Design and implementation of a new tuned hybrid intelligent model to predict the uniaxial compressive strength of the rock using SFS-ANFIS

This study proposes a novel design to systematically optimize the parameters for the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model using stochastic fractal search (SFS) algorithm. To affirm the efficiency of the proposed SFS-ANFIS model, the predicting results were compared with ANFIS and three hybrid methodologies based on ANFIS combined with genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE), and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Accurate prediction of uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) is of great significance for all geotechnical projects such as tunnels and dams. Hence, this study proposes the use of SFS-ANFIS, GA-ANFIS, DE-ANFIS, PSO-ANFIS, and ANFIS models to predict UCS. In this regard, the fresh water tunnel of Pahang–Selangor located in Malaysia was considered and the requirement data samples were collected. Different statistical metrics such as coefficient of determination (R²) and mean absolute error were used to evaluate the models. Referring to the efficiency results of SFS-ANFIS, it can be found that the SFS-ANFIS (with the R² of 0.981) has higher ability than PSO-ANFIS, DE-ANFIS, GA-ANFIS, and ANFIS models in predicting the UCS.

     

Modeling and Analysis of Temperature Compensation for Multi-temperature Zone Sintering Furnace Temperature Sensing

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - The surface temperature of workpieces in a multi-temperature zone sintering furnace is an important parameter to characterize the...     

In situ trapped high-density single metal atoms within graphene: Iron-containing hybrids as representatives for efficient oxygen reduction

Nano Research - Atomically dispersed catalysts have attracted attention in energy conversion applications because their efficiency and chemoselectivity for special catalysis are superior to those...     

Theoretical calculation simulation studies of ABV nuclear reactor coupled with desalination system

In this paper, research has been conducted on the floating type nuclear power plant named as ABV reactor which is designed for district heating, power, and sea water desalination by OKBM facility at Russia. This reactor was tested under different thermal loads during the designing phase, and three modules have been investigated. Theoretical calculations and simulation studies have been performed on these three modules having specifications as ABV‐6M with 47MW_th, ABV‐6 with 38MW_th, and ABV‐3 with 18MW_th.The results obtained from these modules have been calculated mathematically and verified by simulation. We have compared the originally derived data of ABV desalination system with our theoretical and simulation analysis. The results from two desalination techniques including RO and RO + MED have been calculated and are presented in this paper with details. The results obtained from both analysis show that the efficiency of ABV nuclear reactor desalination system increases with the decrease in corresponding water cost ratio. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anodic dissolution of nickel in acidic chloride solutions

The anodic dissolution of nickel was studied galvanostatically in hydrochloric acid solutions of various concentrations. The reaction orders of chloride ion and hydrogen ion concentrations were found to be 0.5 and 1.0, respectively. An anodic Tafel slope equal to 120 ± 10 mV · decade⁻¹ was obtained. The dissolution rate of nickel at constant acid concentration was increased with stirring of the solution and increasing temperature. The activation energy, ΔH, for the anodic dissolution process was found to be 12 kcal · mol⁻¹. The presence of oxygen in solutions assisted the passivation process. The effect of addition of aniline and some of its derivatives (o-, m-, and p-anisidine) as inhibitors on the dissolution kinetics of Ni in 1 M HCl was also investigated. These compounds inhibited the anodic dissolution of nickel without affecting the Tafel slope, indicating that the adsorption of such inhibitors could not interfere with the mechanism of metal dissolution.     

Civil Liabilities for Unsafe Foods in Bangladesh and Australia: A Comparative Perspective on Consumer Protection

The statutory laws concerning food safety, which allow the consumers affected by unsafe foods to claim compensation for their loss or damage in Bangladesh, are flawed in several respects. These flaws are argued to have harmful impacts on consumer protection. The ineffective legislation in the absence of application of the common law principles of negligence has left the consumers virtually helpless in securing remedies for their injuries. This article endeavors to critically examine the ambiguities and shortcomings in the Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 (Bangladesh) looking through the prisms of the Australian Consumer Law 2010 and relevant case law from major common law jurisdictions. It discovers a number of weaknesses in the legislation of Bangladesh and provides specific suggestions for strengthening the civil liability provisions from the perspective of consumer protection by preventing their contraventions and providing adequate compensation.     

Dynamic Spectrum Access with QoS and Interference Temperature Constraints

Spectrum is one of the most precious radio resources. With the increasing demand for wireless communication, efficiently using the spectrum resource has become an essential issue. With the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) spectrum policy reform, secondary spectrum sharing has gained increasing interest. One of the policy reforms introduces the concept of an interference temperature - the total allowable interference in a spectral band. This means that secondary users can use different transmit powers as long as the sum of these power is less than the interference threshold. In this paper, we study two problems in secondary spectrum access with minimum signal to interference noise ratio (quality of service (QoS)) guarantee under an interference temperature constraint. First, when all the secondary links can be supported, a nonlinear optimization problem with the objective to maximize the total transmitting rate of the secondary users is formulated. The nonlinear optimization is solved efficiently using geometric programming techniques. The second problem we address is, when not all the secondary links can be supported with their QoS requirement, it is desirable to have the spectrum access opportunity proportional to the user priority if they belong to different priority classes. In this context, we formulate an operator problem which takes the priority issues into consideration. To solve this problem, first, we propose a centralized reduced complexity search algorithm to find the optimal solution. Then, in order to solve this problem distributively, we define a secondary spectrum sharing potential game. The Nash equilibria of this potential game are investigated. The efficiency of the Nash equilibria solutions are characterized. It is shown that distributed sequential play and an algorithm based on stochastic learning attain the equilibrium solutions. Finally, the performances are examined through simulations     

Multiple Antenna Enhancements for a High Rate CDMA Packet Data System

A High Data Rate (HDR) system has been proposed for providing downlink wireless packet service by using a channel-aware scheduling algorithm to transmit to users in a time-division multiplexed manner. In this paper, we propose using multiple antennas at the transmitter and/or at the receiver to improve performance of an HDR system. We consider the design tradeoffs between scheduling and multi-antenna transmission/detection strategies and investigate the average Shannon capacity throughput as a function of the number of antennas assuming ideal channel estimates and rate feedback. The highest capacities are achieved using multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver. For such systems, the best performance is achieved using a multi-input multi-output capacity-achieving transmission scheme such as BLAST (Bell Labs Layered Space-Time) in which the transmitted signal is coded in space and time, and the receive antennas are used to resolve the spatial interference. In the second part of the paper, we discuss practical transmitter and receiver architectures using BLAST for approaching the theoretical gains promised by the capacity analysis. Because the terminal receivers will be portable devices with limited computational and battery power, we perform a computational complexity analysis of the receiver and make high-level assessments on its feasibility. We conclude that the overall computational requirements are within the reach of current hardware technology.     

Comparison of fluorescence, laser-induced fluorescence, and ultraviolet absorbance detection for measuring HPLC fractionated protein/peptide mixtures

Proteomics is the study of all proteins in a biological sample. High-pressure liquid chromatography coupled online with mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) is currently the method of choice for proteomic analysis. Proteins are extracted, separated at the protein or peptide level (after enzymatic digestion), and fractions are analyzed by HPLC/MS. Detection during off-line fractionation is generally conducted using UV-vis, which is not sensitive enough to distinguish fractions having the largest concentration of proteins/peptides and should not be combined prior to HPLC/MS. To overcome this deficiency, we utilize fluorescence or UV-laser induced fluorescence (UV-LIF) detection for measuring proteins/peptides during the off-line fractionation. Fluorescence detection allows low-abundance proteins/peptides that contain aromatic amino acids to be measured. In this study, peptide/protein samples fractionated using ion-exchange chromatography were detected using UV absorbance, fluorescence, and UV-LIF. The results indicated that fluorescence and UV-LIF were able to detect the lower abundance proteins/peptides to give a more representative chromatogram, allowing the analyst to decide which fractions should be combined prior to HPLC/tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis.