An integrated interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS methodology to determine the safest route for cash in transit operations: a real case in Istanbul

Neural Computing and Applications - The Cash in Transit (CIT) deals with the money distribution and picking up between depot(s), central bank, bank branches, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs),...     

Calcium deficient hydroxyapatite by precipitation: Continuous process by vortex reactor and semi-batch synthesis

Precipitation of calcium deficient hydroxyapatite nanoparticles in an environmentally benign manner by using only dilute solutions of calcium hydroxide and phosphoric acid without pH adjustment and addition of other chemicals, and water, being the only by-product was investigated by using continuous flow Vortex Reactor (VR) and Semi-Batch Reactor (SBR). The effect of hydrodynamics by changing the Reynolds number of the jets providing residence times of 8.4 ms to 4.37 s for VR, and by changing the stirrer speed between 100 rpm (Re = 2656) and 1000 rpm (Re = 26560) for SBR, on the particle size, particle size distribution, and morphology of the particles was investigated for both systems. It has been shown that it is possible to produce pure phase hydroxyapatite nanoparticles in the desired morphology by changing production system, without resorting to additives. While VR produced rod-like particles with the crystallite size around 4 nm, SBR produced spherical particles with the crystallite size of around 5 nm.     

Donor Heart Preservation with Hydrogen Sulfide: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Preclinical studies have shown that postconditioning with hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) exerts cardioprotective effects against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). The aim of this study was to appraise the current evidence of the cardioprotective effects of H₂S against IRI in order to explore the future implementation of H₂S in clinical cardiac transplantation. The current literature on H₂S postconditioning in the setting of global myocardial ischemia was systematically reviewed and analyzed, performing meta-analyses. A literature search of the electronic databases Medline, Embase and Cinahl identified 1835 studies that were subjected to our pre-defined inclusion criteria. Sixteen studies were considered eligible for inclusion. Postconditioning with H₂S showed significant robust effects with regard to limiting infarct size (standardized mean difference (SMD) = −4.12, 95% CI [−5.53–−2.71], p < 0.00001). Furthermore, H₂S postconditioning consistently resulted in a significantly lower release of cardiac injury markers, lower levels of oxidative stress and improved cardiac function. Postconditioning with slow-releasing H₂S donors offers a valuable opportunity for novel therapies within cardiac preservation for transplantation. Before clinical implication, studies evaluating the long-term effects of H₂S treatment and effects of H₂S treatment in large animal studies are warranted.     

Glycation of soy protein isolate with two ketoses: d-Allulose and fructose

Modification of food proteins to have improved functional properties is of great importance. In this study, modification of soy protein isolate (SPI) was achieved through glycation. SPI was glycated in a spray dryer (SD) and an incubator followed by freeze drying (FD). d -Allulose, an important rare sugar, was used in SPI glycation as the carbohydrate source, and results were compared with fructose. In addition to the sugar type, two different SPI powder: sugar ratios (1:1 and 5:1) were investigated. For the glycated samples, emulsification activity, free amino groups, protein solubility, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis, antioxidant activity experiments and time-domain NMR relaxometry measurements for hydration were conducted. According to the results, the solubility of SPI that is limited in native form has shown a significant improvement after glycation through both FD and SD methods. Besides, glycation through the FD method was found to be more favourable due to its milder conditions than the SD method. Considering the physicochemical properties, the best combination for the highest glycation degree was found to be the samples prepared at the 1:1 ratio with d -Allulose in the FD method. Overall, it was concluded that glycation of SPI enhanced its functional properties such as antioxidant and emulsification activities.     

Object manipulation with a variable-stiffness robotic mechanism using deep neural networks for visual semantics and load estimation

Neural Computing and Applications - In recent years, the computer vision applications in the robotics have been improved to approach human-like visual perception and scene/context understanding....     

The nitriding of Fe-V alloys

Fe-V alloys containing 1.06 wt pct V, 5.23 wt pct V and 15.55 wt pct V, have been nitrided in purified NH₃ gas in temperatures ranging between 773 K and 1173 K. The nitriding kinetics of all these alloys in this temperature range obey a parabolic rate law. The comparison of the nitriding rate constants evaluated from experimental results and from the calculations based on Wagner's internal oxidation model show a deviation which is explained in terms of the effect of the lattice strains on the solubility and diffusivity of nitrogen in the Fe matrix. The hardness of the nitrided zone increases with the vanadium content in solution and reaches a saturation value of about 1300 VHN (12.75 GNm⁻²) which corresponds to about 4 wt pct V. The hardening in the nitrided region is cuased by the precipitation of VN which cannot be observed on specimens nitrided at the lower limits of the temperature range. Precipitates grown in size can be seen on specimens nitrided at 1073 K and 1173 K.     

A decision model for setting target levels in quality function deployment using nonlinear programming-based fuzzy regression and optimization

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a customer-oriented design tool for developing new or improved products and services to increase customer satisfaction. The inherent fuzziness of functional relationships between customer requirements and engineering characteristics, and among engineering characteristics in QFD modeling justifies the use of fuzzy regression. However, when linear programming is used in fuzzy regression, spread values of regression coefficients tend to approach zero. In order to overcome this problem, this paper employs a nonlinear-programming-based fuzzy regression approach to model functional relationships in product planning. Then, a fuzzy mathematical programming model is developed to determine target levels of engineering characteristics using the functional relationships obtained from fuzzy regression. Fuzzy mathematical programming model enables to account for the spread values as well as the center values of the parameter estimates of the functional relationships. A washing machine quality improvement problem is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed approach.     

Sorption of N-butane,propane, and ethane in ethylcellulose

The sorption of n-butane, propane, and ethane in ethylcellulose has been investigated between 0 and 200 mm Hg pressure over the temperature range from 30 to 70°C. Sorption isotherms of n-butane, propane, and ethane in ethylcellulose suggest that both Henry's law and the Langmuir forms of sorption, are operative. Sorption data were analyzed using the dual sorption model and sorption parameters determined. The sorption attributed to the Langmuir mode decreases as the temperature increases. This result indicates that the nonlinear Langmuir mode of sorption is more characteristic of the glassy state than sorption represented by the Henry's law mode. It was found that sorption attributed to the Henry's law and Langmuir modes decreases as the molecular size of gaseous hydrocarbon penetrants decrease. In this study, the molecular size of gaseous molecule decreased as the gases studied changed from n-butane to propane to ethane. A correlation of the Henry's law constants for the solution of n-butane, propane, and ethane in ethylcellulose with the Lennard-Jones force constants, ?/k at different temperatures was also determined. The temperature dependence of the Henry's law constants were correlated by a van't Hoff relationship and heats of sorption determined.     

Symptotics: a framework for estimating the scalability of real-world wireless networks

We present a framework for non-asymptotic analysis of real-world multi-hop wireless networks that captures protocol overhead, congestion bottlenecks, traffic heterogeneity and other real-world concerns. The framework introduces the concept of symptotic scalability to determine the number of nodes to which a network scales, and a metric called change impact value for comparing the impact of underlying system parameters on network scalability. A key idea is to divide analysis into generic and specific parts connected via a signature—a set of governing parameters of a network scenario—such that analyzing a new network scenario reduces mainly to identifying its signature. Using this framework, we present the first closed-form symptotic scalability expressions for line, grid, clique, randomized grid and mobile topologies. We model both TDMA and 802.11, as well as unicast and broadcast traffic. We compare the analysis with discrete event simulations and show that the model provides sufficiently accurate estimates of scalability. We show how our impact analysis methodology can be used to progressively tune network features to meet a scaling requirement. We uncover several new insights, for instance, on the limited impact of reducing routing overhead, the differential nature of flooding traffic, and the effect real-world mobility on scalability. Our work is applicable to the design and deployment of real-world multi-hop wireless networks including community mesh networks, military networks, disaster relief networks and sensor networks.     

Energy use,CO2 emission and foreign direct investment: Is there any inconsistence between causal relations?

In this study, the causal relations between inward foreign direct investment (FDI)-energy use per capita and inward FDI-CO₂ emission per capita were analyzed and the inconsistency between the causal relations was investigated via bootstrap-corrected panel causality test and cross-correlation analysis. In this direction, data from 76 countries including the period of 1980–2009 was processed. No supportive evidence was found for changing causal relations to country group which was classified into income level. The findings indicated that while the pollution haven hypothesis was supported for Mozambique, United Arab Emirates and Oman, the pollution halo hypothesis was supported in the case of India, Iceland, Panama and Zambia. For other countries, energy use and CO₂ emission were neutral to inward FDI flows in aggregated level. Furthermore, this study urged that increased (decreased) energy use due to the inward FDI flows did not necessarily mean an increase (decrease) in pollution level, and vice versa. For policy purpose, FDI attractive policy should be regulated by taking into account this possibility.