ALBERT

Description: This study proposes an asymmetric interface that can provide head-mounted display (HMD) and non-HMD users with improved presence and an experience consistent with the user’s environment in an asymmetric virtual reality. For the proposed asymmetric interface, a controller-based hand interface is designed for portability, easy and convenient use, and high immersion. Subsequently, a three-step decision-making structure that supports accurate and efficient decision-making is defined based on the asymmetric experience structure of each user (HMD and non-HMD). Based on this process, an optimal interface that distinguishes between HMD (direct interaction) and non-HMD users (multi-viewpoint interaction) is implemented. With the objective of surveying and analyzing each user’s experience along with the presence provided by the proposed interface, an asymmetric virtual reality application is developed directly, and an experiment is conducted with the participants. Finally, it is statistically analyzed and verified that the use of the proposed asymmetric interface can provide optimal presence and user-optimized experience to both HMD and non-HMD users.

Description: Train derailment can mainly cause not only economic losses in the shape of mangled rolling stock or infrastructure, but also more severely in causalities and disruptions of operations, yielding great impact on the sustainable development of railway industry. Considering various complex and symmetrical operational environments, as well as the characteristics of low frequency and high consequences of derailment accidents, risk response is undoubtedly underlined as one of the most critical components of risk management process. However, in practice, risk response does not receive enough attention in comparison with risk assessment that it lacks mature models and tools for selecting optimal strategy. This study constructs an integrated Multi Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) model for the selection of optimum train derailment risk response strategy for the first time. In the model, decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technology is connected with analytical network process (ANP) to obtain evaluation criteria and their relative weights, and both of the two methods can deal with the complex coupling relationship between the indicators in the system. Then, technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is proposed to screen the optimum plan in the proposed model. Further, the Delphi method is used through the whole process to acquire expert advice. In the end, this model is used to select shunting derailment risk response strategies in Huangyangcheng station, and the final results demonstrate that this technology is simple and practical, and can provide a credible and practical tool for railway safety managers and engineers to choose the best risk response strategy.

Description: The aim of this article is to study two efficient parallel algorithms for obtaining a solution to a system of monotone variational inequalities (SVI) on Hadamard manifolds. The parallel algorithms are inspired by Tseng’s extragradient techniques with new step sizes, which are established without the knowledge of the Lipschitz constants of the operators and line-search. Under the monotonicity assumptions regarding the underlying vector fields, one proves that the sequences generated by the methods converge to a solution of the monotone SVI whenever it exists.

Description: The earlier treatments of the Lorentz covariant harmonic oscillator have brought to light various difficulties, such as reconciling Lorentz symmetry with the full Fock space, and divergence issues with their functional representations. We present here a full solution avoiding those problems. The complete set of Fock states is obtained, together with the corresponding explicit wavefunctions and their inner product integrals free from any divergence problem and with Lorentz symmetry fully maintained without additional constraints imposed. By a simple choice of the pseudo-unitary representation of the underlying symmetry group, motivated from the perspective of the Minkowski spacetime as a representation for the Lorentz group, we obtain the natural non-unitary Fock space picture commonly considered, although not formulated and presented in the careful details given here. From a direct derivation of the appropriate basis state wavefunctions of the finite-dimensional irreducible representations of the Lorentz symmetry, the relation between the latter and the Fock state wavefunctions is also explicitly shown. Moreover, the full picture, including the states with a non-positive norm, may give a consistent physics picture as a version of Lorentz covariant quantum mechanics. The probability interpretation for the usual von Neumann measurements is not a problem, as all wavefunctions restricted to a definite value for the `time’ variable are just like those of the usual time independent quantum mechanics. A further understanding from a perspective of the dynamics from the symplectic geometry of the phase space is shortly discussed.

Description: The extra space paradigm plays a significant role in modern physics and cosmology as a specific case. In this review, the relation between the main cosmological parameters—the Planck mass and the Cosmological constants—and a metric of extra space is discussed. Matter distribution inside extra space and its effect on the 4-dimensional observational parameters is of particular interest. The ways to solve the fine-tuning problem and the hierarchy problem are analyzed.

Description: This paper presents many new complex combined dark-bright soliton solutions obtained with the help of the accurate sine-Gordon expansion method to the B-type Kadomtsev‐Petviashvili‐Boussinesq equation with binary power order nonlinearity. With the use of some computational programs, we plot many new surfaces of the results obtained in this paper. In addition, we present the interactions between complex travelling wave patterns and their solitons.

Description: The use of auxiliary information in survey sampling to enhance the efficiency of the estimators of population parameters is a common phenomenon. Generally, the ratio and regression estimators are developed by using the known information on conventional parameters of the auxiliary variables, such as variance, coefficient of variation, coefficient of skewness, coefficient of kurtosis, or correlation between the study and auxiliary variable. The efficiency of these estimators is dubious in the presence of outliers in the data and a nonsymmetrical population. This study presents improved variance estimators under simple random sampling without replacement with the assumption that the information on some nonconventional dispersion measures of the auxiliary variable is readily available. These auxiliary variables can be the inter-decile range, sample inter-quartile range, probability-weighted moment estimator, Gini mean difference estimator, Downton’s estimator, median absolute deviation from the median, and so forth. The algebraic expressions for the bias and mean square error of the proposed estimators are obtained and the efficiency conditions are derived to compare with the existing estimators. The percentage relative efficiencies are used to numerically compare the results of the proposed estimators with the existing estimators by using real datasets, indicating the supremacy of the suggested estimators.

Description: Lightweight stream ciphers have attracted significant attention in the last two decades due to their security implementations in small devices with limited hardware. With low-power computation abilities, these devices consume less power, thus reducing costs. New directions in ultra-lightweight cryptosystem design include optimizing lightweight cryptosystems to work with a low number of gate equivalents (GEs); without affecting security, these designs consume less power via scaled-down versions of the Mutual Irregular Clocking KEYstream generator—version 2-(MICKEY 2.0) cipher. This study aims to obtain a scaled-down version of the MICKEY 2.0 cipher by modifying its internal state design via reducing shift registers and modifying the controlling bit positions to assure the ciphers’ pseudo-randomness. We measured these changes using the National Institutes of Standards and Testing (NIST) test suites, investigating the speed and power consumption of the proposed scaled-down version named MICKEY 2.0.85. The (85) refers to the new modified bit-lengths of each MICKEY 2.0 register. The results show that it is faster, requires less power, and needs fewer GEs. The proposed variant will enhance the security of applications, such asRadio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, sensor networks, and in Internet of things (IoT) in general. It also will enhance research on the optimization of existing lightweight cryptosystems.

Description: The authors wish to make the following corrections to the published paper [...]

Description: Let G be a simple undirected graph containing n vertices. Assume G is connected. Let D ( G ) be the distance matrix, D L ( G ) be the distance Laplacian, D Q ( G ) be the distance signless Laplacian, and T r ( G ) be the diagonal matrix of the vertex transmissions, respectively. Furthermore, we denote by D α ( G ) the generalized distance matrix, i.e., D α ( G ) = α T r ( G ) + ( 1 − α ) D ( G ) , where α ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] . In this paper, we establish some new sharp bounds for the generalized distance spectral radius of G, making use of some graph parameters like the order n, the diameter, the minimum degree, the second minimum degree, the transmission degree, the second transmission degree and the parameter α , improving some bounds recently given in the literature. We also characterize the extremal graphs attaining these bounds. As an special cases of our results, we will be able to cover some of the bounds recently given in the literature for the case of distance matrix and distance signless Laplacian matrix. We also obtain new bounds for the k-th generalized distance eigenvalue.

Description: This paper aims to investigate the criteria of behavior of a certain type of third order neutral generalized difference equations with distributed delay. With the technique of generalized Riccati transformation and Philos-type method, we obtain criteria to ensure convergence and oscillatory solutions and suitable examples are provided to illustrate the main results.

Description: Existing tensor completion methods all require some hyperparameters. However, these hyperparameters determine the performance of each method, and it is difficult to tune them. In this paper, we propose a novel nonparametric tensor completion method, which formulates tensor completion as an unconstrained optimization problem and designs an efficient iterative method to solve it. In each iteration, we not only calculate the missing entries by the aid of data correlation, but consider the low-rank of tensor and the convergence speed of iteration. Our iteration is based on the gradient descent method, and approximates the gradient descent direction with tensor matricization and singular value decomposition. Considering the symmetry of every dimension of a tensor, the optimal unfolding direction in each iteration may be different. So we select the optimal unfolding direction by scaled latent nuclear norm in each iteration. Moreover, we design formula for the iteration step-size based on the nonconvex penalty. During the iterative process, we store the tensor in sparsity and adopt the power method to compute the maximum singular value quickly. The experiments of image inpainting and link prediction show that our method is competitive with six state-of-the-art methods.

Description: In this paper, the study is focused on the quantum estimates of Ostrowski type inequalities for q-differentiable functions involving the special function introduced by R.K. Raina which depends on certain parameters. Our methodology involves Jackson’s q-integral, the basic concepts of quantum calculus, and a generalization of a class of special functions used in the frame of convex sets and convex functions. As a main result, some quantum estimates for the aforementioned inequality are established and some cases involving the special hypergeometric and Mittag–Leffler functions have been studied and some known results are deduced.

Description: This article highlights the issue of identifying information security threats to computer networks. The aim of the study is to increase the number of identified threats. Firstly, it was carried out the analysis of computer network models used to identify threats, as well as in approaches to building computer network threat models. The shortcomings that need to be corrected are highlighted. On the basis of the mathematical apparatus of attributive metagraphs, a computer network model is developed that allows to describe the software components of computer networks and all possible connections between them. On the basis of elementary operations on metagraphs, a model of threats to the security of computer network software is developed, which allows compiling lists of threats to the integrity and confidentiality of computer network software. These lists include more threats in comparison with the considered analogues.

Description: The double pendulum type gantry crane is a typical symmetry underactuated motion system. It has control problems in that the swing of the payload is difficult to suppress and the precise positioning of the trolley is not accurate. A new nonlinear coupling control method based on improved energy is proposed in this paper. We define coupled control signal among trolley, hook and payload. An improved energy storage function is established based on the new coupling control signal. Consequently, a nonlinear anti-swing controller is constructed straightforwardly, and the closed-loop system stability is subject to strict mathematics analysis by Lyapunov and LaSalle’ s theorem. Moreover, the new energy function based on the coupling behaving between the trolley motion and the payload swing leads to the improved control performance. Numerical simulation results show that the proposed method has better performance than traditional controllers. It not only effectively suppresses the swing of the load and the hook, but also precisely controls the displacement of the trolley. It has strong robustness to the displacement of the payload, the change of the gantry crane parameters and the external disturbance.

Description: Degenerate versions of polynomial sequences have been recently studied to obtain useful properties such as symmetric identities by introducing degenerate exponential-type generating functions. As part of our continued work in degenerate versions of generating functions, we subsequently present our study on degenerate complex Appell polynomials by considering a partially degenerate version of the generating functions of ordinary complex Appell polynomials in this paper. We only consider partially degenerate generating functions to retain the crucial properties of the Appell sequence, and we present useful identities and general properties by splitting complex values into their real and imaginary parts; moreover, we provide several explicit examples. Additionally, the differential equations satisfied by degenerate complex Bernoulli and Euler polynomials are derived by the quasi-monomiality principle using Appell-type polynomials.

Description: In a real Hilbert space, we investigate the Tseng’s extragradient algorithms with hybrid adaptive step-sizes for treating a Lipschitzian pseudomonotone variational inequality problem and a strict pseudocontraction fixed-point problem, which are symmetry. By imposing some appropriate weak assumptions on parameters, we obtain a norm solution of the problems, which solves a certain hierarchical variational inequality.

Description: A digital watermarking image compression method based on symmetrical encryption algorithm is proposed in this study. First, the original image and scrambled watermarking image are processed by wavelet transform, and then the watermarking image processed by the Arnold replacement method is transformed into a meaningless image in the time domain to achieve the effect of encryption. Watermarking is generated by embedding the watermarking image into the important coefficients of the wavelet transform. As an inverse process of watermarking embedding, watermarking extraction needs to be reconstructed by the wavelet transform. Finally, the watermarking is extracted from the inverse scrambled watermarking image, and a new symmetrically encrypted digital watermarking image is obtained. The compression method compresses the embedded digital watermarking image, so that the volume of the compressed watermarking image is greatly reduced when the visual difference is very small. The experimental results show that the watermarking image encrypted by this method not only has good transparency, but also has strong anti-brightness/contrast attack, anti-shearing, and anti-noise performance. When the volume of the compressed image is greatly reduced, the root mean square error and visual difference measurement of the watermarking image are very small.

Description: Benzopyran and benzodihydropyran (chromane) nuclei are the core structure of many natural products, in particular flavonoids. Many compounds possessing this structure are nutraceuticals, pharmaceutical nutrients. Therefore, benzopyran and chromane scaffolds are important building blocks in organic synthesis and many efforts have been made to set up efficient methods for their synthesis. In particular, asymmetric methods are of great importance, being natural products, and generally chiral substances. This review aims to cover literature in the range 2017–first half of 2019.

Description: In this paper, the original C Q algorithm, the relaxed C Q algorithm, the gradient projection method ( G P M ) algorithm, and the subgradient projection method ( S P M ) algorithm for the convex split feasibility problem are reviewed, and a renewed S P M algorithm with S-subdifferential functions to solve nonconvex split feasibility problems in finite dimensional spaces is suggested. The weak convergence theorem is established.

Description: In the first part of our paper, we construct a cyclic hypergroup of matrices using the Ends Lemma. Its properties are then, in the second part of the paper, used to describe the symmetry of lower and upper approximations in certain rough sets with respect to invertible subhypergroups of this cyclic hypergroup. Since our approach is widely used in autonomous robotic systems, we suggest an application of our results for the study of detection sensors, which are used especially in mobile robot mapping.

Description: Disk milling strategy has been applied in grooving for decades for its capacity to provide huge milling force on difficult-to-cut material. However, basic research on the tool orientation of the disk milling cutter for the disk milling process on the milling free surface, especially on the free surface of the blisk, is still lacking in previous studies. In this study, the minimum residual amount after the disc milling process is used as an optimization target to obtain the optimal tool orientation of the disc cutter. To address the problem mentioned above, a torque balance method, including a torque balance algorithm and concentric circle ray point (CCRP) method is proposed. The torque calculation and torque balance problem are solved by the torque balance algorithm and the problem of generating random points to cause torque symmetry is solved in the CCRP method. Based on the secondary development of UG NX software, a series of tool orientation of disk milling cutter are calculated. Finally, the torque balance method is compared with steepest descent method, Newton method, and conjugate gradient method in the aspects of calculation accuracy, operation speed, and convergence speed. However, both the calculation speed and the convergence speed are better than the other three algorithms. Compared with the other three methods, the operation speed of the torque balance method is reduced by 0.35 times, 1.5 times, and 2.25 times. The results prove the feasibility of the torque balance method in solving the problem of tool orientation optimization of the disk milling cutter.

Description: The standard manufacturing organizations follow certain rules. The highest ubiquitous organizing principles in infrastructure design are modular idea and symmetry, both of which are of the utmost importance. Symmetry is a substantial principle in the manufacturing industry. Symmetrical procedures act as the structural apparatus for manufacturing design. The rapid growth of population needs outstrip infrastructure such as roads, bridges, railway lines, commercial, residential buildings, etc. Numerous underground facilities are also installed to fulfill different requirements of the people. In these facilities one of the most important facility is water supply pipelines. Therefore, it is essential to regularly analyze the water supply pipelines’ risk index in order to escape from economic and human losses. In this paper, we proposed a simplified hierarchical fuzzy logic (SHFL) model to reduce the set of rules. To this end, we have considered four essential factors of water supply pipelines as input to the proposed SHFL model that are: leakage, depth, length and age. Different numbers of membership functions are defined for each factor according to its distribution. The proposed SHFL model takes only 95 rules as compared to the traditional mamdani fuzzy logic method that requires 1225 rules. It is very hard and time consuming for experts to design 1225 rules accurately and precisely. Further, we proposed a Do-it-Yourself (DIY) system for the proposed SHFL method. The purpose of the DIY system is that one can design the FIS model according to his or her need.

Description: A description of the motion in noninertial reference frames by means of the inclusion of high time derivatives is studied. Incompleteness of the description of physical reality is a problem of any theory, both in quantum mechanics and classical physics. The “stability principle” is put forward. We also provide macroscopic examples of noninertial mechanics and verify the use of high-order derivatives as nonlocal hidden variables on the basis of the equivalence principle when acceleration is equal to the gravitational field. Acceleration in this case is a function of high derivatives with respect to time. The definition of dark metrics for matter and energy is presented to replace the standard notions of dark matter and dark energy. In the Conclusion section, problem symmetry is noted for noninertial mechanics.

Description: Taiwan is a highly informational country, and a robust traffic network is not only critical to the national economy, but is also an important infrastructure for economic development. This paper aims to integrate government open data and global positioning system (GPS) technology to build an instant image-based traffic assistant agent with user-friendly interfaces, thus providing more convenient real-time traffic information for users and relevant government units. The proposed system is expected to overcome the difficulty of accurately distinguishing traffic information and to solve the problem of some road sections not providing instant information. Taking the New Taipei City Government traffic open data as an example, the proposed system can display information pages at an optimal size on smartphones and other computer devices, and integrate database analysis to instantly view traffic information. Users can enter the system without downloading the application and can access the cross-platform services using device browsers. The proposed system also provides a user reporting mechanism, which informs vehicle drivers on congested road sections about road conditions. Comparison and analysis of the system with similar applications shows that although they have similar functions, the proposed system offers more practicability, better information accessibility, excellent user experience, and approximately the optimal balance (a kind of symmetry) of the important items of the interface design.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to construct generating functions for negative order Changhee numbers and polynomials. Using these generating functions with their functional equation, we prove computation formulas for combinatorial numbers and polynomials. These formulas include Euler numbers and polynomials of higher order, Stirling numbers, and negative order Changhee numbers and polynomials. We also give some properties of these numbers and polynomials with their generating functions. Moreover, we give relations among Changhee numbers and polynomials of negative order, combinatorial numbers and polynomials and Bernoulli numbers of the second kind. Finally, we give a partial derivative of an equation for generating functions for Changhee numbers and polynomials of negative order. Using these differential equations, we derive recurrence relations, differential and integral formulas for these numbers and polynomials. We also give p-adic integrals representations for negative order Changhee polynomials including Changhee numbers and Deahee numbers.

Description: Computing services for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) play a vital role for widespread IoT deployment. A hierarchy of Edge-Cloud publish/subscribe (pub/sub) broker overlay networks that support latency-sensitive IoT applications in a scalable manner is introduced. In addition, we design algorithms to cluster edge pub/sub brokers based on topic similarities and geolocations to enhance data dissemination among end-to-end IoT devices. The proposed model is designed to provide low delay data dissemination and effectively save network traffic among brokers. In the proposed model, IoT devices running pub/sub client applications periodically send collected data, organized as a hierarchy of topics, to their closest edge pub/sub brokers. Then, the data are processed/analyzed at edge nodes to make controlling decisions promptly replying to the IoT devices and/or aggregated for further delivery to other interested edge brokers or to cloud brokers for long-term processing, analysis, and storage. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that our proposal achieves the best data delivery latency compared to two baseline schemes, a classical Cloud-based pub/sub scheme and an Edge-Cloud pub/sub scheme. Considering the similar Edge-Cloud technique, the proposed scheme outperforms PubSubCoord-alike in terms of relay traffic ratio among brokers. Therefore, our proposal can adapt well to support wide-scale latency-sensitive IoT applications.

Description: The concept of symmetry is inherent in the study of metric spaces due to the presence of the symmetric property of the metric. Significant results, such as with the Borsuk–Ulam theorem, make use of fixed-point arguments in their proofs to deal with certain symmetry principles. As such, the study of fixed-point results in metric spaces is highly correlated with the symmetry concept. In the current paper, we first define a new and modified Ćirić-Reich–Rus-type contraction in a b-metric space by incorporating the constant s in its definition and establish the corresponding fixed-point result. Next, we adopt an interpolative approach to establish some more fixed-point theorems. Existence of fixed points for ω -interpolative Ćirić-Reich–Rus-type contractions are investigated in this context. We also illustrate the validity of our results with some examples.

Description: We introduce the notion of a co-ordinated ( F , G ) -convex function defined on an interval in R 2 and we prove the Hermite–Hadamard and Fejér type inequalities for such functions.

Description: In order to improve the accuracy of semantic model intrinsic detection, a skeleton-based high-level semantic model intrinsic self-symmetry detection method is proposed. The semantic analysis of the model set is realized by the uniform segmentation of the model within the same style, the component correspondence of the model between different styles, and the shape content clustering. Based on the results of clustering analysis, for a given three-dimensional (3D) point cloud model, according to the curve skeleton, the skeleton point pairs reflecting the symmetry between the model surface points are obtained by the election method, and the symmetry is extended to the model surface vertices according to these skeleton point pairs. With the help of skeleton, the symmetry of the point cloud model is obtained, and then the symmetry region of point cloud model is obtained by the symmetric correspondence matrix and spectrum method, so as to realize the intrinsic symmetry detection of the model. The experimental results show that the proposed method has the advantages of less time, high accuracy, and high reliability.

Description: The dark matter particle can be a QCD axion or axion-like particle. A locally over-densed distribution of axions can condense into a bound Bose–Einstein condensate called an axion star, which can be bound by self-gravity or bound by self-interactions. It is possible that a significant fraction of the dark matter axion is in the form of axion stars. This would make some efforts searching for the axion as the dark matter particle more challenging, but at the same time it would also open up new possibilities. Some of the properties of axion stars, including their emission rates and their interactions with other astrophysical objects, are not yet completely understood.

Description: This study successfully provides the empirical practicability of a hybrid mechanism for helicopters. A turbine engine and a set of electricity power systems can operate simultaneously and/or independently as a symmetric structure. The latter power source works as an immediate supplementary device if the former one has malfunction. We look forward to promoting this experimental evidence in the helicopter industry. The ultimate purpose of this manuscript is to decrease the incidents of crashes and save people’s lives.

Description: We review a possible origin of cosmological inflation from higher ( D ) spacetime dimensions in the context of modified gravity theory. It is demonstrated that it requires a spontaneous warped compactification of higher ( D ) spacetime dimensions together with the stabilization of extra ( D − 4 ) dimensions by Freund–Rubin mechanism. The relevant tools include an extra gauge ( D / 2 − 1 ) -form field with a non-vanishing flux in compact dimensions and a positive cosmological constant in D dimensions. Those features are illustrated on the specific example in eight spacetime dimensions compactified on a four-sphere with a warped factor and a flux, which leads to a viable Starobinsky-like inflationary model in four (non-compact) spacetime dimensions.

Description: Due to its flexibility and versatility, robotic belt polishing is one of the most effective processing methods to improve the surface quality of aeroengine blades. Since belt polishing of blades is a material removal process aimed at reducing surface roughness, it is difficult to achieve both minimum surface roughness and maximum material removal rates. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes an optimization method combining grey correlation analysis (GRA), the Taguchi method, and the response surface method (RSM) for the multiobjective optimization of the process parameters of Ti–6Al–4V aeroengine blade polishing. Meanwhile, the problem of the influence of asymmetry on the polishing process parameters vis-a-vis the optimization goal was solved. Experiments of robotic belt polishing for aeroengine blades were carried out. Based on the results of the principal component analysis, the grey relational grade was established to turn multiobjective optimization into single-objective optimization. A quadratic regression model of Grey correlation grade was developed, and an optimal parameter combination was obtained by the RSM. Finally, verification experiments were performed, and the combination of optimal parameters was obtained as follows: feed rate of 232.09 mm/min, compression amount of 0.08 mm, and belt line speed of 16 m/s, which reduced surface roughness by 6.29% and increased the material removal rate by 16.11%. Comparing the results of GRA-RSM and GRA, the Grey correlation grade increased by 10.96%. In other words, the goal of simultaneously reducing the surface roughness and improving the material removal rate was achieved in robotic belt polishing for aeroengine blades.

Description: Multibody system dynamics is already a well developed branch of theoretical, computational and applied mechanics. Thousands of documents can be found in any of the well-known scientific databases. In this work it is demonstrated that multibody system dynamics is built of many thematic communities. Using the Elsevier’s abstract and citation database SCOPUS, a massive amount of data is collected and analyzed with the use of the open source visualization tool Gephi. The information is represented as a large set of nodes with connections to study their graphical distribution and explore geometry and symmetries. A randomized radial symmetry is found in the graphical representation of the collected information. Furthermore, the concept of modularity is used to demonstrate that community structures are present in the field of multibody system dynamics. In particular, twenty-four different thematic communities have been identified. The scientific production of each community is analyzed, which allows to predict its growing rate in the next years. The journals and conference proceedings mainly used by the authors belonging to the community as well as the cooperation between them by country are also analyzed.

Description: Cost rationalization has become imperative in every economic system in order to create adequate foundations for its efficient and sustainable management. Competitiveness in the global market is extremely high and it is challenging to manage business and logistics systems, especially with regards to financial parameters. It is necessary to rationalize costs in all activities and processes. The presence of inventories is inevitability in every logistics system, and it tends to create adequate and symmetrical policies for their efficient and sustainable management. In order to be able to do this, it is necessary to determine which products represent the largest percentage share in the value of procurement, and which are the most represented quantitatively. For this purpose, ABC analysis, which classifies products into three categories, is applied taking into account different constraints. The aim of this paper is to form a new model that involves the integration of ABC analysis, the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM), and a novel Interval Rough Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) for stock management in the storage system. A new IRN Dombi weighted geometric averaging (IRNDWGA) operator is developed to aggregate the initial decision matrix. After grouping the products into three categories A, B and C, it is necessary to identify appropriate suppliers for each category in order to rationalize procurement costs. Financial, logistical, and quality parameters are taken into account. The FUCOM method has been used to determine the significance of these parameters. A new Interval CoCoSo approach is developed to determine the optimal suppliers for each product group. The results obtained have been modeled throughout a multi-phase sensitivity analysis.

Description: The Nambu–Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model is a classic theory for the strong dynamics of composite fields and symmetry breaking. Supersymmetric versions of the NJL-type models are certainly of interest too. Particularly, the case with a composite (Higgs) chiral superfield formed by two (quark) chiral superfields has received much attention. Here, we propose a prototype model with a four-chiral-superfield interaction, giving a real superfield composite. It has a spin-one composite vector field with properties being somewhat similar to a massive gauge boson of spontaneously broken gauge symmetry. As such, it is like the first supersymmetric analog to non-supersymmetric models with spin-one composites. The key formulation developed here is the picture of quantum effective action as a superfield functional with parameters like constant superfields, having explicit supersymmetric and Grassmann number dependent supersymmetry breaking parts. Following the standard non-perturbative analysis for NJL-type models, the gap equation analysis shows plausible signature of dynamical supersymmetry breaking which is worth more serious analysis. With an extra superfield model Lagrangian included, comparison between the models and their non-supersymmetric counterparts is discussed, illustrating the notion of supersymmetrization is nontrivial in the setting.

Description: The influence of entropy generation on aligned magnetic flow-including nanoparticles through a convectively heated radial stretched surface in the existence of Cattaneo–Christov heat flux is inspected. The highly nonlinear leading PDE’s via the similar scaling transformation are developed. The resulting system via the bvp4c technique from Matlab is computed. The impacts of rising constraints on the liquid velocity, nanoparticles concentration and temperature profile are argued and showed via portraits and table. In addition, the performance of liquid flow is inspected through the friction factor, the mass and heat transfer rate. With the rise in the thermal relaxation constraint, the thermal boundary layer is appreciably altered. Due to an aligned angle, the velocity of nanoliquid declines, while the concentration and temperature of nanofluid augment. It is also observed that the values of friction factor increase, whereas the values of heat and mass transfer decline due to an aligned angle. Entropy generation profiles developed due to magnetic parameters and the aligned angle. Lastly, a comparative scrutiny is composed via the previous studies which lead to support for our presently developed model.

Description: A particular pantographic sheet, modeled as a two-dimensional elastic continuum consisting of an orthogonal lattice of continuously distributed fibers with a cycloidal texture, is introduced and investigated. These fibers conceived as embedded beams on the surface are allowed to be deformed in a three-dimensional space and are endowed with resistance to stretching, shearing, bending, and twisting. A finite element analysis directly derived from a variational formulation was performed for some explanatory tests to illustrate the behavior of the newly introduced material. Specifically, we considered tests on: (1) bias extension; (2) compressive; (3) shear; and (4) torsion. The numerical results are discussed to some extent. Finally, attention is drawn to a comparison with other kinds of orthogonal lattices, namely straight, parabolic, and oscillatory, to show the differences in the behavior of the samples due to the diverse arrangements of the fibers.

Description: In this paper, we introduce a new univariate version of the Lomax model as well as a simple type copula-based construction via Morgenstern family and via Clayton copula for introducing a new bivariate and a multivariate type extension of the new model. The new density has a strong physical interpretation and can be a symmetric function and unimodal with a heavy tail with positive skewness. The new failure rate function can be “upside-down”, “decreasing” with many different shapes and “decreasing-constant”. Some mathematical and statistical properties of the new model are derived. The model parameters are estimated using different estimation methods. For comparing the estimation methods, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations are performed. The applicability of the new model is illustrated via four real data applications, these data sets are symmetric and right skewed. We constructed a modified Chi-Square goodness-of-fit test based on Nikulin-Rao-Robson test in the case of complete and censored sample for the new model. Different simulation studies are performed along applications on real data for validation propose.

Description: In this paper, we generalize some results of Wardowski (Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2012:94, 2012), Cosentino and Vetro (Filomat 28:4, 2014), and Piri and Kumam (Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2014:210, 2014) theories by applying some weaker symmetrical conditions on the self map of a complete metric space and on the mapping F, concerning the contractions defined by Wardowski.

Description: Sentiment classification of forum posts of massive open online courses is essential for educators to make interventions and for instructors to improve learning performance. Lacking monitoring on learners’ sentiments may lead to high dropout rates of courses. Recently, deep learning has emerged as an outstanding machine learning technique for sentiment classification, which extracts complex features automatically with rich representation capabilities. However, deep neural networks always rely on a large amount of labeled data for supervised training. Constructing large-scale labeled training datasets for sentiment classification is very laborious and time consuming. To address this problem, this paper proposes a co-training, semi-supervised deep learning model for sentiment classification, leveraging limited labeled data and massive unlabeled data simultaneously to achieve performance comparable to those methods trained on massive labeled data. To satisfy the condition of two views of co-training, we encoded texts into vectors from views of word embedding and character-based embedding independently, considering words’ external and internal information. To promote the classification performance with limited data, we propose a double-check strategy sample selection method to select samples with high confidence to augment the training set iteratively. In addition, we propose a mixed loss function both considering the labeled data with asymmetric and unlabeled data. Our proposed method achieved a 89.73% average accuracy and an 93.55% average F1-score, about 2.77% and 3.2% higher than baseline methods. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model trained on limited labeled data, which performs much better than those trained on massive labeled data.

Description: We organize a table of regular graphs with minimal diameters and minimal mean path lengths, large bisection widths and high degrees of symmetries, obtained by enumerations on supercomputers. These optimal graphs, many of which are newly discovered, may find wide applications, for example, in design of network topologies.

Description: We are concerned with the following elliptic equations: ( − Δ ) p , K s u + V ( x ) | u | p − 2 u = λ f ( x , u ) in R N , where ( − Δ ) p , K s is the nonlocal integrodifferential equation with 0 〈 s 〈 1 〈 p 〈 + ∞ , s p 〈 N the potential function V : R N → ( 0 , ∞ ) is continuous, and f : R N × R → R satisfies a Carathéodory condition. The present paper is devoted to the study of the L ∞ -bound of solutions to the above problem by employing De Giorgi’s iteration method and the localization method. Using this, we provide a sequence of infinitely many small-energy solutions whose L ∞ -norms converge to zero. The main tools were the modified functional method and the dual version of the fountain theorem, which is a generalization of the symmetric mountain-pass theorem.

Description: The horizontal-vertical (HV) illusion is a classical example of an asymmetrical perception of size in the vertical and horizontal axes, also known as ‘anisotropy of the perceived space’. Several authors argued that the horizontally-oriented ellipse of the binocular visual field might play an important role in the emergence of this illusion. Alternatively, a length bisection bias and size-constancy mechanisms have been advocated to account for the asymmetrical perception in the two dimensions. To investigate this phenomenon, participants are commonly required to estimate the length of two separate lines, one vertical and one horizontal, often arranged in an inverted-T pattern. Here we suggest that this type of stimulus may introduce physical and subjective biases that prevent a fine investigation. In particular, we believe that Petter’s rule, that applies to two-dimensional patterns formed by two overlapping surfaces, may play a critical role that will not support an interpretation based on the shape of the binocular visual field nor a length bisection bias.

Description: This paper tackles the problem of simulating the dynamics of human crowds in highdensity conditions on venues which include internal obstacles and in the interaction between twocrowd streams moving in two opposite directions. The role of stress condition is taken into account assimulations aim at providing a support to crisis managers in charge of reducing the risk of incidents.The rationale of the modeling approach is that kinetic theory approach, where individual interactions,which might be nonlinearly additive, non symmetric, and non nonlocal, lead to collective behaviorsto be examined towards safety problems.

Description: Emotions constitute an indispensable component of our everyday life. They consist of conscious mental reactions towards objects or situations and are associated with various physiological, behavioral, and cognitive changes. In this paper, we propose a comparative analysis between different machine learning and deep learning techniques, with and without feature selection, for binarily classifying the six basic emotions, namely anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise, into two symmetrical categorical classes (emotion and no emotion), using the physiological recordings and subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance from the DEAP (Dataset for Emotion Analysis using EEG, Physiological and Video Signals) database. The results showed that the maximum classification accuracies for each emotion were: anger: 98.02%, joy:100%, surprise: 96%, disgust: 95%, fear: 90.75%, and sadness: 90.08%. In the case of four emotions (anger, disgust, fear, and sadness), the classification accuracies were higher without feature selection. Our approach to emotion classification has future applicability in the field of affective computing, which includes all the methods used for the automatic assessment of emotions and their applications in healthcare, education, marketing, website personalization, recommender systems, video games, and social media.

Description: In this paper, using the conditions of Taleb-Hanebaly’s theorem in a modular space where the modular is s-convex and symmetric with respect to the ordinate axis, we prove a new generalized modular version of the Schauder and Petryshyn fixed point theorems for nonexpansive mappings in s-convex sets. Our results can be applied to a nonlinear integral equation in Musielak-Orlicz space L p where 0 〈 p ≤ 1 and 0 〈 s ≤ p .

Description: This work aims at designing and optimizing the performance of a small Horizontal-Axis-Wind-Turbine to obtain a power coefficient (CP) higher than 40% at a low wind speed of 5 m/s. Two symmetric in shape airfoils were used to get the final optimized airfoil. The main objective is to optimize the blade parameters that influence the design of the blade since the small turbines are prone to show low performance due to the low Reynolds number as a result of the small size of the rotor and the low wind speed. Therefore, the optimization process will select different airfoils and extract their performance at the design conditions to find the best sections which form the optimal design of the blade. The sections of the blade in the final version mainly consist of two different sections belong to S1210 and S1223 airfoils. The optimization process goes further by investigating the performance of the final design, and it employs the blade element momentum theory to enhance the design. Finally, the rotor-design was obtained, which consists of three blades with a diameter of 4 m, a hub of 20 cm radius, a tip-speed ratio of 6.5 and can obtain about 650 W with a Power coefficient of 0.445 at a wind-speed of 5.5 m/s, reaching a power of 1.18 kW and a power coefficient of 0.40 at a wind-speed of 7 m/s.

Description: Facial Animation is a serious and ongoing challenge for the Computer Graphic industry. Because diverse and complex emotions need to be expressed by different facial deformation and animation, copying facial deformations from existing character to another is widely needed in both industry and academia, to reduce time-consuming and repetitive manual work of modeling to create the 3D shape sequences for every new character. But transfer of realistic facial animations between two 3D models is limited and inconvenient for general use. Modern deformation transfer methods require correspondences mapping, in most cases, which are tedious to get. In this paper, we present a fast and automatic approach to transfer the deformations of the facial mesh models by obtaining the 3D point-wise correspondences in the automatic manner. The key idea is that we could estimate the correspondences with different facial meshes using the robust facial landmark detection method by projecting the 3D model to the 2D image. Experiments show that without any manual labelling efforts, our method detects reliable correspondences faster and simpler compared with the state-of-the-art automatic deformation transfer method on the facial models.

Description: In Banach spaces, we study the problem of solving a more general variational inequality system for an asymptotically non-expansive mapping. We give a new viscosity approximation scheme to find a common element. Some strong convergence theorems of the proposed iterative method are obtained. A numerical experiment is given to show the implementation and efficiency of our main theorem. Our results presented in this paper generalize and complement many recent ones.

Description: The symmetry concept in this paper is related to the natural self-assembly of noble metal nanoparticles in the long range periodic structure of liquid crystal (LC). The current study deliberates the effect of pH on the stability of nanoparticles (NPs) in the lamellar phase of a lyotropic LC environment. The LC was prepared by the mass ratio 0.33:0.22:0.45 for (HDTABr):1-pentanol:water. The LC containing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was prepared by replacing the water with Ag solution. The AgNPs were produced by the in situ preparation method in LC. The solution of AgNPs-LC was varied at different pH. The absorption intensities were determined by using ultra-violet spectroscopy (UV-vis). The surface potential and hydrodynamic particle size were determined by using Zeta-potential (measurements). The surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was carried out to enhance the Raman signals of 4-aminobenzenethiol (4-ABT) deposited onto AgNPs as substrate. It is found that all characterizations exhibited super stability for AgNPs dispersed in LC at pH = 3 to 12 with the optimum stability at pH = 5–6. The remarkable stability of NPs is an important indicator of the various applications in nanotechnology and nanoscience fields.

Description: In order to reduce the data size and simplify the process of creating characters’ 3D models, a new and interactive ordinary differential equation (ODE)-based C2 continuous surface creation algorithm is introduced in this paper. With this approach, the creation of a three-dimensional surface is transformed into generating two boundary curves plus four control curves and solving a vector-valued sixth order ordinary differential equation subjected to boundary constraints consisting of boundary curves, and first and second partial derivatives at the boundary curves. Unlike the existing patch modeling approaches which require tedious and time-consuming manual operations to stitch two separate patches together to achieve continuity between two stitched patches, the proposed technique maintains the C2 continuity between adjacent surface patches naturally, which avoids manual stitching operations. Besides, compared with polygon surface modeling, our ODE C2 surface creation method can significantly reduce and compress the data size, deform the surface easily by simply changing the first and second partial derivatives, and shape control parameters instead of manipulating loads of polygon points.

Description: In this study, the principle of minimum spectral energy leakage is applied, and the mathematical model is also established by the general function through adding different constraints. To allow the target baseband signal to have a high-quality time-domain representation, it is assumed that the baseband signal is an even function. The time-domain waveform has symmetry about the y-axis, and the objective function is obtained by Fourier series approximation. The frequency-domain characteristics of the baseband signals are obtained by adding the energy limitation condition and the boundary restriction condition. Limit a point at the appropriate position of the main lobe of the normalized energy spectral density function, and at the same time, limit the appropriate point at the first side lobe. The changes of the points modified the whole characteristic of the frequency-domain. To more conveniently compare the characteristics of the signal under different constraints, according to the symmetry of the frequency-domain of the signal, the normalized energy spectrum main lobe energy ratio is defined as a parameter, and thereby the spectral performance of the signal is discriminated by the size of this parameter. Through comparative analysis, the signal with the frequency-domain restriction conditions added has a larger normalized energy spectrum main lobe energy ratio. With increasing roll-off factor n, the energy ratio of the main energy spectrum of the normalized spectrum increases accordingly, i.e., the energy leakage is effectively suppressed. The baseband signal can be considered more suitable as a modern wireless communication system and can be obtained by adding a suitable restriction condition and establishing a model with a general function.

Description: Explicit expressions are constructed for a locally conserved vector current associated with a continuous internal symmetry and for energy-momentum and angular-momentum density tensors associated with the Poincaré group in field theories with higher-order derivatives and in non-local field theories. We consider an example of non-local charged scalar field equations with broken C (charge conjugation) and CPT (charge conjugation, parity, and time reversal) symmetries. For this case, we find simple analytical expressions for the conserved currents.

Description: By considering the interaction between a two-atom system and the vacuum massless scalar field in the viewpoint of an instantaneously inertial observer, we study the rates of transition of a uniformly accelerated two-atom system in the symmetric/antisymmetric entangled state near a reflecting boundary and in a cavity, respectively. We find that both the downward transition | ψ ± ⟩ → | g A g B ⟩ and the upward transition | ψ ± ⟩ → | e A e B ⟩ occur for the accelerated two-atom system, as in sharp contrast with the case of a static two-atom system, in which the upward transition can never happen. Similar to the rates of transition of atoms immersed in a thermal bath with the FDU temperature, both the downward transition rate and the upward transition rate are characterized by the Plank factor ( e 2 π ω 0 / a − 1 ) − 1 . This character of the transition rates is very different from the other radiative properties of the accelerated two-atom system, such as the resonance interatomic energy, for which the revisions of the effects of uniform acceleration are never characterized by such a factor. We show with analytical and numerical results that both the downward transition and the upward transition processes can be effectively manipulated by the atomic non-inertial motion and by the presence of boundaries. By comparing the upward transition rate with the downward transition rate, we discover that, when ω 0 ≫ a , with ω 0 and a being the energy space and the proper acceleration of the two-atom system, the disentanglement caused by the upward transition is negligible, while, if ω 0 ≪ a , the disentanglement caused by the upward transition becomes as important as that caused by the downward transition.

Description: This article explores nonlinear convergence to limit the effects of the consensus problem that usually occurs in multi-agent systems. Most of the existing research essentially considers the outline of linear protocols, using complex mathematical equations in various orders. In this work, however, we designed and developed an alternative nonlinear protocol based on simple and effective mathematical approaches. The designed protocol in this sense was modified from the Doubly Stochastic Quadratic Operators (DSQO) and was aimed at resolving consensus problems. Therefore, we called it Modified Doubly Stochastic Quadratic Operators (MDSQO). The protocol was derived in the context of coordinated systems to overcome the consensus issue related to multi-agent systems. In the process, we proved that by using the proposed nonlinear protocol, the consensus could be reached via a common agreement among the agents (average consensus) in a fast and easy fashion without losing any initial status. Moreover, the investigated nonlinear protocol of MDSQO realized the reaching consensus always as well as DSQO in some cases, which could not reach consensus. Finally, simulation results were given to prove the validity of the theoretical analysis.

Description: Cross-efficiency evaluation approaches and common set of weights (CSW) approaches have long been suggested as two of the more important and effective methods for the ranking of decision making units (DMUs) in data envelopment analysis (DEA). The former emphasizes the flexibility of evaluation and its weights are asymmetric, while the latter focuses on the standardization of evaluation and its weights are symmetrical. As a compromise between these two approaches, this paper proposes a cross-efficiency evaluation method that is based on two types of flexible evaluation criteria balanced on interval weights. The evaluation criteria can be regarded as macro policy—or means of regulation—according to the industry’s current situation. Unlike current cross-efficiency evaluation methods, which tend to choose the set of weights for peer evaluation based on certain preferences, the cross-efficiency evaluation method based on evaluation criterion determines one set of input and output weights for each DMU. This is done by minimizing the difference between the weights of the DMU and the evaluation criteria, thus ensuring that the cross-evaluation of all DMUs for evaluating peers is as consistent as possible. This method also eliminates prejudice and arbitrariness from peer evaluations. As a result, the proposed cross-efficiency evaluation method not only looks for non-zero weights, but also ranks efficient DMUs completely. The proposed DEA model can be further extended to seek a common set of weights for all DMUs. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the applications of the cross-efficiency evaluation method based on evaluation criterion in DEA ranking.

Description: In this study, we define new classes of convexity called h-Godunova–Levin and h-Godunova–Levin preinvexity, through which some new inequalities of Hermite–Hadamard type are established. These new classes are the generalization of several known convexities including the s-convex, P-function, and Godunova–Levin. Further, the properties of the h-Godunova–Levin function are also discussed. Meanwhile, the applications of h-Godunova–Levin Preinvex function are given.

Description: The univariate power-normal distribution is quite useful for modeling many types of real data. On the other hand, multivariate extensions of this univariate distribution are not common in the statistic literature, mainly skewed multivariate extensions that can be bimodal, for example. In this paper, based on the univariate power-normal distribution, we extend the univariate power-normal distribution to the multivariate setup. Structural properties of the new multivariate distributions are established. We consider the maximum likelihood method to estimate the unknown parameters, and the observed and expected Fisher information matrices are also derived. Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that the maximum likelihood approach is quite effective to estimate the model parameters. An empirical application of the proposed multivariate distribution to real data is provided for illustrative purposes.

Description: Neutrosophic extended triplet group (NETG) is a novel algebra structure and it is different from the classical group. The major concern of this paper is to present the concept of a partially ordered neutrosophic extended triplet group (po-NETG), which is a NETG equipped with a partial order that relates to its multiplicative operation, and consider properties and structure features of po-NETGs. Firstly, in a po-NETG, we propose the concepts of the positive cone and negative cone, and investigate the structure features of them. Secondly, we study the specificity of the positive cone in a partially ordered weak commutative neutrosophic extended triplet group (po-WCNETG). Finally, we introduce the concept of a po-NETG homomorphism between two po-NETGs, construct a po-NETG on a quotient set by providing a multiplication and a partial order, then we discuss some fundamental properties of them.

Description: Fractional derivative models are widely used to easily characterise more complex damping behaviour than the viscous one, although the underlying properties are not trivial. Several studies about the mathematical properties can be found, but are usually far from the most daily applications. Thus, this paper studies the properties of structural systems whose damping is represented by a fractional model from the point of view of a mechanical engineer. First, a single-degree-of-freedom system with fractional damping is analysed. Specifically, the distribution of the poles and the dynamic response to several excitations is studied for different model parameter values highlighting dissimilarities from systems with conventional viscous damping. In fact, thanks to fractional models, particular behaviours are observed that cannot be reproduced by classical ones. Finally, the dynamics of a machine shaft supported by two bearings presenting fractional damping is analysed. The study is carried out by the Finite Element method, deriving in a system with symmetric matrices. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors are obtained by means of an iterative method, and the effect of damping is visualised on the mode shapes. In addition, the response to a perturbation is computed, revealing the influence of the model parameters on the resulting vibration.

Description: We suggest a certain variant of symbolic calculus for special classes of linear bounded operators acting in Banach spaces. According to the calculus we formulate an index theorem and give applications to elliptic pseudo-differential operators on smooth manifolds with non-smooth boundaries.

Description: Biosensors and immunosensors show an increasing attractiveness when developing current cheap and fast monitoring and detecting devices. In this work, a model of immunosensor in a class of delayed lattice differential equations is offered and studied. The spatial operator describes symmetric diffusion processes of antigenes between pixels. The main results are devoted to the qualitative research of the model. The conditions of global asymptotic stability, which are constructed with the help of Lyapunov functionals, determine a lower estimate of the time of immune response. Nonlinear analysis of the model is performed with help of a series of numerical characteristics including autocorrelation function, mutual information, embedding, and correlation dimensions, sample entropy, the largest Lyapunov exponents. We consider the influence of both symmetric and unsymmetric diffusion of antigens between pixels on the qualitative behavior of the system. The outcomes are verified with the help of numerical simulation in cases of 4 × 4 - and 16 × 16 - arrays of immunopixels.

Description: In this paper, we establish sufficient conditions for the existence of mild solutions for certain impulsive evolution differential equations with causal operators in separable Banach spaces. We rely on the existence of mild solutions for the strongly continuous semigroups theory, the measure of noncompactness and the Schauder fixed point theorem. We consider the impulsive integro-differential evolutions equation and impulsive reaction diffusion equations (which could include symmetric kernels) as applications to illustrate our main results.

Description: In this article, we introduce new generators of a permuting n-derivations to improve and increase the action of usual derivation. We produce a permuting n-generalized semiderivation, a permuting n-semigeneralized semiderivation, a permuting n-antisemigeneralized semiderivation and a permuting skew n-antisemigeneralized semiderivation of non-empty rings with their applications. Actually, we study the behaviour of those types and present their results of semiprime ring R. Examples of various results have also been included. That is, many of the branches of science such as business, engineering and quantum physics, which used a derivation, have the opportunity to invest them in solving their problems.

Description: Proof of ownership on multimedia data exposes users to significant threats due to a myriad of transmission channel attacks over distributed computing infrastructures. In order to address this problem, in this paper, an efficient blind symmetric image watermarking method using singular value decomposition (SVD) and the fast Walsh-Hadamard transform (FWHT) is proposed for ownership protection. Initially, Gaussian mapping is used to scramble the watermark image and secure the system against unauthorized detection. Then, FWHT with coefficient ordering is applied to the cover image. To make the embedding process robust and secure against severe attacks, two unique keys are generated from the singular values of the FWHT blocks of the cover image, which are kept by the owner only. Finally, the generated keys are used to extract the watermark and verify the ownership. The simulation result demonstrates that our proposed scheme is highly robust against numerous attacks. Furthermore, comparative analysis corroborates its superiority among other state-of-the-art methods. The NC of the proposed method is numerically one, and the PSNR resides from 49.78 to 52.64. In contrast, the NC of the state-of-the-art methods varies from 0.7991 to 0.9999, while the PSNR exists in the range between 39.4428 and 54.2599.

Description: In this paper, a new backstepping-based adaptive stabilization of a fractional-order system with unknown parameters is investigated. We assume that the controlled system is perturbed by external disturbance, the bound of external disturbance to be unknown in advance. Moreover, the effects of sector and dead-zone nonlinear inputs both are taken into account. A fractional-order auxiliary system is established to generate the necessary signals for compensation the nonlinear inputs. Meantime, in order to deal with these unknown parameters, some fractional-order adaption laws are given. The frequency-distributed model is used so that the indirect Lyapunov theory is available in designing controllers. Finally, simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control strategy.

Description: The X-ray pulse originating from high altitude nuclear detonation (HAND) is mainly soft X-ray and its intensity is high enough to gasify the penetrated material and then lead to the severe thermo-mechanical deformation of unpenetrated material from the gasified blow-off effect. This effect cannot be directly reproduced in a lab for the lack of the X-ray source like HAND. At present, the low-energy relativistic electron beams resulting from an electron accelerator are usually used to approximately reproduce this effect, but the difference in the energy-deposited profile in materials between the electron and X-ray cannot be eliminated. In this paper, the symmetric linear least squares method was used to optimize the electron spectrum, and the general Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code calculations showed the optimized spectrum can produce the same energy-deposited profile in aluminum, copper, and tantalum with the soft X-rays like 1 keV or 3 keV spectrums. This indicates that it is possible to simulate the severe thermo-mechanical deformation resulting from HAND using the optimized electron spectrums.

Description: As indicated by a worldwide common perspective about health and sustainable healthsystems, the health structure as a part of public health is a key theme of many societies. The futureis shaped by probable future scenarios, for which dealing practically has many complications. Thisstudy is focused on the future scenarios for a comprehensive sustainable health financing model tosupport a superior structure for a decision and policy‐making pilot for the society. This aim isfollowed based on multiple attribute decision making (MADM)‐based scenarios using twoMADM methods, step‐wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and weighted aggregatedsum product assessment (WASPAS), as a hybrid model which is the first real case study of theapproach. Four main probable future scenarios are identified and selected based on experts’viewpoints about sustainable health financing models. These scenarios include membership in theWorld Trade Organization (WTO), dynamic basic insurance, international cooperation, andeffective resources management. The process of evaluating based on the approach works as awider picture, including all criteria and alternatives together. Sustainable medical services,empowering the private sector in both production and technology, and employing internationalmanagers took place as the top priority for considering the most applicable alternatives in thefuture. This structure is designed and developed in Iran’s context, and the Institute for FuturesStudies in Health is the pilot of the research.

Description: We report evidence that the experimentally observed small deformation of antiferromagnetic NiO modifies the symmetry of the crystal in such a way that the antiferromagnetic state becomes an eigenstate of the electronic Hamiltonian. This deformation closely resembles a rhombohedral contraction, but does not possess the perfect symmetry of a trigonal (rhombohedral) space group. We determine the monoclinic base centered magnetic space group of the antiferromagnetic structure within the deformed crystal which is strongly influenced by the time-inversion symmetry of the Hamiltonian. The antiferromagnetic state is evidently stabilized by a nonadiabatic atomic-like motion of the electrons near the Fermi level. This atomic-like motion is characterized by the symmetry of the Bloch functions near the Fermi level and provides in NiO a perfect basis for a Mott insulator in the antiferromagnetic phase.

Description: The aim of this current contribution is to examine the rheological significance of Maxwell fluid configured between two isothermal stretching disks. The energy equation is also extended by evaluating the heat source and sink features. The governing partial differential equations (PDEs) are converted into the ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by using appropriate variables. An analytically-based technique is adopted to compute the series solution of the dimensionless flow problem. The convergence of this series solution is carefully ensured. The physical interpretation of important physical parameters like the Hartmann number, Prandtl number, Archimedes number, Eckert number, heat source/sink parameter and the activation energy parameter are presented for velocity, pressure and temperature profiles. The numerical values of different involved parameters for skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number are expressed in tabular and graphical forms. Moreover, the significance of an important parameter, namely Frank-Kamenetskii, is presented both in tabular and graphical form. This particular study reveals that both axial and radial velocity components decrease by increasing the Frank–Kamenetskii number and stretching the ratio parameter. The pressure distribution is enhanced with an increasing Frank–Kamenetskii number and stretching ratio parameter. It is also observed that thetemperature distribution increases with the increasing Hartmann number, Eckert number and Archimedes number.

Description: The main purpose of this study is to investigate the multislip effects on the magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) mixed convection unsteady flow of micropolar nano-fluids over a stretching/shrinking sheet along with radiation in the presence of a heat source. The consequences of multislip and buoyancy conditions have been integrated. By using the suitable similarity variables are used to solve the governing non-linear partial differential equations into a system of coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations. The transformed equations are solved numerically by using Runge–Kutta fourth-order method with shooting technique. The impacts of the several parameters on the velocity, temperature, micro-rotation, and concentration profiles as well as on the skin friction coefficient, Sherwood number, and Nusselt number are discussed with the help of graphs and tables.

Description: The paper studies the modified theory of induced gravity (MTIG). The solutions of the MTIG equations contain two branches (stages): Einstein (ES) and “restructuring” (RS). Previously, solutions were found that the values of such parameters as the “Hubble parameter”, gravitational and cosmological “constants” at the RS stage, fluctuate near monotonously developing mean values. This article gives MTIG equations with arbitrary potential. Solutions of the equations of geodesic curves are investigated for the case of centrally symmetric space and quadratic potential at the RS stage. The oscillatory nature of the solutions leads to the appearance of a gravitational potential containing a spectrum of minima, as well as to antigravity, which is expressed by acceleration directed from the center. Such solutions lead to the distribution of the potential of the gravitational field creating an additional mass effect at large distances and are well suited for modeling the effect of dark matter in galaxies. The solutions of the equation of geodesic lines are obtained and analyzed. We found that the transition from flat asymptotics to oscillatory asymptotics at large distances from the center with a combination of the presence of antigravity zones leads to a rich variety of shapes and dynamics of geodesic curves and to the formation of complex structures.

Description: An insurance premium principle is a way of assigning to every risk a real number, interpreted as a premium for insuring risk. There are several methods of defining the principle. In this paper, we deal with the principle of equivalent utility under the rank-dependent utility model. The principle, generated by utility function and probability distortion function, is based on the assumption of the symmetry between the decisions of accepting and rejecting risk. It is known that the principle of equivalent utility can be uniquely extended from the family of ternary risks. However, the extension from the family of binary risks need not be unique. Therefore, the following problem arises: characterizing those principles that coincide on the family of all binary risks. We reduce the problem thus to the multiplicative Pexider functional equation on a region. Applying the form of continuous solutions of the equation, we solve the problem completely.

Description: In this paper, we present a new definition of higher-order generalized strongly preinvex functions. Moreover, it is observed that the new class of higher-order generalized strongly preinvex functions characterize various new classes as special cases. We acquire a new q 1 q 2 -integral identity, then employing this identity, we establish several two-variable q 1 q 2 -integral inequalities of Simpson-type within a class of higher-order generalized strongly preinvex and quasi-preinvex functions. Finally, the utilities of our numerical approximations have concrete applications.

Description: Circular economy (CE) is an emerging economic model based on the endless circulation flow of resources creating additional value. In temporary organizations such as construction projects, all administrative decisions are crucial for final success. One of the ideas is to enroll a circular economy manager (CEMR) and put him in an organizational structure. Implementation of the CE concept should be the effort of the entire project team. However, actions specific to the innovative nature of the procedures related to the CE in construction projects require additional support. It can be provided by professionals who can adapt a wide spectrum of knowledge to be used for promoting CE in the execution of construction processes. CEMRs can play the role of patrons of the CE issues because they support project managers in saving material resources in construction projects. The symmetry between visible outcomes of the CE idea and the employment of an extra manager has contributed to the development of the CEMR selection criteria model. However, effective recruitment for such a post may be a bit complicated for decision-makers, especially when CE is still enigmatic, as its procedures are quite undiscovered. All in all, the multi-criteria decision-making problem forces one to prepare the list of selection criteria and to rank them according to status in the hierarchy. This article shows prioritized criteria for selecting the CEMR based on the advanced literature review concluded after several expert-based reviews and calculated after some Monte Carlo simulations. The main purpose of this article is to help decision-makers in construction projects to perform a reliable recruitment process.

Description: Inspired by human dancers who can evaluate the aesthetics of their own dance poses through mirror observation, this paper presents a corresponding mechanism for robots to improve their cognitive and autonomous abilities. Essentially, the proposed mechanism is a brain-like intelligent system that is symmetrical to the visual cognitive nervous system of the human brain. Specifically, a computable cognitive model of visual aesthetics is developed using the two important aesthetic cognitive neural models of the human brain, which is then applied in the automatic aesthetics evaluation of robotic dance poses. Three kinds of features (color, shape and orientation) are extracted in a manner similar to the visual feature elements extracted by human brains. After applying machine learning methods in different feature combinations, machine aesthetics models are built for automatic evaluation of robotic dance poses. The simulation results show that our approach can process visual information effectively by cognitive computation, and achieved a very good evaluation performance of automatic aesthetics.

Description: The order/disorder characteristics of a compartment fire are researched based on experimental data. From our analysis performed by new, pioneering methods, we claim that the parametric Jensen–Shannon complexity can be successfully used to detect unusual data, and that one can use it also as a means to perform relevant analysis of fire experiments. Thoroughly comparing the performance of different algorithms (known as permutation entropy and two-length permutation entropy) to extract the probability distribution is an essential step. We discuss some of the theoretical assumptions behind each step and stress that the role of the parameter is to fine-tune the results of the Jensen–Shannon statistical complexity. Note that the Jensen–Shannon statistical complexity is symmetric, while its parametric version displays a symmetric duality due to the a priori probabilities used.

Description: As a powerful tool that can be used to solve both continuous and discrete equations, the Lie symmetry analysis of dynamical systems on a time scale is investigated. Applying the method to the Burgers equation and Euler equation, we get the symmetry of the equation and single parameter groups on a time scale. Some group invariant solutions in explicit form for the traffic flow model simulated by a Burgers equation and Euler equation with a Coriolis force on a time scale are studied.

Description: Recent advancements in software-defined networking (SDN) make it possible to overcome the management challenges of traditional networks by logically centralizing the control plane and decoupling it from the forwarding plane. Through a symmetric and centralized controller, SDN can prevent security breaches, but it can also bring in new threats and vulnerabilities. The central controller can be a single point of failure. Hence, flow-based anomaly detection system in OpenFlow Controller can secure SDN to a great extent. In this research, we investigated two different approaches of flow-based intrusion detection system in OpenFlow Controller. The first of which is based on machine-learning algorithm where NSL-KDD dataset with feature selection ensures the accuracy of 82% with random forest classifier using the gain ratio feature selection evaluator. In the later phase, the second approach is combined with a deep neural network (DNN)-based intrusion detection system based on gated recurrent unit-long short-term memory (GRU-LSTM) where we used a suitable ANOVA F-Test and recursive feature elimination selection method to boost classifier output and achieve an accuracy of 88%. Substantial experiments with comparative analysis clearly show that, deep learning would be a better choice for intrusion detection in OpenFlow Controller.

Description: At present, two main magnetic confinement fusion devices exist: tokamaks and stellarators. Moreover, stellarators have been demonstrated to be a good alternative to tokamaks, due to their ability to operate in continuous mode, which eventually translates into a higher commercial profitability. In stellarators, the magnetic confinement of the plasma is achieved exclusively by the coils, thus no electric current through the plasma is needed. In particular, this article presents the Columbia Non-Neutral Torus stellarator that is located in the Automatic Control Group of Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (EHU). This EHU stellarator maintains symmetry in its structure due to the topology of the mesh that is formed by its coils. A cornerstone of future fusion reactors is to obtain real-time control that enables a sustained reaction. In this article, a control-oriented model for the installed magnetic confinement coils is presented. The model is based on matrices that preserve symmetry, which is defined from physical principles and then validated by different sets of experimental data. Then, based on this model, a novel predictive control suited to this particular model with symmetric objective function is implemented in the numerical simulations, and its response is compared to that of traditional controllers. Finally, this control is implemented in a real plant and the satisfactory experiment results provide validation of both the numerical model and proposed controller.

Description: Several measures of skewness and kurtosis were proposed by Hogg (1974) in order to reduce the bias of conventional estimators when the distribution is non-normal. Here we conducted a Monte Carlo simulation study to compare the performance of conventional and Hogg’s estimators, considering the most frequent continuous distributions used in health, education, and social sciences (gamma, lognormal and exponential distributions). In order to determine the bias, precision and accuracy of the skewness and kurtosis estimators for each distribution we calculated the relative bias, the coefficient of variation, and the scaled root mean square error. The effect of sample size on the estimators is also analyzed. In addition, a SAS program for calculating both conventional and Hogg’s estimators is presented. The results indicated that for the non-normal distributions investigated, the estimators of skewness and kurtosis which best reflect the shape of the distribution are Hogg’s estimators. It should also be noted that Hogg’s estimators are not as affected by sample size as are conventional estimators.

Description: We introduce a new class of non-self mappings by means of a condition which is called the (EP)-condition. This class includes proximal generalized nonexpansive mappings. It is shown that the existence of best proximity points for (EP)-mappings is equivalent to the existence of an approximate best proximity point sequence generated by a three-step iterative process. We also construct a CQ-type algorithm which generates a strongly convergent sequence to the best proximity point for a given (EP)-mapping.

Description: We consider the maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimation of parameters and prediction of future records of the Weibull distribution from δ -record data, which consists of records and near-records. We discuss existence, consistency and numerical computation of estimators and predictors. The performance of the proposed methodology is assessed by Montecarlo simulations and the analysis of monthly rainfall series. Our conclusion is that inferences for the Weibull model, based on δ -record data, clearly improve inferences based solely on records. This methodology can be recommended, more so as near-records can be collected along with records, keeping essentially the same experimental design.

Description: The formation of a skyrmion crystal and its phase transition are studied, taking into account the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction at the interface between a ferroelectric layer and a magnetic layer in a superlattice. Frustration is introduced in both magnetic and ferroelectric films. The films have a simple cubic lattice structure. The spins inside the magnetic layers are Heisenberg spins interacting with each other via nearest-neighbor (NN) exchange J m and next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) exchange J 2 m . The polarizations in the ferroelectric layers are assumed to be of Ising type with NN and NNN interactions J f and J 2 f . At the magnetoelectric interface, a DM interaction J m f between spins and polarizations is supposed. The spin configuration in the ground state is calculated by the steepest descent method. In an applied magnetic field H perpendicular to the layers, we show that the formation of skyrmions at the magnetoelectric interface is strongly enhanced by the frustration brought about by the NNN antiferromagnetic interactions J 2 m and J 2 f . Various physical quantities at finite temperatures are obtained by Monte Carlo simulations. We show the critical temperature, the order parameters of magnetic and ferroelectric layers as functions of the interface DM coupling, the applied magnetic field, and J 2 m and J 2 f . The phase transition to the disordered phase is studied in detail.

Description: It was recently shown that the nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a simplified dissipative perturbation features a zero-velocity solitonic solution of non-zero amplitude which can be used in analogy to attractors of Hopfield’s associative memory. In this work, we consider a more complex dissipative perturbation adding the effect of two-photon absorption and the quintic gain/loss effects that yields the complex Ginzburg–Landau equation (CGLE). We construct a perturbation theory for the CGLE with a small dissipative perturbation, define the behavior of the solitonic solutions with parameters of the system and compare the solution with numerical simulations of the CGLE. We show, in a similar way to the nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a simplified dissipation term, a zero-velocity solitonic solution of non-zero amplitude appears as an attractor for the CGLE. In this case, the amplitude and velocity of the solitonic fixed point attractor does not depend on the quintic gain/loss effects. Furthermore, the effect of two-photon absorption leads to an increase in the strength of the solitonic fixed point attractor.

Description: In recent times there have been two prominent trends in metric fixed point theory. One is the use of weak contractive inequalities and the other is the use of binary relations. Combining the two trends, in this paper we establish a relation-theoretic fixed point result for a mapping which is defined on a metric space with an arbitrary binary relation and satisfies a weak contractive inequality for any pair of points whenever the pair of points is related by a given relation. The uniqueness is obtained by assuming some extra conditions. The metric space is assumed to be R -complete. We use R -continuity of functions. The property of local T-transitivity of the relation R is used in the main theorem. There is an illustrative example. An existing fixed point result is generalized through the present work. We use a method in the proof of our main theorem which is a blending of relation-theoretic and analytic approaches.

Description: Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a scourge that compromises the rights of many women around the world, shaping an asymmetry in civil rights. Fighting gender-based violence, especially when it is committed by an intimate partner, is an important responsibility that needs to be addressed from all angles. It is also remarkable that our society is clearly conditioned by information and communication technology (ICT), which involves many aspects of our daily life. Unfortunately, violence that is performed in the real world is also replicated in this ‘virtual’ existence, by offenders in ICT contexts. On the other hand, the same technologies also provide a plethora of opportunities to fight IPV, which are enhanced by the innovative paradigm of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). In this work, we first present a thorough compilation of ICT proposals already published—based on either hardware or software—aimed at protecting IPV survivors, and which can be applied in real life situations but also within social networks. The challenges that still lie ahead are highlighted and, a complete ICT-based platform for IPV management, within an IoT framework, that overcomes the limitations of previous works is proposed, and then promoting a symmetry between individuals in society.

Description: This paper proposes a novel hybrid data-driven modeling method for missiles. Based on actual flight test data, the missile hybrid model is established by combining neural networks and the mechanism modeling method, considering the uncertainties and nonlinear factors in missiles. This method can avoid the problems in missile mechanism modeling and traditional data-driven modeling, and can also provide a solution for nonlinear dynamic system modeling problems in offline usage scenarios. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method and the credibility of the established model are verified by simulation experiments and statistical analysis.

Description: Imbalanced classes in multi-classed datasets is one of the most salient hindrances to the accuracy and dependable results of predictive modeling. In predictions, there are always majority and minority classes, and in most cases it is difficult to capture the members of item belonging to the minority classes. This anomaly is traceable to the designs of the predictive algorithms because most algorithms do not factor in the unequal numbers of classes into their designs and implementations. The accuracy of most modeling processes is subjective to the ever-present consequences of the imbalanced classes. This paper employs the variance ranking technique to deal with the real-world class imbalance problem. We augmented this technique using one-versus-all re-coding of the multi-classed datasets. The proof-of-concept experimentation shows that our technique performs better when compared with the previous work done on capturing small class members in multi-classed datasets.

Description: Nowadays, eyeglassesare used for vision correction as well as in the fashion industry. Eyeglasses have become more expensive and the eyewear industry has grown rapidly, thereby requiring the development of advanced coating technologies. However, defect detection by visual inspection in the manufacturing process of eyeglass coatings is difficult. To solve this problem, we propose the coated eyeglass defect detection system framework based on machine vision for real-time inspection. First, we locate and extract regions of interest (ROI) ofthe coated eyeglass by adopting cross-projection based on symmetrizedenergy analysis. Next, we propose an efficient method based on the symmetrized energy analysis of color channelsto enhance defectsin each color channel of the ROI of the coated eyeglass. Then, we adoptsymmetrized cross-projection energy analysis for locating defective areas inside the ROI of the coated eyeglass. Finally, we compare the defect detection resultsfor the coated eyeglass with the standard manufacturingquality. An experiment is conducted using real data collected froma Taiwanese eyeglass factory to validate the performance of the proposed framework. This framework achieves a 100% defect detection rate,demonstrating that it is valid and useful for inspecting coated eyeglasses in industries.

Description: This study is designed to provide strategic inspiration in multinational institutions’ investment behavior in Cambodia. Most factors affecting the investment decisions of South Korean and Chinese institutional investors in Cambodia are investigated based on UTAUT theory. Perceived asset price and perceived asset quality proves to have a significant effect on perceived asset value, whereas perceived financial risk proves to have a significant negative effect on the relationship between perceived asset value and investment decision for the Chinese group, but not for the South Korean group. Facilitating conditions proves to have an important effect in investment decisions for the South Korean group, but not for the Chinese group. Furthermore, perceived asset value, social influence and performance expectancy prove to have a significant effect on investment decisions for both groups. Although both South Korean and Chinese institutional investors are plentiful in Cambodia, the investigation indicates that they maintain symmetry in investment competition due to their different preferences in investment objects and types. The results reinforce major implications in offering a more symmetrical and fair competition environment for both Cambodian regulators and multinational institutions.

Description: In this paper, non-Fourier heat conduction in a cylinder with non-homogeneous boundary conditions is analytically studied. A superposition approach combining with the solution structure theorems is used to get a solution for equation of hyperbolic heat conduction. In this solution, a complex origin problem is divided into, different, easier subproblems which can actually be integrated to take the solution of the first problem. The first problem is split into three sub-problems by setting the term of heat generation, the initial conditions, and the boundary condition with specified value in each sub-problem. This method provides a precise and convenient solution to the equation of non-Fourier heat conduction. The results show that at low times (t = 0.1) up to about r = 0.4, the contribution of T1 and T3 dominate compared to T2 contributing little to the overall temperature. But at r 〉 0.4, all three temperature components will have the same role and less impact on the overall temperature (T).

Description: This paper studies control strategies for adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems in battery electric vehicles (BEVs). A hierarchical control structure is adopted for the ACC system, and the structure contains an upper controller and a lower controller. This paper focuses on the upper controller. In the upper controller, model predictive control (MPC) is applied for optimizing multiple objectives in the car-following process. In addition, multiple objectives, including safety, tracking, comfort, and energy economy, can be transformed into a symmetric objective function with constraints in MPC. In the objective function, the corresponding weight matrix for the optimization of multiple objectives is implemented in symmetric form to reduce the computational complexity. The weights in the weight matrix are usually set to be constant. However, the motion states of the own vehicle and the front vehicle change with respect to time during a car-following process, resulting in variation of the driving conditions. MPCs with constant weights do not adapt well to changes in driving conditions, which limits the performance of the ACC system. Therefore, a strategy for weight adjustment is proposed in order to improve the tracking performance, in which some weights in MPC can be adjusted according to the relative velocity of two vehicles in real time. The simulation experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategy for weight adjustment. Based on achieving the other control objectives, the ACC system with the weight adjustment has better tracking performance than the ACC system with the constant weight. While the tracking is improved, the energy economy is also improved.

Description: Manual test case generation is an exhaustive and time-consuming process. However, automated test data generation may reduce the efforts and assist in creating an adequate test suite embracing predefined goals. The quality of a test suite depends on its fault-finding behavior. Mutants have been widely accepted for simulating the artificial faults that behave similarly to realistic ones for test data generation. In prior studies, the use of search-based techniques has been extensively reported to enhance the quality of test suites. Symmetry, however, can have a detrimental impact on the dynamics of a search-based algorithm, whose performance strongly depends on breaking the “symmetry” of search space by the evolving population. This study implements an elitist Genetic Algorithm (GA) with an improved fitness function to expose maximum faults while also minimizing the cost of testing by generating less complex and asymmetric test cases. It uses the selective mutation strategy to create low-cost artificial faults that result in a lesser number of redundant and equivalent mutants. For evolution, reproduction operator selection is repeatedly guided by the traces of test execution and mutant detection that decides whether to diversify or intensify the previous population of test cases. An iterative elimination of redundant test cases further minimizes the size of the test suite. This study uses 14 Java programs of significant sizes to validate the efficacy of the proposed approach in comparison to Initial Random tests and a widely used evolutionary framework in academia, namely Evosuite. Empirically, our approach is found to be more stable with significant improvement in the test case efficiency of the optimized test suite.

Description: This paper proposes a reversible data hiding technique based on the residual histogram shifting technique. To improve the hiding capacity, this study proposes a multiple-round hierarchical prediction mechanism that generates the prediction errors of each image block. The prediction errors of each block are collected to produce the residual histogram and the secret data are then embedded into the residual histogram to obtain the embedded image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique not only provides good hiding capacity, but also maintains good image quality of the embedded image. In addition, this technique can be easily extended for image integrity protection as it is capable of resisting error propagation.

Description: The aim of this paper is to investigate experimentally and to present visually the dynamics of the processes in which in the standard Newton’s root-finding method the classic derivative is replaced by the fractional Riemann–Liouville or Caputo derivatives. These processes applied to polynomials on the complex plane produce images showing basins of attractions for polynomial zeros or images representing the number of iterations required to obtain polynomial roots. These latter images were called by Kalantari as polynomiographs. We use both: the colouring by roots to present basins of attractions, and the colouring by iterations that reveal the speed of convergence and dynamic properties of processes visualised by polynomiographs.

Description: This paper presents an experimental investigation on the effect of nano-montmorillonite, carbon nanotubes, and nano calcium carbonate on autogenous shrinkage of cement based materials. Cement paste with different nano-montmorillonite dosage (1.0 wt.%, 2.0 wt.%, 3.0 wt.%), carbon nanotubes dosage (0.1 wt.%, 0.2 wt.%, 0.3 wt.%), and nano calcium carbonate dosage (1.0 wt.%, 2.0 wt.%, 3.0 wt.%) were compared with the reference group to assess the effects of nano-materials on cement paste. Results show that autogenous shrinkage of cement based materials containing nano-materials mainly occurs in the first 72 h. Nano-materials decrease the autogenous shrinkage of the investigated cement based materials at all ages. Compared with that of the reference group at the age of 168 h, the autogenous shrinkage of NM-modified cement based composites containing 3.0 wt.% NM decreased by as much as 57.4%; the autogenous shrinkage of CNTs-modified cement based composites containing 0.3 wt.% CNTs decreased by as much as 19.4%; the autogenous shrinkage of NC-modified cement based composites containing 2.0 wt.% NC decreased by as much as 17.1%. Electrochemical AC (Alternating Current) impedance spectroscopy results show that the resistance of the pore solution electrolyte of specimens containing nano-materials increases with age, and is less than that of specimens without nano-materials, which illustrates that the pore size of nano-modified cement based material is finer and autogenous shrinkage is smaller. Scanning electron microscope results show that the structure of cement matrix is denser with more hydration products by adding nano-materials. Nano-montmorillonite releases water to reduce self-drying effect during the process of hydration for its well water swelling. Carbon nanotubes have the nanometer filling effect and form a continuous network to restrain the early autogenous shrinkage of cement paste. Nano calcium carbonate not only decreases the porosity of the cement paste, but also reacts with tricalcium aluminate to generate the expanded product calcium carboaluminate for compensating autogenous shrinkage of cement paste.

Description: First-order logic is an important part of mathematical logic, and automated theorem proving is an interdisciplinary field of mathematics and computer science. The paper presents an automated theorem prover for first-order logic, called C S E _ E 1.0, which is a combination of two provers contradiction separation extension (CSE) and E, where CSE is based on the recently-introduced multi-clause standard contradiction separation (S-CS) calculus for first-order logic and E is the well-known equational theorem prover for first-order logic based on superposition and rewriting. The motivation of the combined prover C S E _ E 1.0 is to (1) evaluate the capability, applicability and generality of C S E _ E , and (2) take advantage of novel multi-clause S-CS dynamic deduction of CSE and mature equality handling of E to solve more and harder problems. In contrast to other improvements of E, C S E _ E 1.0 optimizes E mainly from the inference mechanism aspect. The focus of the present work is given to the description of C S E _ E including its S-CS rule, heuristic strategies, and the S-CS dynamic deduction algorithm for implementation. In terms of combination, in order not to lose the capability of E and use C S E _ E to solve some hard problems which are unsolved by E, C S E _ E 1.0 schedules the running of the two provers in time. It runs plain E first, and if E does not find a proof, it runs plain CSE, then if it does not find a proof, some clauses inferred in the CSE run as lemmas are added to the original clause set and the combined clause set handed back to E for further proof search. C S E _ E 1.0 is evaluated through benchmarks, e.g., CASC-26 (2017) and CASC-J9 (2018) competition problems (FOFdivision). Experimental results show that C S E _ E 1.0 indeed enhances the performance of E to a certain extent.