Synthesis of copolymers of a linoleic acid derivative and properties of the copolymer films

Addition copolymers of maleic anhydride and a commercially available conjugated fatty acid, Pamolyn 380, were synthesized via thermal initiation. The copolymers had moderately high molecular weights and were obtained in reasonable yields. The copolymers were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy and by elemental analysis. Based on this analytical data and examples from the literature, the copolymers were assigned regularly alternating chain morphology. Coatings were formulated with the copolymers, and films over a metal substrate were evaluated. The films were found to have excellent solvent resistance, high hardness, and good gloss. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 261–267, 2001     

Special all-round fillet weld for anchor rods of base-plate T-stub connections

The eccentricity between connected steel parts and the anchor rods in base-plate T-stub connections makes base plates the weaker components in tension and compression. Additionally, the oversized holes in base plates lead to irregular placement of anchor rods, resulting in an unsymmetrical shear behavior. Thus, this paper aims to develop a special all-round fillet weld to connect the anchor rods beneath the base plate concentrically to the steel part, removing the base plate from the load-transferring chain. Accordingly, design criteria were first developed based on Eurocode's directional method considering all the potential failure modes. Next, results were validated by conducting experimental work. The digital image correlation technique (DIC) was also used to capture the strain distribution developed over the tested specimen till failure. Consequently, numerical analysis was carried out to investigate the fracture strength and the fracture angle and compare the special fillet weld with its equivalent standard one, which has the same weld volume. The results indicated that the proposed design criteria produced safe strength prediction for the developed special all-round fillet weld. Furthermore, the results revealed that using a special all-round fillet weld instead of the equivalent standard one can increase the strength by about 8% and improve the ductility of the weld. However, it decreases the stiffness of the weld by about 21%. The fracture surface occurred at $15°$ from the face of the anchor rod, which produced a higher strength than the predicted tensile strength calculated according to the theoretical throat plane.     

Nonparametric frontier analysis models for efficiency evaluation in insurance industry: a case study of Iranian insurance market

Performance evaluation and efficiency analysis is considered to be one of the critical responsibilities of the management department. This paper investigates and assesses the efficiency and performance of Iranian insurance companies through nonparametric frontier analysis (FA) models. The two well-known nonparametric FA models, data envelopment analysis (DEA) and free disposal hull, are utilized to separate the efficient companies from the inefficient companies, and two well-known super-efficiency analysis models are utilized to rank the efficient units. For the further analysis, critical inputs are also identified for inefficient companies using DEA sensitivity analysis which is a powerful tool for planning performance improvement project, and the reference sets are also identified as the benchmark pattern for each inefficient unit. Managerial insights and implications of the study are discussed finally.     

Robust and stable flow shop scheduling with unexpected arrivals of new jobs and uncertain processing times

In real scheduling problems, some disruptions and unexpected events may occur. These disruptions cause the initial schedule to quickly become infeasible and non-optimal. In this situation, an appropriate rescheduling method should be used. In this paper, a new approach has been proposed to achieve stable and robust schedule despite uncertain processing times and unexpected arrivals of new jobs. This approach is a proactive–reactive method which uses a two-step procedure. In the first step an initial robust solution is produced proactively against uncertain processing times using robust optimization approach. This initial robust solution is more insensitive against the fluctuations of processing times in future. In the next step, when an unexpected disruption occurs, an appropriate reactive method is adopted to deal with this unexpected event. In fact, in the second step, the reactive approach determines the best modified sequence after any unexpected disruption based on the classical objective and performance measures. The robustness measure is implemented in the reactive approach to increase the performance of the real schedule after disruption. Computational results indicate that this method produces better solutions in comparison with four classical heuristic approaches according to effectiveness and performance of solutions.     

An improved dynamic modeling of a multibody system with spherical joints

A dynamic modeling of multibody systems having spherical joints is reported in this work. In general, three intersecting orthogonal revolute joints are substituted for a spherical joint with vanishing lengths of intermediate links between the revolute joints. This procedure increases sizes of associated matrices in the equations of motion, thus increasing computational burden of an algorithm used for dynamic simulation and control. In the proposed methodology, Euler parameters, which are typically used for representation of a rigid-body orientation in three-dimensional Cartesian space, are employed to represent the orientation of a spherical joint that connects a link to its previous one providing three-degree-of-freedom motion capability. For the dynamic modeling, the concept of the Decoupled Natural Orthogonal Complement (DeNOC) matrices is utilized. It is shown in this work that the representation of spherical joints motion using Euler parameters avoids the unnecessary introduction of the intermediate links, thereby no increase in the sizes of the associated matrices with the dynamic equations of motion. To confirm the efficiency of the proposed representation, it is illustrated with the dynamic modeling of a spatial four-bar Revolute-Spherical–Spherical-Revolute (RSSR) mechanism, where the CPU time of the dynamic modeling based on proposed methodology is compared with that based on the revolute joints substitution. Finally, it is explained how a complex suspension and steering linkage can be modeled using the proposed concept of Euler parameters to represent a spherical joint.     

An iterative mathematical decision model for cloud migration: A cost and security risk approach

This paper presents an iterative mathematical decision model for organizations to evaluate whether to invest in establishing information technology (IT) infrastructure on‐premises or outsourcing IT services on a multicloud environment. This is because a single cloud cannot cover all types of users’ functional/nonfunctional requirements, in addition to several drawbacks such as resource limitation, vendor lock‐in, and prone to failure. On the other hand, multicloud brings several merits such as vendor lock‐in avoidance, system fault tolerance, cost reduction, and better quality of service. The biggest challenge is in selecting an optimal web service composition in the ever increasing multicloud market in which each provider has its own pricing schemes and delivers variation in the service security level. In this regard, we embed a module in the cloud broker to log service downtime and different attacks to measure the security risk. If security tenets, namely, security service level agreement, such as availability, integrity, and confidentiality for mission‐critical applications, are targeted by cybersecurity attacks, it causes disruption in business continuity, leading to financial losses or even business failure. To address this issue, our decision model extends the cost model by using the cost present value concept and the risk model by using the advanced mean failure cost concept, which are derived from the embedded module to quantify cloud competencies. Then, the cloud economic problem is transformed into a bioptimization problem, which minimizes cost and security risks simultaneously. To deal with the combinatorial problem, we extended a genetic algorithm to find a Pareto set of optimal solutions. To reach a concrete result and to illustrate the effectiveness of the decision model, we conducted different scenarios and a small‐to‐medium business IT development for a 5‐year investment as a case study. The result of different implementation shows that multicloud is a promising and reliable solution against IT on‐premises deployment.     

Thermodynamic evaluation of integrated gasification combined cycle: Comparison between high‐ash and low‐ash coals

In the present study, a coal‐integrated gasification combined cycle power plant is simulated. A high‐ash coal and low‐ash coal are considered to compare the performance of the plant. The combined cycle is in typical commercial size with 450 MW capacity. The feeds are Tabas and Illinois #6 coals which approximately contain more than 30% and 10% ash and have higher heating values of 22.7 MJ/kg and 26.8 MJ/kg, respectively. Energy and exergy analyses are done by aspen plus ^® and ees , respectively. Energy analysis shows that the overall efficiencies of power plants using high‐ash and low‐ash coals are 33% and 28%, respectively. The result shows that in high‐ash case, 52 kg/s coal, 10 kg/s water, and 1050 kg/s air and in low‐ash case, 48 kg/s coal and 820 kg/s air are required for providing mentioned power, approximately. Exergy analysis shows that maximum exergy destruction is in heat recovery steam generator unit. Investigating the emissions shows that high percent of ash in the coal composition has slight effects on the IGCC pollution. Finally, from thermodynamic viewpoint, it is concluded that the high‐ash coal, like the conventional one, can be used as thermally efficient and environmentally compatible feed of IGCCs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formal process algebraic modeling,verification, and analysis of an abstract Fuzzy Inference Cloud Service

In cloud computing, services play key roles. Services are well defined and autonomous components. Nowadays, the demand of using Fuzzy inference as a service is increasing in the domain of complex and critical systems. In such systems, along with the development of the software, the cost of detecting and fixing software defects increases. Therefore, using formal methods, which provide clear, concise, and mathematical interpretation of the system, is crucial for the design of these Fuzzy systems. To obtain this goal, we introduce the Fuzzy Inference Cloud Service (FICS) and propose a novel discipline for formal modeling of the FICS. The FICS provides the service of Fuzzy inference to the consumers. We also introduce four novel formal verification tests, which allow strict analysis of certain behavioral disciplines in the FICS as follows: (1) Internal consistency, which analyzes the service in a strict and delicate manner; (2) Deadlock freeness; (3) Divergence freeness; and (4) Goal reach ability. The four tests are discussed and the FICS is verified to ensure that it can pass all these tests.     

Adaptive simulation of two dimensional hyperbolic problems by Collocated Discrete Least Squares Meshless method

An adaptive refinement technique is presented in this paper and used in conjunction with the Collocated Discrete Least Squares Meshless (CDLSM) method for the effective simulation of two-dimensional shocked hyperbolic problems. The CDLSM method is based on minimizing the least squares functional calculated at collocation points chosen on the problem domain and its boundaries. The functional is defined as the weighted sum of the squared residuals of the differential equation and its boundary conditions. A Moving Least Squares (MLS) method is used here to construct the meshless shape functions. An error estimator based on the value of functional at nodal points used to discretize the problem domain and its boundaries is developed and used to predict the areas of poor solutions. A node moving strategy is then used to refine the predicted zones of poor solutions before the problem is resolved on the refined distribution of nodes. The proposed methodology is applied to some two dimensional hyperbolic benchmark problems and the results are presented and compared to the exact solutions. The results clearly show the capabilities of the proposed method for the effective and efficient solution of hyperbolic problems of shocked and high gradient solutions.