A bolted–welded hybrid demountable shear connector for use in deconstructable steel–concrete composite buildings and bridges was proposed. The hybrid connector consisted of a partially threaded stud, which was welded on the flange of a steel section, and a machined steel tube with compatible geometry, which was bolted on the stud. Four standard pushout tests according to Eurocode 4 were carried out to assess the shear performance of the hybrid connector. The experimental results show that the initial stiffness, shear resistance, and slip capacity of the proposed connector were higher than those of traditional welded studs. The hybrid connector was a ductile connector, according to Eurocode 4, with slip capacity higher than 6 mm. A nonli

Classical cryptography systems exhibit major vulnerabilities because of the rapid development of quan tum computing algorithms and devices. These vulnerabilities were mitigated utilizing quantum key distribution (QKD), which is based on a quantum no-cloning algorithm that assures the safe generation and transmission of the encryption keys. A quantum computing platform, named Qiskit, was utilized by many recent researchers to analyze the security of several QKD protocols, such as BB84 and B92. In this paper, we demonstrate the simulation and implementation of a modified multistage QKD protocol by Qiskit. The simulation and implementation studies were based on the “local_qasm” simulator and the “FakeVigo” backend, respectively. T

Background: Selenium-73 with half- life of 7.15 hour emits β+ in nature and has six stable isotopes which are ( 74Se,76Se,77Se,78Se,80Se and 82Se ). Selenium-73 has many applications in technology and radioselenium compounds of metallic have found various applications in medicine. Objective:  To make a comparison between different reactions that produced cross sections of Se-73 radioisotopes. Subjects and methods: The feasibility of the production of Selenium -73 via various nuclear reactions was investigated. Excitation functions of 73Se production by the reactions of 75As (p,3n), 169Tm( d,x), 74Se, natSe, natBr (p,x) , 75As (d,4n), natGe (3He,x), 70Ge (α, n), and 72Ge (α, 3n) and neutron capture were calculated using the avail

Face recognition and identity verification are now critical components of current security and verification technology. The main objective of this review is to identify the most important deep learning techniques that have contributed to the improvement in the accuracy and reliability of facial recognition systems, as well as highlighting existing problems and potential future research areas. An extensive literature review was conducted with the assistance of leading scientific databases such as IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, and SpringerLink and covered studies from the period 2015 to 2024. The studies of interest were related to the application of deep neural networks, i.e., CNN, Siamese, and Transformer-based models, in face recogni

The influence of an aortic aneurysm on blood flow waveforms is well established, but how to exploit this link for diagnostic purposes still remains challenging. This work uses a combination of experimental and computational modelling to study how aneurysms of various size affect the waveforms. Experimental studies are carried out on fusiform-type aneurysm models, and a comparison of results with those from a one-dimensional fluid–structure interaction model shows close agreement. Further mathematical analysis of these results allows the definition of several indicators that characterize the impact of an aneurysm on waveforms. These indicators are then further studied in a computational model of a systemic blood flow network. This demonstr

In this paper a new method is proposed to perform the N-Radon orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which are equivalent to 4-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, ... etc. in spectral efficiency. This non conventional method is proposed in order to reduce the constellation energy and increase spectral efficiency. The proposed method gives a significant improvement in Bit Error Rate performance, and keeps bandwidth efficiency and spectrum shape as good as conventional Fast Fourier Transform based OFDM. The new structure was tested and compared with conventional OFDM for Additive White Gaussian Noise, flat, and multi-path selective fading channels. Simulation tests were generated for different channels

Rutting has a significant impact on the pavements' performance. Rutting depth is often used as a parameter to assess the quality of pavements. The Asphalt Institute (AI) design method prescribes a maximum allowable rutting depth of 13mm, whereas the AASHTO design method stipulates a critical serviceability index of 2.5 which is equivalent to an average rutting depth of 15mm. In this research, static and repeated compression tests were performed to evaluate the permanent strain based on (1) the relationship between mix properties (asphalt content and type), and (2) testing temperature. The results indicated that the accumulated plastic strain was higher during the repeated load test than that during the static load tests. Notably, temperatur

The finite element method has been used in this paper to investigate the behavior of precast reinforced concrete dapped-ends beams (DEBs) numerically. A parametric investigation was performed on an experimental specimen tested by a previous researcher to show the effect of numerous parameters on the strength and behavior of RC dapped-end beams. Reinforcement details and steel arrangement, the influence of concrete compressive strength, the effect of inclined load, and the effect of support settlement on the strength of dapped-ends beams are examples of such parameters. The results revealed that the dapped-end reinforcement arrangement greatly affects the behavior of dapped end beam. The failure load decreases by 25% when