QoS metrics-in-the-loop for endowing runtime self-adaptation to robotic software architectures

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The design of robots capable of operating autonomously in changing and unstructured environments, requires using complex software architectures in which,...     

Design of a Control System Using an Artificial Neural Network to Optimize the Energy Efficiency of Water Distribution Systems

Sustainable management of water supply systems is a major challenge within the framework of the water-energy nexus. The main strategies to improve the operation of these systems are related to increasing the hydraulic and energy efficiency of pumping systems. In this context, this work presents a new artificial neural network (ANN) controller to improve the operation of water distribution systems (WDSs) that includes in its algorithm the specific energy consumption (SEC) as a decision parameter. Therefore, pressure control at the measuring points is also based on the energy efficiency of the pumps. The technique was applied to control the pressures in an experimental setup that emulates a WDS with two consumption zones with different topographies. For this purpose, the controller acted on a conventional pump, a booster pump and a control valve. To analyze the performance under the controller action, tests were performed emulating water-demand scenarios, introducing perturbations and changing the pressure setpoints. The real-time control performance was proven based on the dynamic performance, steady-state performance and SEC. The experimental results showed that the proposed controller kept the pressures close to the setpoints and provided a reduction in the SEC between 15.1% and 17.8%, compared with the uncontrolled system, and an economy that varied from 2.5% to 8.1% compared with the performance of the ANN based only on pressure control.

     

Modeling and Verification of a Sentiment Analysis System Using Aspect-Oriented Petri Nets

An increasing number of social media and networking platforms have been widely used. People usually post the online comments to share their own opinions on the networking platforms with social media. Business companies are increasingly seeking effective ways to mine what people think and feel regarding their products and services. How to correctly understand the online customers’ reviews becomes an important issue. This study aims to propose a method with the aspect-oriented Petri nets (AOPN) to improve the examination correctness without changing any process and program. We collect those comments from the online reviews with Scrapy tools, perform sentiment analysis using SnowNLP, and examine the analysis results to improve the correctness. In this paper, we apply our method for a case of the online movie comments. The experimental results have shown that AOPN is helpful for the sentiment analysis and verifying its correctness.     

Magnetically Modified Waste Bark of Aegle marmelos Tree as a Promising Biosorbent for Uranium(VI) Sorption

Radiochemistry - Magnetically modified waste bark of the Aegle marmelos tree was prepared by using green synthesis method and was used in a batch system for U(VI) removal from aqueous solution. The...     

Hydrogenation of CO2 to Hydrocarbons over Zirconia-Supported Cobalt Catalyst Promoted with Potassium

Catalysis Letters - The purpose of this study was to investigate the promotive effect of potassium on the catalytic performance and properties of Co/ZrO2 catalysts during hydrogenation of CO2 to...     

Three dimensional reconstruction of brain tumor along with space occupying in lesions

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The three-dimensional models of brain tumors serve as diagnostic assistance for physicians, surgeons, and radiologists. The proposed system establishes an...     

Effect of heat treatment and zircon addition on the properties of low-cement castables based on recycled alumina grog

In this investigation, low-cement castables were prepared using 70% alumina grog aggregates obtained from crushed alumina brick waste. The aggregates were thermally treated at 1550 °C for 3 h. Four types of low-cement castables were prepared with various types of aggregates (alumina grog with or without thermal treatment) and fillers (with or without zircon addition), and they were evaluated in terms of their physical, thermal, and chemical properties. Microstructural analysis via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed on the castables before and after slag attack. Compared to the other fabricated castables, the thermally treated alumina grog castables with zircon showed better physical properties, such as a higher bulk density, cold crushing strength, and modulus of rupture and a lower apparent porosity and water absorption. In addition, they had a higher positive linear thermal expansion, refractoriness under load, permanent linear change, and hot modulus of rupture. The results of the SEM with energy dispersive X-ray analysis of the prepared castables confirmed that the mullite and anorthite phases were predominant when zircon was not added and the zircon–mullite phase additionally appeared upon the incorporation of zircon. A quantitative elemental analysis via X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy was employed to determine the composition of the castables. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the alumina grog castables had a high mullite and low anorthite content, and the thermally treated alumina grog had a high anorthite, low mullite, and high zircon content. The improvement in the mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties of the castables with thermally treated alumina grog and added zircon can be attributed to the formation of the zircon–mullite phase with a low mullite phase content.     

Inhibition of Autophagy Does Not Re-Sensitize Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells Resistant to Cytarabine

Elevated activation of the autophagy pathway is currently thought to be one of the survival mechanisms allowing therapy-resistant cancer cells to escape elimination, including for cytarabine (AraC)-resistant acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Consequently, the use of autophagy inhibitors such as chloroquine (CQ) is being explored for the re-sensitization of AraC-resistant cells. In our study, no difference in the activity of the autophagy pathway was detected when comparing AraC-Res AML cell lines to parental AraC-sensitive AML cell lines. Furthermore, treatment with autophagy inhibitors CQ, 3-Methyladenine (3-MA), and bafilomycin A1 (BafA1) did not re-sensitize AraC-Res AML cell lines to AraC treatment. However, in parental AraC-sensitive AML cells, treatment with AraC did activate autophagy and, correspondingly, combination of AraC with autophagy inhibitors strongly reduced cell viability. Notably, the combination of these drugs also yielded the highest level of cell death in a panel of patient-derived AML samples even though not being additive. Furthermore, there was no difference in the cytotoxic effect of autophagy inhibition during AraC treatment in matched de novo and relapse samples with differential sensitivity to AraC. Thus, inhibition of autophagy may improve AraC efficacy in AML patients, but does not seem warranted for the treatment of AML patients that have relapsed with AraC-resistant disease.     

Two-step sinter-crystallization of K2O–CaO–P2O5–SiO2 (45S5-K) bioactive glass

Bioactive glasses and glass-ceramics (GCs) effectively regenerate bone tissue, however most GCs show improved mechanical properties. In this work, we developed and tested a rarely studied bioactive glass composition (24.4K₂O-26.9CaO-46.1SiO₂-2.6P₂O₅ mol%, identified as 45S5-K) with different particle sizes and heating rates to obtain a sintered GC that combines good fracture strength, low elastic modulus, and bioactivity. We analyzed the influence of the sintering processing conditions in the elastic modulus, Vickers microhardness, density, and crystal phase formation in the GC. The best GC shows improved properties compared with its parent glass. This glass achieves a good densification degree with a two-step viscous flow sintering approach and the resulting GC shows as high bioactivity as that of the standard 45S5 Bioglass®. Furthermore, the GC elastic modulus (56 GPa) is relatively low, minimizing stress shielding. Therefore, we unveiled the glass sintering behavior with concurrent crystallization of this complex bioactive glass composition and developed a potential GC for bone regeneration.     

Hydrothermal synthesis of α-SnWO4: Application to lithium-ion battery and photocatalytic activity

The high capacity anode material is required to replace the most commonly used anode - graphite to keep up the global demand to achieve the goal. Multi-metal oxide has gained keen attention for its higher theoretical capacity and relatively stable than a single metal oxide. α-SnWO₄ has a theoretical capacity of 850 mAh g^?1 which is greater than graphite (372 mAh g^?1). α-SnWO₄ has been synthesized through low-temperature hydrothermal method using tin chloride and sodium tungstate as a precursor in acidic medium (succinic acid) at 200 °C for 12 h. The obtained product has been characterized using various analytical tools such as XRD, FT-IR, UV-DRS, BET, PL, SEM, and HR-TEM. XRD analysis shows the orthorhombic phase with a crystallite size of ~25 nm α-SnWO₄has been examined as an electrode material for Li-ion battery (LIB) and displays an initial discharge capacity of 985 mAh g^?1. Columbic efficiency close to 100% has been observed for 100 cycles. The stability of the electrode material was studied at different C-rates. Band-gap calculated using UV-DRS (Eg = 1.9 eV) shows that α-SnWO₄ is a good candidate for photocatalytic degradation. Results of the photocatalytic experiment using methylene blue (MB) as a model pollutant in an aqueous medium shows good results. The above applications show that α-SnWO₄ is multifunctional materials for diverse applications.