with 3G, which merely focuses on developing new standards and hardware. 4G systems supports comprehensive and personalized services, providing stable system performance and quality service. However, migrating current systems to 4G presents enormous challenges. In this article, these challenges are discussed under the headings of networks and services, software systems and wireless access.

Recent activity in 4G (fourth generation) mobile communication systems has steeped the race in its implementation at the earliest. 4G wireless being an upcoming standard witnesses burgeoning interest amongst researchers and vendor. It is being designed to allow seamless integration and communication between wireless devices across diverse wireless standards as well as broadband networks wirelessly. Access to different radio technologies is facilitated due to IP-based-4G mobile communication system connecting the user. This paper attempts to make an assessment in development, transition, and roadmap for fourth generation mobile communication system with a perspective of wireless convergence domain and future research issues.

1.2 Motivation of Seminar

The wireless communication filed is a very fast growing area with the number of users and their demand for better resources increasing day by day. The R&D departments of many companies are working on a future technology that can meet these demands at a lower cost.3G is necessary but not sufficient for the demands today. So the world is taking its leap towards the fourth generation wireless communication that promises to bring an end to most of the problems faced. 4G wireless is expected to be launched by 2010, but there are numerous challenges faced by researchers in achieving the desired features. Most of the ongoing researches are in the area of distributed computing, mobile agents, multimedia support etc. Some other research area is to improve the Quality of Service from the viewpoint of both the user and service providers. 4G wireless infrastructures are expected to be deployed in an environment where many other types of wireless and wired communication systems already exist.

1.3 Literature Survey

To fulfill the objectives of the seminar, understanding the concept of 4G is very essential. Several standard books were referred.1. B G Evans & K Baughan, Visions of 4G, IEE Electronics and Communications engineering Journal, Autumn/Winter 2000.2. S Y Hui & K H Yeung, Challenges in the Migration to 4G Mobile Systems, IEEE Commuications, vol 41, no 12, Dec 2003, pp 54-59. 3.R Eijk, J Brok, J Bemmel & B Busropan, Access Network selection in a 4G Environment and the Roles of Terminal and Service Platform, Project: 4GPLUS, Wireless World Research Forum. 4.M Calisti, T Lozza & D Greenwood, An Agent- Based Middleware for Adaptive Roaming in Wireless Networks, Workshop on Agents for Ubiquitous Computing, AAMAS 2004, 20 July 2004, New York, USA. 5.K Murray, R Mathur & D Pesch, Network Access and Handover Control in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks for Smart Apace Environments, 1st International Workshop on Managing Ubiquitous Communications and Services (MUCS), Dec 11, 2003, Waterford, Ireland. 6.F Daneshgaran, M Laddamoda & M Mondin, On the Reconfigurability of a Software Radio Terminal for Supporting the Third and Fourth generation Wireless Standards, IEEE International Conference on Third Generation Wireless and Beyond, June 2001, San Francisco. 7.T H Le & A H Aghvami, Performance of an Accessing and Allocation Scheme for the Download Channel in Software Radio, Proc IEEE Wireless Commun and Net Conf, vol 2, pp 517-21, 2000.

1.4 Applications

Virtual Presence: This means that 4G provides user services at all times, even if the user is off-site.

Virtual navigation: 4G provides users with virtual navigation through which a user can access a database of the streets, buildings etc of large cities. This requires high speed data transmission.

Tele-Medicine: 4G will support remote health monitoring of patients. A user need not go to the hospital and can get videoconference assistance for a doctor at anytime and anywhere.

Tele-geo processing applications: This is a combination of GIS (Geographical Information System) and GPS (Global Positioning System) in which a user can get the location by querying.

Crisis management: Natural disasters can cause break down in communication systems. In today’s world it might take days or weeks to restore the system. But in 4G it is expected to restore such crisis issues in a few hours.

Education: For people who are interested in life long education, 4G provides a good opportunity. People anywhere in the world can continue their education online in a cost effective manner.

1.5 Organization of the Seminar Report

This paper is organized as follows. Chapter 1 provides information such as aim of the seminar, motivation, literature survey and applications. Chapter 2 provides a brief review of the previous generations, limitations of 3G, problems of 4G. Chapter 3 gives the information about the desired features, objectives and the general view of 4G. Chapter 4 provides a brief review of the research challenges faced by 4G. and finally chapter 5 gives the conclusion. This paper is divided into four sections: introduction, history, features, overview of the potential research challenges and conclusions..

HISTORY

2.1 Brief History of Generations

The history and evolution of mobile service from the 1G (first generation) to fourth generation are discussed in this section. Table 1 presents a short history of mobile telephone technologies. This process began with the designs in the 1970s that have become known as 1G. The earliest systems were implemented based on analog technology and the basic cellular structure of mobile communication. Many fundamental problems were solved by these early systems. Numerous incompatible analog systems were placed in service around the world during the 1980s.The 2G (second generation) systems designed in the 1980s were still used mainly for voice applications but were based on digital technology, including digital signal processing techniques. These 2G systems provided circuit-switched data communication services at a low speed. The competitive rush to design and implement digital systems led again to a variety of different and incompatible standards such as GSM (global system mobile), mainly in Europe; TDMA (time division multiple access) (IS-54/IS-136) in the U.S.; PDC (personal digital cellular) in Japan; and CDMA (code division multiple access) (IS-95), another U.S. system. These systems operate nationwide or internationally and are today's mainstream systems, although the data rate for users in
these system is very limited. During the 1990s, two organizations worked to define the next, or 3G, mobile system, which would eliminate previous incompatibilities and become a truly global system. The 3G system would have higher quality voice channels, as well as broadband data capabilities, up to 2 Mbps. Unfortunately, the two groups could not reconcile their differences, and this decade will see the introduction of two mobile standards for 3G. In addition, China is on the verge of implementing a third 3G system. An interim step is being taken between 2G and 3G, the 2.5G. It is basically an enhancement of the two major 2G technologies to provide increased capacity on the 2G RF (radio frequency) channels and to introduce higher throughput for data service, up to 384 kbps. A very important aspect of 2.5G is that the data channels are optimized for packet data, which introduces access to the Internet from mobile devices, whether telephone, PDA (personal digital assistant), or laptop. However, the demand for higher access speed multimedia communication in today's society, which greatly depends on computer communication in digital format, seems unlimited. According to the historical indication of a generation revolution occurring once a decade, the present appears to be the right time to begin the research on a 4G mobile communication system.

First Generation: 1G was based on analog technology and basically intended for analog phones. It was launched in the early 1980s. It introduced the first basic framework for mobile communications like the basic architecture, frequency multiplexing, roaming concept etc. Access technology used was AMPS (Advances Mobile Phone Service).

Second Generation: 2G was a revolution that marked the switching of mobile communication technology from analog to digital. It was introduced in the late 1980s and

it adopted digital signal processing techniques. GSM was one of the main attractive sides of 2G and it introduced the concept of SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards. Main access technologies were CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication).

2.5 Generation: 2.5 G was basically an extension of 2G with packet switching incorporated to 2G. It implemented hybrid communication which connected the internet to mobile communications.

Third Generation: The basic idea of 3G is to deploy new systems with new services instead of just provide higher bandwidth and data rate. Support for multimedia transmission is another striking feature of 3G. It employs both circuit switching and packet switching strategies. The main access technologies are CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), and TS- SDMA (Time division Synchronous CDMA).

2.2 Limitations of 3G

4G is being developed to accommodate the QoS and rate requirements set by forthcoming applications like wireless broadband access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), video chat, mobile TV, HDTV content, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), minimal services like voice and data, and other services that utilize bandwidth.

The 4G working group has defined the following as objectives of the 4G wireless communication standard:

A spectrally efficient system (in bits/s/Hz and bits/s/Hz/site).
High network capacity: more simultaneous users per cell.
A nominal data rate of 100 Mbit/s while the client physically moves at high speeds relative to the station, and 1 Gbit/s while client and station are in relatively fixed positions as defined by the ITU-R.
A data rate of at least 100 Mbit/s between any two points in the world.
Smooth handoff across heterogeneous networks.
Seamless connectivity and global roaming across multiple networks.
High quality of service for next generation multimedia support (real time audio, high speed data, HDTV video content, mobile TV, etc).
Interoperability with existing wireless standards and
An all IP, packet switched network.

In summary, the 4G system should dynamically share and utilize network resources to meet the minimal requirements of all the 4G enabled users.

CONCLUSION

As the history of mobile communications shows, attempts have been made to reduce a number of technologies to a single global standard. Projected 4G
systems offer this promise of a standard that can be embraced worldwide through its key concept of integration. Future wireless networks will need to support diverse IP multimedia applications to allow sharing of resources among multiple users. There must be a low complexity of implementation and an efficient means of negotiation between the end users and the wireless infrastructure. The fourth generation promises to fulfill the goal of PCC (personal computing and communication)—a vision that affordably provides high data rates everywhere over a wireless network.

4G seems to be a very promising generation of wireless communication that will change the people’s life in the wireless world. There are many striking attractive features proposed for 4G which ensures a very high data rate, global roaming etc. New ideas are being introduced by researchers throughout the world, but new ideas introduce new challenges. There are several issues yet to be solved like incorporating the mobile world to the IP based core network, efficient billing system, smooth hand off mechanisms etc. 4G is expected to be launched by 2010 and the world is looking forward for the most intelligent technology that would connect the entire globe.

DIFFERENT MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES ADOPTED BY ORGANIZATIONS TO RETAIN EMPLOYEES

2012-08-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Retention management is a highly topical subject and an important dilemma many organizations might face in the future, if not facing it already. We believe that the leader plays a key role in employee retention and retention management. The concept of retention management can both have a narrow, and a broader significance. Both parts of its significance are generally included in this thesis. The background of the thesis presents a few articles that discuss issues that makes it important for the organization, and the leaders, to work hard with retention management. The research is based on the leaders in the service sectors. Following key questions are intended to be answered: What are the consequences between leaders actions and employees retention? Which is the leader’s role when it comes to retaining employees? Purpose statement: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate and analyze how company leaders today can retain their key employees. How can the provision of key human resources develop a long-term relationship that makes top employees stay in the company? The study aims to establish the procedure leaders apply to retain employees. The purpose is to compare the qualitative study, made at the case company, with findings from the thesis theoretical framework.

ABOUT MOTIVATION

Motivation in these organizations at this early stage is driven in part by the experimental atmosphere that prevails. New entrepreneurial leaders often emerge, and there is a feeling that almost anything is possible. However, as these organizations mature, they begin to develop structures and rules. People are no longer free to make up their own ways of doing things. Roles and responsibilities are set. The excitement of newness fades and other motivational patterns emerge. As the context of the organization changes, it becomes imperative for the organization to change. We talk about organizational renewal or rebirth. If organizations do not renew themselves they become ill, and in the private sector, at least, they die.

While the metaphor of the organizational life cycle does not strictly hold true, understanding the history of an organization gives insight into what the organization is. The organization’s raison d’être, the characteristics of its founders, an understanding of its major milestones and organizational changes—all play an important role in shaping the personality of an organization and how it performs.

The second concept of motivation focuses on the role or purpose of the organization: its mission. Every organization has a distinct role or purpose that is manifested in its goals and objectives. In most definitions of the concept of “ organization,” there is an explicit goal orientation. Each organization creates, either implicitly or explicitly, a forward looking direction of what it wants to accomplish, a vision of where it wants to go, or what it wants to be (Allen, 1995). Some organizations are motivated by the opportunity to do good works or to provide services to citizens. Many NGOs are motivated by helping those in need. Other organizations, such as research centers, may be driven by prestige—the desire to be regarded as the best in their field. In the private sector, motivation might mean having a bigger market share. Organizational analysts recognize the important role mission plays in shaping and creating an organization’s personality, and as such consider it an important diagnostic consideration. Analyzing the mission of an organization offers insights into the organization itself.

Culture, the third concept, also provides a window to view organizational motivation. Organizational culture relates to the shared assumptions, values and beliefs held by organizational members These factors are at work, however subliminally, within the organization’s boundaries. The culture of an organization is rarely written

WHY MOTIVATION

How to Motivate and Inspire:
How do you increase the business value of the people who
work for you?

Above all, remember that they are people, each one an important part of your business family-not just a cog in a human machine that goes through certain muscular motions every day with time out for refueling and maintenance.

Remember that your staff has heart and brains, feelings and ideas-and is made of the same raw materials as you. Their energies are there to be used for their own good and for yours.

Some ways of harnessing these energies:

1. Seeking and using your employee's own ideas.

2. Keeping employees informed.

3. Expressing personal interest in employees.

4. Instilling pride in work well done.

5. Providing effective supervision

What Makes Employee Leave

Employees do not leave an organization without any significant reason. There are certain circumstances that lead to their leaving the organization. The most

Common reasons can be:

Ø Job is not what the employee expected to be: Sometimes the job responsibilities don’t come out to be same as expected by the candidates. Unexpected job responsibilities lead to job dissatisfaction.

Ø Job and person mismatch: A candidate may be fit to do a certain type of job, which matches his personality. If he is given a job, which mismatches his personality, then he won’t be able to perform it well and will try to find out reasons to leave the job.

Ø No growth opportunities: No or less learning and growth opportunities in the current job will make candidate’s job and career stagnant. Lack of appreciation: If the supervisor does not appreciate the work, the employee feels de-motivated and loses interest in job.

Ø Lack of trust and support in coworkers, seniors and management: Trust is the most important factor that is required for an individual to stay in the job. Non-supportive coworkers, seniors and management can make office environment unfriendly and difficult to work in.

Can a person ever be motivated by someone else?

Motivation is concerned with getting someone to do something you want or, on an individual basis, wanting to do something for yourself for a particular reason. For many businesses, the most expensive asset they possess is their human resources. These resources are hired for the value that they add to a business - as a result it makes sense to ensure that the business gets the best out of those resources. The question that has exercised managers for many years is how? There are a number of key theories you should know in relation to motivation. The Motivation Mind Map identifies the main ones. Before you look in more detail at these, let's look a little further into the nature of motivation. Imagine yourself as a business manager. You want your staff to do certain things in order to help achieve key business objectives. It might be simple things like being polite and attentive to customers. How do you get them to do this? Herzberg identified a very simple approach, which he termed the 'KITA approach' - politely translated from the American as 'Kick InThe Pants'. Once the employee has done this action then repeating the KITA approach may mean that they also repeat the behavior. But, Herzberg questioned, who was motivated - the manager or the employee? With such an approach, how long term would the behavior be? It may well be that in many business scenarios; the leader or manager is the one motivated, not the employee. This has a significant impact on how we motivate in the workplace. Many businesses would like their staff to internalize the behavior and act and think in the desirable manner each and every time.

Conclusion

Retention is an important concept that has been receiving considerable attention

from academicians, researchers and practicing HR managers. In its essence, Retention comprises important elements such as the need or content, search and choice of strategies, goal-directed behavior, social comparison of rewards reinforcement, and performance-satisfaction. The increasing attention paid towards Retention is justified because of several reasons. Motivated employees come out with new ways of doing jobs. They are quality oriented. They are more productive. Any technology needs motivated employees to adopt it successfully. Several approaches to Retention are available. Early theories are too simplistic in their approach towards Retention. For example, advocates of scientific Management believe that money is the motivating factor. The Human Relations Movement posits that social contacts will motivate workers. Mere knowledge about the theories of Retention will not help manager their subordinates. They need to have certain techniques that help them change the behavior of employees. One such technique is reward. Reward, particularly money, is a motivator according to need-based and process theories of Retention. For the behavioral scientists, however, money is not important as a motivator. Whatever may be the arguments, it can be stated that money can influence some people in certain circumstance. Being an outgrowth of Herzberg’s, two factor theory of Retention, job enrichment is considered to be a powerful motivator. An enriched job has added responsibilities. The makes the job interesting and rewarding. Job enlargement refers to adding a few more task elements horizontally. Task variety helps motivate job holders. Job rotation involves shifting an incumbent from one job to another.

Seminar topics for Civil Engineering - 3

2012-08-05T13:41:00.005-07:00

EEE seminar topics - 7

2012-08-05T13:28:00.007-07:00

EEE seminar topics - 6

2012-08-05T13:27:00.005-07:00

EEE seminar topics - 5

2012-08-05T13:26:00.006-07:00

Electronics & computer science seminar topics - 14

2012-08-05T13:04:00.009-07:00

Electronics & computer science seminar topics - 13

2012-08-05T13:03:00.007-07:00

Electronics & computer science seminar topics - 12

2012-08-05T13:02:00.007-07:00

Electronics & computer science seminar topics - 11

2012-08-05T13:01:00.003-07:00

Electronics & computer science seminar topics - 10

2012-08-05T12:59:00.007-07:00

Electronics & computer science seminar topics - 9

2012-08-05T12:54:00.007-07:00

Electronics & computer science seminar topics - 8

2012-08-05T12:53:00.004-07:00

Seminar topics for Mechanical & Automobile Engineering - 6

2012-08-05T11:04:00.005-07:00

Seminar topics for Mechanical & Automobile Engineering - 5

2012-08-05T11:02:00.006-07:00

Seminar topics for Mechanical & Automobile Engineering - 4

2012-08-05T10:59:00.004-07:00