November 2011
Prediction of compressive strength of concrete from volume ratio and Bingham parameters using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and data mining
Concrete is the most widely used and one of the oldest material in the construction industry. Compressive strength is one of the most important mechanical properties of hardened concrete because it is related to other properties or performance of concrete. In this study, a soft computing technique called adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was carried out for predicting the compressive strength of...
November 2011
ZLoc: A C++ library for local search
Local search is known as an effective technique for solving combinatorial optimization problems. However, there are few tools that provide high level facilities for users to implement their own local search algorithms. In this paper, we introduce ZLoc, a new C++ library for local search. ZLoc supports many high-level features usually found in modeling languages, such as Zinc. It allows users to define their...
November 2011
Simple technique to evaluate effects of nonsphericity and orientation on particle size distribution retrieval
This paper reports the formulation of an algorithm based on the anomalous diffraction theory to infer the particle size distribution (PSD) from theoretical perspective, taking the effects of particle nonsphericity and orientation into account. Preliminary analysis of input parameters sensitivity of the analytical retrieval formulas of the different PSDs, it is found that there exist simple scale...
November 2011
Determination of geothermal gradient and heat flow distribution in Delta State, Nigeria
Geothermal and heat flow distribution study was carried out at eighteen locations in Delta State, Nigeria using field data obtained from temperature logging and thermal conductivity measurements. The study shows that the geothermal gradients for the area ranges from a minimum of 25.47°C/km to a maximum of 31.16°C/km and a mean geothermal gradient of 28.64°C/km. This result indicates that the...
November 2011
Investigation of glass-built multigap-RPC simulation response to gamma-rays up to an energy range of 1.0 GeV using GEANT4 Monte Carlo code
A new configuration of a multigap resistive plate chamber (MRPC) was implemented and tested with GEANT4 MC simulation. The glass-built 10-gap MRPC setup with each gap of 250 μm consists of several interleaved glass electrodes inside the chamber, which has an active area 3 × 3 cm2. We report the simulation response of glass-built 10-gap MRPC for gamma rays up to an energy range of 0.007 MeV to 1.0...
November 2011
Effect of skew angle on nonlinear static behavior of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) laminates with circular cutout
One of the factors influencing the stiffness and stresses of the plate is skew angle of the plate. The present work focused on evaluation of the effect of skew angle on geometric nonlinear behavior of a four layered symmetric cross-ply (0°/90°/90°/0°) skew laminated fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composite plate with a circular cutout at the geometric centre of the plate. The problem was...
November 2011
Crash of automotive side member subjected to oblique loading
This paper presents the crash behavior analysis of automotive side member represented by aluminum square column subjected to oblique loading via finite element method. In crash research, energy absorption capacity is greatly affected by the deformation pattern, thus the collapse behavior and deformation pattern of this column is studied and observed. Effect of the geometrical parameters and loading angle,...
November 2011
The effect of discontinuities on stability of rock blocks in tunnel
This paper presents the results of an investigation that was carried out using important parameters such as discontinuities in forming rock block and instability in tunnel. The discontinuities like bedding and joints are one of the most important factors compared with parameters such as engineering features of rock mass. In this review, numerous features like Rock Quality Designation (RQD), rock...
November 2011
In situ measurement of soil dielectric permittivity of various soil types across the climatic zones of Nigeria
The increasing use of microwaves and millimeter waves in various fields of human endeavor such as communications, radar, medicine, biology, agriculture, industrial processes and civil engineering demands accurate data on the dielectric properties of materials. For instance, field density and soil water content are used as a quality control or quality assurance criterion in flexible pavement systems,...
November 2011
A study of electricity market volatility using long memory heteroscedastic model
An accurate wholesale electricity market forecast has become an essential tool in bidding and hedging strategies in competitive electricity markets. This paper provides a dynamic asymmetric long memory heteroscedastic model to account the high volatile daily wholesale electricity markets in New England and Louisiana. This model implemented power Cox-Box transformation (Tse, 1998) under the Chung’s...
November 2011
Equilibrium and related thermodynamic studies of a hydrogen bonded multicomponent complex in mixed solvents
An interesting multicomponent complex has been prepared by incorporating a non – ionic homopolymer (e.g., Poly(Vinyl Pyrrolidone) PVP) on a typical copolymer (e .g., Methacrylic Acid/Acryl Amide MA/AAm). Stability constants and related thermodynamic parameters (e.g., Free energy change ∆Fo, Enthalpy change ∆Ho and Entropy change ∆So) have been determined. Interpretations have been...
November 2011
Cyclic voltammetry studies of cadmium zinc sulfide aqueous solution
Cyclic voltammetry studies in aqueous solution were found to offer some noteworthy information in the electrodeposition synthesis of cadmium zinc sulfide thin film. The studies were performed at low pH, room temperature and fixed solution concentration. Suitable deposition potential ranges were obtained from this analysis. Cadmium zinc sulfide thin films were deposited at different potentials to determine...
November 2011
Adsorption of reactive blue 4 onto the chemically modified red seaweed Amphiroa foliacea: Equilibrium, kinetics and modeling studies
Indigenous red algae commonly found in Malaysian waters, Amphiroa foliacea was used as biosorbent for the removal of a reactive textile dye, Reactive blue 4 (RB4) from synthetic aqueous solution. Investigation on the effects of initial dye concentration on batch sorption of RB4 by A. foliacea was conducted, followed by the isothermic sorption and kinetic modeling of dye removal....
November 2011
Hemilability of ether-phosphine in ruthenium(II) complexes: 31P{1H}-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), fast atom bombardment-mass spectroscopy (FAB-MS) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (EXAF) to confirm the open-closed behavior
The hemilability of the ether-phosphine ligand [Ph2PCH2CH2OMe] was recorded during complexes 1 and 2 synthesis. The structures of both 1 and 2 have been deduced from elemental analysis, IR, EXAF, FAB-mass spectrometry, 1H, 13C{1H} and 31P{1H} NMR spectroscopy. One of the chloride atoms in 1 was abstracted using AgOTf reagent to prepare the mono-cationic O-Ru-P closed 2. By treatment complex 2...
November 2011
Application of central composite design for preparation of Kenaf fiber based activated carbon for adsorption of manganese (II) ion
The objective of this research is to define optimum operating conditions for preparation of activated carbon from kenaf fiber which would conciliate for highest removal efficiency of manganese (II) ions along with maximum possible yield. Kenaf fiber (KF) is used to prepare activated carbon by using two step; physiochemical activation method which consisted of potassium hydroxide treatment (KOH) with carbon...
November 2011
Image thresholding based on evolutionary algorithms
The objective of this paper is to propose an adaptive-evolutionary method for thresholding which is used as an artificial intelligent algorithm for image segmentation especially for object segmentation. This method employs resistant versus mixed histograms because of its suitable fitness function selection that consists of the histogram details. As things develop in the paper, three evolutionary...
November 2011
The study of specific absorption rate (SAR) reduction in mobile phones using materials and metamaterials
In this paper, reducing of specific absorption rate (SAR) with materials and metamaterials attachment is investigated. The finite-difference time-domain method with lossy-Drude model is adopted in this study. The methodology of SAR reduction is addressed and the belongings of attaching position, distance, and size of ferrite sheet material properties, perfect electric conductor (PEC), and metamaterials on the...
November 2011
Hybrid particle swarm optimization for robust digital image watermarking
This paper presents an image watermarking algorithm for the optimization between robustness and transparency which is recently considered as one of the most challenging issues. The novelty is to associate the Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (HPSO), instead of a single optimization, as a model with singular value decomposition (SVD). To embed and extract the watermark, the...
November 2011
Temporal modeling and its application for anomaly detection in smart homes
Classification and modeling of activity duration provide significant characteristics to estimate the psychological behaviour of a smart home resident. This article validates the fact, which was only an assumption previously, that smart home event duration can be modeled in Gaussian distribution. It proposes a temporal prediction algorithm based on Gaussian distribution to predict the duration of an event...
November 2011
MR imaging enhancement and segmentation of tumor using fuzzy curvelet
Medical image segmentation is a very important issue in medical imaging. An automatic brain MR image segmentation method has been proposed for tumor detection in this paper. Discretize local window and wrapping based Curvelet transform has been used to remove rician noise. A modified fuzzy C-mean algorithm is used for segmentation of brain MR image. Proposed system has been tested on different datasets of MR...
November 2011
Hybrid evolutionary computational approach: Application to van der pol oscillator
We presented a method for van der Pol oscillators using artificial neural network optimized by evolutionary computational approach. A trail solution of the oscillator is written as a feed-forward neural network containing adjustable adaptive parameters. The optimization of the networks is performed by genetic algorithms in an unsupervised way. The proposed scheme is tested successfully by applying on both the...
November 2011
Extending promotion to operate controller based on train’s operation
Previous work described by the authors was the use of promotion to link the global state (controller) with the local state (train system). In which the operation of a train makes changes in controller, based on the approach of promotion. However, the model did not apply to any of the critical interlocking components. This paper extends to provide safety along the critical components, that is, when train moves...
November 2011
Use of nanotechnology for the production of biofuels from butchery waste
Biodiesel can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels and successful studies have been carried out in different applications. The advantages with biodiesel are lower bulk, higher energy density, as well as more transportable and storable capability. We used butchery waste for the production of hydrocarbon gases and biodiesel. For this purpose we used nano catalyst and anatase form of titanium dioxide...
November 2011
Clustering the Iran climate based on climatic elements affecting potential evapotranspiration
The main purpose of this study is to cluster the Iran climate based on the components of the climate affecting evapotranspiration. For this study, eight components of the climate, the mean temperature difference, the average minimum and maximum relative humidity, number of sunshine hours, monthly amounts of precipitation, days with precipitation higher than 5 and 10 mm, effective precipitation, frequency...
November 2011
Performance assessment of Hargreaves model in estimating solar radiation in Abuja using minimum climatological data
Lack of incident solar radiation is a significant impediment for most related research applications. Mathematical models have been handy in reducing challenges being posed by inability of having solar radiation instrumental sites at every point on the Earth. Hargreaves-Samani’s model is one of the several empirical methods so far formulated in estimating global solar radiation (GSR) from maximum and...
November 2011
Mineralogical and geochemical aspects of geophagic clayey soils from the Democratic Republic of Congo
Clayey soil samples ingested by the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were obtained in their physical state of ingestion, from selected localities in the country. The particle size, minerals contents and geochemical composition of the samples were determined in order to establish baseline information on mineralogy and geochemistry of geophagic soils in DRC. The geophagic clayey soils were...
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