Architectural Design,Improvement, and Challenges of Distributed Software-Defined Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Software-defined networking (SDN) is widely perceived to simplify network management and monitoring. The introduction of the SDN model into wireless sensor...     

Relay-Assisted Wireless Energy Transfer for Efficient Spectrum Sharing in Harsh Environments

International Journal of Wireless Information Networks - With exponential growth in the number of wireless devices and limited available spectrum, the problem of spectrum sharing remains in...     

Design and simulation of autonomous military vehicle control system based on machine vision and ensemble movement approach

The Journal of Supercomputing - On the battlefield, early detection of armored vehicles can have a positive effect. Because according to this issue, timely and appropriate reactions can be done....     

Predicting Mobile Cross-Platform Adaptation Using a Hybrid Sem–ANN Approach

Owing to constant changes in user needs, new technologies have been introduced to keep pace by building sustainable applications. Researchers and practitioners are keen to understand the factors that create an attractive user interface. Although the use of cross-platform applications and services is increasing, limited research has examined and evaluated cross-platforms for developing mobile applications for different operating systems. This study evaluates cross-platform features, identifying the main factors that help to create an attractive user adaptation when building sustainable applications for both Android and iOS. Flutter and React Native were selected so end-users could test their features using the cross-platform usability assessment model. Usability, satisfaction, and navigation were tested to measure the cross-platform adaptation and end-user experience. The data were analyzed using hybrid structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) approaches. The study results show that usability and navigation both have a positive effect on adaptation on Flutter and React Native, while satisfaction only has an effect on Flutter. The navigation variable was also the most significant predictor of adaptation for both models. This study has several implications and makes contributions to the research field, to developers, and to end-users.     

ETAS: predictive scheduling of functions on worker nodes of Apache OpenWhisk platform

The Journal of Supercomputing - Fast execution of functions is an inevitable challenge in the serverless computing landscape. Inefficient dispatching, fluctuations in invocation rates, burstiness...     

Behaviour of sand–clay mixtures for road pavement subgrade

Materials forming sand grains and colluvial soil deposits have a distinct structure, consisting of a composite matrix of coarse and fine soil grains. The influence of sand grains content on the behaviour of sand–clay mixtures was investigated by a series of intensive laboratory experiments. The California bearing ratio (CBR), unconfined compression strength (UCS) and compaction tests were carried out on various contents of sand and clay mixtures. The sand–clay mixtures were prepared with sand contents of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% by weight. The laboratory tests on these mixtures have indicated that their behaviour will depend on the relative concentration of the sand and clay samples. The results of the tests showed a decrease in the UCS, and an increase the CBR values with an increase in the amount of sand. An increase in dry unit weight and a decrease in respective moisture content by an increase in the amount of sand were observed in the compaction tests.     

Sorption of uranium from waste effluent solutions by mesoporous carbon impregnated with trioctylamine

A new mesoporous adsorbent for uranium removal from waste effluents was prepared, characterized, and impregnated with trioctylamine. The adsorption efficiency was investigated as a function of pH, contact time, initial uranium concentration, competing ions, solid/liquid ratio, and temperature using batch sorption techniques. The maximum adsorption capacity was 21.9 mg g^–1 at pH 5. The equilibrium data fit well with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Kinetic study showed that the process was fast and reached equilibrium within 60 min. The kinetic data fit well with the pseudo-second-order law. Thermodynamic data show that the process is spontaneous and exothermic.     

Preparation and Characterization of Magnetite–Chitosan Nanoparticles and Evaluation of Their Cytotoxicity Effects on MCF7 and Fibroblast Cells

Nowadays, magnetic nanoparticles play a key role in drug treatment. However, if they are uncoated, they might aggregate and cause embolism in drug delivery. To avoid this, they are generally coated with polymers. In this investigation, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were coated with chitosan through in situ co-precipitation process and their properties in addition to their cytotoxicity in MCF7 and fibroblast cells were analyzed. The results showed MNPs–chitosan nanoparticles would contain an average mean diameter of 32 nm and a saturation magnetization (M _S) value of 38.87 emu/g. To characterize the synthesized nanoparticles in terms of structural, morphological and magnetic properties, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) studies were used. Toxicity test was also done to investigate whether their presence would cause any toxicity in the body; in addition, antibacterial assay was done to analyze if nanoparticles could be used as an antimicrobial agent.