Md. Anwar Hossain^1,2, Lee Hwei Voon^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.7, No.8, pp. 731-748, 2019, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2019.04703

Abstract Synthesizing polyol-based ester from biomass feedstocks for the preparation of biolubricant overcomes the dependence on petroleum oil usage. Albeit biomass-derived bio-oil is an alternative for the production of polyol ester, upgrading is essential prior to use as biolubricant. Levulinic acid (LA), obtained from bio-oil was applied for the catalytic esterification with two polyols, e.g., trimethylolpropane (TMP) and pentaerythritol (PE), in the presence of mixed-ligand Ni(II), Co(II), and Fe(II) complexes as catalyst. New mixed-ligand coordination complexes with empirical formula; [Ni(Phe)(Bpy)Cl].H2O, [Co(Phe)(Bpy)Cl].H2O, and [Fe(Phe)(Tyr)Cl].H2O were synthesized by the reaction of ligands [L-phenylalanine (Phe), 4,4'-bipyridine (Bpy), and L-tyrosine More >

X.Sheldon Wang^1,∗, Ye Yang², Tao Wu²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.119, No.1, pp. 5-34, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2019.04204

Abstract In this work, we employ fluid-structure interaction (FSI) systems with immersed flexible structures with or without free surfaces to explore both Singular Value Decomposition (SVD)-based model reduction methods and mode superposition methods. For acoustoelastic FSI systems, we adopt a three-field mixed finite element formulation with displacement, pressure, and vorticity moment unknowns to effectively enforce the irrotationality constraint. We also propose in this paper a new Inf-Sup test based on the lowest non-zero singular value of the coupling matrix for the selection of reliable sets of finite element discretizations for displacement and pressure as well as… More >

Ying Zhao¹, Mohammad Noori^1,2, Wael A. Altabey^1,3,*, Ramin Ghiasi⁴, Zhishen Wu¹

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 85-103, 2019, DOI:10.32604/sdhm.2019.04695

Abstract This paper introduces a stiffness reduction based model developed by the authors to characterize accumulative fatigue damage in unidirectional plies and (0/θ/0) composite laminates in fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite laminates. The proposed damage detection model is developed based on a damage evolution mechanism, including crack initiation and crack damage progress in matrix, matrix-fiber interface and fibers. Research result demonstrates that the corresponding stiffness of unidirectional composite laminates is reduced as the number of loading cycles progresses. First, three common models in literatures are presented and compared. Tensile viscosity, Young’s modulus and ultimate tensile stress… More >

Shang Zhang^{1, *}, Seyedmehdi Karimi², Shahaboddin Shamshirband^{3, 4, *}, Amir Mosavi^5,6

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.58, No.2, pp. 567-583, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2019.02795

Abstract In the process of eliminating variables in a symbolic polynomial system, the extraneous factors are referred to the unwanted parameters of resulting polynomial. This paper aims at reducing the number of these factors via optimizing the size of Dixon matrix. An optimal configuration of Dixon matrix would lead to the enhancement of the process of computing the resultant which uses for solving polynomial systems. To do so, an optimization algorithm along with a number of new polynomials is introduced to replace the polynomials and implement a complexity analysis. Moreover, the monomial multipliers are optimally positioned More >

Mohamed Ben Gharsallah^a, Issam Ben Mhammed^b, Ezzedine Ben Braiek^a

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.24, No.2, pp. 231-240, 2018, DOI:10.1080/10798587.2016.1262457

Abstract In radiography imaging, contrast, sharpness and noise there are three fundamental factors that determine the image quality. Removing noise while preserving and sharpening image contours is a complicated task particularly for images with low contrast like radiography. This paper proposes a new anisotropic diffusion method for radiography image enhancement. The proposed method is based on the integration of geometric parameters derived from the local pixel intensity distribution in a nonlinear diffusion formulation that can concurrently perform the smoothing and the sharpening operations. The main novelty of the proposed anisotropic diffusion model is the ability to More >

Susan F. Saleeb¹, Sarah R. McLaughlin², Dionne A. Graham², Kevin G. Friedman¹, David R. Fulton¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 46-51, 2018, DOI:10.1111/chd.12539

Abstract Objective: Using a Standardized Clinical Assessment and Management Plan (SCAMP) for pediatric patients presenting to clinic with chest pain, we evaluated the cost impact associated with implementation of the care algorithm. Prior to introduction of the SCAMP, we analyzed charges for 406 patients with chest pain, seen in 2009, and predicted 21% reduction of overall charges had the SCAMP methodology been used. The SCAMP recommended an echocardiogram for history, examination, or ECG findings suggestive of a cardiac etiology for chest pain.
Design: Resource utilization was reviewed for 1517 patients (7-21 years) enrolled in the SCAMP from July… More >

Jimarez-Montiel MJ¹, A Robledo-Paz¹, VM Ordaz-Chaparro², LI Trejo-Tellez², JC Molina-Moreno¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.87, pp. 94-104, 2018, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2018.87.094

Abstract An alternative method for improving the production of habanero chili is the tissue culture technique; however, the gelling agent, the high salt and sucrose concentrations used in the culture media raise production costs and limit the adaptation of the regenerated plants to greenhouse or field conditions. In this study, the effect of the substrates perlite-coconut fiber, coconut fiber-volcanic rock, vermiculite-perlite, and perlite-volcanic rock in conjunction with various culture media in in vitro plant regeneration from embryos was evaluated. The differentiation of adventitious shoots on substrates was scarcely observed or non-existent. Inducing the formation of shoots on… More >

Qiang Tong¹, Qingwen Ren^{1, *}, Lei Shen ², Linfei Zhang ², Yin Yang³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.114, No.1, pp. 33-58, 2018, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2018.114.033

Abstract In this article, the post-peak softening stage of the constitutive relation and the elastic stiffness degradation of concrete are investigated, and a highly reasonable constitutive relation curve is proposed. At the material level, the energy change in the concrete failure process is studied based on the different stress-strain curves of concrete under uniaxial tension and compression. The concrete failure criterion based on elastic strain energy density is deemed suitable and consistent with the experimental phenomena. The hysteresis phenomenon (lags behind the peak strength) is also discussed. At the structure level, the strength reduction method is More >

Lianggui Liu^1,*, Wei Li¹, Huiling Jia¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.57, No.1, pp. 97-106, 2018, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2018.03511

Abstract With the rapid development of mobile communication all over the world, the similarity of mobile phone communication data has received widely attention due to its advantage for the construction of smart cities. Mobile phone communication data can be regarded as a type of time series and dynamic time warping (DTW) and derivative dynamic time warping (DDTW) are usually used to analyze the similarity of these data. However, many traditional methods only calculate the distance between time series while neglecting the shape characteristics of time series. In this paper, a novel hybrid method based on the More >

Rahul H. Rathod^1,2, Brittney Jurgen^1,2, Rose A. Hamershock³, Kevin G. Friedman^1,2, Audrey C. Marshall^1,2, Mihail Samnaliev⁴, Dionne A. Graham³, Kathy Jenkins^1,2, James E. Lock^1,2, Andrew J. Powell^1,2

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.12, No.6, pp. 768-776, 2017, DOI:10.1111/chd.12508

Abstract Background: Standardized Clinical Assessment and Management Plans (SCAMPs) are a quality improvement initiative designed to reduce unnecessary utilization, decrease practice variation, and improve patient outcomes. We created a novel methodology, the SCAMP managed episode of care (SMEOC), which encompasses multiple encounters to assess the impact of the arterial switch operation (ASO) SCAMP on total costs.
Methods: All ASO SCAMP patients (dates March 2009 to July 2015) were compared to a control group of ASO patients (January 2001 to February 2009). Patients were divided into “younger” (<2 years) and “older” (2–18 years) subgroups. Utilization included all cardiology visits,… More >