3D Hair sketching for real-time dynamic & key frame animations

Physically based simulation of human hair is a well studied and well known problem. But the “pure” physically based representation of hair (and other animation elements) is not the only concern of the animators, who want to “control” the creation and animation phases of the content. This paper describes a sketch-based tool, with which a user can both create hair models with different styling parameters and produce animations of these created hair models using physically and key frame-based techniques. The model creation and animation production tasks are all performed with direct manipulation techniques in real-time.     

Ant colony optimization approach to estimate energy demand of Turkey

This paper attempts to shed light on the determinants of energy demand in Turkey. Energy demand model is first proposed using the ant colony optimization (ACO) approach. It is multi-agent systems in which the behavior of each ant is inspired by the foraging behavior of real ants to solve optimization problem. ACO energy demand estimation (ACOEDE) model is developed using population, gross domestic product (GDP), import and export. All equations proposed here are linear and quadratic. Quadratic_ACOEDE provided better-fit solution due to fluctuations of the economic indicators. The ACOEDE model plans the energy demand of Turkey until 2025 according to three scenarios. The relative estimation errors of the ACOEDE model are the lowest when they are compared with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR) projection.     

Synthesis and characterization of poly(N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone) grafted sodium alginate hydrogel beads for the controlled release of indomethacin

Graft copolymers of sodium alginate (NaAlg) with N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone were prepared using azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator. The graft copolymers (NaAlg‐g‐PVP) were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. Polymeric hydrogel beads of NaAlg and NaAlg‐g‐PVP were prepared by crosslinking method using glutaraldehyde (GA) as a crosslinker in the hydrochloric acid catalyst (HCl) and these beads were used to deliver anti‐inflammatory drug, indomethacin (IM). Chemical stability of the IM after encapsulation into beads was confirmed by FTIR. Preparation conditions of the NaAlg‐g‐PVP beads were optimized by considering the percentage entrapment efficiency, particle size, swelling capacity and their release data. In vitro release studies were performed in simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2) for the initial 2 h, followed by simulated intestinal fluid (pH 7.4) for 4 h. Effects of GA concentration, exposure time to GA, drug/polymer (d/p) ratio, and concentration of HCl on the release of IM were discussed. It was observed that IM release from the beads decreased with increasing GA concentration and exposure time. IM release also decreases with increasing d/p ratio and HCl concentration. The highest IM release was obtained to be 77% for beads crosslinked with 0.027M GA. Swelling experiments were also performed to compute molecular mass between crosslinks of the beads. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Lead recovery from aqueous environment by using porous carbon of citrus fruits waste: equilibrium,kinetics and thermodynamic studies

ABSTRACT

The mixture of citrus fruits (orange, grapefruit, mandarin, and lemon) wastes was utilized to obtain high surface area activated carbon (AC) by H₃PO₄ activation. The production conditions were optimized and the optimum conditions were determined. The optimal-activated carbon (CFWAC) was characterized by various physicochemical techniques. CFWAC was also used as a sorbent for Pb (II) ions from water. Batch experiments were performed to explore the adsorption capacity and mechanism. The Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model showed good fitness to the experimental data. The maximum Pb (II) adsorption capacity of CFWAC was found to be 163.93 mg/g.     

Decentralized observers with consensus filters for distributed discrete-time linear systems

This paper presents a decentralized observer with a consensus filter for the state observation of discrete-time linear distributed systems. Each agent in the distributed system has an observer with a model of the plant that utilizes the set of locally available measurements, which may not make the full plant state detectable. This lack of detectability is overcome by utilizing a consensus filter that blends the state estimate of each agent with its neighbors’ estimates. It is proven that the state estimates of the proposed observer exponentially converge to the actual plant states under arbitrarily changing, but connected, communication and pseudo-connected sensing graph topologies. Except these connectivity properties, full knowledge of the sensing and communication graphs is not needed at the design time. As a byproduct, we obtained a result on the location of eigenvalues, i.e., the spectrum, of the Laplacian for a family of graphs with self-loops.     

Poly(Acrylamide-Sepiolite) Composite Hydrogels: Preparation, Swelling and Dye Adsorption Properties

Summary Polymer-clay hydrogel composite was prepared on the basis of polyacrylamide (PAAm) gel containing the clay mineral sepiolite. The properties of swelling and dye adsorption of poly(acrylamide-sepiolite) (AAm/Sep) composite hydrogel were investigated. The parameters of swelling and diffusion in water and dye solutions were calculated for the AAm and AAm/Sep hydrogels. It was found that the equilibrium swelling degree of obtained composite higher than that of AAm gel. Spectroscopic analysis of composite and composite-dye systems was done with FT-IR method. Adsorption of monovalent cationic dyes such as Basic Blue 12 (BB-12) Basic Blue 9 (BB-9), and Basic Violet 1 (BV-1), was studied on the composite. In the adsorption experiments, S (Sigmoidal) type for composite gel adsorption isotherms in the Giles classification system was found. Adsorption studies indicated that the amounts of adsorbed dyes on the AAm/Sep composite hydrogel were increased with following order; BB-12 > BB-9 > BV-1. The composite hydrogel may be considered as good candidate for environmental application to retain more water and dyes.     

Prediction of suspended sediment concentration from water quality variables

This study investigates use of water quality (WQ) variables, namely total chromium concentration, total iron concentration, and turbidity for predicting suspended sediment concentration (SSC). For this purpose, the artificial neural networks (ANNs) and regression analysis (RA) models are employed. Seven different RA models are constructed, considering the functional relation between measured WQ variables and SSC. The WQ and SSC data are fortnightly obtained from six monitoring stations, located on the stream Harsit, Eastern Black Sea Basin, Turkey. A total of 132 water samples are collected from April 2009 to February 2010. Model prediction results reveal that ANN is able to predict SSC from WQ data, with mean absolute error (MAE) of 10.30 mg/L and root mean square error (RMSE) of 13.06 mg/L. Among seven RA models, the best one, which has the form including all independent parameters, produces results comparable to those of ANN, with MAE = 14.28 mg/L and RMSE = 15.35 mg/L. The sensitivity analysis results reveal that the most effective parameter on the SSC is total chromium concentration. These results have time- and cost-saving implications.     

Thermal characterization of n‐alkyl maleate‐styrene‐allyl propionate terpolymers

Thermal characterization of maleic anhydride‐styrene‐allyl propionate (MA‐St‐AP) terpolymer and its ester derivatives named as n‐alkyl maleate and shown as nPr MA‐St‐AP, nBu MA‐St‐AP, nPn MA‐St‐AP, and nBz MA‐St‐AP was carried out. The thermal characterization was performed using thermal analysis techniques such as TGA, DTA, DSC, and TMA. Different results were observed between the original terpolymer and its ester derivatives. Thermal stabilities of the terpolymer and its ester derivatives were compared by using various measurements plotted as TGA, DTA, DSC, and TMA curves. The increase in the alcohols' carbon numbers added to the original terpolymer results in ester derivatives with different thermal stability behavior. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 600–604, 2007     

AHP and multichoice goal programming integration for course planning

Course planning is one of the important problems in the education systems of universities. The processes cannot continue efficiently without planning, and various interruptions can appear in the system. This way decisions concerning which courses, when, how, and for what purposes should be answered by considering the available resources and stakeholders’ preferences. Besides, universities aiming to be in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) have to adapt their systems to the Bologna process in order to create a lifelong student‐centered, learning‐oriented area based on quality assurance. In this study, an integrated approach based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and multichoice goal programming (MCGP) model was proposed to construct an efficient course plan following the Bologna process. The proposed approach was applied in an industrial engineering department.     

Chemical,thermal, and mechanical properties and ultraviolet transmittance of novel nano-hydroxyapatite/polyethylene terephthalate milk bottles

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/nano-hydroxyapatite (nHAp) composite granules were obtained using twin-screw extruder. Preforms were prepared by injection molding and then PET/nHAp bottles were produced by blow molding. For PET bottles with nHAp, the migration amounts of carboxylic acid (COOH), acetaldehyde (AA), diethylene glycol (DEG), and isophthalic acid (IPA); glass transition temperature (T_g); melting temperature (T_m); and the maximum crystallization temperature (T_cry) were measured. The load-carrying capacity, burst strength, stress cracking, and regional material distribution tests were carried out on the bottles. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and ultraviolet transmittance analyses were conducted to explain the changes in mechanical, chemical, physical properties, and light transmission of bottles. It was found out that the COOH amount increased and the AA content decreased with increasing nHAp amount. On the other hand, no change was observed in the amounts of DEG and IPA. Although the mechanical properties such as load-carrying capacity and burst strength of the bottles have improved, it has been determined that the standard environmental stress crack resistance test procedure cannot be applied to such a composite. Experimental findings indicate that nHAp disrupts the chemical structure of PET and it isolates harmful chemicals such as AA by forming intermolecular bonds. Moreover, with the addition of up to 0.8% nHAp, PET bottles block the light transmission approximately 80% within 400–700 nm wave length zone. The study demonstrates that the PET/nHAp composite bottles can be used in the food industry, particularly in the packaging of milk and milk products which are vulnerable to light exposure.