Annealing temperature-dependent structural and electrical properties of (Ta2O5)1-x - (TiO2)x thin films,x ≤ 0.11

(Ta₂O₅)_1-x- (TiO₂)_x (TTO_x) thin films, with x = 0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.08, and 0.11, were deposited using magnetron direct current (DC) sputtering method onto the P/boron-silicon (1 0 0) substrates by varying areas of Tantalum and Titanium metallic targets, in oxygen environment at ambient temperature. The as-deposited thin films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 500 to 800 °C. Generally, the formation of the Ta₂O₅ structure was observed from the X-ray diffraction measurements of the annealed films. The capacitance of prepared metal– oxide– semiconductor (MOS) structures of Ag/TTO_x/p-Si was measured at 1 MHz. The dielectric constant of the deposited films was observed altering with varying composition and annealing temperature, showing the highest value 71, at 1 MHz, for the TTO_x films, x = 0.06, annealed at 700 °C. With increasing annealing temperature, from 700 to 800 °C, the leakage current density was observed, generally decreasing, from 10^?5 to 10^?8 A cm^?2, for the prepared compositions. Among the prepared compositions, films with x = 0.06, annealed at 800 °C, having the observed value of dielectric constant 48, at 1 MHz; and the leakage current density 2.7 × 10^?8 A cm^?2, at the electric field of 3.5 × 10⁵ V cm^?1, show preferred potential as a dielectric for high-density silicon memory devices.     

A review on the applications of neuro-fuzzy systems in business

This paper presents a review of the application of neuro-fuzzy systems (NFS) in business on the basis of the research articles issued in various reputed international journals and conferences during 2005–2015. The use of NFS for tackling various real world problems in different business domains has diversified significantly during this period. In effect NFS has emerged as a dominant technique for addressing various difficult research problems in business. Based on a detailed review of these research papers we have identified finance, marketing, distribution, business planning, information systems, production and operations as the main business application domains of NFS during this period. This paper also discusses the impact of NFS in various business domains and the trend of this application based research during this period. This paper also surveys the various innovations in NFS methodologies employed by the researchers to deal with different business problems in each of these years. Moreover the paper includes some articles published during 2016 in several international journals to present the latest progress in the application of NFS in various business domains.     

Thermal stratification in hot storage-tanks

This experimental investigation was conducted as a support activity for the development at Sulaibiyah, which has a 22m³ stratified tank to act as a buffer reservoir between the paraboloid-dish solar collector and the toluence turbine energy-conversion device. The results show that the disturbed zone is 1500 mm thick (i.e. nearly 30% of usable tank height). Based on these results, an experimental model (1/25th scale by volume) was constructed to study the effect of using improved disbributor header geometry and a settling mesh for reducing the buffer-zone thickness. Using the new header configuration, extraction efficiencies of 85% could be achieved.     

Designing novel industrial and functional foods using the bioactive compounds from Nigella sativa L. (black cumin): Biochemical and biological prospects toward health implications

Nigella sativa is one of the nutraceuticals that has gained popularity and studied extensively in recent decades as it is considered a safe medicinal plant for use as a dietary supplement. N. sativa contains a wide variety of bioactive substances, which include polyphenols, volatile oils (thymoquinone and p-cymene), proteins, and peptides. The biological attributes of N. sativa include antioxidant, antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic, antihypertensive, hypolipidemic, and antioxidant activities, which have potential applications for the prevention of a variety of chronic diseases. In the food industry, N. sativa improves the sensory qualities, shelf life, strength, and freshness of foods, such as bread, pizza, biscuits, cookies, and cakes. This review discusses the industrial use of N. sativa, which includes processing technologies to enhance its health-promoting properties as well as the isolation of nutraceutical components.     

Bandwidth borrowing‐based QoS approach for adaptive call admission control in multiclass traffic wireless cellular networks

This paper proposes a QoS approach for an adaptive call admission control (CAC) scheme for multiclass service wireless cellular networks. The QoS of the proposed CAC scheme is achieved through call bandwidth borrowing and call preemption techniques according to the priorities of the traffic classes, using complete sharing of the available bandwidth. The CAC scheme maintains QoS in each class to avoid performance deterioration through mechanisms for call bandwidth degradation, and call bandwidth upgrading based on min–max and max–min policies for fair resource deallocation and reallocation, respectively. The proposed adaptive CAC scheme utilizes a measurement‐based online monitoring approach of the system performance, and a prediction model to determine the amount of bandwidth to be borrowed from calls, or the amount of bandwidth to be returned to calls. The simulation‐based performance evaluation of the proposed adaptive CAC scheme shows the strength and effectiveness of our proposed scheme. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Purification and characterization of hydrolytic and transgalactosyl α-galactosidase from Lactobacillus helveticus ATCC 10797

α-Galactosidase purified from Lactobacillus helveticus ATCC 10797 by fast performance liquid chromatography system using ion exchange and gel-filtration columns showed the K _m of 3.83 mM and V _max of 416.44 µmol/min/mg protein calculated from the substrate p-nitrophenyl-α-d-galactopyranoside. The molecular mass was 188 kDa by gel-filtration, but 90 kDa by SDS-PAGE, indicating a homodimer. The optimum temperature was 37 °C, and the optimum pH was at 6 with an acceptable stability between pH 4 and 8. This enzyme was activated by 10 mM monovalent ions such as K⁺, NH₄ ⁺, Li⁺, and CS⁺, while the activity was inhibited by divalent ions such as Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Fe²⁺. Melibiose was hydrolyzed to glucose and galactose, raffinose to galactose and sucrose, while stachyose to galactose and sucrose. A novel source of α-galactosidase from L. helveticus possessing both hydrolytic activity to eliminate flatulence sugars and transgalactosylation activities to synthesize galacto-oligosaccharides is identified and characterized.     

Breast Cancer Detection in Saudi Arabian Women Using Hybrid Machine Learning on Mammographic Images

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cause of women’s deaths worldwide. The mammography technique is the most important modality for the detection of BC. To detect abnormalities in mammographic images, the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADs) is used as a baseline. The correct allocation of BI-RADs categories for mammographic images is always an interesting task, even for specialists. In this work, to detect and classify the mammogram images in BI-RADs, a novel hybrid model is presented using a convolutional neural network (CNN) with the integration of a support vector machine (SVM). The dataset used in this research was collected from different hospitals in the Qassim health cluster of Saudi Arabia. The collection of all categories of BI-RADs is one of the major contributions of this paper. Another significant contribution is the development of a hybrid approach through the integration of CNN and SVM. The proposed hybrid approach uses three CNN models to obtain ensemble CNN model results. This ensemble model saves the values to integrate them with SVM. The proposed system achieved a classification accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, and F1-score of 93.6%, 94.8%, 96.9%, 96.6%, and 95.7%, respectively. The proposed model achieved better performance compared to previously available methods.