DFT study of conjugated biheterocyclic oligomers exhibiting a very low HOMO–LUMO energy gap

Density functional theory (DFT) is applied to study the structure and electronic properties of oligomers based on bithiophene bridged by a sp² carbon substituted by a chalcogen atom (O, S, Se and Te), and their polybifurane and polybipyrrole analogues. The important reduction of the energy gap which is observed for the whole series of biheterocyclic compounds, when going down the chalcogen group, is explained on the basis of an orbital interaction analysis. Bithiophene polymers bridged by a selenium or a tellurium substituted carbon atom are expected to exhibit very low energy band gaps.     

Safety design practices in residential buildings in Saudi Arabia

A survey of current safety practices in the design of residential buildings in Saudi Arabia identified deficiencies in governance and design procedures. A systematic safety compliance checklist was developed to address these deficiencies incorporating existing local safety instructions and international safety codes and standards. Checklist use is intended to ensure compliance with minimal safety requirements in the design of residential buildings.     

The influence of chitosan and some of its depolymerized grades on natural color printing

Chitosan samples with different molecular weights were prepared using sodium nitrite in acidic medium. These samples were practically confirmed by measuring nitrogen content and average molecular weight. The chitosan samples were applied to cotton fabric by the pad dry method. The pretreated cotton fabric was printed with natural coloring matter, curcumin. The color yield of the prints increased by increasing the molecular weight of chitosan. Both wet and dry rubbing fastness of the prints was good. The stiffness results of the printed cotton fabric pretreated with low molecular weight chitosan showed better performance. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 559–563, 2005     

Adaptive noise reduction using numerically stable fast recursive least squares algorithm

This paper is concerned with adaptive noise reduction based on the fast recursive least squares (FRLS) algorithm. It is well known that the fast recursive least squares (FRLS) algorithm suffers from numerical instability when operating under the effects of finite precision arithmetic. Several numerical solutions of stabilization were proposed in the case of stationary signals. In this work a new version of a numerically stable FRLS algorithm (NS‐FRLS) is proposed. The stability characteristics of this new stabilized algorithm are analysed. The analysis is based on a linear model for the errors in the states of the adaptive filter. Experimental results confirm the merits of adaptive filtering with the NS‐FRLS algorithm over optimum filtering using the solution provided by Wiener–Hopf equations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

STARFIRE,a commercial tokamak power plant design

STARFIRE is a design for a conceptual commercial tokamak electrical power plant based on the deuterium/tritium/lithium fuel cycle. In addition to the goal of being technologically credible, the design incorporates safety and environmental considerations. STARFIRE is considered to be the tenth in a series of commercial fusion power plants.STARFIRE has a 7-m major radius reactor producing 1200 MW of net electrical power from 4000 MW of thermal power, with an average neutron wall load of 3.6 MW/m². The aspect ratio is 3.6 and a D-shaped plasma with a height-to-width ratio of 1.6 and average toroidal beta of 0.067 is used. The maximum magnetic field is 11T. Availability goals have been set at 85% for the reactor and 75% for the complete plant including the reactor.The major features for STARFIRE include a steady-state operating mode based on a continuous rf lower-hybrid current drive and auxiliary heating, solid tritium breeder material, pressurized water cooling, limiter/vacuum for impurity control, most superconducting EF coils outside the TF superconducting coils, fully remote maintenance, and a low-activation shield.     

Harmonic elimination in diode-clamped multilevel inverter using evolutionary algorithms

This paper describes two evolutionary algorithms for the optimized harmonic stepped–waveform technique. Genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization are applied to compute the switching angles in a three-phase seven-level inverter to produce the required fundamental voltage while, at the same time, specified harmonics are eliminated. Furthermore, these algorithms are also used to solve the starting point problem of the Newton-Raphson conventional method. This combination provides a very effective method for the harmonic elimination technique. This strategy is useful for different structures of seven-level inverters. The diode-clamped topology is considered in this study.     

Analysis of force patterns and tool life in milling operations

The paper describes the practical effects of the operating parameters in the milling operation. Experiments have been conducted to measure cutting force and tool life under dry conditions. Based on the experimental results, three mathematical models have been developed: Force, TLife and Force/TLife. Further analyses have been conducted on the cutting force patterns: seasonal pattern and nonlinear trend. A process optimisation that is based on the minimum production cost has been applied to relate Force model, TLife model and machinability criteria, such as power consumption, cutting parameters and surface roughness.Nomenclature C _w cost of workpiece ($) - C _s set-up cost ($) - C _m machining cost ($) - C _o overhead cost ($) - C _r tool replacement cost ($) - C _t tool cost ($) - D diameter of the cutter (inch) - d depth of cut per pass (inch) - d ₀ required depth (inch) - e _t random error attth sample - F cutting force (N) - f feedrate (ipm) - L length of workpiece (inch) - N spindle speed (r.p.m.) - n number of teeth - P power of the motor (h.p.) - R surface roughness (µm) - R _e real part of a complex function - T tool life (min) - t sample number - t _m machining time (s) - t ₀ overhead time (s) - t _r tool replacement time (s) - t _s set-up time (s) - U _i unit cost of itemi ($/unit)v - v cutting speed (i.p.m.)     

A tuned hybrid intelligent fruit fly optimization algorithm for fuzzy rule generation and classification

Fuzzy rule-based systems (FRBSs) are well-known soft computing methods commonly used to tackle classification problems characterized by uncertainties and imprecisions. We propose a hybrid intelligent fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA) to generate and classify fuzzy rules and select the best rules in a fuzzy if–then rule system. We combine a FOA and a heuristic algorithm in a hybrid intelligent algorithm. The FOA is used to create, evaluate and update triangular fuzzy rule-based and orthogonal fuzzy rule-based systems. The heuristic algorithm is used to calculate the certainty grade of the rules. The parameters in the proposed hybrid algorithm are tuned using the Taguchi method. An experiment with 27 benchmark datasets and a tenfold cross-validation strategy is designed and carried out to compare the proposed hybrid algorithm with nine different FRBSs. The results show that the hybrid algorithm proposed in this study is significantly more accurate than the nine competing FRBSs.