In this research work, a new type of concrete based on sulfur-melamine modification was introduced, and its various properties were studied. This new type of concrete was prepared based on the sulfur-melamine modification and various ingredients. The new sulfur-melamine modifier was fabricated, and its fabrication was confirmed by IR spectroscopy and TG analysis. The surface morphology resulted from this modifier was studied by SEM and EDS analysis. The components ratios in concrete, chemical and physical characteristics resulted from sulfur-melamine modifier, chemical and corrosion resistance of concrete, stability of concrete against water adsorption, stability of concrete against freezing, physical and mechanical properties and durability, modulus of elasticity, and thermal expansion coefficient of the studied sulfur concrete were investigated. The IR results confirmed the amino functional groups (attached melamine ring) and the formation of polymer sulfur chains. The sulfur-melamine modification thermic mass loss was one step. The mass loss processes of the modifier were endothermic processes. The obtained SEM results revealed that the sulfur-melamine modifier had a more porous structure, without any crystal forms. EDS analysis showed that the nitrogen atoms were accounted for 51.33% of total mass while the carbon was 30.94% of total mass. The stability of sulfur-melamine modifier-based concrete was very high in the various aggressive solutions. The low size of aggregates-based concrete had more density, i.e., 2417 kg\m3. The concrete density was decreased slowly with increase in the size of aggregate. The average deformation of studied concrete was (0.0030-0.0033), confirming that the deformation performance of concrete was better than the traditional concretes. The obtained results also confirmed that value of thermal expansion coefficient for sulfur-melamine modified concrete was 17.2×10-6\˚C.
Sensitive information of any multimedia must be encrypted before transmission. The dual chaotic algorithm is a good option to encrypt sensitive information by using different parameters and different initial conditions for two chaotic maps. A dual chaotic framework creates a complex chaotic trajectory to prevent the illegal use of information from eavesdroppers. Limited precisions of a single chaotic map cause a degradation in the dynamical behavior of the communication system. To overcome this degradation issue in, a novel form of dual chaos map algorithm is analyzed. To maintain the stability of the dynamical system, the Lyapunov Exponent (LE) is determined for the single and dual maps. In this paper, the LE of the single and dual maps
... Show MoreThis paper presents ABAQUS simulations of fully encased composite columns, aiming to examine the behavior of a composite column system under different load conditions, namely concentric, eccentric with 25 mm eccentricity, and flexural loading. The numerical results are validated with the experimental results obtained for columns subjected to static loads. A new loading condition with a 50 mm eccentricity is simulated to obtain additional data points for constructing the interaction diagram of load-moment curves, in an attempt to investigate the load-moment behavior for a reference column with a steel I-section and a column with a GFRP I-section. The result comparison shows that the experimental data align closely with the simulation
... Show MoreBackground This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of once-daily liraglutide as an add-on to oral antidiabetics (OADs) on glycemic control and body weight in obese patients with inadequately controlled type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods A total of 27 obese T2D patients who received 7 months (0.6 mg/day for the first month, 1.2 mg/day for 3 months, and 1.8 mg/day for 3 months) of liraglutide treatment as an add-on to OADs were included. Data on body weight (kg), fasting plasma glucose (FPG, mg/dL), postprandial glucose (PPG, mg/dL), and HbA1c (%), were recorded. Results Liraglutide doses of 1.2 mg/day and 1.8 mg/day were associated with significant decreases in body weight (by 8.0% and 11.9%, respectively, p < 0.01 for each) and HbA1c (by 20.0
... Show MorePrevious experimental studies have suggested that hot mixed asphalt (HMA) concrete using hydrated lime (HL) to partially replace the conventional limestone dust filler at 2.5% by the total weight of all aggregates showed an optimum improvement on several key mechanical properties, fatigue life span and moisture susceptibility. However, so far, the knowledge of the thermal response of the modified asphalt concrete and thermal influence on the durability of the pavement constructed are still relatively limited but important to inform pavement design. This paper, at first, reports an experimental study of the tensile fatigue life of HMA concrete mixes designed for wearing layer application. Tests were conducted under three different temperatur
... Show MoreThe convergence speed is the most important feature of Back-Propagation (BP) algorithm. A lot of improvements were proposed to this algorithm since its presentation, in order to speed up the convergence phase. In this paper, a new modified BP algorithm called Speeding up Back-Propagation Learning (SUBPL) algorithm is proposed and compared to the standard BP. Different data sets were implemented and experimented to verify the improvement in SUBPL.
Many authors investigated the problem of the early visibility of the new crescent moon after the conjunction and proposed many criteria addressing this issue in the literature. This article presented a proposed criterion for early crescent moon sighting based on a deep-learned pattern recognizer artificial neural network (ANN) performance. Moon sight datasets were collected from various sources and used to learn the ANN. The new criterion relied on the crescent width and the arc of vision from the edge of the crescent bright limb. The result of that criterion was a control value indicating the moon's visibility condition, which separated the datasets into four regions: invisible, telescope only, probably visible, and certai
... Show MoreWe propose a new method for detecting the abnormality in cerebral tissues present within Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI). Present classifier is comprised of cerebral tissue extraction, image division into angular and distance span vectors, acquirement of four features for each portion and classification to ascertain the abnormality location. The threshold value and region of interest are discerned using operator input and Otsu algorithm. Novel brain slices image division is introduced via angular and distance span vectors of sizes 24˚ with 15 pixels. Rotation invariance of the angular span vector is determined. An automatic image categorization into normal and abnormal brain tissues is performed using Support Vector Machine (SVM). St
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