In multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM), one of the most important problems is to determine the weights of criteria and experts. This paper intends to present two Min-Max models to optimize the point estimates of the weights. Since each expert generally possesses a uniform viewpoint on the importance (weighted value) of each criterion when he/she needs to rank the alternatives, the objective function in the first model is to minimize the maximum variation between the actual score vector and the ideal one for all the alternatives such that the optimal weights of criteria are consistent in ranking all the alternatives for the same expert. The second model is designed to optimize the weights of experts such that the obtained overall evaluation for each alternative can collect the perspectives of the experts as many as possible. Thus, the objective function in the second model is to minimize the maximum variation between the actual vector of evaluations and the ideal one for all the experts, such that the optimal weights can reduce the difference among the experts in evaluating the same alternative. For the constructed Min-Max models, another focus in this paper is on the development of an efficient algorithm for the optimal weights. Some applications are employed to show the significance of the models and algorithm. From the numerical results, it is clear that the developed Min-Max models more effectively solve the MCGDM problems including the ones with incomplete score matrices, compared with the methods available in the literature. Specifically, by the proposed method, (1) the evaluation uniformity of each expert on the same criteria is guaranteed; (2) The overall evaluation for each alternative can collect the judgements of the experts as many as possible; (3) The highest discrimination degree of the alternatives is obtained. Full article

Calcium barium sulphoaluminate (CBSA), derived from calcium sulphoaluminate (CSA), has excellent cementitious properties. In this study, the sintering system of CBSA with a theoretical stoichiometric Ca₃BaAl₆SO₁₆ was investigated. Rietveld refinement was performed using TOPAS 4.2 software to quantitatively calculate the content of CBSA and the actual ionic site occupancy of Ba²⁺. The results indicate that the content of Ca_4−xBa_xAl₆SO₁₆ increases with increasing sintering temperature in the 1200–1400 °C ranges. When sintered at 1400 °C for 180 min, the content of CBSA reaches 88.4%. However, CBSA begins to decompose at 1440 °C, after which the content decreases. The replacement rate of Ba²⁺ was also enlarged by increasing sintering temperature and prolonged sintering time. Sintering at 1400 °C for 180 min is considered as the optimum when replacement rate of Ba²⁺ and the content of CBSA were taken into account. Ca_3.2Ba_0.8Al₆SO₁₆ with a content of 88.4% was synthesized. Full article

In recent years, the development of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) has increased the popularity of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). A VANET is designed to enable vehicles to exchange information about traffic or vehicle conditions to help other vehicles avoid traffic accidents or traffic jams. To resist malicious attacks, all vehicles must be anonymous and their routings must be untraceable, but still verifiable. The vehicles must trust each other and communicate confidentially. In a VANET, Road Side Units (RSU) are installed on traffic signs or streetlights to help vehicles maintain anonymity, to authenticate messages, or to support confidentiality. However, the coverage of an RSU is limited and the cost of widespread installation is high. RSU installations are incremental, so messages must be authenticated using dense RSUs or sparse RSUs. In this paper, the concept of random key pre-distribution that is used in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is modified to random secret pre-distribution (RSP), which integrates identity-based cryptography (IBC) to produce a message authentication scheme for VANETs in a sparse RSU environment. In the proposed scheme, vehicles follow a process to determine a common secret, allowing them to authenticate each other and obtain the pairing value as a key for use in message authentication and private communication. Evaluation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms related schemes. Full article

In the current investigation, the molecular structure of the anticonvulsant agent (2E)-2-[3-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)-1-phenylpropylidene]-N-phenylhydrazinecarboxamide ((2E)-HIPC) was theoretically modelled using ab initio Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional theory (DFT/B3LYP) calculations. The Fourier transform (FT) infrared and FT-Raman spectra of (2E)-HIPC were also recorded, and the observed bands were assigned to the vibrational normal modes. The main functional groups were identified via vibrational analysis, and their absorption bands were assigned. A comparative analysis was performed for the computed and experimental results. Subtle differences were observed between the calculated and experimental UV-Vis spectra. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) excitation energies were calculated for five excited electronic states. The calculations were applied to simulate the spectra of (2E)-HIPC, and these simulated spectra exhibited excellent agreement with the experimental spectra. The DFT/B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) method, after scaling, exhibited better agreement with the experimental values than the results obtained by the HF method. The energy, oscillator strength, and wavelength computed by TD-DFT (IEFPCM) are consistent with the experimental results. The molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) and frontier molecular orbitals (HOMO-LUMO) were also determined to enable prediction of the structural changes and reactive sites. Mulliken population charges of the title molecule were also calculated in the gas phase. The NMR chemical shifts (¹³C and ¹H) were calculated using the gauge-including atomic orbital method and the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) approach and were compared with the experimental values. Full article

A self-focusing field emission (FE) X-ray tube with a large-area cathode design was simulated and fabricated. The designed X-ray tube had a cylindrically symmetric geometry; the diameter of the cathode and the anode was 15 mm, and the cathode-anode distance was 20 mm. Owing to the unique cup-shaped design of the cathode, the electron beam emitted from the large-area cathode was focused onto the anode without using magnetic lenses or extra biased electrodes. Carbon nanocoils, which were grown on the bottom of the circular cup-shaped cathode, were used as electron emitters because of their excellent FE properties. A simulation of the electron trajectories for various cup heights revealed that the optimal focal spot size (0.1 mm) was obtained at a cup height of 5 mm when a voltage of 50 kV was applied. To verify this result, an X-ray tube was fabricated and tested. An X-ray photograph of the tested tooth and electric circuits showed good resolution and X-ray intensity. The large cathode area effectively reduces the current density and thereby improves the lifetime of the cathode. Full article

When viewing three-dimensional (3D) images, whether in cinemas or on stereoscopic televisions, viewers experience the same problem of image brightness loss. This study aims to investigate image brightness loss in 3D displays, with the primary aim being to quantify the image brightness degradation in the 3D mode. A further aim is to determine the image brightness relationship to the corresponding two-dimensional (2D) images in order to adjust the 3D-image brightness values. In addition, the photographic principle is used in this study to measure metering values by capturing 2D and 3D images on television screens. By analyzing these images with statistical product and service solutions (SPSS) software, the image brightness values can be estimated using the statistical regression model, which can also indicate the impact of various environmental factors or hardware on the image brightness. In analysis of the experimental results, comparison of the image brightness between 2D and 3D images indicates 60.8% degradation in the 3D image brightness amplitude. The experimental values, from 52.4% to 69.2%, are within the 95% confidence interval Full article

A series of new compounds (1–12) containing 1,5-diaza-fluorenone, 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione, ferrocene-1,1ʹ-dione, anthracene-9-carbaldehyde have been synthesized and optimized. The nanomaterials were also developed successfully. The binding properties were evaluated for biologically important anions (F⁻, Cl⁻, Br⁻, I⁻, AcO⁻, and H₂PO₄⁻) by theoretical investigation, UV-vis, and fluorescence experiments, and compound 6 displayed the strongest binding ability for AcO⁻ ion among the synthesized compounds. Theoretical investigation analysis revealed that the intramolecular hydrogen bond existed in the structure of compound 6 and the roles of molecular frontier orbitals in molecular interplay. In addition, compound 6 showed wide antibacterial activity for colon bacillus, typhoid bacillus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and inferior activity for hay bacillus and Staphylococcus aureus. This series of acylhydrazone nanomaterials showed double properties, anion binding ability, and antibacterial activity. Full article

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), sidelobes of the modulated subcarriers cause high out-of-band (OOB) radiation, resulting in interference to licensed and un-licensed users in a cognitive radio system environment. In this work, we present a novel technique based on a generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC) for the reduction of sidelobes. The upper branch of the GSC consists of a weight vector designed by multiple constraints to preserve the desired portion of the input signal. The lower branch has a blocking matrix that blocks the desired portion and preserves the undesired portion (the sidelobes) of the input signal, followed by an adaptive weight vector. The adaptive weight vector adjusts the amplitudes of the undesired portion (the sidelobes) so that when the signal from the lower branch is subtracted from the signal from the upper branch, it results in cancellation of the sidelobes of the input signal. The effectiveness and strength of the proposed technique are verified through extensive simulations. The proposed technique produces competitive results in terms of sidelobe reduction as compared to existing techniques. Full article

An extracellular β-mannanase was isolated from samples of crude extract of the mesophilic fungus Aspergillus foetidus grown on soybean husk as a carbon source. The induction profile showed that β-mannanase reached a maximum activity level (2.0 IU/mL) on the 15th day of cultivation. The enzyme was partially purified by ultrafiltration and gel filtration chromatography procedures and was named Man 58. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrilamide electrophoresis and zymogram analysis of Man 58 showed two bands of approximately 43 and 45 kDa with β-mannanase activity. Ultrafiltration showed that β-mannanase activity was only detected in the concentrated sample. Man 58 was most active at 60 °C and at pH 4.0. It was thermostable in the temperature range of 40–60 °C for eleven days, and the half-life at 70 °C was ten days. Man 58 showed K_m and V_max values of 3.29 mg/mL and 1.76 IU/mL respectively, with locust bean gum as a substrate. It was mostly activated by FeSO₄ and CoCl₂ and inhibited by MgSO₄, FeCl₃, CuSO₄, MgCl₂, ZnCl₂, ZnSO₄, CaCl₂, CuCl₂, KCl and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Phenolic compounds did not inhibit the enzyme. On the other hand, auto-hydrolysis liquor showed an inhibitory effect on Man 58 activity. Full article

This paper presents an application of optical word recognition and fuzzy control to a smartphone automatic test system. The system consists of a robot arm and two webcams. After the words from the control panel that represent commands are recognized by the robot system, the robot arm performs the corresponding actions to test the smartphone. One of the webcams is utilized to capture commands on the screen of the control panel, the other to recognize the words on the screen of the tested smartphone. The method of image processing is based on the Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and Hue-Saturation-Luminance (HSL) color spaces to reduce the influence of light. Fuzzy theory is used in the robot arm’s position control. The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technique is applied to the word recognition, and the recognition results are then checked by a dictionary process to increase the recognition accuracy. The camera which is used to recognize the tested smartphone also provides object coordinates to the fuzzy controller, then the robot arm moves to the desired positions and presses the desired buttons. The proposed control scheme allows the robot arm to perform different assigned test functions successfully. Full article

Partial chemical modification of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was performed through tosylation followed by azidation. Amine functional PVA was also prepared by grafting propargylamine using click chemistry reaction. Through this approach, a tosyl group (a good leaving group), azide group (a group used in click chemistry) and amine group (a group used for amidation) were attached to PVA polymer chains. The three chemical modifications were performed in water. FTIR and XPS analysis confirmed the chemical modification after each step. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to study the thermal stability of the modified PVA. Full article

Case-based reasoning uses old information to infer the answer of new problems. In case-based reasoning, a reasoner firstly records the previous cases, then searches the previous case list that is similar to the current one and uses that to solve the new case. Case-based reasoning means adapting old solving solutions to new situations. This paper proposes a reasoning system based on the case-based reasoning method. To begin, we show the theoretical structure and algorithm of from coarse to fine (FCTF) reasoning system, and then demonstrate that it is possible to successfully learn and reason new information. Finally, we use our system to predict practical weather conditions based on previous ones and experiments show that the prediction accuracy increases with further learning of the FCTF reasoning system. Full article

We demonstrate the first Kerr-lens mode-locked operation in a diode-pumped Yb:GdYSiO₅ oscillator. Under a diode pump power of 5 W, 141 fs pulses with an average power of 237 mW were obtained at a repetition rate of 118 MHz. The central wavelength was at 1094 nm with a bandwidth of 10.1 nm. Shorter pulses were obtained by adjusting the cavity to operate at a shorter wavelength, resulting in 55 fs pulse duration at the central wavelength of 1054 nm with a bandwidth of 23.5 nm. Full article

Optical frequency combs have been revolutionizing many research areas and are finding a growing number of real-world applications. While initially dominated by Ti:Sapphire and fiber lasers, optical frequency combs from modelocked diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSLs) have become an attractive alternative with state-of-the-art performance. In this article, we review the main achievements in ultrafast DPSSLs for frequency combs. We present the current status of carrier-envelope offset (CEO) frequency-stabilized DPSSLs based on various approaches and operating in different wavelength regimes. Feedback to the pump current provides a reliable scheme for frequency comb CEO stabilization, but also other methods with faster feedback not limited by the lifetime of the gain material have been applied. Pumping DPSSLs with high power multi-transverse-mode diodes enabled a new class of high power oscillators and gigahertz repetition rate lasers, which were initially not believed to be suitable for CEO stabilization due to the pump noise. However, this challenge has been overcome, and recently both high power and gigahertz DPSSL combs have been demonstrated. Thin disk lasers have demonstrated the highest pulse energy and average power emitted from any ultrafast oscillator and present a high potential for the future generation of stabilized frequency combs with hundreds of watts average output power. Full article

The goal of this presented study was to determine the optimum parameters of secondary optical elements (SOEs) for concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) units with flat Fresnel lenses. Three types of SOEs are under consideration in the design process, including kaleidoscope with equal optical path design (KOD), kaleidoscope with flat top surface (KFTS), and open-truncated tetrahedral pyramid with specular walls (SP). The function of using a SOE with a Fresnel lens in a CPV unit is to achieve high optical efficiency, low sensitivity to the sun tracking error, and improved uniformity of irradiance distribution on the solar cell. Ray tracing technique was developed to simulate the optical characteristics of the CPV unit with various design parameters of each type of SOE. Finally, an optimum KOD-type SOE was determined by parametric design process. The resulting optical performance of the CPV unit with the optimum SOE was evaluated in both single-wavelength and broadband simulation of solar spectrum. Full article