A temporal modal defeasible logic for formalizing social commitments in dialogue and argumentation models

In this paper, we extend a temporal defeasible logic with a modal operator Committed to formalize commitments that agents undertake as a consequence of communicative actions (speech acts) during dialogues. We represent commitments as modal sentences. The defeasible dual of the modal operator Committed is a modal operator called Exempted. The logical setting makes the social-commitment based semantics of speech acts verifiable and practical; it is possible to detect if, and when, a commitment is violated and/or complied with. One of the main advantages of the proposed system is that it allows for capturing the nonmonotonic behavior of the commitments induced by the relevant speech acts.     

A Novel Hybrid Method for River Discharge Prediction

Accurate prediction of river discharge is essential for the planning and management of water resources. This study proposes a novel hybrid method named HD-SKA by integrating two decomposition techniques (termed as HD) with support vector regression (SVR), K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and ARIMA models (combined as SKA) respectively. Firstly, the proposed method utilizes local mean decomposition (LMD) to decompose the original river discharge series into sub-series. Next, ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) is employed to further decompose the LMD-based sub-series into intrinsic mode functions. Further, the EEMD decomposed components are used as inputs in three data-driven models to predict river discharge respectively. The prediction of all components is then aggregated to obtain the results of HD-SVR, HD-KNN and HD-ARIMA models. The final prediction is obtained by taking the average prediction of these models. The proposed method is illustrated using five rivers in Indus Basin System. In five case studies, six models were built to compare the performance of the proposed HD-SKA model. The data analysis results show that the HD-SKA model performs better than all other considered models. The Diebold-Mariano test confirms the superiority of the proposed HD-SKA model over ARIMA, SVR, KNN, EEMD-ARIMA, EEMD-KNN, and EEMD-SVR models.

     

A solar still augmented with a flat-plate collector

A single-stage, basin-type solar still and a conventional flat-plate collector were connected together in order to studythe effect of augmentation on the still under local conditions. The still inlet was connected to a locally made, fin-tube collector such that its outlet was fed to the still basin instead of the common storage tank. Measurements of various temperatures, solar intensities and distilled water productions were taken for several days at various operating conditions. Several modes of operation were studied: still connected to collector for a 24-h period; still connected only during sunlight hours from 8 am to 5 pm, and still operating alone for a 24-h period. These tests were performed using tap water and saline water as a feed. It was found that the mass of distilled water production using augmentation was increased by 231% in the case of tap water as a feed and by 52% in the case of salt water as a feed.     

Diclofenac-bismuth complex: synthesis, physicochemical, and biological evaluation

Diclofenac-bismuth complexation was attempted by mixing diclofenac sodium (Na) and bismuth-subcitrate aqueous solutions at diclofenac:bismuth molar ratio of 3:1. A solid precipitate was obtained and isolated. The precipitate was characterized for stoichiometric ratio of diclofenac-bismuth complexation using capillary electrophoresis, which showed 1:1 complexation. In addition, nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared analysis were performed for the isolated solid complex and indicated that bismuth was in coordinate bond formation with the carboxylate group of diclofenac. In comparison with diclofenac Na powder, the complex was evaluated as an aqueous suspension for in vitro drug dissolution. The complex exhibited a faster dissolution rate than and similar dissolution extent as diclofenac Na. In comparison with an aqueous solution of diclofenac Na and an aqueous suspension of physical mixture of diclofenac acid (suspended) and bismuth-subcitrate (dissolved), the aqueous complex suspension was evaluated for ulcerogenic effect in rats upon oral administration. The complex led to more gastric ulceration than diclofenac Na, which was not in accordance with the antiulcer properties of bismuth. This antiulcer effect was shown as the physical mixture administration was accompanied with lower gastric ulceration than diclofenac Na administration. These gastric ulceration results were explained in terms of the difference in particle size between solid diclofenac acid formed as a result of the complex breakdown in an acidic medium (0.1 M HCl to simulate the gastric fluid) and that formed as a result of diclofenac Na neutralization. Diclofenac acid particles formed from the complex breakdown were of average size, three times smaller of those formed as a result of diclofenac Na protonation. This difference in particle size was correlated with the higher gastric ulceration associated with the complex than with diclofenac Na in terms of higher coverage of the gastric mucosa with diclofenac, and consequently, higher local ulceration.     

Effect of the Extent of Conversion and Retrogradation on the Digestibility of Potato Starch

The effect of starch conversion on the susceptibility of potato granules to α‐amylase was studied by direct sampling at different pasting times corresponding to different points on the RVA profile of a 6.4% (w/w) suspension of starch in distilled water. Native granules showed high resistance to α‐amylase with 8.6 ± 0.4% digestibility for a 6 h incubation period with the enzyme. When the suspension was heated to 60 °C, the digestibility increased to 53.5 ± 0.7% although, at this temperature, there was still no noticeable increase in the measured viscosity (≤0.040 Pa · s). The material sampled after a pasting time corresponding to the RVA peak viscosity showed a digestibility of 88.4 ± 0.5%. This suggested, owing to the expected retrogradation of amylose on cooling, the quasi‐total susceptibility of amylopectin to enzymatic digestion at this pasting stage. The effect of ions on the swelling of potato starch was used to assess whether the decrease of the swelling of the granules in the presence of NaCl was paralleled by an increase in resistance to α‐amylase. A small (∼6.1%) but significant decrease in the digestibility of pasted starch was observed in the presence of salt. Finally, the effect of the retrogradation of the amylopectin fraction on its digestibility was assessed in extruded potato starch ribbons containing 35% (w/w) water and stored at different temperatures. After 14 days of storage, the digestibility decreased from 77.0 ± 0.9% in the freshly extruded samples to between 28.0 ± 1.7% and 42.1 ± 0.3%, depending on the storage temperature. This suggested a measurable difference in the α‐amylase susceptibility between the A and B polymorphs of retrograded amylopectin.     

Susceptibility of Date Fruits (Phoenix dactylifera) to Aflatoxin Production

Segments of fruits from 12 varieties of date (Phoenix dactylifera) and three stages of maturation were inoculated with a toxigenic strain of Aspergillus parasiticus. During growth at 28°C for 10 days, 8 varieties supported appreciable aflatoxin production at the Khalal stage—the most popular stage for direct human consumption, with a maximum value in excess of 300 μg g^-1 of fruit. Marked differences in susceptibility to infection and/or aflatoxin production were observed between varieties and/or stage of maturation. It was concluded that toxigenic aspergilli could proliferate on any date fruits that suffered mechanical damage in the field or during harvesting, and hence that such fruits should be considered as likely to be unfit for human or animal consumption. © 1997 SCI.     

Substitution of wheat starch with non-wheat starches and cross-linked waxy barley starch affects sensory properties and staling of Arabic bread

Substitution of starch from barley, corn, oat, potato, rice or sorghum for prime wheat starch in the formulation of Arabic bread resulted in breads with significantly (P < 0.05) different textural attributes from regular wheat bread except for barley starch. Substitution of waxy barley starch (957 g kg⁻¹ amylopectin) for wheat starch (279 g kg⁻¹ amylopectin) resulted in bread that was not significantly different from regular wheat bread when assessed in the fresh state. However, upon aging, the waxy barley starch-containing bread staled at a significantly (P < 0.05) faster rate than regular wheat bread. Breads made with waxy barley starch cross-linked with 50, 200 or 500 ppm phosphorus oxychloride showed higher enthalpy of melting (ΔH) upon aging and staled faster than the bread formulated with waxy barley starch. These findings suggest that amylopectin retrogradation is one of the determinants of Arabic bread staling and that cross-linking promotes recrystallisation of amylopectin, possibly by keeping the polymer chains in close proximity. The rate of staling in breads formulated with cross-linked waxy barley starch decreased with increasing levels of cross-linking, possibly owing to restrictions in the degree of starch swelling. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry     

Pressure control in a PEM fuel cell via second order sliding mode

Pressure difference inside the Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) arises due to load variations, during which the pressure difference between anode and cathode rises. Practically, this problem can be avoided by equalizing anode and cathode pressures, to protect the fuel cell from permanent damage. This paper focuses on pressure regulation in the anode and cathode sides of the PEMFC. The control objective is achieved using second order sliding mode multi-input multi-output (MIMO) controller based on “Twisting algorithm”. Parametric uncertainty is formally presented and included in a nonlinear dynamic fuel cell model. The resultant nonlinear controller is robust and is proved to guarantee performance around any equilibrium point and under parametric uncertainty. Simulation results show that the proposed controller has a good transient response under load variations.     

A dual‐primal FETI method for solving a class of fluid–structure interaction problems in the frequency domain

The dual‐primal finite element tearing and interconnecting method (FETI‐DP) is extended to systems of linear equations arising from a finite element discretization for a class of fluid–structure interaction problems in the frequency domain. A preconditioned generalized minimal residual method is used to solve the linear equations for the Lagrange multipliers introduced on the subdomain boundaries to enforce continuity of the solution. The coupling between the fluid and the structure on the fluid–structure interface requires an appropriate choice of coarse level degrees of freedom in the FETI‐DP algorithm to achieve fast convergence. Several choices are proposed and tested by numerical experiments on three‐dimensional fluid–structure interaction problems in the mid‐frequency regime that demonstrate the greatly improved performance of the proposed algorithm over the standard FETI‐DP method. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of the drawing parameters and temperature rise on the prediction of chevron crack formation in wire drawing

The objective of the present work is to predict the formation of chevron crack in copper wire drawing process. The first part of this paper is to determine the chevron crack formation initiated by a central burst inside the wire material using experimental tests. These results are compared with results from a series of numerical simulations using the Cockcroft?CLatham fracture criterion. The second part of this work concerns the determination of a curve that divides the chevron and safe zones for a better wire drawing process. The conditions of central burst defects formation along the wire axis depend on drawing parameters and friction coefficient between the die and the wire. The friction coefficient is defined as a linear function of temperature rise which is measured close to the wire-die interface. The obtained results show that the friction coefficient depending on temperature rise during wire drawing has an impact on the damage of copper wire.