Can the uncertainty in brass casting blending problem be managed? A probability/possibility transformation approach

Problems about the uncertainty in raw material compositions are a critical issue for the blending problems. It is feared that uncertainty in raw material compositions would often cause percent values of the actual blend to go out of specification limits. In this paper, the aleatory and epistemic uncertainties have been handled simultaneously in a blending optimization problem for brass casting. The aleatory and epistemic uncertainties are modeled by using probability and possibility theories respectively. However, the probabilistic and the possibilistic uncertainties are different from the each other. Therefore to solve the mathematical model, including these uncertainties, a transformation of any type of uncertainty to the other is needed. In this study, probabilistic uncertainties are transformed to the possibilistic uncertainties by considering Rong and Lahdelma’s (2008) and the Dubois, Prade, and Sandri (1993) and Dubois, Foulloy, Mauris, and Prade (2004) transformation approaches. This transformation process converts the former model to a possibilistic model. Then the possibilistic models, obtained from each transformation, are solved by using α cuts approach. The solutions of the two possibilistic models have shown that the model, which uses Dubois’s transformation, prepares blends with lower cost than the other model, which uses Rong and Lahdelma’s transformation.     

Synthesis of nanocrystalline samarium-doped CeO2 (SDC) powders as a solid electrolyte by using a simple solvothermal route

Samarium-doped CeO₂ is a leading electrolyte for applications in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which requires a typical sintering temperature of 1400–1600 °C. In this work, fully dense CeO₂ ceramics doped with 10–20 at.% samarium have been fabricated by a simple polyol process. The XRD and SEM results show that a complete solid solution between CeO₂ and samarium was obtained at the sintering temperature of 1300 °C. And also the densification temperature is significantly lower than those (1400–1600 °C) reported for the SDC powders processed by modified sol–gel process and hydrothermal treatment. The resultant ceramics show the sizes of ultrafine grain are lower than 1 μm.     

Effect of high hydrostatic pressure on physicochemical and biochemical properties of milk

Interest in high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) applications on milk and dairy products has recently increased as HHP offers a new technology for food preservation to the food industry. Although HHP-induced microbial destruction, rennet or acid coagulation of milk and increase in cheese yield has been reported, the actual effect of HHP application on milk constituents still remains to be unexplained. Therefore, we have analyzed the effect of HHP on physicochemical and biochemical properties such as turbidity, pH and especially protein micelle surface hydrophobicity of milk proteins. To serve for this purpose, milk samples with different fat contents were pressurized from 110 to 440 MPa at 25 °C for 10 and 20 min. Turbidity decreased with pressure increase and there was a slight change in pH. In order to measure the extent of exposure of hydrophobic groups of proteins to HHP, the method described by Bonomi et al. [1], based on use of a fluorescent probe, was utilized. In the light of the results obtained, it can be concluded that HHP has an effect on non-covalent interactions and especially hydrophobic bonds in milk. As the pressure is increased from 110 to 440 MPa, the micelles possibly decompose into sub-micelles and the embedded hydrophobic areas inside these micelles re-position in such a way that they can readily interfere with the fluorescent marker, ANS. These results may lead to practical applications of HHP treatment in the dairy industry to produce microbiologically safe, minimally processed products with high nutritional and sensory quality and novel texture.     

Mechanical,chemical, thermal,and rheological properties of recycled PA6/ABS binary and PA6/PA66/ABS ternary blends

The effects of multiple injection molding cycles on the chemical and mechanical properties of PA6/ABS and PA6/PA66/ABS blends are investigated. The chemical structures of both PA6/ABS binary and PA6/PA66/ABS ternary blends do not alter after recycling process. For PA6/ABS binary blend, it is found that the tensile strength, strain at break, elastic modulus, impact strength, flexural strength, and modulus of recycled blend decrease by 6.49%, 15.19%, 21.00%, 9.41%, 7.09%, and 8.25%, respectively, while MFI increases by 23.59% as compared with the virgin blend. After five recycling process for PA6/PA66/ABS ternary blend, the tensile strength, strain at break, and impact strength of recycled blend decrease by 18.00%, 50.80%, and 87.27%, respectively. However, flexural strength and modulus of PA6/PA66/ABS blend increase slightly. For virgin PA6/PA66/ABS blend, MFI value was 7.7 g/10 min and with recycling this value showed an important increase to 31.56 g/10 min after five cycles. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40810.     

Evaluation of greenhouse residues gasification performance in hydrogen production

In this study, a modeling study was carried out to investigate the potential of hydrogen production from greenhouse tomato and pepper residues blending in different rates (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) by air-steam gasification. The numerical model developed for the gasification system assumes that all carbon in the mixture is gasified. Air to fuel rate and steam to fuel rates are 0.05 due to high content of O₂ in biomass residues. The gasifier temperature is 877 °C (1150 K) for developed model. According to the result of this study, increasing tomato residues blending rate increases hydrogen content of syngas. It is mainly caused by the content of O₂ in tomato residues being higher than content of O₂ in pepper residues. This study shows that the O₂ content of greenhouse residues is an important factor in syngas production, especially in H₂ production.     

A layered approach to learning coordination knowledge in multiagent environments

Multiagent learning involves acquisition of cooperative behavior among intelligent agents in order to satisfy the joint goals. Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a promising unsupervised machine learning technique inspired from the earlier studies in animal learning. In this paper, we propose a new RL technique called the Two Level Reinforcement Learning with Communication (2LRL) method to provide cooperative action selection in a multiagent environment. In 2LRL, learning takes place in two hierarchical levels; in the first level agents learn to select their target and then they select the action directed to their target in the second level. The agents communicate their perception to their neighbors and use the communication information in their decision-making. We applied 2LRL method in a hunter-prey environment and observed a satisfactory cooperative behavior. Guray Erus received the B.S. degree in computer engineering in 1999, and the M.S. degree in cognitive sciences, in 2002, from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. He is currently a teaching and research assistant in Rene“ Descartes University, Paris, France, where he prepares a doctoral dissertation on object detection on satellite images, as a member of the intelligent perception systems group (SIP-CRIP5). His research interests include multi-agent systems and image understanding. Faruk Polat is a professor in the Department of Computer Engineering of Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He received his B.Sc. in computer engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, in 1987 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer engineering from Bilkent University, Ankara, in 1989 and 1993, respectively. He conducted research as a visiting NATO science scholar at Computer Science Department of University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1992–93. His research interests include artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems and object oriented data models.     

Synthesis and characterization of two-armed poly(ɛ-caprolactone) polymers initiated by the Schiff's base complexes of copper(II) and nickel(II)

Two-armed poly(?-caprolactone) (TAPCL) polymers were successfully synthesized via the ring opening polymerization (ROP) of ?-caprolactone (?-CL) using the Schiff's base complexes [Cu(SAEE)₂] (1) and [Ni(SAEE)₂] (2), which have two hydroxyl functional groups, as the two-site initiators and tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate (Sn(Oct)₂) as the catalyst in bulk at 115 °C. The Schiff's base complexes (1 and 2) were synthesized by utilizing the concentrated template synthesis method starting from salicyl aldehyde, 2-(2-aminoethoxy) ethanol and related metal acetate salts. The synthesized TAPCL polymers were characterized by GPC, FTIR, UV–vis, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The molecular weights of TAPCL polymers linearly increased with increasing molar ratio of the monomer to the initiator. The results obtained from FTIR, UV–vis, and EPR studies indicated that TAPCL polymers had the Schiff's base complexes at the junction point of PCL arms. The crystallization behavior of TAPCL was studied by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarizing optical microscopy (POM). Thermal behavior of TAPCL was also investigated by thermogravimetrical analysis (TGA).     

Smart structures and their applications on active vibration control: Studies in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, METU

This work presents the theoretical and experimental studies conducted in Aerospace Engineering Department of Middle East Technical University on smart structures with particular attention given to the structural modelling characteristics and active suppression of in-vacuo vibrations. The smart structures considered in these analyses are finite and flat aluminium cantilever beam-like (called as smart beam) and plate-like (called as smart fin) structures with surface bonded lead–zirconate–titanate patches. Finite element models of smart beam and smart fin are obtained. Then the experimental studies regarding open loop behaviour of the structures are performed by using strain gauges and laser displacement sensor to determine the system models. Further studies are carried out to obtain H _∞ and μ-synthesis controllers which are intended to be used in the suppression of free and forced vibrations of the smart structures. It is observed that satisfactory attenuation levels are achieved and robust performance of the systems in the presence of uncertainties is ensured. In that respect a comparative study involving H _∞ and sliding mode controls is also conducted. Recently, the studies involving aerodynamic loading are also gathering pace.     

The effect of recycling number on the mechanical,chemical, thermal,and rheological properties of PBT/PC/ABS ternary blends: With and without glass‐fiber

The recycling possibilities of poly(butylene terephthalate)/polycarbonate/acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (PBT/PC/ABS) ternary blend with and without glass‐fiber content were investigated using repeated injection molding process. In this study, PBT/PC/ABS ternary blends were reprocessed at five times and the results were presented after each recycling process. The recycling possibility of PBT/PC/ABS ternary blend was evaluated by measuring the mechanical, chemical, thermal, and rheological properties. Mechanical properties were determined by the tensile strength, yield strength, strain at break, elastic modulus, impact strength, flexural strength, and flexural modulus. Chemical and thermal properties were evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. Rheological properties of the ternary blends were studied by melt flow index measurement. From the results, it was found that mechanical properties of recycled composites were better than virgin PBT/PC/ABS ternary blends. POLYM. COMPOS., 35:2074–2084, 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers