Groundwater Level Simulation Using Soft Computing Methods with Emphasis on Major Meteorological Components

Water Resources Management - Precise estimation of groundwater level (GWL) might be of great importance for attaining sustainable development goals and integrated water resources management....     

A multi-criteria context-sensitive approach for social image collection summarization

Recent increase in the number of digital photos in the content sharing and social networking websites has created an endless demand for techniques to analyze, navigate, and summarize these images. In this paper, we focus on image collection summarization. Earlier methods in image collection summarization consider representativeness and diversity criteria while recent ones also consider other criteria such as image quality, aesthetic or appeal. In this paper, we propose a multi-criteria context-sensitive approach for social image collection summarization. In the proposed method, two different sets of features are combined while each one looks at different criteria for image collection summarization: social attractiveness features and semantic features. The first feature set considers different aspects that make an image appealing such as image quality, aesthetic, and emotion to create attractiveness score for input images while the second one covers semantic content of images and assigns semantic score to them. We use social network infrastructure to identify attractiveness features and domain ontology for extracting ontology features. The final summarization is provided by integrating the attractiveness and semantic features of input images. The experimental results on a collection of human generated summaries on a set of Flickr images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed image collection summarization approach.     

Numerical simulation of transient heat transfer for tomato paste in semi rigid aluminum container

In this study, numerical model of heat transfer for tomato paste in semi-rigid aluminum container was developed by Fluent software 6.3.26. Grid independence was recognized. The impact of head space (air and water -vapor) and buoyancy force on heat transfer were investigated. Simulation results showed slowest heating zone (SHZ) located in (?11.676?<?X?<??10.738, 0.183?<?Y?<?1.269 and 4.417?<?Z?<?5.560) for model with air head space and in (?11.166?<?X?<??11.370, 0.762?<?Y?<?1.21 and 5.480?<?Z?<?5.506) for model with water–vapor head space in Cartesian system coordinate. A thermocouple was connected to container at (0, 0, 10 cartesian system coordinate) to get experimental data during process. Comparing temperatures of experimental model and predicted model (with head space) illustrated no significant difference (p?<?0.05).     

Process Optimization,Physical Properties,and Environmental Stability of an α-Tocopherol Nanocapsule Preparation Using Complex Coacervation Method and Full Factorial Design

α-Tocopherol (α-Toc) has valuable biological activity, but its activity is limited when exposed to environmental factors. Nanocapsules can be used to overcome this problem. Using nanocapsules in the range of 100–200 nm is more beneficial. A 2⁴ full factorial design was carried out to optimize the size of nanocapsules using the complex coacervation method. The four factors were the amount of the wall material, the ratio of core material to wall material, the pH of the solution, and the speed of the homogenizer. The smallest nanocapsules (176 nm) were obtained at a wall content (gelatine and pectin) of 0.8 mg, a percentage of core material (α-Toc) to wall material of 20%, a pH = 4.5, and a homogenizer speed of 12,000 rpm. The encapsulation efficiency was 90.6 ± 1.1%, and the encapsulation yield was 83.4 ± 1.6%. Assessment of the stability of α-Toc after 1 month showed that encapsulation could improve its stability in the presence of three influential factors: humidity, light, and temperature.     

Development of ocular drug delivery systems using molecularly imprinted soft contact lenses

Recently, significant advances have been made in order to optimize drug delivery to ocular tissues. The main problems in ocular drug delivery are poor bioavailability and uncontrollable drug delivery of conventional ophthalmic preparations (e.g. eye drops). Hydrogels have been investigated since 1965 as new ocular drug delivery systems. Increase of hydrogel loading capacity, optimization of drug residence time on the ocular surface and biocompatibility with the eye tissue has been the main focus of previous studies. Molecular imprinting technology provided the opportunity to fulfill the above-mentioned objectives. Molecularly imprinted soft contact lenses (SCLs) have high potentials as novel drug delivery systems for the treatment of eye disorders. This technique is used for the preparation of polymers with specific binding sites for a template molecule. Previous studies indicated that molecular imprinting technology could be successfully applied for the preparation of SCLs as ocular drug delivery systems. Previous research, particularly in vivo studies, demonstrated that molecular imprinting is a versatile and effective method in optimizing the drug release behavior and enhancing the loading capacity of SCLs as new ocular drug delivery systems. This review highlights various potentials of molecularly imprinted contact lenses in enhancing the drug-loading capacity and controlling the drug release, compared to other ocular drug delivery systems. We have also studied the effects of contributing factors such as the type of comonomer, template/functional monomer molar ratio, crosslinker concentration in drug-loading capacity, and the release properties of molecularly imprinted hydrogels.     

Practical methods for evaluating the accuracy of the eigenelements of a symmetric matrix

The results of the Householder and QL algorithms for determining the eigenelements of a symmetric matrix, provided by a computer, always contain the errors resulting from floating-point arithmetic round-off error propagation. The Permutation-Perturbation method is a very efficient practical method for evaluating these errors and consequently for estimating the exact significant figures of the eigenelements. But, in the cases of: eigenvalues very close to zero, eigenvalues of widely varying range, and multiple eigenvalues, the Permutation-Perturbation method is not complete. In this paper we propose an algorithm which is able to complete this method.     

A generalised optimal linear quadratic tracker with universal applications – part 1: continuous-time systems

This paper presents a generalised optimal linear quadratic analog tracker (LQAT) with universal applications for the continuous-time (CT) systems. This includes: (1) a generalised optimal LQAT design for the system with the pre-specified trajectories of the output and the control input and additionally with both the input-to-output direct-feedthrough term and known/estimated system disturbances or extra input/output signals; (2) a new optimal filter-shaped proportional plus integral state-feedback LQAT design for non-square non-minimum phase CT systems to achieve a minimum phase-like tracking performance; (3) a new approach for computing the control zeros of the given non-square CT system; and (4) a one-learning-epoch input-constrained iterative learning LQAT design for the repetitive CT system.     

Optimization of Water Distribution Networks Using Integer Linear Programming

In this study optimum design of municipal water distribution networks for a single loading condition is determined by the branch and bound integer linear programming technique. The hydraulic and optimization analyses are linked through an iterative procedure. This procedure enables us to design a water distribution system that satisfies all required constraints with a minimum total cost. The constraints include pipe sizes, which are limited to the commercially available sizes, reservoir levels, pipe flow velocities, and nodal pressures. Accuracy of the developed model has been assessed using a network with limited solution alternatives, the optimal solution of which can be determined without employing optimization techniques. The proposed model has also been applied to a network solved by others. Comparison of the results indicates that the accuracy and convergence of the proposed method is quite satisfactory.     

Effect of polysorbates on atenolol release from film-coated tablets

The effects of different concentrations of various polysorbates on the release rate of atenolol from film-coated tablets were evaluated. The release profile of atenolol showed that increasing the concentration of polysorbate resulted in an increase in the release rate of atenolol. The type of polysorbate had less effect on the release rate of atenolol. This study revealed that the release kinetic of atenolol from these film-coated tablets was a function of polysorbate concentration. Correlation coefficients of kinetic models could not solely determine the suitability of the models; the sum of the least square of differences also should be calculated when different kinetic models have similar correlation coefficients.