• Advances in environmental research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2017

Powdered marble wastes (PMW) generated by Utique marble cutting industries (North of Tunisia) with abundant amounts were used in this study as low-cost materials to investigate the stabilization of heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Fe) in sludge generated from a local Zn-Electroplating factory. Powdered marble wastes were evaluated by means of chemical fractions of heavy metals in sludge and concentrations of heavy metals in leachate from columns to determine their ability to stabilize heavy metals in contaminated sludge. Results indicated that chemical fractions of heavy metals in sludge were affected by application of the PMW mineral materials and pH, however, the effects varied with heavy metals. Application of the powdered marble wastes mineral materials reduced exchangeable metals in the sequence of Pb (60.5%)>Fe (40.5%)>Zn (30.1%). X-ray diffraction and hydro-geochemical transport code PHREEQC analysis were successfully carried out to get a better understanding of the mechanisms of reactive mineral phases involved in reduced exchangeable heavy metals in sludge after PMW material amendments. Therefore, metal immobilization using powdered marble wastes materials is an effective stabilization technique for industrial metallic hydroxide sludge.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.553-566
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• 2019

This study aimed to categorize pervious rubberized concrete into fresh and hardened concrete analyzing its durability, permeability and strength. During the globalization of modern life, growing population and industry rate have signified a sustainable approach to all aspects of modern life. In recent years, pervious concrete (porous concrete) has significantly substituted for pavements due to its mechanical and environmental properties. On the other hand, scrap rubber tire has been also contributed with several disposal challenges. Considering the huge amount of annually tire wastes tossing out, the conditions become worse. Pervious concrete (PC) gap has graded surface assisted with storm water management, recharging groundwater sources and alleviate water run-offs. The results have shown that the use of waste tires as aggregate built into pervious concrete has tremendously reduced the scrap tire wastes enhancing environmental compliance.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.139-144
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• 2019

In this study, the mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete (RPC) with a constant cement to silica fume ratio of 4 were investigated. In the experimental program, reactive powder concretes with steel fiber at different ratios were produced. Five productions using quartz sand with a maximum grain size of 0.6 mm were performed. A superplasticizer with a ratio of 3% of the cement was used for all productions. $40{\times}40{\times}160mm$ prismatic specimens were prepared and tested for flexural and compression. The specimens were exposed to two different curing conditions as autoclave and standard curing condition. Autoclave exposure was performed for 3 hours under a pressure of 2 MPa. It was observed that the compressive strength of concrete, along with the flexural strength exposed to autoclave was quite high compared to the strength of concretes subjected to standard curing. The results obtained indicated that the compressive strength, along with the flexural strength of autoclaved concrete increased as the amount of cement used increases. Approximately 15% increase in flexural strength was achieved with a 4% steel fiber addition. The maximum compressive strength that has been reached is over 210 MPa for reactive powder concrete for the same steel fiber ratio and with a cement content of $960kg/m^3$. The relationship between compressive strength and flexural strength of reactive powder concrete exposed to both curing conditions was also identified.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.705-710
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• 2017

The effectiveness of mineral additives in suppressing alkali-silica reactivity has been studied in this work. Experimentation has been performed in accordance with the procedures prescribed in ASTM C 1567. In the scope of the investigation, a quarry aggregate which was reactive according to ASTM C 1260 was tested. In the experimental program, prismatic mortar specimens measuring $25{\times}25{\times}285mm$ were produced. Ten sets of production, three specimens for each set, were made. Length changes were measured at the end of 3, 7, 14 and 28 days and then expansions in percentage have been calculated. Fly ash, silica fume, and metakaolin have been used as cement replacement in different ratios for the testing of the alkali-silicate reactivity of the aggregate. In the mixes performed, the replacement ratios were 20%, 40%, and 60% for the fly ash, and 5%, 10%, and 15% for the silica fume, and 5%, 10%, and 15% for the metakaolin. Mixes without mineral additives were also produced for comparison. The beneficial effect in suppressing alkali-silica reactivity is highly noticeable as the replacement ratios of the mineral additives increase regardless of the type of the mineral additive used. Being more concise, the optimum concentrations of using silica fume and metakaolin in mortar in suppressing ASR is 10%, respectively, while it is 20% for fly ash.

• Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.481-488
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• 2018

Preliminary studies have claimed that short term fasting would negatively affect school performance and cognition. In contrast some other studies have reported not important decline in cognition and executive function as a result of fasting. Also limited attention was generally devoted to dietetic regimens, nutritional status and body weight. Yet neuroscience and neuro-cognitive aspects of acute hunger on the electroencephalogram and differences between obese and non-obese cases is not well understood. Hence, we decided to design and perform a case study in a more controlled situation similar to reality. Therefore, we performed several examinations including subjective tests (for eating status) and objective tests (cognitive tests such as Stroop effect and Sternberg search and electroencephalogram measures such as steady-state visual evoked potential and auditory steady-state responses) for an obese and a non-obese academic case before and after a simple breakfast. The results showed that the breakfast effects on the neuro-cognitive functions depend on either obesity status, nutritional status of the case or the type of cognitive task (visual or auditory). This paper would open a new insight to answer some important questions about the neuro-cognitive implications of fasting and feeding in obese and non-obese human cases.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.5
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• pp.639-647
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• 2019

The performance of precast concrete structures is greatly influenced by the behaviour of beam-to-column connections. A single connection may be required to transfer several loads simultaneously so each one of those loads must be considered in the design. A good connection combines practicality and economy, which requires an understanding of several factors; including strength, serviceability, erection and economics. This research work focuses on the performance aspect of a specific type of beam-to-column connection using partly hidden corbel in precast concrete structures. In this study, the results of experimental assessment of the proposed beam-to-column connection in precast concrete frames was used. The purpose of this research is to develop and apply the Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) for moment-rotation prediction of precast beam-to-column connections. The ELM results are compared with genetic programming (GP) and artificial neural network (ANN). The reliability of the computational models was accessed based on simulation results and using several statistical indicators.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.256-266
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• 2021

The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has recently made potential improvements in face verification applications. In fact, different models based on the CNN have attained commendable progress in the classification rate using a massive amount of data in an uncontrolled environment. However, the enormous computation costs and the considerable use of storage causes a noticeable problem during training. To address these challenges, we focus on relevant data trained within the CNN model by integrating a lifting method for a better tradeoff between the data size and the computational efficiency. Our approach is characterized by the advantage that it does not need any additional space to store the features. Indeed, it makes the model much faster during the training and classification steps. The experimental results on Labeled Faces in the Wild and YouTube Faces datasets confirm that the proposed CNN framework improves performance in terms of precision. Obviously, our model deliberately designs to achieve significant speedup and reduce computational complexity in deep CNNs without any accuracy loss. Compared to the existing architectures, the proposed model achieves competitive results in face recognition tasks

• Advances in nano research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.29-45
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• 2022

The optimization for dynamic response associated with a cylindrical shell which is made of laminated composites embedded in a piezoelectric layer which is subjected to temperature rises and is resting on an elastic foundation is investigated for the first time. The first shear order theory (FSDT) is utilized in order to obtain the strain relations of the shell. Then, using the energy method, the equations of motions as well as boundary condition of the problem are attained. The formulation of this study together with the solution procedure which is a numerical solution method, differential quadrature method (DQM) is validated using other researches. This paper presents a thorough study on the parameters which impacts the vibration frequency of the laminated shell. The results of this paper shows that any type of laminated composite shell can reduce the vibration frequency providing that the angle related to layer are higher than 85 degrees. Also, in order to reduce the effect of temperature rises, the laminated composites instead of orthotropic one can be used.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.625-637
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• 2022

Axial compression capacity (P_u) is a significant yet complex parameter of concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns. This study offers a novel ensemble tool, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) supervised by equilibrium optimization (EO), for accurately predicting this parameter. Moreover, grey wolf optimization (GWO) and Harris hawk optimizer (HHO) are considered as comparative supervisors. The used data is taken from earlier literature provided by finite element analysis. ANFIS is trained by several population sizes of the EO, GWO, and HHO to detect the best configurations. At a glance, the results showed the competency of such ensembles for learning and reproducing the P_u behavior. In details, respective mean absolute errors along with correlation values of 4.1809% and 0.99564, 10.5947% and 0.98006, and 4.8947% and 0.99462 obtained for the EO-ANFIS, GWO-ANFIS, and HHO-ANFIS, respectively, indicated that the proposed EO-ANFIS can analyze and predict the behavior of CFST columns with the highest accuracy. Considering both time and accuracy, the EO provides the most efficient optimization of ANFIS and can be a nice substitute for experimental approaches.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.319-326
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• 2022

This report presents the case of a 5-year-old boy with a hard swelling on the right side of the mandible body. An important point of this case is that the primary imaging finding was fine spicules in the inferior border of the mandible on panoramic radiography without significant changes in bone density. Cone-beam computed tomography views revealed a lytic lesion on the lingual side of the right mandibular body with the destruction of the lingual cortex and periosteal reaction from the midline to the first molar area. Careful attention to this radiographic finding in the primary stage in the absence of other significant imaging findings, particularly in children, could result in the early diagnosis of desmoplastic fibroma. Therefore, a better prognosis can be expected following early surgical treatment.