Developing a group decision support system based on fuzzy information axiom

Information axiom, one of two axioms of axiomatic design methodology which is proposed to improve a design, is used to select the best design among proposed designs. In the literature, there are a lot of studies related to using of information axiom for the solution of decision making problems. Moreover, applications of information axiom have been increasing day by day. However, calculation procedure of information axiom is not only incommodious but also difficult for decision makers. In this paper, a decision support system (DSS) based on fuzzy information axiom (FIA) is developed in order to make this decision procedure easy. The developed system consists of a knowledge base module including facts and rules, inference engine module including FIA and aggregation method, and a user interface module including entrance windows. The main aim of this study is to present a DSS tool to help the decision makers to solve their decision problems by modifying data-base of the program. In this paper, an application procedure will be presented based on the optimal selection of location for emergency service to illustrate the implementation procedure of the proposed model.     

Intelligent poly(<Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-isopropylacrylamide)-carboxymethyl cellulose full interpenetrating polymeric networks for protein adsorption studies

Poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAm)–carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) full interpenetrating polymeric networks (IPNs), based on PNIPAm and CMC, were prepared and investigated for adsorption of biomolecules utilizing a model protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA). N-isopropyl acrylamide monomers were polymerized in the presence of a natural polymer, e.g., carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt. N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (CL) was used to crosslink PNIPAm and CMC chains and IPN formed simultaneously. Spectroscopic and thermal characterization of the hydrogels were done with IR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The swelling properties of PNIPAm and PNIPAm–CMC hydrogels were investigated as functions of the medium pH, temperature, ionic strength, and BSA. It was observed that the adsorption of protein molecules onto the hydrogels was mainly dependent on temperature and pH of the environment during the experiments. The maximum adsorption capacity (X) was observed at pH 4.7 which is the isoelectric point of BSA and at 40 °C for both hydrogels; and introducing CMC to PNIPAm increased the protein adsorption of the hydrogel. Adsorbed amounts of BSA were 26.70 mg g⁻¹ (4 °C) and 38.70 mg g⁻¹ (40 °C) for PNIPAm–CMC full IPN hydrogels. Adsorbed BSA (up to 80%) was eluted in the elution medium containing 0.1 mol dm⁻³ NaSCN at pH 8.0. Synthesized cylindrically shaped PNIPAm–CMC full IPN hydrogels can be used for adsorption studies related to the removal of proteins in pH- and temperature-sensitive biotechnological areas.     

Effects of Temperature,Time, and pH on the Stability of Anthocyanin Extracts: Prediction of Total Anthocyanin Content Using Nonlinear Models

In this study, different anthocyanin sources including grape skin, black carrot, and red cabbage were used to determine the effect of thermal treatment, different acidity levels, and time on the anthocyanin content and degradation. The total anthocyanin contents were modeled by neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and artificial neural network (ANN) models. The red cabbage anthocyanin stabilities were higher than others. The anthocyanins degraded more rapidly at higher temperatures. The anthocyanin contents of samples decreased with the increase of pH from 3 to 7. Comparison of the models showed that the ANFIS model performed better than the ANN model for the estimation of total anthocyanin content in all samples. The lowest root mean square error (0.0457) and highest R ² (0.9942) values were obtained for red cabbage and grape skin in the validation period with the ANFIS model, respectively. This study showed that both models can be utilized efficiently for the prediction of total anthocyanin content affected by temperature, time, and pH.     

Evaluation of the Phenolic Content,Antiradical, Antioxidant,and Antimicrobial Activity of Different Floral Sources of Honey

Thirty-five honeys were evaluated for total phenolic content by Folin-Ciocalteu method, for potential antioxidant activity using phosphomolibdenum assay and by the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl method for antiradical activity. The antimicrobial activity was studied by the agar diffusion method, using 12 bacteria and 2 yeasts. The means of the total phenolic contents of chestnut, honeydew, multifloral, thyme, and astragalus were 47 ± 18, 24.2 ± 0.6, 14 ± 11, 11 ± 6, and 9 ± 7 mg/100 g honey as gallic acid equivalent, respectively. The lowest antioxidant activity was observed in honeydew 70 ± 5 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g honey while the highest content was observed in astragalus honey 86 ± 16 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g honey. Correlation between the phenolic content and antioxidant activity were found to be statistically significant. Chestnut honeys (n = 5) exhibited maximum free radical scavenging activity with an average 68 ± 9%. The honey samples showed the highest antimicrobial activity against some microorganisms, especially Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Proteus mirabilis. On the other side, Aeromonas hydrophila, Bacillus subtilis, and E. coli were the most resistant microorganisms. The results revealed that the Turkish honeys studied proved to be a good source of antioxidant and antimicrobial agents that might serve to protect human health.     

Bioactivity and mineral contents of wild-grown edible Morchella conica in the Mediterranean Region

In this study, antiradical and antimicrobial activity, total phenolic, mineral and heavy metal content of Morchella conica Pers. were determined in the methanolic extracts of dried M. conica collected from wild-grown edible mushroom in the Mediterranean region from Turkey. Free radical scavenging activity was determined to be 43.72 ± 0.13% DPPH decoloration, however, total phenolic activity to be 20.64 ± 0.33 mg GAE/g dry ext. sample. The antimicrobial activity of the extracts was tested against fourteen microorganism including 12 bacteria and 2 yeasts. It was determined that the mushroom extracts had no effect against the bacteria and yeasts. Antimicrobial effect was determined only against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213. M. conica was determined to contain some heavy metals such as arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni) in the concentrations of 0.25, 0.06, 0.20, 1.20, 0.70 and 1.10 (mg/kg dw), respectively. Potassium (K), phosphorus (P) and magnesium (Mg) contents were determined to be 20,400, 13,250, and 1,600 (mg/kg dw), respectively, being higher than those of the other minerals in the M. conica extracts.     

Support Vector Machines for classification and locating faults on transmission lines

This paper presents a new approach to classify fault types and predict the fault location in the high-voltage power transmission lines, by using Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Wavelet Transform (WT) of the measured one-terminal voltage and current transient signals. Wavelet entropy criterion is applied to wavelet detail coefficients to reduce the size of feature vector before classification and prediction stages. The experiments performed for different kinds of faults occurred on the transmission line have proved very good accuracy of the proposed fault location algorithm. The fault classification error is below 1% for all tested fault conditions. The average error of fault location in a 380 kV–360-km transmission line is below 0.26% and the maximum error did not exceed 0.95 km.     

Functional polyamides

Summary Polymerization of azo initiators having dinitrile functions such as 2,2-azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) with formaldehyde in the presence of sulfuric acid were carried out in order to permit the synthesis of polyamides containing thermolabile azo groups.The obtained polyamides have appropriate initiating functionality for subsequent free radical polymerization.