Unsupervised text feature selection technique based on hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm with genetic operators for the text clustering

The text clustering technique is an appropriate method used to partition a huge amount of text documents into groups. The documents size affects the text clustering by decreasing its performance. Subsequently, text documents contain sparse and uninformative features, which reduce the performance of the underlying text clustering algorithm and increase the computational time. Feature selection is a fundamental unsupervised learning technique used to select a new subset of informative text features to improve the performance of the text clustering and reduce the computational time. This paper proposes a hybrid of particle swarm optimization algorithm with genetic operators for the feature selection problem. The k-means clustering is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the obtained features subsets. The experiments were conducted using eight common text datasets with variant characteristics. The results show that the proposed algorithm hybrid algorithm (H-FSPSOTC) improved the performance of the clustering algorithm by generating a new subset of more informative features. The proposed algorithm is compared with the other comparative algorithms published in the literature. Finally, the feature selection technique encourages the clustering algorithm to obtain accurate clusters.     

A comparative study to assess structure–properties relationships in (acrylonitrile butadiene rubber)‐based composites: Recycled microfillers versus nanofillers

This paper reports on the reinforcing effects of different types of fillers, namely, nanoclay (NC), micron size calcium carbonate (MCC), and micron size recycled powder coating waste (MPCW), on the ultimate properties of acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) compounds. The microcomposites and nanocomposites were characterized by X‐ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, implying enlargement of d‐spacing of NC or intercalation of NBR chains and formation of exfoliated structure, while some agglomerates of MCC were detected. Curing characteristics of the studied composites showed that incorporation of the fillers into the NBR, in particular the NC, causes an increase in the torque, indicating a higher degree of crosslinking. Furthermore, different from micron size MPCW and MCC, the NC accelerated the vulcanization reaction. It was also found that the use of NC and MPCW results in a remarkable increase in the mechanical and rheological properties compared with pure NBR. All in all, variations in the aforementioned criteria were attributable to the extent of matrix/filler interaction reflected by scanning electron micrographs. The correlation established between the microstructure and characteristics of the prepared NBR composites can shed some light on how to develop composites with enhanced properties by incorporating waste materials into the polymers. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 23:13–20, 2017. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

A fuzzy Bayesian belief network for safety assessment of oil and gas pipelines

Safety assessment of oil and gas (O&G) pipelines is necessary to prevent unwanted events that may cause catastrophic accidents and heavy financial losses. This study develops a safety assessment model for O&G pipeline failure by incorporating fuzzy logic into Bayesian belief network. Proposed fuzzy Bayesian belief network (FBBN) model explicitly represents dependencies of events, updating probabilities and representation of uncertain knowledge (such as randomness, vagueness and ignorance). The study highlights the utility of FBBN in safety analysis of O&G pipeline because of its flexible structure, allowing it to fit a wide variety of accident scenarios. The sensitivity analysis of the proposed model indicates that construction defect, overload, mechanical damage, bad installation and quality of worker are the most significant causes for the O&G pipeline failures. The research results can help owners of transmission and distribution pipeline companies and professionals to prepare preventive safety measures and allocate proper resources.     

Indigo: user-level support for building distributed shared abstractions

Distributed systems that consist of workstations connected by high performance interconnects offer computational power comparable to moderate size parallel machines. Middleware like distributed shared memory (DSM) or distributed shared objects (DSO) attempts to improve the programmability of such hardware by presenting to application programmers interfaces similar to those offered by shared memory machines. This paper presents the portable Indigo data sharing library which provides a small set of primitives with which arbitrary shared abstractions are easily and efficiently implemented across distributed hardware platforms. Sample shared abstractions implemented with Indigo include DSM as well as fragmented objects, where the object state is split across different machines and where interfragment communications may be customized to application-specific consistency needs. The Indigo library's design and implementation are evaluated on two different target platforms: a workstation cluster and an IBM SP2 machine. As part of this evaluation, a novel DSM system and consistency protocol are implemented and evaluated with several high performance applications. Application performance attained with the DSM system is compared to the performance experienced when utilizing the underlying basic message-passing facilities or when employing Indigo to construct customized fragmented objects implementing the application's shared state. Such experimentation results in insights concerning the efficient implementation of DSM systems (e.g. how to deal with false sharing). It also leads to the conclusion that Indigo provides a sufficiently rich set of abstractions for efficient implementation of the next generation of parallel programming models for high performance machines. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In vitro starch hydrolysis and estimated glycaemic index of bread substituted with different percentage of chempedak (Artocarpus integer) seed flour

Chempedak (Artocarpus integer) seed flour (CSF) was substituted for wheat flour at different levels (0%, 10%, 20%, 30% w/w) in bread. Assessment on the in vitro starch hydrolysis was carried out to evaluate the hydrolysis index (HI) and estimated glycaemic index (EGI) of bread substituted with different levels of CSF. Kinetics of in vitro starch hydrolysis in all bread samples (with the exception for white bread) indicated a gradual increase with respect to time intervals. Bread of 30% CSF exhibited significantly lower (p < 0.05) in vitro starch hydrolysis, as compared with the other samples. Results showed that HI value decreased significantly (p < 0.05) as the levels of CSF substitution increased. Resistant starch (RS) content in bread samples was inversely related with HI value as CSF substitution levels increased, thus lowering the EGI value.     

Analysis of Titanium-Coated Glass and Imidex (PI) Laser Bonded Samples

Based on previous results of bond strength, scanning electron microscopy(SEM)/energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (for thin film thickness in the range of 50 to 200 nm range), it is expected for a moderate film thickness of titanium (over 50 nm) for the system of sputtered Ti-coated glass/polymer two factors play important roles in getting strong bond between Ti/Polyimide interface: (i) mechanical interlocking property and (ii) chemical bond formation such as Ti-C, Ti-O between Ti and imidex (PI) film. In this study, a systematic investigation has been conducted to understand the effects of thin films on bond quality and on failure mechanism of the interface between 400 nm sputtered Ti-coated glass/imidex (PI) system. This article basically studies if for this higher film thickness the failure pattern and bond strength are consistent with the previous data. From previous studies (for thin film thickness of 50 to 200 nm) the conclusion extracted is thin film with thickness of less than 50 nm exhibited low bond strength when compared to film thickness over 50 nm and from the results obtained in this study it is concluded that the bond reliability and failure modes of sputtered Ti film on glass are consistent even for a film thickness as high as 400 nm and three types of failure modes are found : (i) cohesive failure mode, (ii) Ti/glass interface failure mode, and (iii) glass failure mode. The roughness value for this coating thickness is 17 nm.     

Growth and optical properties of Sn–Si nanocomposite thin films

The growth and optical properties of nanocomposite thin films comprising of nanocrystalline Sn and Si are reported. The nanocomposite films are produced by thermal annealing of bilayers of Sn and Si deposited on borosilicate glass substrates at various temperatures from 300 to 500 °C for 1 h in air. X-ray diffraction reveals that the as-deposited bilayers consist of nanocrystalline Sn films with a crystallite size of 30 nm, while the Si thin films are amorphous. There is onset of crystallinity in Si on annealing to 300 °C with the appearance of the (111) peak of the diamond cubic structure. The crystallite size of Si increases from 5 to 18 nm, whereas the Sn crystallite size decreases with increase in annealing temperature. Significantly, there is no evidence for any Sn–Si compound, and therefore it is concluded that the films are nanocomposites of Sn and Si. Measured spectral transmittance curves show that the films have high optical absorption in the as-deposited form which decreases on annealing to 300 °C. The films show almost 80 % transmission in the visible-near infrared region when the annealing temperature is increased to 500 °C. There is concomitant decrease in refractive index from 4.0, at 1750 nm, for the as-deposited film, to 1.88 for the film annealed at 500 °C. The optical band gap of the films increases on annealing (from 1.8 to ~2.9 eV at 500 °C). The Sn-Si nanocomposites have high refractive index, large band gap, and low optical absorption, and can therefore be used in many optical applications.     

Molecular beam epitaxial growth and characterization of catalyst-free InN/InxGa1-xN core/shell nanowire heterostructures on Si(111) substrates

We report on the achievement of, for the first time, InN/InGaN core/shell nanowire heterostructures, which are grown directly on Si(111) substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The crystalline quality of the heterostructures is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy, and the elemental mapping through energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry further reveals the presence of an InGaN shell covering the sidewall and top regions of the InN core. The optical characterizations reveal two emission peaks centered at ～1685?nm and 1845?nm at 5?K, which are related to the emission from the InGaN shell and InN core, respectively. The InN/InGaN core/shell nanoscale heterostructures exhibit a very high internal quantum efficiency of ～62% at room temperature, which is attributed to the strong carrier confinement provided by the InGaN shell as well as the nearly intrinsic InN core.     

Mebendazole: New and efficient corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in acid medium

The inhibition performance of mebendazole, a drug, on mild steel in molar hydrochloric acid solution was studied by weight loss and electrochemical methods. The maximum inhibition efficiency 96.2% was observed in presence of 2.54 × 10⁻⁴ M inhibitor. Polarization measurements showed that the inhibitor is mixed type. Data obtained from EIS studies were analyzed to model inhibition process through appropriate equivalent circuit models. The results obtained from the different methods are in good agreement. The various thermodynamic parameters of dissolution and adsorption processes were evaluated in order to elaborate adsorption mechanism. Adsorption of inhibitor obeyed Langmuir adsorption isotherm model.