Inspection interval optimization for complex equipment in automotive manufacturing under dependent failures

Forschung im Ingenieurwesen - Inspection activities in automotive manufacturing play a crucial role in diagnosing and preventing unexpected failures by adopting the well-planned intervals....     

Harris hawks optimization: a comprehensive review of recent variants and applications

Neural Computing and Applications - Harris hawks optimizer (HHO) has received widespread attention among researchers in terms of the performance, quality of results, and its acceptable convergence...     

The effect of royal jelly and propolis alone and in combination on inhibition of Aspergillus parasiticus growth,aflatoxin production,and aflR gene expression

The objective of this study was to determine the inhibitory effect of royal jelly (RJ) and propolis on growth, aflatoxin production and aflR gene expression in Aspergillus parasiticus. Inhibitory effect of RJ and propolis against a standard strain of A. parasiticus(ATCC 15517) was determined alone and in combination in accordance with the CLSI M38-A2 and checkerboard methods, respectively. The aflatoxin concentrations in the control and treated media were determined by HPLC. Also, the quantitative changes in the aflR gene expression were analyzed. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of RJ and propolis alone were 3,200 and 100μg/ml, respectively. Also, the MICs of RJ and propolis in combination were 200 and 25μg/ml, respectively. When combined, a synergistic interaction was observed with a FICI of 0.312. Total levels of aflatoxin decreased from 386.1ppm to 8.72, 3.01 and 1.75ppm at 1,600μg/ml of RJ, 50μg/ml of propolis and 100+12.5μg/ml of RJ and propolis, respectively. In addition, the level of afIR gene expression was significantly decreased after treatment with RJ and propolis extracts alone and with their combination. The findings reveal that RJ and propolis extracts, either alone or in combination, have a significant inhibitory effect on aflR gene expression in aflatoxin production.     

An optimum feature extraction method based on Wavelet–Radon Transform and Dynamic Neural Network for pavement distress classification

Quantification of pavement crack data is one of the most important criteria in determining optimum pavement maintenance strategies. Recently, multi-resolution analysis such as wavelet decompositions provides very good multi-resolution analytical tools for different scales of pavement analysis and distresses classification. This paper present an automatic diagnosis system for detecting and classification pavement crack distress based on Wavelet–Radon Transform (WR) and Dynamic Neural Network (DNN) threshold selection. The algorithm of the proposed system consists of a combination of feature extraction using WR and classification using the neural network technique. The proposed WR + DNN system performance is compared with static neural network (SNN). In test stage; proposed method was applied to the pavement images database to evaluate the system performance. The correct classification rate (CCR) of proposed system is over 99%. This research demonstrated that the WR + DNN method can be used efficiently for fast automatic pavement distress detection and classification. The details of the image processing technique and the characteristic of system are also described in this paper.     

Study on the physical and mechanical properties of electron‐beam‐irradiated Vinyl ester/TiO2 nanocomposites

The effect of electron beam irradiation on the physical and mechanical properties of vinyl ester nanocomposites containing various amounts of TiO₂ nanoparticles was investigated. The fracture toughness, surface hardness, and water uptake measurements were carried out to investigate alterations in the physical and mechanical properties owing to electron beam exposure. In this regard, it was attempted to infer the impact of TiO₂ nanoparticles on the structural changes varying the irradiation dose. The results were then explained based on crosslinking and chain scission phenomena. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy was used to assess the degree of TiO₂ dispersion within the polymer matrix. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 22:110–116, 2016. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Visual malware detection using local malicious pattern

Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques - In recent years, malware authors have had significant developments in offering new generations of malware and have tried to use different...     

An enriched game-theoretic framework for multi-objective clustering

The framework of multi-objective clustering can serve as a competent technique in nowadays human issues ranging from decision making process to machine learning and pattern recognition problems. Multi-objective clustering basically aims at placing similar objects into the same groups based on some conflicting objectives, which substantially supports the use of game theory to come to a resolution. Based on these understandings, this paper suggests Enriched Game Theory K-means, called EGTKMeans, as a novel multi-objective clustering technique based on the notion of game theory. EGTKMeans is specially designed to optimize two intrinsically conflicting objectives, named, compaction and equi-partitioning. The key contributions of the proposed approach are three folds. First, it formulates an elegant and novel payoff definition which considers both objectives with equal priority. The presented payoff function incorporates a desirable fairness into the final clustering results. Second, EGTKMeans performs better off by utilizing the advantages of mixed strategies as well as those of pure ones, considering the existence of mixed Nash Equilibrium in every game. The last but not the least is that EGTKMeans approaches the optimal solution in a very promising manner by optimizing both objectives simultaneously. The experimental results suggest that the proposed approach significantly outperforms other rival methods across real world and synthetic data sets with reasonable time complexity.     

Effects of nano-graphene on the physico-mechanical properties of bagasse/polypropylene composites

This study was aimed at identifying the best approach of incorporating nano-graphene (NG) into bagasse/polypropylene composites to enhance their mechanical and physical properties. The composites with different NG contents were produced by melt compounding in a twin-screw extruder and then by injection molding. The mass ratio of the bagasse flour (BF) to polymer was 15/85 and 30/70 (w/w). Water absorption, thickness swelling, tensile strength, bending characteristics, impact strength and morphological properties of the produced composites were evaluated. In general, applying NG would improve mechanical properties of the composites. The mechanical test results indicated that when only 0.1 wt % of NG was added, tensile and flexural properties reached their maximum values, while the notched impact was slightly decreased. The composites containing 0.1 wt % NG and 30 wt % BF exhibited the highest tensile, flexural and notched impact strength values. Although incorporating NG into the polymer matrix effectively improves mechanical properties, this improvement comes at proper nanofiller loading (0.1 wt?%). Addition of NG almost did not change the average water uptake and thickness swelling, compared to the control (without NG) samples. Morphological study confirmed that high contents (0.5–1 wt?%) of NG were easily agglomerated. Thermal analysis showed slight increase in thermal stability of WPCs after incorporation of NG particles. In addition, it was found that the effect of BF was notable in material properties of the composites.     

Photodynamic Antimicrobial Cellulosic Material Through Covalent Linkage of Protoporphyrin IX onto Lyocell Fibers

Here, we report the preparation of porphyrin-functionalized Lyocell fibers according to an azide-alkyne click concept. First, azido-modified Lyocell fibers and alkynylated protoporphyrin building blocks were prepared through alkoxysilane chemistry and Steglich esterification, respectively. Lyocell fibers were pre-activated by swelling in organic solvents in order to increase the accessibility of hydroxyl groups in the subsequent silanization process. The azide-equipped cellulosic matrix reacted with the propargyl groups of the protoporphyrin IX derivative in a copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction (CuAAC), by which protoporphyrin IX was introduced onto the surface of the Lyocell fibers. The modified building blocks and the final functionalized cellulosic materials were comprehensively characterized by FTIR, NMR, UV/Vis spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Photo-bactericidal activity of modified fibers against 2?gram-positive bacteria strains, including Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis, were investigated and compared to those of unmodified and azido-modified Lyocell fibers. The results confirmed the photo-antibacterial activity of the synthesized fibers against both bacteria strains.     

A turbulent air-flow corrugating photovoltaic model to enhance power output

This paper investigated the influence of the cooling of turbulent blowing air on the photovoltaic (PV) modules using the corrugation technique. The well-known five-parameter diode equation side by side with conservation principles were used to study the effect of corrugating lower PV sides to cool PV's and enhance efficiency. As the main restriction of PV systems is low efficiency that is powerfully counting on its operational temperature, therefore, reducing the operating temperature of PV cells is critical for the PV panel to work. To achieve this aim, a mathematical model describing PV temperatures and efficiency using continuity, momentum, and energy side by side with the Shockley diode equation was built. It was found that the corrugating of lower sides of PV's up to 1 mm in a distance of 20 mm considering turbulent flow conditions considerably reduced temperature and consequently enhanced thermal efficiency from 13% to 15%; the eddy viscosity and Reynolds shear stress increased boundary layer thickness and velocities, so increased the coefficient of heat transfer and consequently electrical power output and thermal efficiency.