Experimental investigation on the effect of MgO and TiO2 nanoparticles in stepped solar still

This work aims at augmenting the amount of potable water using MgO and TiO₂ in stepped solar still. Experiments were carried out for the climatic conditions of Chennai, India, with two different concentrations of nanofluids inside a stepped basin under three different cases. Results show that there is an improvement in yield of fresh water from stepped solar still by 33.18% and 41.05% using 0.1% and 0.2% volume concentration of TiO₂ nanofluid, respectively, whereas the freshwater yield from stepped still with MgO nanofluids improved by 51.7% and 61.89%. Furthermore, the economic analysis revealed that the cost of potable water from the modified solar still reduced from 0.029 to 0.016 $/kg. Similarly, the useful annual energy, yearly cost per kilogram, and annual cost per kilowatt hour are significantly profitable with the use of MgO nanofluid in the stepped basin and found as 512.46 kWh, 0.025 $/kg, and 0.026 $/kWh, respectively. It is also found that the cost of potable water from the modified still significantly increases as the amount of fresh water produced is decreased with increased fabrication cost of the solar still.     

Efficient 3D point clouds classification for face detection using linear programming and data mining

Most of the applications related to security and biometric rely on skin region detection such as face detection, adult 3D objects filtering, and gesture recognition. In this paper, we propose a robust method for skin detection on 3D coloured point clouds. Then, we extend this method to solve the problem of 3D face detection. To do so, we construct a weighted graph from initial coloured 3D point clouds. Then, we present a linear programming algorithm using a predictive model based on a data mining approach to classify and label graph vertices as skin and non-skin regions. Moreover, we apply some refinement rules on skin regions to confirm the presence of a face. Furthermore, we demonstrate the robustness of our method by showing and analysing some experimental results. Finally, we show that our method deals with many data that can be represented by a weighted graph such as 2D images and 3D models.     

The effect of a periodic tangential magnetic field on the stability of a horizontal magnetic fluid sheet

The current article aims at investigating the effect of a periodic tangential magnetic field on the stability of a horizontal flat sheet. The media were considered porous, the three viscous‐fluid layers were initially streaming with uniform velocities, and the magnetic field admitted the presence of free‐surface currents. Furthermore, the transfer of mass and heat phenomenon was taken into account. The analysis, in this paper, was followed by the viscous potential theory. Moreover, the stability of the boundary‐value problem resulted in coupled second‐order linear differential equations with damping and complex coefficients. In regard to the uniform and periodic magnetic field, the standard normal mode approach was applied to deduce a general dispersion relation and judge the stability criteria. In addition, several unfamiliar cases were reported, according to appropriate data choices. The stability conditions were theoretically analyzed, and the influences of the various parameters in the stability profile were identified through a set of diagrams. In accordance wth the oscillating field, the coupled dispersion equations were combined to give the established Mathieu equation. Therefore, the governed transition curves were, theoretically, obtained. Finally, the results were numerically confirmed.     

Erratum to: Quantum Confined Stark Effect and Temperature Dependencies of Photoluminescence of InAs Quantum Dots Coupled with AlGaAs/GaAs Two-Dimensional Electron Gas

Semiconductors - Later One of the co-authors, A.M. El Sayed withdrew his name as a co-author of this article claiming that he has not contributed to this work, since it is out of the scope of his...     

Enhanced fair earliest due date first scheduling strategy for multimedia applications in LTE downlink framework

Guaranteeing a certain delay threshold for delay‐sensitive applications in long term evolution (LTE) cellular communication system is a very challenging mission. By implementing an optimal scheduling strategy, this mission will be achieved. In this article, a novel scheduler is introduced in order to meet a predefined level of service quality by guaranteeing a specific delay threshold for delay‐sensitive applications in LTE cellular systems. The proposed scheduler assigns the available resource blocks (RBs) to active user equipments (UEs) tacking into consideration several attributes. The expiration date of each packet, the channel quality, the average data rate previously achieved by each UE, and the number of dropped packets for each UE compared with the average number of packets totally dropped are all considered in the proposed scheduler working mechanism. Consequently, the proposed scheduling strategy reduces the number of packets dropped for multimedia applications, and at the same time maximizes the overall throughput of the network. Simulation results are provided to study and evaluate the performance of the proposed scheduling strategy. A comparative study is presented between the proposed strategy and the most recent scheduling techniques. The obtained results prove that the proposed scheduling strategy has considerably acceptable and appreciated results compared with the results of the state‐of‐the‐art scheduling techniques.     

Apodized chirped fiber Bragg grating for postdispersion compensation in wavelength division multiplexing optical networks

In this paper, a postdispersion compensation unit is proposed leading to a better performance for the optical communication systems. This unit utilizes a chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG). For enhanced performance of the CFBG, a proper apodization function is chosen to improve the quality factor (Q‐factor) and the bit error rate (BER) of the system. A 110‐km wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical link is investigated. The system performance is evaluated through its Q‐factor, eye diagram, and BER showing best performance when using the Hamming apodization function.     

Computational intelligence techniques for human brain MRI classification

This study proposes an image classification methodology that automatically classifies human brain magnetic resonance (MR) images. The proposed methods contain four main stages: Data acquisition, preprocessing, feature extraction, feature reduction and classification, followed by evaluation. First stage starts by collecting MRI images from Harvard and our constructed Egyptian database. Second stage starts with noise reduction in MR images. Third stage obtains the features related to MRI images, using stationary wavelet transformation. In the fourth stage, the features of MR images have been reduced using principles of component analysis and kernel linear discriminator analysis (KLDA) to the more essential features. In last stage, the classification stage, two classifiers have been developed to classify subjects as normal or abnormal MRI human images. The first classifier is based on K‐Nearest Neighbor (KNN) on Euclidean distance. The second classifier is based on Levenberg‐Marquardt (LM‐ANN). Classification accuracy of 100% for KNN and LM‐ANN classifiers has been obtained. The result shows that the proposed methodologies are robust and effective compared with other recent works.     

Influence of preparation procedure and ferric oxide nanoparticles addition on transport properties of homogeneous cation-exchange SPPO/SPVC membrane

Homogeneous cation-exchange membranes were prepared through evaporation and phase inversion methods using sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (SPPO) and sulfonated polyvinylchloride as binders. The effect of polymers blend’s ratio and preparation method on structure and electrochemical properties of the prepared membranes were evaluated. The microstructures of the membranes were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the sulfonation of polyvinylchloride was confirmed by elemental analyses. Moreover, the membranes performance was evaluated by ion-exchange capacity (IEC), fixed ion concentration, membrane potential, transport number, permselectivity, areal resistance, ionic permeability, flux of ions, current efficiency, membrane oxidative stability, mechanical properties and water content tests. The results indicated that IEC and water content were affected by the SPPO content and microstructures of the membranes. The results showed increased efficiency and suitable electrochemical properties for membranes prepared by the evaporation method in comparison with others. Also, \(\hbox {Fe}_{2}\hbox {O}_{3}\) nanoparticles were synthesized at room temperature by a simple sonochemical reaction between ferric chloride and NaOH. The results revealed that the addition of different amounts of \(\hbox {Fe}_{2}\hbox {O}_{3}\) nanoparticles to the polymeric matrix could affect the hydrophilicity and transport properties of ion-exchange membranes.