Effect of chemical components of emulsion polymerization in aqueous media on Na-MMT nanostructure by XRD analysis

The effects of chemical ingredients of emulsion polymerization reaction consisting deionized water as media of polymerization, styrene and methylmethacrylate (MMA) as nonpolar and polar monomers respectively, potassium persulfate (KPS) as initiator, Dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid sodium salt (DBS-Na) and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) as conventional and reactive surfactants respectively, on nanostructural changes of pristine sodium Montmorillonite (Na-MMT) in aqueous media at ambient temperature and moderate stirring rate (150 rpm) was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. According to results, water can completely destroy the structural alignment of Na-MMT (in first stage with deflocculation and in second stage with defoliation), but it needs enough time (4 days). Addition of other chemical components in 48 h had different changes on water effect on nanostructure of Na-MMT. The interaction between AMPS and Na-MMT in aqueous media also was studied by thermal analysis (thermal gravimetery analysis and differential scanning calorimetery). It is illustrated that there are some strong interactions between AMPS and Na-MMT in water media which can lead to preparation of an end-tethered polymeric nanocomposite on Na-MMT layers through emulsion polymerization with this reactive surfactant.     

Investigation of biphasic calcium phosphate/gelatin nanocomposite scaffolds as a bone tissue engineering

The porous scaffold of nanobiphasic calcium phosphate (n-BCP) and gelatin from bovine skin type B was prepared by freeze-drying method. The porogen which used was Naphthalene. EDC (N-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl)-N′-ethyl carbodiimide hydrochloride) for stabilization of gelatin by cross-linking method was used. The scaffold was characterized by SEM, XRD and FTIR. As a result, a biocompatible scaffold with good cell attachment, facility in formation in desired shapes and simplicity in production were prepared for bone tissue engineering.     

Developing a novel approach to assess the efficiency of resource utilisation in organisations: a case study for an automotive supplier

There are different business processes in each organisation. Each business process utilises some resources to perform its related activities, produces specified outputs (products/services) and reaches organisational goals. In this paper, an approach is presented to assess the ability of business processes to utilise resources. To apply the presented framework, a manufacturing firm in the automotive industry was selected. Initially, four main business process groups were chosen for the assessment. Then, 15 processes of the four determined process groups and resources utilised by each process were identified. All of the recognised 19 resources were classified into six major categories, including physical, relational, organisational, informational, human and legal resources. Afterward, a hierarchical top-down analysis was performed to determine the ability of process groups and processes to utilise resource categories and resources. The results of the analysis show which resources have been strongly/weakly utilised by which business processes. In other words, by applying the suggested framework, it is possible to accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses of the resource utilisation. Therefore, the company can focus on weaknesses, prioritise them and develop improvement actions to increase the ability to utilise resources in the specified areas.     

Effect of salep‐based edible coating enriched with grape seed extract on postharvest shelf life of fresh strawberries

Effects of novel edible coatings based on salep solution (SS) enriched with grape seed extract (GSE) (1.5% SS, 1.5% SS + 0.5% GSE, 1.5% SS + 1.5% GSE, 1.5% SS + 3% GSE) on the quality characteristics of fresh strawberries were monitored after 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 days of storage (1°C, 95% RH). The lowest growth of microorganisms, weight loss, softening and ascorbic acid, phenol and anthocyanin degradation was measured in strawberries coated with 1.5% SS + 3% GSE. The highest superoxide dismutase activity and the lowest peroxidase activity were determined in strawberries coated with 1.5% SS + 3% GSE. Moreover, they received the highest ranked sensory attributes. Incorporating GSE into the SS coating formulation as a new hurdle increased its antimicrobial properties and extended the shelf life of coated strawberries compared to uncoated by up to 20 days.     

Revision of the NaBO2–H2O phase diagram for optimized yield in the H2 generation through NaBH4 hydrolysis

The binary phase diagram NaBO₂–H₂O at ambient pressure, which defines the different phase equilibria that could be formed between borates, end-products of NaBH₄ hydrolysis, has been reviewed. Five different solid borates phases have been identified: NaBO₂·4H₂O (Na[B(OH)₄]·2H₂O), NaBO₂·2H₂O (Na[B(OH)₄]), NaBO₂·2/3H₂O (Na₃[B₃O₄(OH)₄]), NaBO₂·1/3H₂O (Na₃[B₃O₅(OH)₂]) and NaBO₂ (Na₃[B₃O₆]), and their thermal stabilities have been studied. The boundaries of the different Liquid + Solid equilibria for the temperature range from −10 to 80 °C have been determined, confirming literature data at low temperature (20–50 °C). Moreover the following eutectic transformation, Liq. → Ice + NaBO₂·4H₂O, occurring at −7 °C, has been determined by DSC. The Liquid–Vapour domain has been studied by ebullioscopy. The invariant transformation Liq. → Vap. + NaBO₂·2/3H₂O has been estimated at 131.6 °C. This knowledge is paramount in the field of hydrogen storage through NaBH₄ hydrolysis, in which borate compounds were obtained as hydrolysis reaction products. As a consequence, the authors propose a comparison with previous NaBO₂–H₂O binary phase diagrams and its consequence related to hydrogen storage through NaBH₄ hydrolysis.     

Operating procedure automation to enhance safety of nuclear power plants

Use of logic statements and computer assist are explored as means for automation and improvement on design of operating procedures including those employed in abnormal and emergency situations. Operating procedures for downpower and loss of forced circulation are used for demonstration. Human-factors analysis is performed on generic emergency operating procedures for three strategies of control; manual, semi-automatic and automatic, using standard emergency operating procedures. Such preliminary analysis shows that automation of procedures is feasible provided that fault-tolerant software and hardware become available for design of the controllers. Recommendations are provided for tests to substantiate the promise of enhancement of plant safety. Adequate design of operating procedures through automation may alleviate several major operational problems of nuclear power plants. Also, automation of procedures is necessary for partial or overall automatic control of plants. Fully automatic operations are needed for space applications while supervised automation of land-based and offshore plants may become the thrust of new generation of nuclear power plants.     

Synthesis of some new heterocyclic systems derived from 2-acetylbenzimidazole

The named compound was reacted with thiosemicarbazide and/or semicarbazide to produce the corresponding condensation products II and V respectively. Reaction of II with chloroacetic acid in ethanol containing anhydrous sodium acetate yielded III. Condensation of III with aromatic aldehydes yielded the corresponding arylidene derivatives (IV). Oxidation of the semicarbazone V with selenium dioxide gave 2-(1,2,3-selenadiazole-4-yl)benzimidazole (VIa, b) while with thionyl chloride it gave 2-(1,2,3-thiadiazole-4-yl)benzimidazole (VIIa, b). The chalcones of 2-acetyl and/or 1-methyl-2-acetylbenzimidazole were condensed with hydrazine hydrate, phenylhydrazine and/or hydroxylamine to produce 2-(5-aryl-1(H)-pyrazolin-3-yl)-, 2-(5-aryl-1-phenyl-2-pyrazolin-3-yl)- and 2-(5-aryl-2-isoxazolin-3-yl)benzimidazole (IX, X, XI) respectively.     

SSABA: Search Step Adjustment Based Algorithm

Finding the suitable solution to optimization problems is a fundamental challenge in various sciences. Optimization algorithms are one of the effective stochastic methods in solving optimization problems. In this paper, a new stochastic optimization algorithm called Search Step Adjustment Based Algorithm (SSABA) is presented to provide quasi-optimal solutions to various optimization problems. In the initial iterations of the algorithm, the step index is set to the highest value for a comprehensive search of the search space. Then, with increasing repetitions in order to focus the search of the algorithm in achieving the optimal solution closer to the global optimal, the step index is reduced to reach the minimum value at the end of the algorithm implementation. SSABA is mathematically modeled and its performance in optimization is evaluated on twenty-three different standard objective functions of unimodal and multimodal types. The results of optimization of unimodal functions show that the proposed algorithm SSABA has high exploitation power and the results of optimization of multimodal functions show the appropriate exploration power of the proposed algorithm. In addition, the performance of the proposed SSABA is compared with the performance of eight well-known algorithms, including Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Teaching-Learning Based Optimization (TLBO), Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA), Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA), and Tunicate Swarm Algorithm (TSA). The simulation results show that the proposed SSABA is better and more competitive than the eight compared algorithms with better performance.     

A Trust-Distortion Resistant Trust Management Scheme on Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Trust management is a promising approach to conduct nodes’ transactions and establish management interactions in mobile ad hoc networks, in which collaboration between nodes is critical to achieve system goals. Lack of centralized management, severe resource constraints (e.g. computing power, energy, bandwidth), and important network dynamics (e.g. topology changes, node mobility, node failure, propagation channel conditions) make the trust management a challenging task in such a network. Mainly, trust management frameworks are prone to attacks trying to deceive nodes’ estimation on other nodes’ trustworthiness, referred to as trust-distortion attacks. In order to inhibit such attacks, we propose a Trust-distortion Resistant Trust Management Scheme (TRTMS) which provides nodes with an accurate estimation on other nodes’ behavior and enables them to handle different trust-distortion attacks in a multi-attack environment. Simulation results prove that TRTMS significantly outperforms the existing alternatives in the literature in presence of simultaneous and contradictory different trust-distortion attacks.     

A novel cancellable Iris template generation based on salting approach

The iris has been vastly recognized as one of the powerful biometrics in terms of recognition performance, both theoretically and empirically. However, traditional unprotected iris biometric recognition schemes are highly vulnerable to numerous privacy and security attacks. Several methods have been proposed to generate cancellable iris templates that can be used for recognition; however, these templates achieve lower accuracy of recognition in comparison to traditional unprotected iris templates. In this paper, a novel cancellable iris recognition scheme based on the salting approach is introduced. It depends on mixing the original binary iris code with a synthetic pattern using XOR operation. This scheme guarantees a high degree of privacy/security preservation without affecting the performance accuracy compared to the unprotected traditional iris recognition schemes. Comprehensive experiments on various iris image databases demonstrate similar accuracy to those of the original counterparts. Hence, robustness to several major privacy/security attacks is guaranteed.