Search results for: multi-environment experiments

Authors: Shujun Fu, Qiuqi Ruan, Wenqia Wang, Yu Li

Abstract:

Utilizing echoic intension and distribution from different organs and local details of human body, ultrasonic image can catch important medical pathological changes, which unfortunately may be affected by ultrasonic speckle noise. A feature preserving ultrasonic image denoising and edge enhancement scheme is put forth, which includes two terms: anisotropic diffusion and edge enhancement, controlled by the optimum smoothing time. In this scheme, the anisotropic diffusion is governed by the local coordinate transformation and the first and the second order normal derivatives of the image, while the edge enhancement is done by the hyperbolic tangent function. Experiments on real ultrasonic images indicate effective preservation of edges, local details and ultrasonic echoic bright strips on denoising by our scheme.

Keywords: anisotropic diffusion, coordinate transformation, directional derivatives, edge enhancement, hyperbolic tangent function, image denoising.

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Authors: Juan Ignacio Arango, Andres Diaz, Giacomo Barbieri

Abstract:

In soilless culture, the definition of efficient fertigation strategies is fundamental for the growth of crops. Flexible test-benches able to independently manage groups of crops are key for investigating efficient fertigation practices through experimentation. These test-benches must be able to provide nutrient solution (NS) in a precise, uniform and repeatable way in order to effectively implement and compare different fertigation strategies. This article describes a distribution module for investigating fertigation practices able to control the fertigation dose and frequency. The proposed solution is characterized in terms of precision, uniformity and repeatability since these parameters are fundamental in the implementation of effective experiments for the investigation of fertigation practices. After a calibration process, the implemented system reaches a precision of 1mL, a uniformity of 98.5% at a total cost of 735USD.

Keywords: Precision horticulture, test-bench, fertigation strategy, automation, flexibility.

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Authors: T. M. Agbede

Abstract:

Field experiments were carried out at Owo, southwest Nigeria to evaluate the effect of different tillage practices (zero tillage with mulch (ZTM), row tillage (RT) and conventional tillage (CT), and with or without oil palm bunch ash plus poultry manure (OBA+PM) on soil chemical properties, growth and yield of ginger. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete plot design with three replications. Soil chemical properties, growth and fresh rhizome yield reduced with frequency/intensity of tillage imposed while application of OBA+PM increased them. Among the tillage practices, the highest fresh rhizome yield (15.0t ha-1) was produced by ZTM which was significantly different from other tillage practices. Among the tillage – OBA+PM combinations, the  most satisfactorily yield (20.1t ha-1) was produced by ZTM+OBA+PM while the lowest yield (15.7t ha-1) was in CT+OBA+PM.

Keywords: Oil palm bunch ash, poultry manure, rhizome yield, tillage.

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Authors: Murat Sarıkaya, Abdulkadir Güllü

Abstract:

Haynes 25 alloy (also known as L-605 alloy) is cobalt based super alloy which has widely applications such as aerospace industry, turbine and furnace parts, power generators and heat exchangers and petroleum refining components due to its excellent characteristics. However, the workability of this alloy is more difficult compared to normal steels or even stainless. In present work, an experimental investigation was performed under cryogenic cooling to determine cutting tool wear patterns and obtain optimal cutting parameters in turning of cobalt based superalloy Haynes 25. In experiments, uncoated carbide tool was used and cutting speed (V) and feed rate (f) were considered as test parameters. Tool wear (VBmax) were measured for process performance indicators. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine the importance of machining parameters.

Keywords: Cryogenic machining, difficult-to-cut alloy, tool wear, turning.

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Authors: Chia-Yu Yao

Abstract:

This paper presents experimental results on testing the symbol-error-rate (SER) performance of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) systems employing symmetric pulse-shaping square-root (SR) filters designed by minimizing the roughness function and by minimizing the peak-to-average power ratio (PAR). The device used in the experiments is the 'bladeRF' software-defined-radio platform. PAR is a well-known measurement, whereas the roughness function is a concept for measuring the jitter-induced interference. The experimental results show that the system employing minimum-roughness pulse-shaping SR filters outperforms the system employing minimum-PAR pulse-shaping SR filters in the sense of SER performance.

Keywords: Pulse-shaping filters, jitter, inter-symbol interference, symmetric FIR filters, QAM

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Authors: Mounir Sayadi, Farhat Fnaiech

Abstract:

In the framework of adaptive parametric modelling of images, we propose in this paper a new technique based on the Chandrasekhar fast adaptive filter for texture characterization. An Auto-Regressive (AR) linear model of texture is obtained by scanning the image row by row and modelling this data with an adaptive Chandrasekhar linear filter. The characterization efficiency of the obtained model is compared with the model adapted with the Least Mean Square (LMS) 2-D adaptive algorithm and with the cooccurrence method features. The comparison criteria is based on the computation of a characterization degree using the ratio of "betweenclass" variances with respect to "within-class" variances of the estimated coefficients. Extensive experiments show that the coefficients estimated by the use of Chandrasekhar adaptive filter give better results in texture discrimination than those estimated by other algorithms, even in a noisy context.

Keywords: Texture analysis, statistical features, adaptive filters, Chandrasekhar algorithm.

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Authors: Yanhua Jin, Won Suk Lee

Abstract:

The two-dimensional gel electrophoresis method (2-DE) is widely used in Proteomics to separate thousands of proteins in a sample. By comparing the protein expression levels of proteins in a normal sample with those in a diseased one, it is possible to identify a meaningful set of marker proteins for the targeted disease. The major shortcomings of this approach involve inherent noises and irregular geometric distortions of spots observed in 2-DE images. Various experimental conditions can be the major causes of these problems. In the protein analysis of samples, these problems eventually lead to incorrect conclusions. In order to minimize the influence of these problems, this paper proposes a partition based pair extension method that performs spot-matching on a set of gel images multiple times and segregates more reliable mapping results which can improve the accuracy of gel image analysis. The improved accuracy of the proposed method is analyzed through various experiments on real 2-DE images of human liver tissues.

Keywords: Proteomics, spot-matching, two-dimensionalelectrophoresis.

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Authors: Cătălin Mărculescu, Andrei Avram, Cătălin Pârvulescu, Marioara Avram, Cătălin Mihai Bălan

Abstract:

The present microfluidic study is emphasizing the flow behavior within a Y shape micro-bifurcation in two similar flow configurations. We report here a numerical and experimental investigation on the velocity profiles evolution and secondary flows, manifested at different Reynolds numbers (Re) and for two different boundary conditions. The experiments are performed using special designed setup based on optical microscopic devices. With this setup, direct visualizations and quantitative measurements of the path-lines are obtained. A Micro-PIV measurement system is used to obtain velocity profiles distributions in a spatial evolution in the main flows domains. The experimental data is compared with numerical simulations performed with commercial computational code FLUENT in a 3D geometry with the same dimensions as the experimental one. The numerical flow patterns are found to be in good agreement with the experimental manifestations.

Keywords: Micro-PIV, numerical investigations, secondary flows, velocity profiles.

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Authors: Phornpat Chewasoonthorn, Surat Kwanmuang

Abstract:

Indoor positioning technologies have been evolved rapidly. They augment the Global Positioning System (GPS) which requires line-of-sight to the sky to track the location of people or objects. In this study, we developed an error correction method for an indoor real-time location system (RTLS) based on an ultra-wideband (UWB) sensor from Decawave. Multiple stationary nodes (anchor) were installed throughout the workspace. The distance between stationary and moving nodes (tag) can be measured using a two-way-ranging (TWR) scheme. The result has shown that the uncorrected ranging error from the sensor system can be as large as 1 m. To reduce ranging error and thus increase positioning accuracy, we present an online correction algorithm using the Kalman filter. The results from experiments have shown that the system can reduce ranging error down to 5 cm.

Keywords: Indoor positioning, ultra-wideband, error correction, Kalman filter.

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Authors: Cuong Nguyen Khac, Ju H. Park, Ho-Youl Jung

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This paper proposes a new approach to perform the problem of real-time face detection. The proposed method combines primitive Haar-Like feature and variance value to construct a new feature, so-called Variance based Haar-Like feature. Face in image can be represented with a small quantity of features using this new feature. We used SVM instead of AdaBoost for training and classification. We made a database containing 5,000 face samples and 10,000 non-face samples extracted from real images for learning purposed. The 5,000 face samples contain many images which have many differences of light conditions. And experiments showed that face detection system using Variance based Haar-Like feature and SVM can be much more efficient than face detection system using primitive Haar-Like feature and AdaBoost. We tested our method on two Face databases and one Non-Face database. We have obtained 96.17% of correct detection rate on YaleB face database, which is higher 4.21% than that of using primitive Haar-Like feature and AdaBoost.

Keywords: AdaBoost, Haar-Like feature, SVM, variance, Variance based Haar-Like feature.

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Authors: Deon de Jager, Yahya Zweiri, Dimitrios Makris

Abstract:

The three most important components in the cognitive architecture for cognitive robotics is memory representation, memory recall, and action-selection performed by the executive. In this paper, action selection, performed by the executive, is defined as a memory quantification and optimization process. The methodology describes the real-time construction of episodic memory through semantic memory optimization. The optimization is performed by set-based particle swarm optimization, using an adaptive entropy memory quantification approach for fitness evaluation. The performance of the approach is experimentally evaluated by simulation, where a UAV is tasked with the collection and delivery of a medical package. The experiments show that the UAV dynamically uses the episodic memory to autonomously control its velocity, while successfully completing its mission.

Keywords: Cognitive robotics, semantic memory, episodic memory, maximum entropy principle, particle swarm optimization.

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Authors: Kyung Hyun, Choi, Minh Ngoc, Nong, M. Asif Ali, Rehmani

Abstract:

This present paper proposes the modified Elastic Strip method for mobile robot to avoid obstacles with a real time system in an uncertain environment. The method deals with the problem of robot in driving from an initial position to a target position based on elastic force and potential field force. To avoid the obstacles, the robot has to modify the trajectory based on signal received from the sensor system in the sampling times. It was evident that with the combination of Modification Elastic strip and Pseudomedian filter to process the nonlinear data from sensor uncertainties in the data received from the sensor system can be reduced. The simulations and experiments of these methods were carried out.

Keywords: Collision avoidance, Avoidance obstacle, Elastic Strip, Real time collision avoidance.

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Authors: M.Puviyarasan, C.Praveen

Abstract:

In this study, Friction Stir Processing (FSP) a recent grain refinement technique was employed to disperse micron-sized (2 *m) SiCp particles into aluminum alloy AA6063. The feasibility to fabricate bulk composites through FSP was analyzed and experiments were conducted at different traverse speeds and wider volumes of the specimens. Micro structural observation were carried out by employing optical microscopy test of the cross sections in both parallel and perpendicular to the tool traverse direction. Mechanical property including micro hardness was evaluated in detail at various regions on the specimen. The composites had an excellent bonding with aluminum alloy substrate and a significant increase of 30% in the micro hardness value of metal matrix composite (MMC) as to that of the base metal has observed. The observations clearly indicate that SiC particles were uniformly distributed within the aluminum matrix.

Keywords: Friction Stir Processing, Metal matrix composite, Bulk composite.

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Authors: N. Tugrul, N. Baran Acarali, A. S. Kipcak, E. Moroydor Derun, S. Piskin

Abstract:

Turkey has 72 % of total world boron reserves on the basis of B2O3.Borates that is a refined form of boron minerals have a wide range of applications. Zinc borates can be used as multifunctional synergistic additives. The most important properties are low solubility in water and high dehydration temperature. Zinc borates dehydrate above 290°C and anhydrous zinc borate has thermal resistance about 400°C. Zinc borates can be synthesized using several methods such as hydrothermal and solid-state processes. In this study, the solid-state method was applied between 500 and 800°C using the starting materials of ZnO and H3BO3 with 1:4 mole ratio. The reaction time was determined as 4 hours after some preliminary experiments. After the synthesis, the crystal structure and the morphology of the products were examined by XRay Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman Spectrometer. As a result the form of ZnB4O7 was synthesized with the highest crystal score at 800°C.

Keywords: Raman, solid-state method, zinc borate, XRD.

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Authors: Nikolaos Vassilas, Theocharis Tsenoglou, Djamchid Ghazanfarpour

Abstract:

In this work, we explore the capability of the mean shift algorithm as a powerful preprocessing tool for improving the quality of spatial data, acquired from airborne scanners, from densely built urban areas. On one hand, high resolution image data corrupted by noise caused by lossy compression techniques are appropriately smoothed while at the same time preserving the optical edges and, on the other, low resolution LiDAR data in the form of normalized Digital Surface Map (nDSM) is upsampled through the joint mean shift algorithm. Experiments on both the edge-preserving smoothing and upsampling capabilities using synthetic RGB-z data show that the mean shift algorithm is superior to bilateral filtering as well as to other classical smoothing and upsampling algorithms. Application of the proposed methodology for 3D reconstruction of buildings of a pilot region of Athens, Greece results in a significant visual improvement of the 3D building block model.

Keywords: 3D buildings reconstruction, data fusion, data upsampling, mean shift.

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Authors: Chenxue Yang, Mao Ye, Zijian Liu, Tao Li, Jiao Bao

Abstract:

Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a useful computational method to find basis information of multivariate nonnegative data. A popular approach to solve the NMF problem is the multiplicative update (MU) algorithm. But, it has some defects. So the columnwisely alternating gradient (cAG) algorithm was proposed. In this paper, we analyze convergence of the cAG algorithm and show advantages over the MU algorithm. The stability of the equilibrium point is used to prove the convergence of the cAG algorithm. A classic model is used to obtain the equilibrium point and the invariant sets are constructed to guarantee the integrity of the stability. Finally, the convergence conditions of the cAG algorithm are obtained, which help reducing the evaluation time and is confirmed in the experiments. By using the same method, the MU algorithm has zero divisor and is convergent at zero has been verified. In addition, the convergence conditions of the MU algorithm at zero are similar to that of the cAG algorithm at non-zero. However, it is meaningless to discuss the convergence at zero, which is not always the result that we want for NMF. Thus, we theoretically illustrate the advantages of the cAG algorithm.

Keywords: Non-negative matrix factorizations, convergence, cAG algorithm, equilibrium point, stability.

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Authors: A. Abu-Safa, S. Abu-Salah, M. Mosa, S. Gharaibeh

Abstract:

Pharmaceutical industries and effluents of sewage treatment plants are the main sources of residual pharmaceuticals in water resources. These emergent pollutants may adversely impact the biophysical environment. Pharmaceutical industries often generate wastewater that changes in characteristics and quantity depending on the used manufacturing processes. Carbamazepine (CBZ), {5Hdibenzo [b,f]azepine-5-carboxamide, (C15H12N2O)}, is a significant non-biodegradable pharmaceutical contaminant in the Jordanian pharmaceutical wastewater, which is not removed by the activated sludge processes in treatment plants. Activated carbon may potentially remove that pollutant from effluents, but the high cost involved suggests that more attention should be given to the potential use of low-cost materials in order to reduce cost and environmental contamination. Powders of Jordanian non-metallic raw materials namely, Azraq Bentonite (AB), Kaolinite (K), and Zeolite (Zeo) were activated (acid and thermal treatment) and evaluated by removing CBZ. The results of batch and column techniques experiments showed around 46% and 67% removal of CBZ respectively.

Keywords: Azraq bentonite, carbamazepine, pharmaceutical wastewater, zeolite.

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Authors: G.A.C.P. Ganegoda, D.M.A. Samaranayake, L.S. Bandara, K.A.D.N.K. Wimalawarne

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With the popularity of the multi-core and many-core architectures there is a great requirement for software frameworks which can support parallel programming methodologies. In this paper we introduce an Eclipse toolkit, JConqurr which is easy to use and provides robust support for flexible parallel progrmaming. JConqurr is a multi-core and many-core programming toolkit for Java which is capable of providing support for common parallel programming patterns which include task, data, divide and conquer and pipeline parallelism. The toolkit uses an annotation and a directive mechanism to convert the sequential code into parallel code. In addition to that we have proposed a novel mechanism to achieve the parallelism using graphical processing units (GPU). Experiments with common parallelizable algorithms have shown that our toolkit can be easily and efficiently used to convert sequential code to parallel code and significant performance gains can be achieved.

Keywords: Multi-core, parallel programming patterns, GPU, Java, Eclipse plugin, toolkit,

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Authors: Khin S. Aye

Abstract:

The present work was conducted to find out the effect of biofertilizer formulated with four species of bacteria (two species of Azotobacter and two species of Lysobacter) and zinc sulphate. Field experiments with mustard plant were conducted to study the effectiveness of soil application of zinc sulphate and biofertilizer at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 days after sowing. Plant height and condition of plant was found to be increased significantly using a mixture of biofertilizer and zinc sulphate than other treatments after 40 days sowing. Three treatments were also used in this field experiment such as bacteria only, zinc sulphate only and mixture of biofertilizer and zinc sulphate. The treatment using a mixture of zinc sulphate and biofertilizer had the best yield (4688.008 kg/ha) within 50 days of sowing and performed better than other treatments. Field experiment using zinc sulphate only was second best yield (3380.75Kg/ha) and biofertilizer only treatment gave (2639.04kg/ha).

Keywords: biofertilizer, zinc sulphate, mustard plant, bacteria

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Authors: Mohammadi K., Ghalavand A., Aghaalikhani M

Abstract:

In order to evaluation the effects of natural, biological and chemical fertilizers on grain yield and chickpea quality, field experiments were carried out in 2007 and 2008 growing seasons. In this research the effects of different organic, chemical and biological fertilizers were investigated on grain yield and quality of chickpea. Experimental units were arranged in split-split plots based on randomized complete blocks with three replications. The highest amounts of yield and yield components were obtained in G1×N5 interaction. Significant increasing of N, P, K, Fe and Mg content in leaves and grains emphasized on superiority of mentioned treatment because each one of these nutrients has an approved role in chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthesis ability of the crop. The combined application of compost, farmyard manure and chemical phosphorus (N5) had the best grain quality due to high protein, starch and total sugar contents, low crude fiber and reduced cooking time.

Keywords: soil fertility, grain yield, chickpea, natural resources.

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Authors: Alexander L. Dmitriev, Sophia A. Bulgakova

Abstract:

Temperature dependence of force of gravitation is one of the fundamental problems of physics. This problem has got special value in connection with that the general theory of relativity, supposing the weakest positive influence of a body temperature on its weight, actually rejects an opportunity of measurement of negative influence of temperature on gravity in laboratory conditions. Really, the recognition of negative temperature dependence of gravitation, for example, means basic impossibility of achievement of a singularity («a black hole») at a gravitational collapse. Laboratory experiments with exact weighing the heated up metal samples, indicating negative influence temperatures of bodies on their physical weight are described. Influence of mistakes of measurements is analyzed. Calculations of distribution of temperature in volume of the bar, agreed with experimental data of time dependence of weight of samples are executed. The physical substantiation of negative temperature dependence of weight of the bodies, based on correlation of acceleration at thermal movement of micro-particles of a body and its absolute temperature, are given.

Keywords: Gravitation, temperature, weight.

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Authors: Md Abdullah Al Faruque

Abstract:

A very large percentage of bridge failures are attributed to scouring around bridge piers and this directly influences public safety. Experiments are carried out in a 12-m long rectangular open channel flume made of transparent tempered glass. A 300 mm thick bed made up of sand particles is leveled horizontally to create the test bed and a 50 mm hollow plastic cylinder is used as a model bridge pier. Tests are carried out with varying flow depths and velocities. Data points of various scour parameters such as scour depth, width, and length are collected based on different flow conditions and visual observations of changes in the stream bed downstream the bridge pier are also made as the scour progresses. Result shows that all three major flow characteristics (flow depth, Froude number and densimetric Froude number) have one way or other affect the scour profile.

Keywords: Bridge pier scour, densimetric Froude number, flow depth, Froude Number, sand.

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Authors: Saeid Fazli, Hadis Askarifar, Maryam Sheikh Shoaie

Abstract:

Human identification at a distance has recently gained growing interest from computer vision researchers. Gait recognition aims essentially to address this problem by identifying people based on the way they walk [1]. Gait recognition has 3 steps. The first step is preprocessing, the second step is feature extraction and the third one is classification. This paper focuses on the classification step that is essential to increase the CCR (Correct Classification Rate). Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) is used in this work. Neural Networks imitate the human brain to perform intelligent tasks [3].They can represent complicated relationships between input and output and acquire knowledge about these relationships directly from the data [2]. In this paper we apply MLP NN for 11 views in our database and compare the CCR values for these views. Experiments are performed with the NLPR databases, and the effectiveness of the proposed method for gait recognition is demonstrated.

Keywords: Human motion analysis, biometrics, gait recognition, principal component analysis, MLP neural network.

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Authors: R. Doubrava, R. Růžek

Abstract:

Nonstandard tests are necessary for analyses and verification of new developed structural and technological solutions with application of composite materials. One of the most critical primary structural parts of a typical aerospace structure is T-joint. This structural element is loaded mainly in shear, bending, peel and tension. The paper is focused on the shear loading simulations. The aim of the work is to obtain a representative uniform distribution of shear loads along T-joint during the mechanical testing. A new design of T-joint test procedure, numerical simulation and optimization of representative boundary conditions are presented. The different conditions and inaccuracies both in simulations and experiments are discussed. The influence of different parameters on stress and strain distributions is demonstrated on T-joint made of CFRP (carbon fibre reinforced plastic). A special test rig designed by VZLU (Aerospace Research and Test Establishment) for T-shear test procedure is presented.

Keywords: T-joint, shear, composite, mechanical testing, Finite Element analysis, methodology.

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Authors: Takayuki Shiina

Abstract:

Mathematical programming has been applied to various problems. For many actual problems, the assumption that the parameters involved are deterministic known data is often unjustified. In such cases, these data contain uncertainty and are thus represented as random variables, since they represent information about the future. Decision-making under uncertainty involves potential risk. Stochastic programming is a commonly used method for optimization under uncertainty. A stochastic programming problem with recourse is referred to as a two-stage stochastic problem. In this study, we consider a stochastic programming problem with simple integer recourse in which the value of the recourse variable is restricted to a multiple of a nonnegative integer. The algorithm of a dynamic slope scaling procedure for solving this problem is developed by using a property of the expected recourse function. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is quite efficient. The stochastic programming model defined in this paper is quite useful for a variety of design and operational problems.

Keywords: stochastic programming problem with recourse, simple integer recourse, dynamic slope scaling procedure

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Authors: M. R. Aghaebrahimi, S. H. Zahiri, M. Amiri

Abstract:

The necessity of solving multi dimensional complicated scientific problems beside the necessity of several objective functions optimization are the most motive reason of born of artificial intelligence and heuristic methods. In this paper, we introduce a new method for multiobjective optimization based on learning automata. In the proposed method, search space divides into separate hyper-cubes and each cube is considered as an action. After gathering of all objective functions with separate weights, the cumulative function is considered as the fitness function. By the application of all the cubes to the cumulative function, we calculate the amount of amplification of each action and the algorithm continues its way to find the best solutions. In this Method, a lateral memory is used to gather the significant points of each iteration of the algorithm. Finally, by considering the domination factor, pareto front is estimated. Results of several experiments show the effectiveness of this method in comparison with genetic algorithm based method.

Keywords: Function optimization, Multiobjective optimization, Learning automata.

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Authors: Shigeaki Sakurai, Ken Ueno, Ryohei Orihara

Abstract:

This paper proposes a method that discovers time series event patterns from textual data with time information. The patterns are composed of sequences of events and each event is extracted from the textual data, where an event is characteristic content included in the textual data such as a company name, an action, and an impression of a customer. The method introduces 7 types of time constraints based on the analysis of the textual data. The method also evaluates these constraints when the frequency of a time series event pattern is calculated. We can flexibly define the time constraints for interesting combinations of events and can discover valid time series event patterns which satisfy these conditions. The paper applies the method to daily business reports collected by a sales force automation system and verifies its effectiveness through numerical experiments.

Keywords: Text mining, sequential mining, time constraints, daily business reports.

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Authors: R. Mafi Gholami, S. M. Borghei, S. M. Mousavi

Abstract:

In this study, the ability of Aspergillus niger and Penicillium simplicissimum to extract heavy metals from a spent refinery catalyst was investigated. For the first step, a spent processing catalyst from one of the oil refineries in Iran was physically and chemically characterized. Aspergillus niger and Penicillium simplicissimum were used to mobilize Al/Co/Mo/Ni from hazardous spent catalysts. The fungi were adapted to the mixture of metals at 100-800 mg L-1 with increments in concentration of 100 mg L-1. Bioleaching experiments were carried out in batch cultures. To investigate the production of organic acids in sucrose medium, analyses of the culture medium by HPLC were performed at specific time intervals after inoculation. The results obtained from Inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) showed that after the one-step bioleaching process using Aspergillus niger, maximum removal efficiencies of 27%, 66%, 62% and 38% were achieved for Al, Co, Mo and Ni, respectively. However, the highest removal efficiencies using Penicillium simplicissimum were of 32%, 67%, 65% and 38% for Al, Co, Mo and Ni, respectively

Keywords: Aspergillus niger, Bioleaching, Heavy metals, Penicillium simplicissimum, Spent catalyst

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Authors: Xiaodong Gao, Pingchuan Dong, Qichao Gao

Abstract:

This work attempts to predict the deposition rate of asphaltene particles in blockage tube through CFD simulation. The Euler-Lagrange equation has been applied during the flow of crude oil and asphaltene particles. The net gravitational force, virtual mass, pressure gradient, Saffman lift, and drag forces are incorporated in the simulations process. Validation of CFD simulation results is compared to the benchmark experiments from the previous literature. Furthermore, the effects of blockage location, blockage length, and blockage thickness on deposition rate are also analyzed. The simulation results indicate that the maximum deposition rate of asphaltene occurs in the blocked tube section, and the greater the deposition thickness, the greater the deposition rate. Moreover, the deposition amount and maximum deposition rate along the length of the tube have the same trend. Results of this study are in the ability to better understand the deposition of asphaltene particles in production and help achieve to deal with the asphaltene challenges.

Keywords: Asphaltene deposition rate, blockage length, blockage thickness, blockage diameter, transient condition.

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Authors: H. Katkhuda, B. Hanayneh, N. Shatarat

Abstract:

The main objective of this paper is to determine the isolated effect of silica fume on tensile, compressive and flexure strengths on high strength lightweight concrete. Many experiments were carried out by replacing cement with different percentages of silica fume at different constant water-binder ratio keeping other mix design variables constant. The silica fume was replaced by 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% for a water-binder ratios ranging from 0.26 to 0.42. For all mixes, split tensile, compressive and flexure strengths were determined at 28 days. The results showed that the tensile, compressive and flexure strengths increased with silica fume incorporation but the optimum replacement percentage is not constant because it depends on the water–cementitious material (w/cm) ratio of the mix. Based on the results, a relationship between split tensile, compressive and flexure strengths of silica fume concrete was developed using statistical methods.

Keywords: Silica fume, Lightweight, High strength concrete, and Strength.

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