A new development of ANFIS–GMDH optimized by PSO to predict pile bearing capacity based on experimental datasets

Engineering with Computers - Prediction of ultimate pile bearing capacity with the aid of field experimental results through artificial intelligence (AI) techniques is one of the most significant...     

Review: the latest advances in biomedical applications of chitosan hydrogel as a powerful natural structure with eye-catching biological properties

Journal of Materials Science - Chitosan is one of the natural cationic polymers with unique properties such as non-toxicity, biodegradability, biocompatibility, environmentally friendly that has...     

Repeated loading of soil containing granulated rubber and multiple geocell layers

Sandy soil/aggregate, such as might be required in a pavement foundation over a soft area, was treated by the addition of one or more geocell layers and granulated rubber. It was then subjected to cyclic loading by a 300 mm diameter plate simulative of vehicle passes. After an initial study (that established both the optimum depth of the uppermost geocell layer and of the geocell inter-layer spacing should be 0.2 times plate diameter), repeated loading was applied to installations in which the number of geocell layers and the presence or absence of shredded rubber layers in the backfill was changed. The results of the testing reveal the ability of the composite geocell-rubber-soil systems to ‘shakedown’ to a fully resilient behavior after a period of plastic deformation except when there is little or no reinforcement and the applied repeated stresses are large. When shakedown response is observed, then both the accumulated plastic deformation prior to a steady-state response being obtained and the resilient deformations thereafter are reduced. Efficiency of reinforcement is shown to decrease with number of reinforcement layers for all applied stress levels and number of cycles of applied loading. The use of granulated rubber layers are shown to reduce the plastic deformations and to increase the resilient displacements compared to the comparable non-rubber construction. By optimal use of geocells and granulated rubber, deformations can be reduced by 60–70% compared with the unreinforced case while stresses in the foundation soil are spread much more effectively. On the basis of the study, the concept of combining several geocell layers with shredded rubber reinforcement is recommended for larger scale trials and for economic study.     

Schools and skills of critical thinking for urban design

This paper explores possible ways in which urban design can engage with critical thinking and critical theory. After a brief explanation of the terms, with particular attention to the Frankfurt School of thought, it provides various answers to the question as to whether urban design is critical or not. One categorization applied to planning critical theory is then used to explain the potential for employing critical theories in urban design. Critical thinking skills are then argued to be helpful for enriching the literature of urban design in order to achieve better practice. The conclusion is that urban design can benefit from critical creativity, which is an embodiment of critical thinking within the limits imposed onto creativity. In this paper, the ways in which urban design can engage with both critical theory and with critical thinking are explored in order to achieve better critical creativity in the field.     

Mining fleet management systems: a review of models and algorithms

The objective of this paper is to review and document the mine fleet management systems’ models and algorithms. The purpose is to understand the algorithms behind the fleet management systems and the proposed academic solutions in this area to identify any gaps in the current literature and to open up opportunities to establish research questions that need to be addressed in an integrated simulation and optimisation operational planning research framework. In this paper, we review industrial fleet management systems and the main academic algorithms behind such systems. The fleet management systems are divided into three subsequently related problems to review: shortest path, production optimisation and real-time dispatching. Finally, the limitations of current algorithms for fleet management systems are documented in terms of mining practice feasibility and optimality of the solution on large-scale problems. The results of this literature review enable us to evaluate the logical links between major components of an integrated simulation and optimisation operational planning framework with current theory of fleet management systems.     

Dynamic shovel allocation approach to short-term production planning in open-pit mines

The complexity and uncertainties associated with mining operations often lead to deviations from short-term plans. A proactive approach will predict such deviations and help minimise opportunity losses, providing economic and operational gains. This paper presents an optimisation tool as a dynamic shovel allocation decision-maker for mining operation simulation models. The objectives of the optimisation tool are to provide shovel allocations to mining faces in order to maximise production, meet desired head grade and tonnage at the crushers, and minimise shovel movements. This paper presents the development and implementation of the optimisation tool with an iron ore mine case study.     

Revisiting the Squinch: From Squaring the Circle to Circling the Square

??Squaring the circle,?? constructing a square that has the same area in a given circle using compass and straightedge, has long been a subject for intellectual investigations among mathematicians and philosophers from antiquity to the pre-modern era. The search for this unattainable ideal articulation found its way into Persian architecture with a different approach: circling the square. This architectonic approach, complementing the philosophical view, started from the square at hand, the chamber, to the circle of the vault. The transformation of the cubic to the domical space is mediated through the squinch, intermediary structural element that unifies the two structures. The two seemingly opposite directions of transforming of one form to another (i.e., square to circle or vice versa) allude to the metaphysical and material attributes involved in this process. This paper discusses the mutual relationship between the intellectual and material transformations and the intermediary role of the squinch.     

An Efficient Numerical Scheme to Solve a Quintic Equation of State for Supercritical Fluids

In this study, an efficient iterative algorithm is devised to handle a nonlinear equation arising in estimation of thermodynamic properties at supercritical conditions. The approach is based on a synergistic combination of the classic Newton-Raphshon algorithm and the Adomian decomposition method. We demonstrate that the proposed method enjoys a higher degree of accuracy while requiring fewer iterations to reach a specific solution compared to that by the Newton-Raphson algorithm. To illustrate the efficiency of the aforementioned solution technique, several numerical examples are provided. The proposed method has been easily implemented in computer codes to provide parametric, not just numeric, solutions to the model equations. Consequently, one can derive other thermodynamic properties, which have not been treated parametrically to date, based on our new combined approach.     

Fast bio-inspired computation using a GPU-based systemic computer

Biology is inherently parallel. Models of biological systems and bio-inspired algorithms also share this parallelism, although most are simulated on serial computers. Previous work created the systemic computer – a new model of computation designed to exploit many natural properties observed in biological systems, including parallelism. The approach has been proven through two existing implementations and many biological models and visualizations. However to date the systemic computer implementations have all been sequential simulations that do not exploit the true potential of the model. In this paper the first ever parallel implementation of systemic computation is introduced. The GPU Systemic Computation Architecture is the first implementation that enables parallel systemic computation by exploiting the multiple cores available in graphics processors. Comparisons with the serial implementation when running two programs at different scales show that as the number of systems increases, the parallel architecture is several hundred times faster than the existing implementations, making it feasible to investigate systemic models of more complex biological systems.