Search results for: biomedical applications sol-gel processes.

Authors: S. Adhirai, R. P. Mahapatra, Paramjit Singh

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Optimization is an important tool in making decisions and in analysing physical systems. In mathematical terms, an optimization problem is the problem of finding the best solution from among the set of all feasible solutions. The paper discusses the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), and its applications in different fields. The algorithm is tested using MATLAB because of its unique and powerful features. The benchmark functions used in WOA algorithm are grouped as: unimodal (F1-F7), multimodal (F8-F13), and fixed-dimension multimodal (F14-F23). Out of these benchmark functions, we show the experimental results for F7, F11, and F19 for different number of iterations. The search space and objective space for the selected function are drawn, and finally, the best solution as well as the best optimal value of the objective function found by WOA is presented. The algorithmic results demonstrate that the WOA performs better than the state-of-the-art meta-heuristic and conventional algorithms.

Keywords: Optimization, optimal value, objective function, optimization problems, meta-heuristic optimization algorithms, Whale Optimization Algorithm, Implementation, MATLAB.

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Authors: N. S. Imamverdiyev

Abstract:

The transition to renewable energy sources has become a critical component of global efforts to mitigate climate change and promote sustainable development. However, the deployment of renewable energy technologies can also have significant impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide, such as carbon sequestration, soil fertility, water quality, and biodiversity. These technologies also highlight the potential co-benefits of renewable energy deployment for ecosystem services, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air and water quality. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydro, and biomass, are increasingly being used to meet the world's energy needs due to their environmentally friendly nature and the desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the expansion of renewable energy infrastructure can also impact ecosystem services, which are the benefits that humans derive from nature, such as clean water, air, and food. This geographic assessment aims to evaluate the relationship between renewable energy infrastructure and ecosystem services. Potential solutions such as the use of ecological benefit measures, biodiversity-friendly design of renewable energy infrastructure, and stakeholder participation in decision-making processes are being investigated to determine the positive effects of renewable energy infrastructure on ecosystem services.

Keywords: Renewable energy, solar energy, climate change, energy production.

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Authors: Nilay Tanrıver, Birgül Benli, Nilgün Kızılcan

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Polysulfone (PSU) is a specialty engineering polymer having various industrial applications. PSU is especially used in waste water treatment membranes due to its good mechanical properties, structural and chemical stability. But it is a hydrophobic material and therefore its surface aim to pollute easily. In order to resolve this problem and extend the properties of membrane, PSU surface is rendered hydrophilic by addition of the sepiolite nanofibers. Sepiolite is one of the natural clays, which is a hydrate magnesium silicate fiber, also one of the well known layered clays of the montmorillonites where has several unique channels and pores within. It has also moisture durability, strength and low price. Sepiolite channels give great capacity of absorption and good surface properties. In this study, nanocomposites of commercial PSU and Sepiolite were prepared by solvent mixing method. Different organic solvents and their mixtures were used. Rheological characteristics of PSU-Sepiolite solvent mixtures were analyzed, the solubility of nanocomposite content in those mixtures were studied.

Keywords: Nanocomposite, polysulfone, rheology, sepiolite, solution mixing.

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Authors: J-P. Skön, M. Johansson, M. Raatikainen, K. Leiviskä, M. Kolehmainen

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The use of neural networks is popular in various building applications such as prediction of heating load, ventilation rate and indoor temperature. Significant is, that only few papers deal with indoor carbon dioxide (CO2) prediction which is a very good indicator of indoor air quality (IAQ). In this study, a data-driven modelling method based on multilayer perceptron network for indoor air carbon dioxide in an apartment building is developed. Temperature and humidity measurements are used as input variables to the network. Motivation for this study derives from the following issues. First, measuring carbon dioxide is expensive and sensors power consumptions is high and secondly, this leads to short operating times of battery-powered sensors. The results show that predicting CO2 concentration based on relative humidity and temperature measurements, is difficult. Therefore, more additional information is needed.

Keywords: Indoor air quality, Modelling, Neural networks

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Authors: R.Vinodha S. Abraham Lincoln, J. Prakash

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Multi-loop (De-centralized) Proportional-Integral- Derivative (PID) controllers have been used extensively in process industries due to their simple structure for control of multivariable processes. The objective of this work is to design multiple-model adaptive multi-loop PID strategy (Multiple Model Adaptive-PID) and neural network based multi-loop PID strategy (Neural Net Adaptive-PID) for the control of multivariable system. The first method combines the output of multiple linear PID controllers, each describing process dynamics at a specific level of operation. The global output is an interpolation of the individual multi-loop PID controller outputs weighted based on the current value of the measured process variable. In the second method, neural network is used to calculate the PID controller parameters based on the scheduling variable that corresponds to major shift in the process dynamics. The proposed control schemes are simple in structure with less computational complexity. The effectiveness of the proposed control schemes have been demonstrated on the CSTR process, which exhibits dynamic non-linearity.

Keywords: Multiple-model Adaptive PID controller, Multivariableprocess, CSTR process.

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Authors: Michał Glet, Kamil Kaczyński

Abstract:

Counterfeit goods and documents are a global problem, which needs more and more sophisticated methods of resolving it. Existing techniques using watermarking or embedding symbols on objects are not suitable for all use cases. To address those special needs, we created complete system allowing authentication of paper documents and physical objects with flat surface. Objects are marked using orientation independent and resistant to camera noise 2D graphic codes, named DotAuth. Based on the identifier stored in 2D code, the system is able to perform basic authentication and allows to conduct more sophisticated analysis methods, e.g., relying on augmented reality and physical properties of the object. In this paper, we present the complete architecture, algorithms and applications of the proposed system. Results of the features comparison of the proposed solution and other products are presented as well, pointing to the existence of many advantages that increase usability and efficiency in the means of protecting physical objects.

Keywords: Authentication, paper documents, security, anti-forgery.

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Authors: T. Sopapirm, K-N. Areerak, K-L. Areerak, A. Srikaew

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The paper presents the applications of artificial intelligence technique called adaptive tabu search to design the controller of a buck converter. The averaging model derived from the DQ and generalized state-space averaging methods is applied to simulate the system during a searching process. The simulations using such averaging model require the faster computational time compared with that of the full topology model from the software packages. The reported model is suitable for the work in the paper in which the repeating calculation is needed for searching the best solution. The results will show that the proposed design technique can provide the better output waveforms compared with those designed from the classical method.

Keywords: Buck converter, adaptive tabu search, DQ method, generalized state-space averaging method, modeling and simulation

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Authors: N. Hadjigeorgiou, A. C. Tsalikidou, E. Hristoforou, P. P. Sotiriadis

Abstract:

During the last few decades, the continuously increasing demand for accurate and reliable magnetic measurements has paved the way for the development of different types of magnetic sensing systems as well as different measurement techniques. Sensor sensitivity and linearity, signal-to-noise ratio, measurement range, cross-talk between sensors in multi-sensor applications are only some of the aspects that have been examined in the past. In this paper, a fully analog closed loop system in order to optimize the performance of AMR sensors has been developed. The operation of the proposed system has been tested using a Helmholtz coil calibration setup in order to control both the amplitude and direction of magnetic field in the vicinity of the AMR sensor. Experimental testing indicated that improved linearity of sensor response, as well as low noise levels can be achieved, when the system is employed.

Keywords: AMR sensor, closed loop, memory effects, chopper, linearity improvement, sensitivity improvement, magnetic noise, electronic noise.

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Authors: Zin Maw Tun, Tun Lin Naing

Abstract:

This paper presents the two loop proportional integral (PI) controller for speed control of permanent magnet DC motor (PMDC) motor drive with H-bridge DC chopper. PMDC motors are widely used in many applications because of having a good performance and it is easy to apply the speed control. The speed can be adjusted by using armature voltage control as it had only the armature circuit. H-bridge DC chopper circuit is used to obtain the desired speed in any direction. In this system, the two loop PI controller is designed by using pole-zero cancellation method. The speed and current controller gains are considered depending on the sampling frequency of the microcontroller. An Arduino IO package is used to implement the control algorithm. Both simulation and experimental results are presented to prove the correctness of the mathematical model.

Keywords: Arduino IO package, double loop PI controller, H-bridge DC chopper, low cost hardware, PMDC motor.

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Authors: N. Mahendran, S. Vishwaja

Abstract:

The Carry Select Adder (CSLA) is a fast adder which improves the speed of addition. From the structure of the CSLA, it is clear that there is opportunity for reducing the area. The logic operations involved in conventional CSLA and binary to excess-1 converter (BEC) based CSLA are analyzed to make a study on the data dependence and to identify redundant logic operations. In the existing adder design, the carry select (CS) operation is scheduled before the final-sum, which is different from the conventional CSLA design. In the presented scheme, Kogge stone parallel adder approach is used instead of existing adder design it will generate fast carry for intermediate stages and also improves the speed of addition. When compared to existing adder design the delay is less in the proposed adder design.

Keywords: Binary to excess-1 converter, delay, carry select adder, Kogge stone adder, speed.

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Authors: Deng Liao, Dongyu Qiu, Ahmed K. Elhakeem

Abstract:

A new code synchronization algorithm is proposed in this paper for the secondary cell-search stage in wideband CDMA systems. Rather than using the Cyclically Permutable (CP) code in the Secondary Synchronization Channel (S-SCH) to simultaneously determine the frame boundary and scrambling code group, the new synchronization algorithm implements the same function with less system complexity and less Mean Acquisition Time (MAT). The Secondary Synchronization Code (SSC) is redesigned by splitting into two sub-sequences. We treat the information of scrambling code group as data bits and use simple time diversity BCH coding for further reliability. It avoids involved and time-costly Reed-Solomon (RS) code computations and comparisons. Analysis and simulation results show that the Synchronization Error Rate (SER) yielded by the new algorithm in Rayleigh fading channels is close to that of the conventional algorithm in the standard. This new synchronization algorithm reduces system complexities, shortens the average cell-search time and can be implemented in the slot-based cell-search pipeline. By taking antenna diversity and pipelining correlation processes, the new algorithm also shows its flexible application in multiple antenna systems.

Keywords: WCDMA cell-search, synchronization algorithm, secondary synchronization channel, antenna diversity.

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Authors: Parvinder S. Sandhu, Porush Bassi, Amanpreet Singh Brar

Abstract:

Various models have been derived by studying large number of completed software projects from various organizations and applications to explore how project sizes mapped into project effort. But, still there is a need to prediction accuracy of the models. As Neuro-fuzzy based system is able to approximate the non-linear function with more precision. So, Neuro-Fuzzy system is used as a soft computing approach to generate model by formulating the relationship based on its training. In this paper, Neuro-Fuzzy technique is used for software estimation modeling of on NASA software project data and performance of the developed models are compared with the Halstead, Walston-Felix, Bailey-Basili and Doty Models mentioned in the literature.

Keywords: Effort Estimation, Neural-Fuzzy Model, Halstead Model, Walston-Felix Model, Bailey-Basili Model, Doty Model.

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Authors: Vladimir Rastunkov, Jae-Eun Park, Abhijit Mitra, Brian Quanz, Steve Wood, Christopher Codella, Heather Higgins, Joseph Broz

Abstract:

Quantum Support Vector Machines (QSVM) have become an important tool in research and applications of quantum kernel methods. In this work we propose a boosting approach for building ensembles of QSVM models and assess performance improvement across multiple datasets. This approach is derived from the best ensemble building practices that worked well in traditional machine learning and thus should push the limits of quantum model performance even further. We find that in some cases, a single QSVM model with tuned hyperparameters is sufficient to simulate the data, while in others - an ensemble of QSVMs that are forced to do exploration of the feature space via proposed method is beneficial.

Keywords: QSVM, Quantum Support Vector Machines, quantum kernel, boosting, ensemble.

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Authors: D. Danesh, M. J. Ryan, A. Abbasi

Abstract:

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is an essential component of an organisation’s strategic procedures, which requires attention of several factors to envisage a range of long-term outcomes to support strategic project portfolio decisions. To evaluate overall efficiency at the portfolio level, it is essential to identify the functionality of specific projects as well as to aggregate those findings in a mathematically meaningful manner that indicates the strategic significance of the associated projects at a number of levels of abstraction. PPM success is directly associated with the quality of decisions made and poor judgment increases portfolio costs. Hence, various Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques have been designed and employed to support the decision-making functions. This paper reviews possible options to enhance the decision-making outcomes in organisational portfolio management processes using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) both from academic and practical perspectives and will examine the usability, certainty and quality of the technique. The results of the study will also provide insight into the technical risk associated with current decision-making model to underpin initiative tracking and strategic portfolio management.

Keywords: Analytic hierarchy process, decision support systems, multi-criteria decision-making, project portfolio management.

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Authors: Saif N. Al-Bahry, Yahya M. Al-Wahaibi, Abdulkadir E. Elshafie, Ali S. Al-Bemani, Sanket J. Joshi

Abstract:

Environmental pollution is a global problem and best possible solution is identifying and utilizing native microorganisms. One possible application of microbial product -biosurfactant is in bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated sites. We have screened forty two different petroleum contaminated sites from Oman, for biosurfactant producing spore-forming bacterial isolates. Initial screening showed that out of 42 soil samples, three showed reduction in surface tension (ST) and interfacial tension (IFT) within 24h of incubation at 40°C. Out of those 3 soil samples, one was further selected for isolation of bacteria and 14 different bacteria were isolated in pure form. Of those 14 spore-forming, rod shaped bacteria, two showed highest reduction in ST and IFT in the range of 70mN/m to <35mN/m and 26.69mN/m to <9mN/m, respectively within 24h. These bacterial biosurfactants may be utilized for bioremediation of oil-spills.

Keywords: Bioremediation, biosurfactant, hydrocarbon pollution, spore-forming bacteria.

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Authors: Sergio Pissanetzky

Abstract:

The ability of the brain to organize information and generate the functional structures we use to act, think and communicate, is a common and easily observable natural phenomenon. In object-oriented analysis, these structures are represented by objects. Objects have been extensively studied and documented, but the process that creates them is not understood. In this work, a new class of discrete, deterministic, dissipative, host-guest dynamical systems is introduced. The new systems have extraordinary self-organizing properties. They can host information representing other physical systems and generate the same functional structures as the brain does. A simple mathematical model is proposed. The new systems are easy to simulate by computer, and measurements needed to confirm the assumptions are abundant and readily available. Experimental results presented here confirm the findings. Applications are many, but among the most immediate are object-oriented engineering, image and voice recognition, search engines, and Neuroscience.

Keywords: AI, artificial intelligence, complex system, object oriented, OO, refactoring.

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Authors: Emine Demiray, Şensu Curabay

Abstract:

Distance education program is a dimension of contemporary and new education technologies. Concepts and applications in this field are the results of a series of educational demands and developments in various communication and education technologies. Distance education applications have some conceptual bases. These are creating new education opportunities, realizing work-education unity, getting democratic in education, lifelong education, tendency to individual matters, effective use of institutions, integration of technology and education, tendency to individual and social needs, taking three dimensional integration as the main principle (publishing, printed materials and face to face education), reaching maximum mass, individual and mass education integrity and education demand and financial matters balance. Economics, Business Administration and Open Education faculties, which have been giving education within Anadolu University since 1982 in Turkey, are carrying on education with nearly 1.000.000 students. The aim of this study is to determine organizational commitment levels of students who have been studying at Anadolu University Economics, Business Administration and Open Education faculties in the scope of affective, continuance and nominative commitment in Allen&Meyer model. In the study, organizational commitment of the Economics, Business Administration and Open Education faculty students, who are receiving education by means of distance education, to their faculties is dealt after introducing Anadolu University Distance Education system which gives higher education via distance education method in Turkey. In order to increase the success level of faculties it is required for students to have high level of organizational commitment to their faculties. A questionnaire has been applied by using “Organizational Commitment Scale", developed by Meyer&Allen to determine organizational commitments of Economics, Business Administration and Open Education students. Organizational commitment is dealt with as affective, continuance and nominative commitment. The questionnaire was applied face to face to randomly chosen 500 students living in Eskişehir and the data was downloaded to the computer by using SPSS program and the results were analyzed in terms of demographic features (gender, age, marital status, years of study, work and income level) of students by using frequency test, ttest and ANOVA test. As a result of these analyses, when the comments of Open Education Faculty students on levels of affective, continuance and nominative commitment to their faculties were examined, it has been revealed that continuance commitment level has the highest rate. Among the female participants; continuance commitment is high in the age range of 30-40, for normative commitment it is 17-22. However no dominant age range was defined for affective commitment. Regarding the marital status; continuance commitment average is higher among married participants; but nominative affective commitment average is higher among single participants. As to the years of study, affective and continuance commitment is higher among senior students while normative commitment is higher among junior students. Moreover; in terms of continuance, affective and normative commitment, those who do not work and have low income have higher level of all there commitment types than those who work and have relatively high income.

Keywords: Open education, Organizational commitment, Distance education.

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Authors: Shuo-Li Hsu, Peng-Wei Gau, I-Lin Wu, Jyh-Horng Jeng

Abstract:

For most image fusion algorithms separate relationship by pixels in the image and treat them more or less independently. In addition, they have to be adjusted different parameters in different time or weather. In this paper, we propose a region–based image fusion which combines aspects of feature and pixel-level fusion method to replace only by pixel. The basic idea is to segment far infrared image only and to add information of each region from segmented image to visual image respectively. Then we determine different fused parameters according different region. At last, we adopt artificial neural network to deal with the problems of different time or weather, because the relationship between fused parameters and image features are nonlinear. It render the fused parameters can be produce automatically according different states. The experimental results present the method we proposed indeed have good adaptive capacity with automatic determined fused parameters. And the architecture can be used for lots of applications.

Keywords: Image fusion, Region-based fusion, Segmentation, Neural network, Multi-sensor.

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Authors: Ricardo Merlo

Abstract:

In this paper, we analyzed the different didactic proposals for teaching about the free fall motion of bodies available online. An important aspect was the interpretation of the direction and sense of the acceleration of gravity and of the falling velocity of a body, which is why we found different applications of the Cartesian reference system used and also different graphical presentations of the velocity as a function of time and of the distance traveled vertically by the body in the period of time that it was dropped from a height h0. In this framework, a survey of previous concepts was applied to a voluntary group of first-year university students of an Engineering degree before and after the development of the class of the subject in question. Then, Hake's index (0.52) was determined, which resulted in an average learning gain from the meaningful use of the reference system and the respective graphs of velocity versus time and height versus time.

Keywords: Didactic gain, free–fall, physics teaching, previous knowledge.

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Authors: Laveen Sundararaj, Palanisamy Vellaiyan

Abstract:

Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networking is part of the Inter Planetary Internet with primary application being Deep Space Networks. Its Terrestrial form has interesting research applications such as Alagappa University Delay Tolerant Water Monitoring Network which doubles as test beds for improvising its routing scheme. DTNs depend on node mobility to deliver packets using a store-carry-and forward paradigm. Throwboxes are small and inexpensive stationary devices equipped with wireless interfaces and storage. We propose the use of Throwboxes to enhance the contact opportunities of the nodes and hence improve the Throughput. The enhancement is evaluated using Alunivdtnsim, a desktop simulator in C language and the results are graphically presented.

Keywords: Alunivdtnsim – Alagappa University Delay TolerantNetwork Simulator, AUDTWMN- Alagappa University DelayTolerant Water Monitoring Network, DTN - Delay and DisruptionTolerant Networking, LTP – Lick Lider Transmission Protocol.

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Authors: Mada Sanjaya, Halimatussadiyah, Dian Syah Maulana

Abstract:

The nonlinear chaotic non-autonomous fourth order system is algebraically simple but can generate complex chaotic attractors. In this paper, non-autonomous fourth order chaotic oscillator circuits were designed and simulated. Also chaotic nonautonomous Attractor is addressed suitable for chaotic masking communication circuits using Matlab® and MultiSIM® programs. We have demonstrated in simulations that chaos can be synchronized and applied to signal masking communications. We suggest that this phenomenon of chaos synchronism may serve as the basis for little known chaotic non-autonomous Attractor to achieve signal masking communication applications. Simulation results are used to visualize and illustrate the effectiveness of non-autonomous chaotic system in signal masking. All simulations results performed on nonautonomous chaotic system are verify the applicable of secure communication.

Keywords: Bidirectional chaotic synchronization, double bellattractor, secure communication

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Authors: F. Rotaru, S. Bejinariu, C. D. Niţâ, R. Luca, I. Pâvâloi, C. Lazâr

Abstract:

The paper presents a technique suitable in robot vision applications where it is not possible to establish the object position from one view. Usually, one view pose calculation methods are based on the correspondence of image features established at a training step and exactly the same image features extracted at the execution step, for a different object pose. When such a correspondence is not feasible because of the lack of specific features a new method is proposed. In the first step the method computes from two views the 3D pose of feature points. Subsequently, using a registration algorithm, the set of 3D feature points extracted at the execution phase is aligned with the set of 3D feature points extracted at the training phase. The result is a Euclidean transform which have to be used by robot head for reorientation at execution step.

Keywords: features correspondence, registration algorithm, robot vision, triangulation method.

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Authors: Ghada A. El Khayat

Abstract:

This paper argues that a product development exercise involves in addition to the conventional stages, several decisions regarding other aspects. These aspects should be addressed simultaneously in order to develop a product that responds to the customer needs and that helps realize objectives of the stakeholders in terms of profitability, market share and the like. We present a framework that encompasses these different development dimensions. The framework shows that a product development methodology such as the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is the basic tool which allows definition of the target specifications of a new product. Creativity is the first dimension that enables the development exercise to live and end successfully. A number of group processes need to be followed by the development team in order to ensure enough creativity and innovation. Secondly, packaging is considered to be an important extension of the product. Branding strategies, quality and standardization requirements, identification technologies, design technologies, production technologies and costing and pricing are also integral parts to the development exercise. These dimensions constitute the proposed framework. The paper also presents a mathematical model used to calculate the design targets based on the target costing principle. The framework is used to study a case of a new product development in the telecommunications services sector.

Keywords: Product Development Framework, Quality FunctionDeployment, Mathematical Models, Telecommunications.

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Authors: Shireen Panchoo

Abstract:

The Internet and the ever growing applications enable communities to share and collaborate through common platforms. However, this growing pattern is not witnessed yet even for elearning. This paper is based on a doctoral research which aimed at researching the ways students interact in an online campus and the supports that they look for and require. Content analysis, based on the Panchoo/Jaillet methodology, was done on four synchronous meetings between a tutor and his ten students. The UNIV-Rct ecampus, analogical to a physical campus, was found to be user friendly and the students enrolled in a master-s course faced no difficulties in using it. In addition to the environmental aspects, the pedagogical implementation of the course has driven the students to interact and collaborate significantly and this has contributed to overcome the problems faced by the distance learners. This completely online model was found to be fruitful in helping distant learners fight their loneliness and brave their difficulties in a socioconstructivism approach.

Keywords: Content analysis, e-campus, interaction, online supports, pedagogy.

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Authors: M. Bahgat, H. Hanafy, H. Al-Tassan

Abstract:

Cluster formation is an essential phenomenon during direct reduction processes at shaft furnaces. Decreasing the reducing temperature to avoid this problem can cause a significant drop in throughput. In order to prevent sticking of pellets, a coating material basically inactive under the reducing conditions prevailing in the shaft furnace, should be applied to cover the outer layer of the pellets. In the present work, steel dust is used as coating material for iron ore pellets to explore dust coating effectiveness and determines the best coating conditions. Steel dust coating is applied for iron ore pellets in various concentrations. Dust slurry concentrations of 5.0-30% were used to have a coated steel dust amount of 1.0-5.0 kg per ton iron ore. Coated pellets with various concentrations were reduced isothermally in weight loss technique with simulated gas mixture to the composition of reducing gases at shaft furnaces. The influences of various coating conditions on the reduction behavior and the morphology were studied. The optimum reduced samples were comparatively applied for sticking index measurement. It was found that the optimized steel dust coating condition that achieve higher reducibility with lower sticking index was 30% steel dust slurry concentration with 3.0 kg steel dust/ton ore.

Keywords: Ironmaking, coating, steel dust, reduction.

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Authors: Kalthoum Riahi, Max T. Rietberg, Javier Perez y Perez, Corné Dijkstra, Bennie ten Haken, Lejla Alic

Abstract:

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are widely used to facilitate magnetic particle imaging (MPI) which has the potential to become the leading diagnostic instrument for biomedical imaging. This comparative study assesses the effects of changing iron content and excitation frequency on point-spread function (PSF) representing the effect of magnetization reversal. PSF is quantified by features of interest for MPI: i.e., drive field amplitude and full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM). A superparamagnetic quantifier (SPaQ) is used to assess differential magnetic susceptibility of two commercially available MNPs: Synomag®-D50 and Synomag®-D70. For both MNPs, the signal output depends on increase in drive field frequency and amount of iron-oxide, which might be hampering the sensitivity of MPI systems that perform on higher frequencies. Nevertheless, there is a clear potential of Synomag®-D for a stable MPI resolution, especially in case of 70 nm version, that is independent of either drive field frequency or amount of iron-oxide.

Keywords: Magnetic nanoparticles, MNPs, Differential magnetic susceptibility, DMS, Magnetic particle imaging, MPI, magnetic relaxation, Synomag®-D.

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Authors: G. Chakhaia, S. Gogilava, L. Tsulukidze, Z. Laoshvili, I. Khubulava, S. Bosikashvili, T. Gugushvili

Abstract:

The work reviewed and evaluated various genesis debris flow phenomena recently formatted in the Mletiskhevi, accordingly it revealed necessity of treatment modern debris flow against measures. Based on this, it is proposed the debris flow against truncated semi cone shape construction, which elements are contained in the car’s secondary tires. its constituent elements (sections), due to the possibilities of amortization and geometric shapes is effective and sustainable towards debris flow hitting force. The construction is economical, because after crossing the debris flows in the river bed, the riverbed is not cleanable, also the elements of the building are resource saving. For assessment of influence of cohesive debris flow at the construction and evaluation of the construction effectiveness have been implemented calculation in the specific assumptions with approved methodology. According to the calculation, it was established that after passing debris flow in the debris flow construction (in 3 row case) its hitting force reduces 3 times, that causes reduce of debris flow speed and kinetic energy, as well as sedimentation on a certain section of water drain in the lower part of the construction. Based on the analysis and report on the debris flow against construction, it can be said that construction is effective, inexpensive, technically relatively easy-to-reach measure, that’s why its implementation is prospective.

Keywords: Construction, debris flow, sections, theoretical calculation.

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Authors: Ljubomir Nikolic, Larisa Trichtchenko

Abstract:

The connection between solar activity and adverse phenomena in the Earth’s environment that can affect space and ground based technologies has spurred interest in Space Weather (SW) research. A great effort has been put on the development of suitable models that can provide advanced forecast of SW events. With the progress in computational technology, it is becoming possible to develop operational large scale physics based models which can incorporate the most important physical processes and domains of the Sun-Earth system. In order to enhance our SW prediction capabilities we are developing advanced numerical tools. With operational requirements in mind, our goal is to develop a modular simulation framework of propagation of the disturbances from the Sun through interplanetary space to the Earth. Here, we report and discuss on the development of coronal field and solar wind components for a large scale MHD code. The model for these components is based on a potential field source surface model and an empirical Wang-Sheeley-Arge solar wind relation. 

Keywords: Space weather, numerical modeling, coronal field, solar wind.

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Authors: Faaza A, Almarsoomi, James D, O'Shea, Zuhair A, Bandar, Keeley A, Crockett

Abstract:

This paper is concerned with the production of an Arabic word semantic similarity benchmark dataset. It is the first of its kind for Arabic which was particularly developed to assess the accuracy of word semantic similarity measurements. Semantic similarity is an essential component to numerous applications in fields such as natural language processing, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and psychology. Most of the reported work has been done for English. To the best of our knowledge, there is no word similarity measure developed specifically for Arabic. In this paper, an Arabic benchmark dataset of 70 word pairs is presented. New methods and best possible available techniques have been used in this study to produce the Arabic dataset. This includes selecting and creating materials, collecting human ratings from a representative sample of participants, and calculating the overall ratings. This dataset will make a substantial contribution to future work in the field of Arabic WSS and hopefully it will be considered as a reference basis from which to evaluate and compare different methodologies in the field.

Keywords: Arabic categories, benchmark dataset, semantic similarity, word pair, stimulus Arabic words

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Authors: Broderick Crawford, Ricardo Soto, Natalia Berrios, Eduardo Olguin

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a binary cat swarm optimization for solving the Set covering problem. The set covering problem is a well-known NP-hard problem with many practical applications, including those involving scheduling, production planning and location problems. Binary cat swarm optimization is a recent swarm metaheuristic technique based on the behavior of discrete cats. Domestic cats show the ability to hunt and are curious about moving objects. The cats have two modes of behavior: seeking mode and tracing mode. We illustrate this approach with 65 instances of the problem from the OR-Library. Moreover, we solve this problem with 40 new binarization techniques and we select the technical with the best results obtained. Finally, we make a comparison between results obtained in previous studies and the new binarization technique, that is, with roulette wheel as transfer function and V3 as discretization technique.

Keywords: Binary cat swarm optimization, set covering problem, metaheuristic, binarization methods.

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