Low temperature J-resistance curve determination of asphalt concrete using wavelet-Radon transform

A single specimen test using the three point single edge notched beam configuration at low temperatures for obtaining hot mix asphalt （HMA） resistance curves is developed.Resistance curves are obtained for mixtures at six temperature levels of＋5,0,-5,-10,-15,and-20 ℃ and three binder contents of 4％,4.5％,and 5％.Crack extension increments during the test are measured by means of an image processing technique using Radon transform and feature extraction.All the specimens exhibit a rising R-curve,indicating ductility and toughening mechanisms in the ductile-quasi brittle fracture of the mixture.It is observed that the reduction of temperature results in a further tendency of the mixture for unstable crack growth and less subcritical crack length.It is also shown that using the binarization process,an automatic index can be developed that can represent the extent of brittleness and extent of the low temperature in which the cracking has occurred.     

Biogenic Amine Contents in Non-alcoholic Beers: Screening and Optimization of Derivatization

A rapid, sensitive, and reproducible high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure for the determination of nine biogenic amines in non-alcoholic beers was developed by an optimized benzoylation procedure. A Plackett–Burman factorial design was used in order to screen the statistically significant variables. The significant factors of biogenic amine benzoylation, reagent volume and pH, were optimized by a complete factorial response surface design, and optimal reaction conditions were generated. The optimized method showed good linearity (correlation coefficients > 0.997) and good recoveries (from 88.6 to 104.7 %). The repeatability and reproducibility of method were >3.9 and >4.6 %, respectively. Moreover, the detection limits of biogenic amines were calculated between 0.05 and 0.15 μg/ml in wine samples. The optimized method has been applied to the determination of biogenic amine contents of non-alcoholic beers consumed in Iran. Their values ranged from 0 to 2.56 mg/l, no significant differences (p?>?0.05) were observed between the analyzed samples, and none of these samples surpass the toxic levels reported in the literature.     

Optimization of triangular microchannel heat sinks using constructal theory

The present paper examines the optimization of triangular microchannel heat sinks. The impact of volume fraction of solid material and pressure drop on the maximum temperature of the microchannel heat sinks are investigated and their optimum operating conditions are compared. From the results, it is seen that increasing the side angle of the triangular microchannel, improves its performance. Furthermore, there is an appropriate agreement between the analytical and numerical results. Finally, the effect of degrees of freedom on the performance of microchannels is investigated. To accomplish this end, the triangular microchannels with the side angle of 60 degree have been chosen as it has the best performance compared to other microchannels. It is observed that the minimized maximum temperatures of optimized microchannel heat sinks with three degrees of freedom are 10% lower than the ones with two degrees of freedom.

     

Hybrid particle swarm optimization for rule discovery in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major causes of mortality worldwide. Knowledge about risk factors that increase the probability of developing CAD can help to understand the disease better and assist in its treatment. Recently, modern computer‐aided approaches have been used for the prediction and diagnosis of diseases. Swarm intelligence algorithms like particle swarm optimization (PSO) have demonstrated great performance in solving different optimization problems. As rule discovery can be modelled as an optimization problem, it can be mapped to an optimization problem and solved by means of an evolutionary algorithm like PSO. An approach for discovering classification rules of CAD is proposed. The work is based on the real‐world CAD data set and aims at the detection of this disease by producing the accurate and effective rules. The proposed algorithm is a hybrid binary‐real PSO, which includes the combination of categorical and numerical encoding of a particle and a different approach for calculating the velocity of particles. The rules were developed from randomly generated particles, which take random values in the range of each attribute in the rule. Two different feature selection methods based on multi‐objective evolutionary search and PSO were applied on the data set, and the most relevant features were selected by the algorithms. The accuracy of two different rule sets were evaluated. The rule set with 11 features obtained more accurate results than the rule set with 13 features. Our results show that the proposed approach has the ability to produce effective rules with highest accuracy for the detection of CAD.     

Head circumference measurement with deep learning approach based on multi-scale ultrasound images

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Checking up on the health of the fetus during pregnancy is an important issue that should be taken into account. Ultrasound imaging, as one useful medical...     

A Synthesis of Two 1,4-Dihydropyridine Derivatives Labeled with Carbon-14 Using Conventional Heating,Microwave Irradiation,and Solid-State Reaction

Radiochemistry - Three modes of the reaction for labeling of dihydropyridine compounds were studied: thermal heating, microwave irradiation, and solid-state process.     

Effects of E‐beam irradiation and vacuum packaging on biogenic amines formation in common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fillets

The effects of vacuum packaging followed by E‐beam irradiation treatment on the shelf life of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fillets were studied by measuring biogenic amines and sensory analysis. Samples were irradiated at doses of 0.10, 0.50, 1.0 and 2.0 kGy. Putrescine, cadaverine, histamine and tyramine showed very good correspondence with the irradiation dose and the time of storage. Spermine, spermidine, tryptamine and phenylethylamine did not show statistically significant changes with the time of storage. According to the sensory assessment and biogenic amines index (BAI), the shelf life of unirradiated common carp fillets was found to be approximately seven days. The 1 and 2 kGy irradiation doses extended the shelf life of samples up to 66 and 77 days, respectively. High values of correlation coefficients (r < ?0.86) between BAI and sensory evaluation indicated that BAI could be considered as a quality indicator of common carp fillets.     

Biosorption of stable cesium by chemically modified biomass of Sargassum glaucescens and Cystoseira indica in a continuous flow system

Pretreatment of biosorbents have been suggested to modify the surface characteristics which could improve biosorption process. Stable cesium biosorption was studied in continuous fixed-bed column by chemically modified biosorbents. Two kinds of brown algae (Sargassum glaucescens and Cystoseira indica) were treated with chemical agents including formaldehyde (FA), glutaraldehyde (GA), potassium hexacyanoferrate (HCF), FA and HCF, and GA and HCF. The highest biosorption capacity (BC) was obtained from C. indica treated with FA (63.5 mg Cs/g biomass) and S. glaucescens treated with FA and HCF (62 mg Cs/g biomass). To study the effect of the best treatments on the BC, the concentration of each treatment agent was decreased. With decreasing FA agent for C. indica treatment, the BC dropped. Treatment of 1g S. glaucescens biomass with 2.2g FA and then 0.18 g HCF resulted in the highest BC (73.08 mg Cs/g dry biomass) which was 35.8 times higher than intact S. glaucescens.