ASRSM: A Sequential Experimental Design for Response Surface Optimization

Most preset response surface methodology (RSM) designs offer ease of implementation and good performance over a wide range of process and design optimization applications. These designs often lack the ability to adapt the design on the basis of the characteristics of application and experimental space so as to reduce the number of experiments necessary. Hence, they are not cost‐effective for applications where the cost of experimentation is high or when the experimentation resources are limited. In this paper, we present an adaptive sequential response surface methodology (ASRSM) for industrial experiments with high experimentation cost, limited experimental resources, and high design optimization performance requirement. The proposed approach is a sequential adaptive experimentation approach that combines concepts from nonlinear optimization, design of experiments, and response surface optimization. The ASRSM uses the information gained from the previous experiments to design the subsequent experiment by simultaneously reducing the region of interest and identifying factor combinations for new experiments. Its major advantage is the experimentation efficiency such that for a given response target, it identifies the input factor combination (or containing region) in less number of experiments than the classical single‐shot RSM designs. Through extensive simulated experiments and real‐world case studies, we show that the proposed ASRSM method outperforms the popular central composite design method and compares favorably with optimal designs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Serum iron as an indicator of acute inflammation in cattle

The aim of this study was to assess the value of serum iron concentration in the diagnosis of acute inflammation in cattle. The diagnostic value of this approach was compared with that of various other hematological tests, including commonly used techniques that measure the levels of various other acute-phase proteins. The study population comprised 10 cows with acute traumatic reticuloperitonitis (RPT group) and 10 cows with acute mastitis (mastitis group) admitted to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Firat University (Elazi?, Turkey). Ten cows from local barns, kept and fed under same conditions as the diseased animals, were used as controls. After the clinical examination, blood samples were collected for biochemical, hematological, and acute-phase protein (haptoglobin, serum amyloid A, α-1 acid glycoprotein, and fibrinogen) analyses. The mean levels of serum iron in the RPT, mastitis, and control groups were 6.00, 7.82, and 26.78 µmol/L, respectively. Serum iron level was significantly reduced in the RPT and mastitis groups. The results of this study indicate that serum iron analysis, preferably in combination with other markers of inflammation, may be a useful diagnostic tool for acute inflammation in cattle. Because serum iron measurement is individually available and easily applicable, it may be used for clinical cases as well as the determination of herd health.     

Synthesis and characterization of radiation cross-linked PVP hydrogels and investigation of its potential as an antileishmanial drug carrier

Polymer Bulletin - The aim of this study was to elaborate a suitable hydrogel to be used as drug carrier for antileishmanial treatment. Therefore, a PVP hydrogel was synthesized using gamma...     

Single image super resolution based on sparse representation using discrete wavelet transform

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Single image super resolution (SR) based on sparse representation is a promising technique where the SR problem is solved by searching for the most robust...     

BiLSTM and dynamic fuzzy AHP-GA method for procedural game level generation

Neural Computing and Applications - The use of games in daily life, especially in education, has been in an incline during the COVID-2019 pandemic. Thus, game-based learning environments have...     

Hydrothermal synthesis of carbonate-free submicron-sized barium titanate from an amorphous precursor: Synthesis and characterization

In this paper, the amorphous barium titanate precursor was prepared by the peroxo-hydroxide method and post-treated by various drying procedures, such as: room temperature drying, room temperature vacuum drying and vacuum drying at 50 °C. The objective in the latter two treatments was to increase the Ti-O-Ba bonds of the precursor. The post-treated precursors were compared with the untreated (i.e., ‘wet’) precursor. Also, a barium titanate precursor was prepared by an alkoxide route. Afterwards, the precursors were hydrothermally treated at 200 °C in a 10 M NaOH solution. Vacuum drying of the precursor seemingly promoted the formation of Ti-O-Ti bonds in the hydrothermal end-product. The low Ba:Ti ratio (0.66) of the alkoxide-route prepared precursor lead to a multi-phase hydrothermal product with BaTiO₃ as the main phase. In contrast, phase pure BaTiO₃, i.e. without BaCO₃ contamination, was obtained for the precursor which was dried at room temperature. Cube-shaped and highly crystalline BaTiO₃ particles were observed by electron microscopy for the hydrothermally treated peroxo-hydroxide-route prepared precursor.