The effects of quantization on multilayer neural networks

The effect of weight quantization in multilayer neural networks is discussed. A method is derived by which one can predict the performance degradation at the output given the properties of the network and number of bits of quantization. Predictions from this method are evaluated against simulation results. An algorithm to decrease the noise at the output is presented and the results are compared with those above.     

Antibacterial effect of dental cements evaluated using agar diffusion test

Purpose: Secondary caries can occur around the restoration, fixed prosthesis, and orthodontic band margins because of cariogenic bacteria. Long-lasting antibacterial effectiveness of dental cements used contemporarily can reduce this phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to examine the antibacterial activities of nine dental cements (BisCem^®, Super-Bond C&B, Rely X^TM, Panavia^TM F 2.0, Variolink^® II, Unitek^TM Multi Cure, Multilink^® Automix, Clearfil^TM Esthetic Cement, Transbond^TM LR) using agar diffusion test. Materials and methods: The test materials were inserted into the wells of Muller Hinton agar plates inoculated with Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus salivarious. The diameters of the inhibition zones produced around the materials were measured after 24 h of incubation. Two-Way ANOVA, the Kruskal-Wallis, and the Mann–Whitney U tests at a significance level of p < 0.05 were analyzed for the results. Results: Unitek Multi Cure cement exhibited a significant difference from the control group against both S. mutans and S. salivarious (p < 0.05). While the zone of inhibition of Unitek Multi Cure cement was shorter (8.50 ± 1.77) than the control group (12.63 ± 1.30), Unitek Multi Cure had antibacterial effect against S. mutans and S. salivarious (p < 0.05). S. mutans displayed a significantly lower resistance to Unitek Multi Cure, BisCem, and Superbond C&B than S. salivarious (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Conventional glass ionomer cement, Unitek Multi Cure, exhibited greatest in vitro antibacterial activity against both S. mutans and S. salivarious. Formation of dental caries had been suppressed by the fluoride-releasing GICs.     

Experimental study on steel tubular columns in-filled with plain and steel fiber reinforced concrete

An experimental investigation on the structural behaviour of steel tubular columns in-filled with plain and steel fiber reinforced concrete is presented in this study. A total of 16 concrete-filled steel tubular columns were constructed and tested subjected to biaxial bending and short-term axial load. The main variables considered in the test study were the cross section, slenderness, concrete compressive strength and the load eccentricity. In the presented study, a theoretical method for the prediction of ultimate strength capacity and load-deflection curves of concrete filled steel tube columns is proposed. In the analysis procedure, the nonlinear behaviour of the materials is considered and the slenderness effect has been taken into account. The experimental ultimate strength capacities and load-deflection curves of both plain and steel fiber concrete-filled tube columns have been compared with the analysis results and discussed in the paper. The results indicate that the addition of steel fibers in core concrete has considerable effect on the behaviour of concrete-filled steel tube columns.     

Nonlinear predictive control of a drying process using genetic algorithms

A nonlinear predictive control technique is developed to determine the optimal drying profile for a drying process. A complete nonlinear model of the baker's yeast drying process is used for predicting the future control actions. To minimize the difference between the model predictions and the desired trajectory throughout finite horizon, an objective function is described. The optimization problem is solved using a genetic algorithm due to the successful overconventional optimization techniques in the applications of the complex optimization problems. The control scheme comprises a drying process, a nonlinear prediction model, an optimizer, and a genetic search block. The nonlinear predictive control method proposed in this paper is applied to the baker's yeast drying process. The results show significant enhancement of the manufacturing quality, considerable decrease of the energy consumption and drying time, obtained by the proposed nonlinear predictive control.     

Reinforced thin-film composite nanofiltration membranes: Fabrication,characterization, and performance testing

Hollow-fiber (HF) membranes have the advantage of a higher packing density compared to flat-sheet and spiral-wound configurations. However, the low pressure tolerance of HF membranes limits their applications in nanofiltration (NF). In this study, reinforced thin-film composite (r-TFC) HF NF membranes were fabricated and evaluated in tests with water containing different salts and organic matter. Reinforced polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes were used as a support for a polyamide layer prepared from piperazine and trimesoyl chloride monomers. The interfacial polymerization conditions were optimized via selection of the trimesoyl chloride reaction time that gave the highest membrane performance. A specific permeate flux of 5.1 L m^–2 h^–1 bar^–1, an MgSO₄ rejection of 69%, and an NaCl rejection of 26% at a transmembrane pressure of 6 bars were obtained with the optimized r-TFC membranes. Performance studies with water characterized by synthetic solution demonstrated removals of the total organic carbon, ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm, and turbidity in excess of 65, 80, and 90%, respectively. The results of this study illustrate the feasibility of manufacturing r-TFC HFs and using them in water-treatment applications. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48001.     

Design of efficient CMOS ring oscillator-based random number generator

Although studies have investigated the effects of flicker noise on randomness, such effects demand further examination. Despite the random nature of flicker noise, a coloured distribution is observed in the power spectral density of flicker noise, indicating to a correlation in between adjacent samples. Studies have employed ring oscillators (ROs) that produce random numbers by sampling the digitised analogue signals of their outputs. This sampling procedure may change the spectral properties of flicker noise resulting from the folding effect of noise. Another topic of interest regarding sampled flicker noise is its random behaviour. To investigate the contribution of flicker noise, white noise, and their combination to randomness, we produce synthetic bit streams of these noise sources. From observations, we find that flicker noise contributes to the entropy of bit streams. Using the generated synthetic bit streams, we also explore the entropy dependence of a bit stream on the sampling period and analyse and compare the entropy levels of the outputs of ROs operating in strong and weak inversion. Results of the comparison demonstrate that only one RO operating in weak inversion may be sufficient to attain the required entropy level for qualifying the generated bit stream as random. The results of the analysis are also confirmed by measurements. In addition, the paper proposes an efficient design of a RO-based random number generator.     

Antioxidant Properties of Cultured Mycelia from Four Pleurotus Species Produced in Submerged Medium

The ethanolic extracts of dried cultured mycelia of Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus eryngii, Pleurotus florida, and Pleurotus sajor-caju were analyzed for antioxidant activity in different systems. Tests used are as follows: reducing power, free radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, total antioxidant activity, metal chelating activitiy, etc.; total phenolic content was determined. The percentage inhibition of P. ostreatus, P. eryngii, P. florida, and P. sajor-caju at 20 mg/mL concentration on peroxidation in a β-carotene–linoleic acid system was 57.19, 60.68, 62.12, and 58.81%, respectively. The reducing power of P. eryngii was higher than the other samples, and its value was 0.86 at 10 mg/mL concentration. P. ostreatus and P. sajor-caju proved to be better at scavenging superoxide anion radicals than the P. eryngii and P. florida. In the scavenging effect of DPPH radical test, P. ostreatus showed the highest activity potential and P. sajor-caju showed the strongest metal chelating capacity.     

Properties of blended cements with thermally activated kaolin

Kaolin, one of the materials of major importance for the ceramic and paper industry, is also used in the construction industry as a raw material for the production of white cement clinker and, in the form of metakaolin, as an artificial pozzolanic additive for concrete. Metakaolin is a vital component of high-performance and architectural concrete; however, its application in regular concrete is very limited due to relatively high production costs. This report evaluates the performance of a low-cost metakaolin-based additive called thermally activated kaolin (TAK), in cement. Due to its pozzolanic properties and the densification of cement matrix, the application of TAK provides a 15% improvement of the compressive strength. It was shown that TAK of optimal quality can be manufactured by the thermal treatment of raw kaolin with 74% of kaolinite at 750 °C without the intermediate beneficiation stage. The application of a developed approach can significantly reduce production expenditures and make the application of such an additive feasible even in regular-grade cement and concrete.     

钢管钢纤维混凝土圆柱的试验研究

进行了钢管钢纤维混凝土圆柱的性能研究。制作了16根钢管混凝土柱,并进行了双向压弯试验。主要参数有:横截面尺寸、柱长、混凝土抗压强度、荷载偏心。考虑材料非线性和几何非线性,提出计算钢管混凝土柱的极限承载力和荷载-位移曲线的理论方法,将普通钢管混凝土柱和钢管钢纤维混凝土柱的极限承载力和荷载-位移曲线的试验数据与理论分析进行对比。结果表明,钢纤维对钢管混凝土的性能有很大影响。