The effect of ginger on diabetic nephropathy,plasma antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation in rats

Oxidative stress is a major factor in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. We studied the effects of ginger powder on nephropathy induced by diabetes, and measured changes in plasma antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation.     

Scattering of Harmonic Waves by a Circular Cavity in a Porous Medium: Complex Functions Theory Approach

An analytical solution for the evaluation of scattering of waves by a circular cavity in infinite isotropic elastic porous media is presented. Two groups of complex functions for solid skeleton and pore fluid in a two-dimensional complex plane are introduced in order to solve the Biot equations. Stress, displacement, and pore pressure fields induced by incident and scattered waves in the medium and especially in the vicinity of the cavity are evaluated in this complex plane. The validation of the proposed solution is shown by various numerical examples. A parametric study including the effects of fluid compressibility changes, shear modulus, and permeability variations, several wave numbers, and wave types (fast, slow, and shear waves) is performed.     

Decentralized adaptive terminal sliding mode control design for nonlinear connected system in the presence of external disturbance

In this article, a decentralized adaptive integral terminal sliding mode control is presented for a class of nonlinear connected systems. It is assumed that the system is also confronted by unknown disturbances, while the interconnections between subsystems are assumed unknown. An integral terminal sliding surface for each subsystem is locally considered to guarantee the stability of the closed-loop system, and to increase the convergence speed during a tracking task. The unknown interconnections between subsystems are estimated using adaptive rules. An appropriate Lyapunov candidate is chosen to perform global stability analysis. In this regard, design parameters are chosen such that the closed-loop stability is ensured. Performance of the proposed method for a mechanical connected system, including two chaotic subsystems, is shown through simulations.     

Limited descent-based mean value method for inverse reliability analysis

Engineering with Computers - The robustness and efficiency of inverse reliability methods are important issues in reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) using performance measure approach...     

A novel trust evolution algorithm based on a quantum-like model of computational trust

Cognition, Technology & Work - Trust models play an important role in decision support systems and computational environments in general. The common goal of the existing trust models is to...     

Experimental investigation,modeling and optimization of membrane separation using artificial neural network and multi-objective optimization using genetic algorithm

In this work, treatment of oily wastewaters with commercial polyacrylonitrile (PAN) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes was investigated. In order to do these experiments, the outlet wastewater of the API (American Petroleum Institute) unit of Tehran refinery, is used as the feed. The purpose of this paper was to predict the permeation flux and fouling resistance, by applying artificial neural networks (ANNs), and then to optimize the operating conditions in separation of oil from industrial oily wastewaters, including trans-membrane pressure (TMP), cross-flow velocity (CFV), feed temperature and pH, so that a maximum permeation flux accompanied by a minimum fouling resistance, was acquired by applying genetic algorithm as a powerful soft computing technique. The experimental input data, including TMP, CFV, feed temperature and pH, permeation flux and fouling resistance as outputs, were used to create ANN models. This fact that there is an excellent agreement between the experimental data and the predicted values was shown by the modeling results. Eventually, by multi-objective optimization, using genetic algorithm (GA), an optimization tool was created to predict the optimum operating parameters for desired permeation flux (i.e. maximum flux) and fouling resistance (i.e. minimum fouling) behavior. The accuracy of the model is confirmed by the comparison between the predicted and experimental data.     

Optimal production control and marketing plan in two-machine unreliable flexible manufacturing systems

In this paper, we have developed a production planning and marketing model in unreliable flexible manufacturing systems with inconstant demand rate that its rate depends on the level of advertisement on that product. The proposed model is more realistic and useful from a practical point of view. The flexible manufacturing system is composed of two machines that produce a single product. Markovian models frequently have been used in modeling a wide variety of real-world systems under uncertainties. Therefore, in this paper, the inventory balance equation is represented by a continuous-time model with Markov jump process to take into account machines breakdown. The objective is to minimize the expected total cost of the firm over an infinite time horizon. While the total cost consists of the cost of the product surplus, the cost of the production, and the cost of the advertisement. In the process of finding a solution to the problem, we first characterize an optimal control by a class of linear stochastic system where some parameter values are subject to random jump. By defining quadratic cost functions and characterizing the associated limiting optimal control problem, a discrete-time approximation model and an asymptotic optimal control model are developed. It is clear that such a solution exists and can be obtained as a limit of a monotonic sequence with solving the steady-state Riccati equation.     

Photoactive and self-cleaning TiO2-SiO2 thin films on 316L stainless steel

In this study, TiO₂-SiO₂ nanocomposite films with different amounts of SiO₂ were prepared by sol-gel process and were coated onto stainless steel 316L. The effect of addition of various amount of SiO₂ in the precursor solution on the photocatalysis, photo-generated hydrophilicity and self-cleaning property of TiO₂ thin films was investigated by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, water contact angle measurements and UV spectroscopy. In the tested ranges of SiO₂ content and sintering temperature, the highest photocatalytic activity and self-cleaning property were observed in the 15 mol% SiO₂ sample sintered at 750 °C. Addition of less than 30 mol% SiO₂ had a suppressive effect on the transformation of anatase to rutile and on the crystal growth of anatase in the sintering heat treatment. Phase separation occurred in the composite films for SiO₂ content of 30 mol% or more.