GODDESS: A Goal-Directed Decision Structuring System

This paper describes an operational version of a computerized, domain-independent, decision support system which is based on a novel, goal-directed structure for representing decision problems. The structure allows the user to state relations among aspects, effects, conditions, and goals, in addition to actions and states which are the basic components of the traditional decision tree approach. The program interacts with the user in a stylized English-like dialogue, starting with the stated objectives and proceeding to unravel the more detailed means by which these objectives can be realized. At any point in time, the program focuses the user's attention on the issues which are most crucial to the problem at hand. The structure used is more compatible with the way people encode knowledge about problems and actions, and therefore promises to offer the following advantages: 1) judgments and beliefs issued by the user constitute a more valid representation of the user's experience; and 2) the user may be guided toward the discovery of action alternatives he otherwise would not have identified.     

The use of basalt powder as a natural heterogeneous catalyst in the Fenton and Photo-Fenton oxidation of cationic dyes

The use of naturally present heterogeneous catalysts has recently been an essential issue in the Fenton and photo-Fenton processes. In this study, the uses of basalt as a catalyst for the Fenton and photo-Fenton reactions for methylene Blue (MB) and Basic Red 18 (BR18) degradations were investigated. Basalt was selected because of the presence of the iron (III) oxide in the structure. Basalt was characterized by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis to obtain the chemical composition and the crystalline phase. The surface charge and the surface area were obtained by zeta potential and Brunauer Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were utilized to explore the functional group and the surface morphology. Fenton and photo-Fenton processes were applied to explore the best degradation method. Adsorption was also tested and the adsorption process had minimum removal efficiency (12% for MB and 17% for BR18). The removal efficiencies for MB and BR18 by the Fenton process were 87% and 28%, respectively. The photo-Fenton process had maximum removal efficiency with 100% for MB and 70% for BR18. The optimum conditions were 70 mg/L dye concentration, 5 mM H₂O₂, 1.0 g/L basalt loading and pH 2. Basalt has shown reuse capability as a catalyst for three consecutive cycles.     

Phase Transformations of α-Alumina Made from Waste Aluminum via a Precipitation Technique

We report on a recycling project in which α-Al₂O₃ was produced from aluminum cans because no such work has been reported in literature. Heated aluminum cans were mixed with 8.0 M of H₂SO₄ solution to form an Al₂(SO₄)₃ solution. The Al₂(SO₄)₃ salt was contained in a white semi-liquid solution with excess H₂SO₄; some unreacted aluminum pieces were also present. The solution was filtered and mixed with ethanol in a ratio of 2:3, to form a white solid of Al₂(SO₄)₃·18H₂O. The Al₂(SO₄)₃·18H₂O was calcined in an electrical furnace for 3 h at temperatures of 400–1400 °C. The heating and cooling rates were 10 °C/min. XRD was used to investigate the phase changes at different temperatures and XRF was used to determine the elemental composition in the alumina produced. A series of different alumina compositions, made by repeated dehydration and desulfonation of the Al₂(SO₄)₃·18H₂O, is reported. All transitional alumina phases produced at low temperatures were converted to α-Al₂O₃ at high temperatures. The X-ray diffraction results indicated that the α-Al₂O₃ phase was realized when the calcination temperature was at 1200 °C or higher.     

Synthesis of a Potential Tumor Imaging Agent by Oxidative Radioiodination of Aspirin and Its Preclinical Study

Radiochemistry - Aspirin, one of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesic drugs, was labeled with 125I with a labeling yield of 85.5% under the following conditions: pH 9, 100 mg of the substrate,...     

An E-Business Event Stream Mechanism for Improving User Tracing Processes

With the rapid development in business transactions, especially in recent years, it has become necessary to develop different mechanisms to trace business user records in web server log in an efficient way. Online business transactions have increased, especially when the user or customer cannot obtain the required service. For example, with the spread of the epidemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) throughout the world, there is a dire need to rely more on online business processes. In order to improve the efficiency and performance of E-business structure, a web server log must be well utilized to have the ability to trace and record infinite user transactions. This paper proposes an event stream mechanism based on formula patterns to enhance business processes and record all user activities in a structured log file. Each user activity is recorded with a set of tracing parameters that can predict the behavior of the user in business operations. The experimental results are conducted by applying clustering-based classification algorithms on two different datasets; namely, Online Shoppers Purchasing Intention and Instacart Market Basket Analysis. The clustering process is used to group related objects into the same cluster, then the classification process measures the predicted classes of clustered objects. The experimental results record provable accuracy in predicting user preferences on both datasets.     

Improved crossover firefly algorithm based deep Beleif network for low-resolution face recognition

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Face detection by low-resolution image (LR) is one of the key aspects of Human-Computer Interaction(HCI). Due to the LR image, which has changes in pose,...     

Emperor based resource allocation for D2D communication and QoF based routing over cellular V2X in urban environment (ERA-D2Q)

Wireless Networks - Cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communications have elicited significant scrutiny in recent years owing to amenities such as comfort, efficiency, and an enhanced...