Evolution of fuzzy logic: from intelligent systems and computation to human mind

Inspired by human’s remarkable capability to perform a wide variety of physical and mental tasks without any measurements and computations and dissatisfied with classical logic as a tool for modeling human reasoning in an imprecise environment, Lotfi A. Zadeh developed the theory and foundation of fuzzy logic with his 1965 paper “Fuzzy sets” (Zadeh in Inf Control 8:378–53, 1965) and extended his work with his 2005 paper “Toward a generalized theory of uncertainty (GTU)—an outline” (Zadeh in Inf Control, 2005). Fuzzy logic has at least two main sources over the past century. The first of these sources was initiated by Peirce in the form what he called a logic of vagueness in 1900s, and the second source is Lotfi’s A. Zadeh work, fuzzy sets and fuzzy Logic in the 1960s and 1970s.     

PDDRA: A new pre-fetching based dynamic data replication algorithm in data grids

In recent years, grid technology has had such a fast growth that it has been used in many scientific experiments and research centers. A large number of storage elements and computational resources are combined to generate a grid which gives us shared access to extra computing power. In particular, data grid deals with data intensive applications and provides intensive resources across widely distributed communities. Data replication is an efficient way for distributing replicas among the data grids, making it possible to access similar data in different locations of the data grid. Replication reduces data access time and improves the performance of the system. In this paper, we propose a new dynamic data replication algorithm named PDDRA that optimizes the traditional algorithms. Our proposed algorithm is based on an assumption: members in a VO (Virtual Organization) have similar interests in files. Based on this assumption and also file access history, PDDRA predicts future needs of grid sites and pre-fetches a sequence of files to the requester grid site, so the next time that this site needs a file, it will be locally available. This will considerably reduce access latency, response time and bandwidth consumption. PDDRA consists of three phases: storing file access patterns, requesting a file and performing replication and pre-fetching and replacement. The algorithm was tested using a grid simulator, OptorSim developed by European Data Grid projects. The simulation results show that our proposed algorithm has better performance in comparison with other algorithms in terms of job execution time, effective network usage, total number of replications, hit ratio and percentage of storage filled.     

A Study of the Effect of Aluminium on the Mechanochemical Reduction of Hematite by Graphite

The effect of addition of small amounts of aluminium on mechano‐chemical reduction of hematite by graphite was studied. Various amounts of aluminium (0 to 10%) were added to a hematite‐graphite mixture, in which C/O ratio was 1:1. The hematite‐graphite‐aluminium mixtures were then subjected to ball milling followed by heating up reduction. The heating up reduction was carried out in Ar atmosphere, using TG‐DTA device. In TG‐DTA experiments, samples were heated by a constant heating rate of 10 °C/min from room temperature up to 1100 °C and maintained for 30 minutes at this temperature. To clarify the reactions which took place during milling and heating up reduction, the samples were subjected to XRD examinations. It was found that the heat generated during exothermic reaction of aluminothermic reduction of hematite promoted the endothermic reaction of carbothermic reduction. In the course of heating up reduction, the carbothermic reaction occurred just after aluminothermic reaction. Increasing of aluminum content from 0 to 10% in 2 hours ball milled samples decreased the temperature of carbothermic reaction from 1020 °C to about 860 °C. The further ball milling of the samples up to 5 and 10 hours, for the samples containing 10 and 5% aluminium respectively, caused the decrease of the temperature of aluminothermic and carbothermic reactions to around the melting point of aluminium.     

Microencapsulation of Nigella sativa seeds oil containing thymoquinone by spray‐drying for functional yogurt production

The present work reports on the microencapsulation of Nigella sativa seeds oil containing thymoquinone (TQ) by spray‐drying, using modified starch (MS) and maltodextrin (MD) mixture as wall materials aimed at producing functional yogurt. First, the impact of different ratios of MS/MD on microencapsulation efficiency (ME) and TQ retention was investigated. The highest ME (90.10%) was found in microcapsules prepared from emulsion with 80/20 ratio of MS/MD; however, the microcapsules prepared with 50/50 ratio was selected for considering TQ stability under storage conditions and functional yogurt production due to an acceptable ME (89.48%) and better TQ retention (61.12%). The results showed that the microcapsules stored at refrigerator temperature had the highest content of TQ after 4 weeks. Moreover, the results of chemical and sensory analysis suggest that N. sativa seeds oil microcapsules can be used for producing functional yogurt due to high stability of TQ and proper chemical and sensory properties.     

Introducing a proper hydrogen liquefaction concept for using wasted heat of thermal power plants-case study: Parand gas power plant

A hydrogen liquefaction concept with an innovative configuration and a capacity of 4 kg·s^-1 (345.6 t·d^-1) is developed. The concept involves an ammonia absorption refrigeration system for the pre-cooling of hydrogen and MR streams from 25 ℃ to -30 ℃. The ammonia absorption refrigeration system is fed by exhaust gases of the Parand gas power plant that are normally dissipated to the environment with a temperature of 546 ℃. The simulation is performed by Aspen HYSYS V9.0, using two separate equations of state for simulating hydrogen and MR streams to gain more accurate results especially for ortho-para conversion. Results show that conversion enthalpy estimated by Aspen HYSYS, fits very well to the experimental data. Determining the important independent variables and composition of MRs are done using trial and error procedure, a functional and straightforward method for complicated systems. The minimum temperature limit in the cooling section is lowered, and an ortho-para converter is implemented in this section. The proposed concept performs well from energy aspects and leads to COP and SEC equal to 0.271 and 4.54 kW·h·kg^-1, respectively. The main advantage of this study is in the low SEC, eliminating the losses of the distribution network, and improving the ability of the hydrogen liquefaction for energy storage in off-peak times.     

Preparation of immunomagnetic beads coupled with a rhodamine hydrazine immunosensor for the detection of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis in bovine feces,milk, and colostrum

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a method for detecting Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) bacteria in bovine fecal, milk, and colostrum samples using immunomagnetic beads (IMB) and a rhodamine hydrazone immunosensor. Immunomagnetic beads were prepared by using purified antibodies from hyperimmunized sera that were coupled to Fe nanoparticles with diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) or ethyl (dimethyl aminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC)-N-hydroxy succinimide (NHS) as linkers. Rhodamine hydrazone particles were synthesized and coupled to IgY anti-MAP antibodies using DTPA or EDC-NHS linkers. Separation efficiency of the IMB was tested on bovine fecal, milk, and colostrum samples experimentally contaminated with MAP. The studied methods were evaluated on their ability to detect MAP and separate bacteria in complex mediums. The ELISA results indicated 95% efficacy in antibody coupling to IMB, with the DTPA-IMB method being more efficient than the EDC-NHS-IMB method. By using the DTPA-IMB method, MAP bacteria were successfully recovered from fecal, milk, and colostrum samples. The DTPA-IMB method used in combination with the rhodamine hydrazone immunosensor had a limit of detection equal to 30 and 30,000 MAP cells/mL using chromogenic and fluorescent properties, respectively. Combining the DTPA-IMB separation method with the rhodamine hydrazone immunosensor provides a fast, sensitive, and cost-beneficial method for detecting MAP in bovine feces, milk, and colostrum.     

Graphene network enabled high speed electrical actuation of shape memory nanocomposite based on poly(vinyl acetate)

Here strong electroactive shape memory nanocomposites were prepared by incorporating graphene nanoplatelets into poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc ) through the simple solvent mixing method. TEM and XRD revealed that well exfoliated graphene nanoplatelets formed a continuous network throughout the matrix with a large amount of interconnectedness. Dynamic mechanical analysis showed that the inclusion of graphene significantly improves both glassy and rubbery moduli of the matrix. Furthermore, the prepared nanocomposites demonstrated a marked electrical conductivity up to 24.7 S m^?1 and thereby surprisingly rapid electrical actuation behaviour exhibiting a 100% recovery ratio in 2.5 s. Moreover, PVAc and its nanocomposites displayed scratch self‐healing capability. This work demonstrates that the PVAc /graphene nanocomposites with high modulus and excellent electroactive shape memory performance can be a promising material in many applications such as sensors and fast deployable and actuating devices. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry     

Knowledge mapping of the Iranian nanoscience and technology: a text mining approach

Nanoscience and technology (NST) is a relatively new interdisciplinary scientific domain, and scholars from a broad range of different disciplines are contributing to it. However, there is an ambiguity in its structure and in the extent of multidisciplinary scientific collaboration of NST. This paper investigates the multidisciplinary patterns of Iranian research in NST based on a selection of 1,120 ISI??indexed articles published during 1974?C2007. Using text mining techniques, 96 terms were identified as the main terms of the Iranian publications in NST. Then the scientific structure of the Iranian NST was mapped through multidimensional scaling, based upon the co-occurrence of the main terms in the academic publications. The results showed that the NST domain in Iranian publications has a multidisciplinary structure which is composed of different fields, such as pure physics, analytical chemistry, chemistry physics, material science and engineering, polymer science, biochemistry and new emerging topics.