Application of ANFIS for modeling of layer thickness of chromium carbonitride coating

In the present work, layer thickness of duplex coating made from thermo-reactive deposition and diffusion has been predicted by Adaptive network-based fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS). A duplex surface treatment on five steels has been developed involving nitrocarburizing and followed by chromium thermo-reactive deposition (TRD) techniques. The TRD process was performed in molten salt bath at 550, 625 and 700 °C for 1–30 h. The process formed a thickness up to 9.5 μm of chromium carbonitride coatings on a hardened diffusion zone. A model based on ANFIS for predicting the layer thickness of duplex coating of the specimens has been presented. To build the model, training and testing using experimental results from 84 specimens were conducted. The data used as inputs in ANFIS models are arranged in a format of twelve parameters that cover the chemical composition (C, Mn, Si, Cr, Mo, V, W), the pre-nitriding time, ferro-chromium particle size, ferro-chromium weight percent, salt bath temperature and coating time. According to these input parameters, in the Adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system models, the layer thickness of duplex coating of each specimen was predicted. The training and testing results in ANFIS models have shown a strong potential for predicting the layer thickness of duplex coating.     

In‐stream construction‐induced suspended sediment in riverine ecosystems

Construction activities within the wetted‐perimeter of rivers, referred to as in‐stream construction, are prevalent economically and environmentally motivated activities having direct interactions with sensitive lotic environments. Currently, there is a paucity of research related to in‐stream construction activities and their effects on aquatic ecosystems. In‐stream construction‐induced suspended sediment may result in harmful effects to aquatic flora and fauna. Regulatory frameworks worldwide focus primarily on concentration, with limited consideration for duration and no consideration for spatial extents of suspended sediment exposures. This research develops theoretical concentration, duration, and spatial extent exposure risk relationships for riverine ecosystems to demonstrate the influence of each mechanism during typical in‐stream construction activities. To reduce exposure risk, concentration and duration may be considered pragmatically, based on anticipated activity characteristics and site conditions. Spatial exposure characteristics are important to consider, as illustrated by our finding that activities located near the channel centerline may result in greater exposure risk than similar activities conducted near the streambank. Current regulatory frameworks worldwide do not sufficiently consider all exposure risk mechanisms present during in‐stream construction‐induced suspended sediment releases, possibly inhibiting efforts to reduce adverse environmental effects. This research improves our understanding of suspended sediment in lotic environments and may help environmental managers better evaluate and manage in‐stream construction activities.     

A model to predict the solubility and permeability of gaseous penetrant in the glassy polymeric membrane at high pressure

In this work, the transport properties of gaseous penetrant through several dense glassy polymeric membranes are studied. The nonequilibrium lattice fluid (NELF) in conjunction with the modified Fick's law and dual mode sorption model was used to simulate the gas transport in glassy polymeric membranes. The approach is based on the sorption, diffusion, in which solubility is calculated based on the NELF model, and diffusion coefficient is obtained from the product thermodynamic coefficient and molecular mobility. The governing equation is solved by the finite element method using COMSOL multi-physics software. The developed model for gas permeability of glassy polymeric membrane can be applied in a wide range of pressure and temperature. The comparison of the calculated permeability and solubility of gasses with the experimental data represented the ability of the developed model. Increasing feed gas temperature increases the gas permeability, while this variation leads to lower gas solubility in the glassy polymeric membranes. The effect of feed temperature and pressure on permeability and solubility is investigated, and the experimental data from literature are described by the developed model. A good prediction of the experimental data can be observed over the considered condition.     

Abstraction and approximation in fuzzy temporal logics and models

Recently, by defining suitable fuzzy temporal logics, temporal properties of dynamic systems are specified during model checking process, yet a few numbers of fuzzy temporal logics along with capable corresponding models are developed and used in system design phase, moreover in case of having a suitable model, it suffers from the lack of a capable model checking approach. Having to deal with uncertainty in model checking paradigm, this paper introduces a fuzzy Kripke model (FzKripke) and then provides a verification approach using a novel logic called Fuzzy Computation Tree Logic* (FzCTL*). Not only state space explosion is handled using well-known concepts like abstraction and bisimulation, but an approximation method is also devised as a novel technique to deal with this problem. Fuzzy program graph, a generalization of program graph and FzKripke, is also introduced in this paper in consideration of higher level abstraction in model construction. Eventually modeling, and verification of a multi-valued flip-flop is studied in order to demonstrate capabilities of the proposed models.     

Design of sliding mode and model reference adaptive control strategies for multivariable tape transport mechanism: a performance comparison

This paper presents sliding mode control and model reference adaptive control strategies for the tape transport mechanism. A nonlinear multivariable MIMO model of the process, consisting of take-up and supply reel servos for tape tension control and capstan servo for speed control is considered. The sliding mode control is applied for the nonlinear dynamic model of the process, while the model reference adaptive control deals with the linearized one. Moreover, in order to associate with the realistic model of system, design of controllers is accomplished with respect to parametric uncertainties. It is shown that both control strategies can guarantee asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system and tracking of desired outputs with the appropriate pace in the presence of uncertainties. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.     

Vocal-based emotion recognition using random forests and decision tree

This paper proposes a new vocal-based emotion recognition method using random forests, where pairs of the features on the whole speech signal, namely, pitch, intensity, the first four formants, the first four formants bandwidths, mean autocorrelation, mean noise-to-harmonics ratio and standard deviation, are used in order to recognize the emotional state of a speaker. The proposed technique adopts random forests to represent the speech signals, along with the decision-trees approach, in order to classify them into different categories. The emotions are broadly categorised into the six groups, which are happiness, fear, sadness, neutral, surprise, and disgust. The Surrey Audio-Visual Expressed Emotion database is used. According to the experimental results using leave-one-out cross-validation, by means of combining the most significant prosodic features, the proposed method has an average recognition rate of \(66.28\%\), and at the highest level, the recognition rate of \(78\%\) has been obtained, which belongs to the happiness voice signals. The proposed method has \(13.78\%\) higher average recognition rate and \(28.1\%\) higher best recognition rate compared to the linear discriminant analysis as well as \(6.58\%\) higher average recognition rate than the deep neural networks results, both of which have been implemented on the same database.     

Data-Driven Texture Rendering on an Electrostatic Tactile Display

In this article, we present a data-driven texture rendering method applied to a tactile display based on electrostatic attraction. The proposed method was examined in two steps. First, accelerations occurring due to sliding a tool on three different surfaces were measured, and then the collected data were replayed on an electrostatic tactile display. The proposed data-driven texture rendering method was evaluated against a conventional method in which a standard input such as a square wave was used for texture representation. Second, data from the Penn Haptic Texture Toolkit were used to generate virtual textures on the same tactile display. Psychophysical experiments were carried out for both steps, during which subjects rated similarities among the rendered virtual textures and the real samples. Confusion matrices were created, and multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis was performed to create a perceptual space for further examination and to extract underlying dimensions of the textures. The results show that the virtual textures generated using the data-driven method were similar to the real textures. Roughness and stickiness were the primary dimensions of texture perception. Together with the supporting results from the MDS analysis, this study showed that the data-driven method is a viable solution for realistic texture rendering with electrostatic attraction.     

Roles of Sexual Objectification Experiences and Internalization of Standards of Beauty in Eating Disorder Symptomatology: A Test and Extension of Objectification Theory.

This study extends the literature on eating disorder symptomatology by testing, based on extant literature on objectification theory (B. L. Fredrickson & T. Roberts, 1997) and the role of sociocultural standards of beauty (e.g., L. J. Heinberg, J. K. Thompson, & S. Stormer, 1995), a model that examines (a) links of reported sexual objectification experiences to eating disorder-related variables and (b) the mediating roles of body surveillance, body shame, and internalization of sociocultural standards of beauty. Consistent with hypotheses, with a sample of 221 young women, support was found for a model in which (a) internalization of sociocultural standards of beauty mediated the links of sexual objectification experiences to body surveillance, body shame, and eating disorder symptoms, (b) body surveillance was an additional mediator of the link of reported sexual objectification experiences to body shame, and (c) body shame mediated the links of internalization and body surveillance to disordered eating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimizing the mechanical and physical properties of thermoplastic starch via tuning the molecular microstructure through co‐plasticization by sorbitol and glycerol

Nowadays, environmental hazards caused by plastic wastes are a major concern in academia and industry. Utilization of biodegradable polymers derived from renewable sources for replacing common petroleum‐based plastics is a potential solution for reducing the problem. In this regard, starch has become one of the most promising alternatives to non‐biodegradable polymers for depleting plastic waste thanks to its low expense, abundance, renewability and biodegradability. However, the main drawbacks of starch are its poor processability, weak mechanical properties and severe hydrophilicity. In this work, thermoplastic starch (TPS) samples have been prepared using glycerol and sorbitol as co‐plasticizers in a laboratory co‐rotating twin screw extruder. Based on the mechanical test results, glycerol caused higher elongation to break but had lower tensile strength and elastic modulus compared to sorbitol plasticized starch. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and DSC results indicated that the hydrogen bond interaction between starch chains and plasticizers could be improved by replacing glycerol by sorbitol, which resulted in higher resistance against retrogradation proved by XRD results. TGA illustrated that the higher the sorbitol to glycerol ratio was, the more stable was the TPS. Using a proper amount of plasticizers (42 wt% total plasticizer, sorbitol to glycerol ratio 2:1) led to the preparation of a TPS sample with optimized properties including enhanced mechanical properties, high thermal stability, strong hydrogen bond formation and high resistance against retrogradation. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry