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.     

Response level crossing rate of a linear system excited by a partially specified Gaussian load process

The problem of determining the maximum mean response level crossing rate of a linear system driven by a partially specified Gaussian load process has been considered. The partial specification of the load is given only in terms of its total average energy. The critical input power spectral (PSD) function, which maximizes the mean response level crossing rate, is obtained. The critical input PSD turns out to be highly narrow-banded which fails to capture the erratic nature of the excitation. Consequently, the trade-off curve between the maximum mean response level crossing rate and the maximum disorder in the input process, quantified in terms of its entropy rate, has been generated. The method of Pareto optimization is used to tackle the conflicting objectives of the simultaneous maximization of the mean response level crossing rate and the input entropy rate. The non-linear multi-objective optimization has been carried out using a recently developed multi-criteria genetic algorithm scheme. Illustrative example of determining the critical input of an axially vibrating rod, excited by a partially specified stationary Gaussian load process, has been considered.     

Additive manufacturing in the spare parts supply chain

As additive manufacturing (AM) evolves to become a common method of producing final parts, further study of this computer integrated technology is necessary. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the potential impact of additive manufacturing improvements on the configuration of spare parts supply chains. This goal has been accomplished through scenario modeling of a real-life spare parts supply chain in the aeronautics industry. The spare parts supply chain of the F-18 Super Hornet fighter jet was selected as the case study because the air-cooling ducts of the environmental control system are produced using AM technology. In total, four scenarios are investigated that vary the supply chain configurations and additive manufacturing machine specifications. The reference scenario is based on the spare parts supplier's current practice and the possible future decentralization of production and likely improvements in AM technology. Total operating cost, including downtime cost, is used to compare the scenarios. We found that using current AM technology, centralized production is clearly the preferable supply chain configuration in the case example. However, distributed spare parts production becomes practical as AM machines become less capital intensive, more autonomous and offer shorter production cycles. This investigation provides guidance for the development of additive manufacturing machines and their possible deployment in spare parts supply chains. This study contributes to the emerging literature on AM deployment in supply chains with a real-world case setting and scenario model illustrating the cost trade-offs and critical requirements for technology development.     

Complexity and design of QoS routing algorithms in wireless mesh networks

Quality of service (QoS) provisioning in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is an open issue to support emerging multimedia services. In this paper, we study the problem of QoS provisioning in terms of end-to-end bandwidth allocation in WMNs. It is challenging due to interferences in the networks. We consider widely used interference models and show that except a few special cases, the problem of finding a feasible path is NP-complete under the models. We propose a k-shortest path based algorithmic framework to solve this problem. We also consider the problem of optimizing network performance by on-line dynamic routing, and adapt commonly used conventional QoS routing metrics to be used in WMNs. We find the optimal solutions for these problems through formulating them as optimization models. A model is developed to check the existence of a feasible path and another to find the optimal path for a demand; moreover, an on-line optimal QoS routing algorithm is developed. Comparing the algorithms implemented by the proposed framework with the optimization models shows that our solution can find existing feasible paths with high probability, efficiently optimizes path lengths, and has a comparable performance to the optimal QoS routing algorithm. Furthermore, our results show that contrary to wireline networks, minimizing resource consumption should be preferred over load distribution even in lightly loaded WMNs.     

Gastroprotective effects of herbal medicines (roots)

Herbal medicines are now commonly used all over the world and this has increased global demand. Quality, safety, and efficacy of these drugs have become a serious concern. This review presents the medicinal plants cited in folklore that are used to treat gastrointestinal ulcers. Electronic databases, that is, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched to identify the gastroprotective effects of each plant. Ethnopharmacological studies have reported various botanical products with antiulcer activities, but there has been limited scientific research, presenting clinical data to validate the efficacy and safety of medicinal herbs as gastroprotective agents. Most studies centered on pharmacological properties of medicinal herbs as used animals models. This information has prompted us to compile a list of the medicinal herbs cited in folklore with gastroprotective activity.     

Chemical composition,antioxidative capacity and interactive antimicrobial potency of Satureja khuzestanica Jamzad essential oil and antimicrobial agents against selected food‐related microorganisms

This study aimed to determine the chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidative activity of Satureja khuzestanica Jamzad essential oil. The oil was analysed by GC and GC/MS. Twenty‐eight constituents were identified. The oxygenated monoterpenes (78.22%) were the principal compound group. Among them, carvacrol (53.86%) and thymol (19.84%) were the most abundant constituents. The oil exhibited an acceptable antimicrobial activity against most of the tested microorganisms. The checkerboard method was applied to determine fractional inhibitory concentration indices (FICIs) to interpret the synergetic, additive, indifference or antagonistic interactions between essential oil and each of antimicrobials (lysozyme, ciprofloxacin, fluconazole and amphotericin B) against food‐related microorganisms. The synergetic phenomenon (FICI ≤ 0.5) was observed in majority of combinations with the exception of the essential oil and lysozyme. The oil exhibited good 1,1‐diphenyl‐2‐picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity (IC₅₀ = 28.71 μg mL^?1). Also, the oil had strong antioxidative activity in β‐carotene‐linoleic acid assay relative antioxidant activity (RAA% = 95.45). This study demonstrated that the essential oil has beneficial biological properties and its simultaneous application with standard antimicrobials against food‐related microorganisms result in reduction in inhibitory doses of the antimicrobials in vitro.