Artificial Neural Network modeling of solubility of supercritical carbon dioxide in 24 commonly used ionic liquids

Application of supercritical CO₂ for separation of ionic liquids from their organic solvents or extraction of various solutes from ionic liquid solvents have found great interest during recent years. Knowledge of phase behaviors of the mixtures of supercritical CO₂+ionic liquids is therefore drastic in order to efficiently design such separation processes. In this communication, Artificial Neural Network procedure has been applied to represent the solubility of supercritical CO₂ in 24 mostly used ionic liquids. An optimized Three-Layer Feed Forward Neural Network using critical properties of ionic liquids and operational temperature and pressure has been developed. Application of this model for 1128 data points of 24 ionic liquids show squared correlation coefficients of 0.993 and average absolute deviation of 3.6% from experimental values for calculated/estimated solubilities. The aforementioned deviations show the prediction capability of the presented model.     

A Novel IoT Application Recommendation System Using Metaheuristic Multi-Criteria Analysis

There are a variety of Internet of Things (IoT) applications that cover different aspects of daily life. Each of these applications has different criteria and sub-criteria, making it difficult for the user to choose. This requires an automated approach to select IoT applications by considering criteria. This paper presents a novel recommendation system for presenting applications on the IoT. First, using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a multi-layer architecture of the criteria and sub-criteria in IoT applications is presented. This architecture is used to evaluate and rank IoT applications. As a result, finding the weight of the criteria and sub-criteria requires a metaheuristic approach. In this paper, a sequential quadratic programming algorithm is used to find the optimal weight of the criteria and sub-criteria automatically. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to use an analysis of metaheuristic criteria and sub-criteria to design an IoT application recommendation system. The evaluations and comparisons in the experimental results section show that the proposed method is a comprehensive and reliable model for the construction of an IoT applications recommendation system.     

Solvent-Induced Formation of Novel Ni(II) Complexes Derived from Bis-Thiosemicarbazone Ligand: An Insight from Experimental and Theoretical Investigations

In this work, we report solvent-induced complexation properties of a new N₂S₂ tetradentate bis-thiosemicarbazone ligand (H₂L^I), prepared by the condensation of 4-phenylthiosemicarbazide with bis-aldehyde, namely 2,2’-(ethane-1,2-diylbis(oxy)dibenzaldehyde, towards nickel(II). Using ethanol as a reaction medium allowed the isolation of a discrete mononuclear homoleptic complex [NiL^I] (1), for which its crystal structure contains three independent molecules, namely 1-I, 1-II, and 1-III, in the asymmetric unit. The doubly deprotonated ligand L^I in the structure of 1 is coordinated in a cis-manner through the azomethine nitrogen atoms and the thiocarbonyl sulfur atoms. The coordination geometry around metal centers in all the three crystallographically independent molecules of 1 is best described as the seesaw structure. Interestingly, using methanol as a reaction medium in the same synthesis allowed for the isolation of a discrete mononuclear homoleptic complex [Ni(L^II)₂] (2), where L^II is a monodeprotonated ligand 2-(2-(2-(2-(dimethoxymethyl)phenoxy)ethoxy)benzylidene)-N-phenylhydrazine-1-carbothioamide (HL^II). The ligand L^II was formed in situ from the reaction of L^I with methanol upon coordination to the metal center under synthetic conditions. In the structure of 2, two ligands L^II are coordinated in a trans-manner through the azomethine nitrogen atom and the thiocarbonyl sulfur atom, also yielding a seesaw coordination geometry around the metal center. The charge and energy decomposition scheme ETS-NOCV allows for the conclusion that both structures are stabilized by a bunch of London dispersion-driven intermolecular interactions, including predominantly N–H∙∙∙S and N–H∙∙∙O hydrogen bonds in 1 and 2, respectively; they are further augmented by less typical C–H∙∙∙X (where X = S, N, O, π), CH∙∙∙HC, π∙∙∙π stacking and the most striking, attractive long-range intermolecular C–H∙∙∙Ni preagostic interactions. The latter are found to be determined by both stabilizing Coulomb forces and an exchange-correlation contribution as revealed by the IQA energy decomposition scheme. Interestingly, the analogous long-range C–H∙∙∙S interactions are characterized by a repulsive Coulomb contribution and the prevailing attractive exchange-correlation constituent. The electron density of the delocalized bonds (EDDB) method shows that the nickel(II) atom shares only ~0.8|e| due to the σ-conjugation with the adjacent in-plane atoms, demonstrating a very weak σ-metalloaromatic character.     

Determining the Mechanical Characteristics of Prismatic Salt Rock Samples and Comparing Them with Cylindrical Ones

Journal of Mining Science - Salt rock is a crystalline material with a particular structure and different mechanical behavior. This inorganic material is a highly deformable rock, which shows creep...     

Motorcyclist's lane position as a factor in right-of-way violation collisions: A driving simulator study

A driver turning left and failing to notice an oncoming motorcyclist until too late is the most common cause of motorcycle collisions. Consequently, much previous research has focused on motorcycle properties, such as size, shape, and color to explain its inconspicuousness. However, collision statistics remain largely unchanged, suggesting that the issue may not be related solely to the motorcycle's static properties. In the present study, we examined a different characteristic of the motorcycle, namely its trajectory of approach. Seventeen participants faced oncoming traffic in a high-fidelity driving simulator and indicated when gaps were safe enough for them to turn left at an intersection. We manipulated the size of the gaps and the type of oncoming vehicle over 135 trials, with gap sizes varying from 3 to 5 s, and vehicles consisting of either a car, a motorcycle in the left-of-lane position, or a motorcycle in the right-of-lane position. Our results show that drivers are more likely to turn in front of an oncoming motorcycle when it travels in the left-of-lane position than when it travels in the right-of-lane position.     

Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Drilling and Cutting Orthopedic Bone-Specific Surgical Guide

In this paper, the design and fabrication of a bone-specific double function surgical guide are presented. The design of this surgical guide is performed so that it can be used simultaneously for drilling and cutting of cow's tibia bone. The employment of this surgical guide results in higher accuracy, reduction of the number of the holes needed to be pierced through the bone, and lower surgery time. The research is performed in three steps including the digitizing of the bone and production of the bone's 3D model in CATIA (generative shape design environment), design of surgical guide, and fabrication of the guide by FDM process. The guide is used for drilling and cutting of the bone.     

A simple process for the preparation of photocatalytically active bismuth aluminate nanoparticles

Various amino acids (i.e. phenylalanine, glycine, and arginine) were used in the sol–gel synthesis of Bi₂Al₄O₉ and their effects on the size, morphology and uniformity ofthe product were evaluated through characterizing the products by electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. Further vibrating sample magnetometery was used for studying the magnetism properties of Bi₂Al₄O₉ sample. The studies on the band gap of the product indicated that the product can have the potentials to act as a photocatalyst in the photo-oxidation of organic dyes under visible irradiation, and it was found that the Bi₂Al₄O₉ lead to the degradation of rhodamine B up to about 92% after 200 min, and hence possesses an effective photocatalytic activity.     

Optimal contract design for effort-averse sensors

ABSTRACT

A central planner wishes to engage a collection of sensors to measure a quantity. Each sensor seeks to trade-off the effort it invests to obtain and report a measurement, against contracted reward. Assuming that measurement quality improves as a sensor increases the effort it invests, the problem of the reward contract design is investigated. To this end, a game is formulated between the central planner and the sensors. Using this game, it is established that the central planner can enhance the quality of the estimate by rewarding each sensor based on the distance between the average of the received measurements and the measurement provided by the sensor. Optimal contracts are designed from the perspective of the budget required to achieve a specified level of error performance.