An efficient soft demapper for APSK signals using extreme learning machine

Neural Computing and Applications - In this paper we introduce an efficient soft demapping method for amplitude phase shift keying (APSK) constellations using extreme learning machine (ELM). The...     

Commercial farmers’ strategies to control water resources in South Africa: an empirical view of reform

This article shows how large-scale commercial farmers, individually and collectively, are responding to land and water reform processes in the Thukela River basin, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. With a high degree of innovative agency, commercial farmers have effectively executed four strategies, enabling them to adapt and use their access to resources to neutralize multiple water reform efforts that once promised to be catalysts for inclusive change in the post-apartheid era. It is likely that policy alone will not facilitate the envisioned transformation, if local practices are not sufficiently understood and anticipated by the governmental officials charged with the implementation of water reform processes.     

The Water-Soluble Peripheral Substituted Phthalocyanines as Corrosion Inhibitors for Copper in 0.1 N HCl: Gravimetric,Electrochemical, SEM-EDS,and Quantum Chemical Calculations

Protection of Metals and Physical Chemistry of Surfaces - Corrosion inhibition effects of water-soluble peripheral substituted cobalt, copper and zinc metallophthalocyanines (CoPc (1), CuPc (2) and...     

Post-fire behavior of CFRP retrofitted thin-walled steel tanks

Thin-walled shell structures are characterized by a lightweight structural form with high strength. This structure has many applications in various engineering fields and is considered to be a basic tool in the modern industry. This study investigates the effect of CFRP on tanks after post-fire in order to examine the buckling and post-buckling of the cylindrical tanks. Herein, post-fire was introduced at different temperatures (150°C-600°C). Ten laboratory specimens in two groups with verified temperatures, under external pressure, are examined. The models were designed to demonstrate how repairing steel tanks, which are damaged by fire, by using carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer can recover lost capacity. The results of testing under different theories and codes were compared. This study shows that the initial buckling load of the temperature group increased by 30.82% to 57.09% compared to the temperature without-CFRP group. The overall buckling load of the temperature group increased by 37.01% to 67.74% compared to the temperature without-CFRP group. The collapse load of the temperature group increased by 27.04% to 52.64% compared to the temperature without-CFRP group. And using carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer on models, which are damaged by fire, can be an improvement behavior for the buckling and post-buckling specimen tests.     

A 1D High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography Method Validated to Quantify Phospholipids Including Cardiolipin and Monolysocardiolipin from Biological Samples

The aim of this study is to identify high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) conditions allowing the separation and quantification of mammalian cellular phospholipids (PLs) (sphingomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylethanolamine, and especially phosphatidic acid, cardiolipin, and monolysocardiolipin, these latter two being specifically located in mitochondria membranes). In order to make this method faster and easier, a 1D HPTLC method is chosen, testing several eluents as well as several staining methods. A pre‐conditioning of HPTLC plates with boric acid and a copper staining reagent followed by carbonization are selected for the quality of PL separation and homogeneity of staining. The selected conditions are discussed and the method validation is performed according to the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines. Linearity is effective between 1 and 8 µg and limit of quantification is between 0.5 and 2.3 µg depending on PL classes. Precision measurements show coefficients of variation <6%, and when amounts are close to the detection limit, <12%. Lipid extracts of tumor cell lines or isolated mitochondria are used to assess PL profiles. This shows that the HPTLC method can be used routinely to follow level variations of PLs. Practical Applications: The changes in PL composition play a crucial role in tumor processes and regulate cellular functions modulating cellular signaling or mitochondrial metabolism. The simple and cost‐effective 1D HPTLC method that is developed is applied to lipid extracts of whole tumor cells or hepatocyte‐isolated mitochondria. It is sensitive as well as precise to detect variations of phosphatidic acid or cardiolipin levels linked to physio‐pathological conditions. It can also be used to investigate the composition changes of other membrane PLs. Moreover, with a simultaneous analysis of 14 samples/standards on the same plate (six plates per day), this method is adapted for large series of samples.     

From linear temporal logic and limit-deterministic Büchi automata to deterministic parity automata

Controller synthesis for general linear temporal logic (LTL) objectives is a challenging task. The standard approach involves translating the LTL objective into a deterministic parity automaton (DPA) by means of the Safra-Piterman construction. One of the challenges is the size of the DPA, which often grows very fast in practice, and can reach double exponential size in the length of the LTL formula. In this paper, we describe a single exponential translation from limit-deterministic Büchi automata (LDBA) to DPA and show that it can be concatenated with a recent efficient translations from LTL to LDBA to yield a double exponential, ‘Safraless’ LTL-to-DPA construction. We also report on an implementation and a comparison with other LTL-to-DPA translations on several sets of formulas from the literature.

     

Investigation of flow parameters of Reiner–Philippoff nanofluid flow with higher-order slip properties,activation energy,and bioconvection by artificial neural networks

In this study, the flow parameters of Reiner–Philippoff nanofluid flow with high-order slip properties, activation energy, and bioconvection have been analyzed using artificial neural networks (ANNs). Local Nusselt number (LNN), local Sherwood number (LSN), and motile density number (MDN) are considered as flow parameters. Numerical values have been obtained by numerical methods using flow equations. To estimate the flow parameters, three different ANN models have been designed. The Levenberg–Marquardt training algorithm is used in multilayer perceptron network models with 10 neurons in the hidden layers. In all, 70% of the data set has been used for training the models, 15% for validation, and 15% for testing. The performance analysis of the network models has been made by calculating the determined performance parameters. The R values for the LNN, LSN, and MDN parameters have been calculated as 0.99261, 0.98769, and 0.99102, respectively, and the average deviation values are −0.65%, 0.06%, and −0.11%, respectively. The attained outcomes showed that the ANNs can predict the LNN, LSN, and MDN, which are the flow parameters of the Reiner–Philippoff nanofluid flow, with high accuracy.