Uniform Index Research Articles

Habitat heterogeneity in karst environments influences the proportion and distribution of random framework

• Karst forests comprises soil and rock habitats. • A linear relationship between the proportions of frameworks and tree size. • Random framework accounts for approximately 58% of trees. • Habitat heterogeneity and lifeform markedly alter the proportion of random framework. In the absence of exogenous disturbance, natural forests usually display stable and orderly distribution patterns. Recent studies have demonstrated that the random framework (RF), based on the locations of four neighboring trees, remains stable in non-karst forests. However, it is not clear whether tree size, lifeform (tree vs shrub), and habitat heterogeneity affect the proportion and distribution of RF. We established a 200 × 110 m fixed plot in an old-growth karst forest in southwest China. Trees were divided into 20 different-sized groups based on minimum measured diameters (MMDs) of 1–20 cm, and the proportion and distribution of various frameworks (clumped, random, and regular) of the quadrat and trees and shrubs growing on rock and soil were analyzed using the uniform angle index ( W ). The results indicated that: (1) the proportion of RF was stable at the stand level, and accounted for approximately 58% of trees in all MMD classes; (2) With increasing MMD, the proportions of trees and trees + shrubs growing on soil also increased, while the univariate distribution of W maintained an ideal normal distribution. The distribution patterns shifted from aggregated to random, and then to regular. On rock, the proportion of the RF decreased with increasing MMD; clumped distribution patterns were seen, and the mean value of W was discrete; (3) The proportion of RF decreased with increasing MMD for shrubs growing on soil, but increased for shrubs growing on rock. Shrubs were predominantly clumped; (4) A linear relationship between the relative proportions of frameworks and tree size was observed. Our results suggest that the proportion of RF in karst forests is scarcely affected by tree size, whereas markedly altered by habitat heterogeneity and lifeform. The tradeoff between clumped and regular frameworks alters distribution patterns, and habitat heterogeneity promotes aggregation.

Active colloids in harmonic optical potentials (a) (a)Contribution to the Focus Issue Statistical Physics of Self-Propelled Colloids edited by Hartmut Löwen, Sabine Klapp and Holger Stark.

We study the motion of active Janus colloids in an optical trap using experiments, theory and numerical simulations. To achieve isotropic and harmonic confinement, we prototype microparticles with a nearly uniform refractive index and verify that, in the absence of activity, the confined motion is identical to that of optically homogeneous Brownian particles. If the activity is turned on by means of vertical AC fields, the density distributions are described by Boltzmann-like statistics (Gaussian with effective temperature) only for strongly confining traps, whereas weaker potentials give rise to non-Gaussian distributions with a bimodal shape. Our results showcase a simple way to study active soft matter in optical potential landscapes eliminating the optical torque.

Progressive privacy-preserving batch retrieval of lung CT image sequences based on edge-cloud collaborative computation.

BackgroundA computer tomography image (CI) sequence can be regarded as a time-series data that is composed of a great deal of nearby and similar CIs. Since the computational and I/O costs of similarity measure, encryption, and decryption calculation during a similarity retrieval of the large CI sequences (CIS) are extremely high, deploying all retrieval tasks in the cloud, however, will lead to excessive computing load on the cloud, which will greatly and negatively affect the retrieval performance.MethodologiesTo tackle the above challenges, the paper proposes a progressive privacy-preserving Batch Retrieval scheme for the lung CISs based on edge-cloud collaborative computation called the BRS method. There are four supporting techniques to enable the BRS method, such as: 1) batch similarity measure for CISs, 2) CIB-based privacy preserving scheme, 3) uniform edge-cloud index framework, and 4) edge buffering.ResultsThe experimental results reveal that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches in terms of efficiency and scalability, drastically reducing response time by lowering network communication costs while enhancing retrieval safety and accuracy.

Generation of orbital angular momentum light based on mechanically induced long-period fiber gratings using 3D printing technique

• An OAM beam generator was proposed with broadband and tunable operation wavelength. • OAM generation was achieved by employing 3D-printed mechanically induced few-mode fiber gratings. • By adjusting applied pressures and inclination angle of few-mode fibers, the operation wavelength can be tuned. • The operational bandwidth can be broadened by employing cascaded few-mode fiber gratings. We propose and experimentally demonstrate an orbital angular momentum (OAM) beam generation method based on mechanically induced few-mode fiber gratings fabricated using 3D printing technique. Experimental results indicate that the transmission depth at resonance wavelength of few-mode fiber gratings with axially uniform refractive index could be adjusted when different lateral pressures are applied onto the few-mode fibers, and hence mode coupling efficiency between the fundamental core mode and LP 11 mode could be controlled in this way. In addition, by changing the inclination angle of the few-mode fibers with respect to direction perpendicular to the mask grooves, the resonance wavelength of the few-mode grating could be changed as well. Besides uniform fiber gratings, we have also investigated the spectral broadening property of the few-mode cascaded fiber grating, and a 10-dB spectral bandwidth up to 114 nm is obtained experimentally. Our proposed OAM light generation method based on mechanically induced fiber gratings using 3D printing technique possesses several desirable merits such as low cost, ease of operation, flexibility in grating structure and no damage to fiber medium, which is anticipated to provide low lost and flexible solution to generation of broadband OAM light for future OAM-based communication systems.

A power-law relation of surface roughness and ages of alluvial fans in a hyperarid environment: A case study in the Dead Sea area

Despite recent advances in mapping and dating alluvial fans, due to the availability of high-resolution remote sensing data and Quaternary dating techniques, quantifying surface features in remote sensing data remains a challenge. Surface roughness is a time-dependent feature under stable conditions, which indicates the relative age of alluvial fans in a hyperarid environment. Although surface roughness can be quantitatively inferred from remote sensing data, determining surface roughness in a uniform index remains a complex problem. Here, we used the normalized backscatter intensity (NBI) from high-resolution ALOS PALSAR data to quantify alluvial fan surface roughness, which is further used to quantitatively map alluvial fans. We established a robust power-law relation between the NBI value ( R) and the in-situ age ( T) as measured with independently dated alluvial fans. Based on the R-T relation, it can be further to apply the R measurement to T estimates as old as ∼540 ka with an average uncertainty of ∼25% on a regional scale. The NBI value, independent of atmospheric conditions and sensitive to surface roughness variability, is an effective criterion for quickly distinguishing alluvial fans and performing age estimation. We propose that insolation weathering is an important physical weathering pattern in the Dead Sea area, which mainly controls the surface roughness in this hyperarid region.

The Strategy for Optimizing the Stand Structure of Pinus tabuliformis Carr. Forests to Enhance the Ecological Function on the Loess Plateau, China

The enhancement of the ecological functions of forests through stand structure optimization is a key issue for high-quality forestry and its sustainable development on the Loess Plateau. In this study, fifty standard plots of Pinus tabuliformis Carr. forest were established in the Loess Plateau of western Shanxi, China. Eleven factors of the stand structure, three topographical factors, and four functional indices of the ecological function, including 20 sub-functional indices, were investigated and monitored. The study results indicated that the stand structure and topographical conditions could significantly affect the ecological functions of the Pinus tabuliformis forest, which was primarily reflected in the water-holding function, soil improvement function, and diversity function of understory plants, but had little effect on the function of reducing runoff and sediment yield on slope. We found that the stand density and uniform angle index could be used to achieve the optimal regulation of the stand structure to enhance the ecological functions of the Pinus tabuliformis forest. Overall, the optimization strategy for the stand structure of Pinus tabuliformis on the Loess Plateau should be to (1) determine the characteristics of the regulation target by understanding the stand structure and its ecological function characteristics through stand surveys on the altitude of the stand, stand density, uniform angle index of the individual trees in the sample plot, and average uniform angle index of the sample plot; (2) determine the optimization target by quantifying and analyzing the ecological functions of the stand, selecting a certain functional index as the optimization target, and specifying the degree of improvement in the functional index; and (3) substitute the optimization target and elevation of the stand into the corresponding stand structure optimization model and determine the regulation direction and regulation range of the stand density, uniform angle index, and specific stand structure regulation measures. The results of this study serve as a guide for optimizing the stand structure on the Loess Plateau.

A novel solvothermal biorefinery for production of lignocellulosic xylooligosaccharides, fermentable sugars and lignin nano-particles in biphasic system

Biorefinery plays a pivotal role in biomass economy with environmentally benign process. Herein, we report a coupling dihydrolevoglucosenone and aqueous p-toluenesulfonic acid (Cyrene/TsOH aq.) system for efficient saccharification of moso bamboo. More than 87.3 % of cellulose recovery could be observed under mild condition of 120 °C for 60 min, accompanied by 85.5 % hemicellulose removal and 79.4 % lignin extraction, respectively. Notably, 90.6 % of saccharified yield could be obtained including 67.7 % of oligosaccharide and 22.9 % of monosaccharide. Besides, the yielded lignin exhibited high purity of 99.1 % and outstanding uniform polydispersity index of 1.49 with nanoscale particle size around 347 nm, which is of great significance for further application. Furthermore, the synergistic effect between Cyrene and TsOH on efficiency and specificity of biorefinery was proposed by control experiments and verified by molecular dynamics simulation and quantum chemical calculation, which provided a new insight for full components biorefinery of lignocellulosic biomass.

Spatial Structure Dynamics and Maintenance of a Natural Mixed Forest

Spatial structure dynamics play a major role in understanding the mechanisms of forest structure and biodiversity formation. Recently, researches on the spatial structure dynamics utilizing multi-period data have been published. However, these studies only focused on comparative analyses of the spatial structure of multi-period living trees, without an in-depth analysis of the change processes. In this study, we propose a new comprehensive analysis method for dynamic change of the spatial structure at the individual level, which includes three processes (living trees’ flow, mortality process and recruitment process) that have not been considered in previous researches. Four spatial structural parameters (SSSPs, Uniform angle index, Mingling, Dominance and Crowding) and a natural spruce-fir-broadleaf mixed forest with two-phase data were taken as an example to find out the laws of the spatial structure dynamics. All types of dynamic change were named and their proportions were analyzed. The proportion of changes in the SSSPs of individuals was relatively high, even though the mean values of the stand did not change considerably. The five values (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) of the SSSPs are in mutual flow, and the flows are typically one-step, with three-steps and four-steps changes being uncommon. The processes of mortality and recruitment have a higher influence on the spatial structure than the flow of living trees. The dynamic change of spatial structure analysis method created in this study can capture more features not discovered in earlier approaches, as well as guiding forest management in some ways. Understanding the nuances of these changes is a critical part of reasonable spatial structure and biodiversity maintenance, and should be the focus of future research efforts.

HEART-TO-ANKLE PULSE WAVE VELOCITY AS USED IN CARDIO-ANKLE VASCULAR INDEX (CAVI) AND CAVI_0 IS A NEARLY DIASTOLIC WAVE SPEED METRIC

Objective: Cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) and CAVI_0 are arterial stiffness indices based on the heart-to-ankle pulse wave velocity (haPWV). haPWV is derived from the heart-to-ankle transit time (haTT = tb+tba) as haPWV = L/haTT, with L an estimated transit distance. tb is the time difference between aortic valve closure (causing the aortic dicrotic notch) and the dicrotic notch in the brachial pressure waveform; tba is the time difference between the diastolic feet in the brachial and ankle pressure waveforms. CAVI and CAVI_0 aim to normalise haPWV for blood pressure at the time of measurement. As tb and tba are determined at different pressures — tb at dicrotic notch pressure (P_notch); tba at diastolic blood pressure (DBP; Fig. C) — determining the pressure that governs haPWV (P_haPWV) and hence should ideally be used for normalisation of haPWV is not trivial. CAVI uses P_m = (SBP+DBP)/2 to normalise haPWV, whereas CAVI_0 uses DBP (SBP: brachial systolic blood pressure). We aim to analytically estimate P_haPWV and compare this to the normalisation pressures used in CAVI and CAVI_0. Design and method: Consistent with CAVI/CAVI_0 assumptions, the arterial tree was assumed to consist of tubes with exponential pressure-diameter relationship and uniform stiffness index beta_0, allowing us to calculate PWV at P_notch (PWV_notch) and at DBP (PWV_DBP; Fig. A). P_notch was calculated as 0.55DBP+0.45SBP [Adji et al.,J Hypertens 2012;30:1540–1551]. The resulting PWVs, together with heart-to-ankle (L_ha=170 cm) and heart-to-brachial (L_hb=38 cm) path lengths [Alastruey et al.,11th Int Conf Press Surges 2012;401–442] (Fig. B), allowed analytically estimating tb and tba: tb=L_hb/PWV_notch and tba=(L_ha-L_hb)/PWV_DBP. P_haPWV was finally estimated as the weighted average of P_notch and DBP using tb and tba as weights. Results: Choosing SBP/DBP=120/80 mmHg (and hence P_m=100 mmHg) and beta_0 = 10 yielded tb = 0.048 s and tba = 0.187 s, giving P_haPWV = 84 mmHg. This implies that P_haPWV was much closer to DBP (as used in CAVI_0) than to P_m (as used in CAVI). This result was only marginally influenced by blood pressure: e.g., SBP/DBP = 160/90 mmHg (P_m = 125 mmHg) yielded P_haPWV = 96 mmHg. Conclusions: DBP offers a more accurate estimate of P_haPWV than Pm, supporting the utility of CAVI_0 as an enhancement of CAVI.

Development and characteristics of infrared gradient refractive index chalcogenide glasses by hot pressing.

Compared with ordinary uniform lenses, the length and refractive index distribution of gradient refractive index (GRIN) lenses can effectively correct aberration and chromatic aberration. This advantage makes the miniaturization, integration, and lens lightweight possible. Although the visible GRIN lenses based on silicate glass are widely used, the infrared GRIN lenses based on chalcogenide glass are still elusive. This paper introduces a new method for preparing this kind of lens by hot pressing sintering diffusion of chalcogenide glasses. A series of chalcogenide glasses Ge10As22Se68-xSx (x = 4, 7, 10, 14, 24, 28, 34 mol%) with refractive index range from 2.37 to 2.57 (n@8 µm) and similar glass transition temperature (ΔTg < 10℃) were prepared by melt quenching. The relationship between Raman peaks and the refractive index of glasses was studied. Furthermore, the refractive index profile formed by elemental diffusion was characterized by Raman signals. The results show that the diffusion length reaches more than 290 µm, and larger diffusion distances can be achieved by stacking multiple layers. The obtained GRIN glass maintains good transmittance in the whole atmospheric window of 2 ∼ 12 µm.

Trajectory correction and position error analysis of underwater laser scanning

To improve the coordinate accuracy of underwater laser scanning point positions, the basic equation of the beam trajectory of the pyramidal polyhedron laser scanning system was deduced, based on the underwater vehicle. The influence of underwater nonuniform refractive index on the beam trajectory was analyzed. A beam trajectory correction model based on the time of flight was established. An experiment was performed to detect the offset positions of light spots under different incident angles and salinities. Compared with scanning results of the uniform refractive index, these results were in good agreement with the correction model. In the process of laser scanning position acquisition underwater, the influence of nonuniform refractive index on spot position cannot be ignored. The correction scheme of scanning point position offered significant reference for obtaining laser scanning point coordinates of underwater.

Lambertian illumination of dielectric scattering media with monochromatic light

We study the Lambertian illumination of dielectric media with monochromatic light by numerically solving Maxwell's equations in three dimensions. We compute the average energy density inside spherical and cubic objects with a uniform refractive index. The Lambertian illumination of objects with uniform refractive index reproduces the known enhancement of the average energy density equal to the third power of the refractive index if the surface is sufficiently textured. Furthermore, inhomogeneous refractive index distributions with scattering areas much smaller than the wavelength, of the order of the wavelength, and larger than the wavelength are studied. The average energy density inside these media is compared to effective medium theories. Our investigation shows that the average energy density enhancement inside scattering media with scatterers much smaller than the wavelength can be modeled accurately with effective medium approximations.

Staff competencies and patient care effectiveness in primary healthcare (pilot study)

Background: The aim of the study was to determine the correlation between hard and soft competences of primary care physicians and the effectiveness of patient care, which may be of significant importance both in the process of managing medical entities and in order to take appropriate actions aimed at increasing the effectiveness of care. Methods: The population studied in this study were primary care physicians employed at the Medical and Diagnostic Center (MDC) in Siedlce, Poland. In the study, doctors' qualifications were measured by the number of specializations held by a physician, and experience was measured by the total number of years of work as a doctor and the length of work as a specialist at MDC (in years). The data was collected in a questionnaire survey. Physicians' social competences were measured by the Social Competence Profile (PROKOS). As there are no measures of treatment effectiveness at the level of individual workplaces, apart from measuring patient satisfaction, its original definition was adopted and 14 indexes were developed, which were calculated on the basis of anonymized data from CMD information systems. Results: The social competences of the surveyed primary care physicians were clearly lower than the competences of the doctors surveyed in the standardization study. The exception was social activism. The scales of individual dimensions of social competences were characterized by very high reliability. The individual dimensions of soft skills of all surveyed primary care physicians were strongly correlated with each other. The overall work experience and work experience of primary care physicians at MDC, analyzed under hard competences, showed no correlation. The factor analysis performed for 14 original indexes of effectiveness showed that 5 of the original indexes created a very reliable scale. Conclusions: The selection of a strong scale consisting of five original effectiveness indexes is a step towards the development of a uniform index of the effectiveness of patient care in primary care, which will be a significant contribution to science.

Modeling and optimization of turbulent flow through PEM fuel cell cooling channels filled with metal foam- a comparison of water and air cooling systems

One of the proposed methods to improve the performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is using metal foam within the channels. Here, we performed a 3D numerical simulation and studied the effect of structural properties of metal foam on the system performance. Also, we used artificial neural network to predict three criteria, i.e., maximum temperature, temperature uniformity index, and pressure drop, together with Genetic Algorithm for system optimization. Obtained results indicate that using metal foam can improve the temperature uniformity in the cell, so that maximum temperature and temperature uniformity index are decreased about 1.785 K and 0.7 K, respectively, while resultant increase in overall pressure drop of the system is only about 4.4%. The same amount of maximum temperature reduction is possible by increasing the flow rate; however, this scheme puts 60% more pressure drop upon the system. Moreover, we compared the performance of air- and water-cooling systems and found that for a given pressure drop, the maximum temperature as well as temperature uniform index of an air-cooling system is lower than that of a water-cooling system, while for the same system parasitic power, a system with water coolant has more uniform temperature distribution with lower maximum temperature.

Optimization of stand structure in Robinia pseudoacacia Linn. based on soil and water conservation improvement function

The analysis of complex relationship between stand structure and soil and water conservation function (SWCF) of forests and the precise adjustment of stand structure based on an improvement in function are the key technical problems of forestry ecological engineering construction in the Loess Plateau. This study was conducted in the Caijiachuan watershed of the Loess Plateau in western Shanxi, China. Sixty standard plots (20 × 20 m2), including 20 stand densities (900 ∼ 2,800 plants·hm−2), of Robinia pseudoacacia L. were established in the watershed. The 10 factors of stand structure and four functional indices of the SWCF, including 29 sub-functional indices, were investigated and monitored each year from June to September in 2016 to 2019. The results indicated that there are differences in the SWCF under different stand structures, and the differences are concentrated in the water conservation function (FWC) and soil conservation function (FSC) of functional indices of the SWCF. In particular, they are reflected in the soil moisture and hydrological characteristics of the litter of sub-functional indices. Stand structure factors could effectively explain the differences of functional indices of the SWCF of a R. pseudoacacia forest, and a rate of 81.4% of functional indices could be explained by stand structure factors. Based on the configuration of the optimal stand structure (included a stand density of 1,800 plants·hm−2, mean diameter at breast height of 15.19 cm, mean tree height of 10.49 m, leaf area index of 2.86, canopy density of 0.85, uniform angle index of 0.50, story differentiation of 0.59, diameter dominance of 0.45, and biomass dominance of 0.46), the density of existing stands was concentrated in the range of 1,500 ∼ 1,900 plants·hm−2 and was more effective at optimizing the SWCF. The optimization strategy of the stand structure of the R. pseudoacacia forest in the study area should focus on increasing the differentiation of forest layer, enrich the vertical structure of the stand and maintain a random distribution pattern of trees. The overall growth of the stand remained uniform, avoiding the excessive dominance of individual trees and unreasonable stand density. These results will provide a more scientific and complete reference to optimize the stand structure of the R. pseudoacacia forest in the Loess Plateau.

The Effect of Stand Density, Biodiversity, and Spatial Structure on Stand Basal Area Increment in Natural Spruce-Fir-Broadleaf Mixed Forests

Forest trees exhibit a large variation in the basal area increment (BAI), and the variation is attributed to the stand density, biodiversity, and stand spatial structure. Studying and quantifying the effect of these above variables on tree growth is vital for future forest management. However, the stand spatial structure based on neighboring trees has rarely been considered, especially in the mixed forests. This study adopted the random-forest (RF) algorithm to model and interpret BAI based on stand density, biodiversity, and spatial structure. Fourteen independent variables, including two stand density predictors, four biodiversity predictors, and eight spatial structure predictors, were evaluated. The RF model was trained for the whole stand, three tree species groups (gap, neutral, and shade_tolerant), and two tree species (spruce and fir). A 10-fold blocked cross-validation was then used to optimize the hyper-parameters and evaluate the models. The squared correlation coefficients (R2) for the six groups were 0.233 for the whole stand, 0.575 for fir, 0.609 for shade_tolerant, 0.622 for neutral, 0.722 for gap, and 0.730 for spruce. The Stand Density Index (SDI) was the most-important predictor, suggesting that BAI is primarily restricted by competition. BAI and species biodiversity were positively correlated for the whole stand. The stands were expected to be randomly distributed based on the relationship between the uniform angle index (W) and growth. The relationship between dominance (U) and BAI indicated that small trees should be planted around the light-demanding tree species and vice versa. Of note, these findings emphasize the need to consider the three types of variables in mixed forests, especially the spatial structure factors. This study may help make significant advances in species composition, spatial arrangement, and the sustainable development of mixed forests.

Development of a uniform seismic vulnerability index framework for reinforced concrete building typology

This paper presents a uniform framework for seismic vulnerability assessment of selected reinforced concrete (RC) structures in Malaysia based on an improved seismic vulnerability index (SVI) approach. To establish the formulated framework, three stages of validation are applied to two reference buildings damaged during the 2015 Ranau seismic event in Malaysia. Throughout the first stage, field examinations for the addressed building damages (Hospital and School Buildings) are identified, and then a detailed diagnosis of physical damage elements across field visual observation has been performed. In the second stage, a transitioning progress from empirical field examination into an analytical assessment is utilized using finite element simulation to derive an improved seismic vulnerability index (SVI). This is achieved by finding the proper parameters such as beam-column joint connection; support boundary condition; horizontal diaphragm system; type of soil; ductility level; horizontal and vertical mass irregularity, and material strength. To achieve this aim, the buildings have been explicitly modeled using nonlinear parametric analysis (NL-PA) and their vulnerability groups have been categorized based on the earthquake-resistant design (ERD). The improved seismic vulnerability index is used to predict the susceptibility of the structures after performing a nonlinear parametric analysis. Eventually, using probabilistic seismic risk assessment with the compatibility of field real damage and the location of the plastic hinges in the structural members, the modeling verification process is achieved. It is concluded that the use of the new analytical vulnerability index damage indicator can be used as a guidance for earthquake impact assessments in Malaysia and can be applied uniformly to any country irrespective of the differences in construction and seismicity.

A process monitoring and fault isolation framework based on variational autoencoders and branch and bound method

Nonlinear characteristic widely exists in industrial processes. Many approaches based on kernel methods and machine learning have been developed for nonlinear process monitoring. However, the fault isolation for nonlinear processes has rarely been studied in previous works. In this paper, a process monitoring and fault isolation framework is proposed for nonlinear processes using variational autoencoder (VAE) model. First, based on the probability graph model of VAE, a uniform monitoring index can be calculated by the probability density of observation variables. Then, the fault variables are estimated with normal variables by a missing value estimation method. The optimal fault variable set can be searched by branch and bound (BAB) algorithm. The proposed method can resolve the ”smearing effects” problem existing in traditional fault isolation methods. Finally, a numerical case and a hot strip mill process case are used to verified the proposed method.

A new automatic image-based system for measuring of prime/tack coating

ABSTRACT The coating is one of the most important components that affect the efficiency of the pavements. The uniform distribution of coating has received less attention in pavement design and implementation. Therefore, in this study, an automatic system was presented based on image processing. The quality of the image is first enhanced and then compression and noise reduction are implemented. The thresholding is used to separate the coating from the background. After the thresholding, various properties such as the area of the coating, coefficient of variation, local maximum, and minimum are obtained from the images and used to evaluate and coating distribution. Finally, categorisation algorithms were selected for effective features in image categorisation. The data of the classification of images were compared using a confusion matrix. The results showed that the presented system has a precision of 86%. In addition, using the effective parameters in the model, the uniform distribution index was calculated to be between 0 and 100, indicating the best and worst distributions, respectively.

Effects of Glycerol-Waste Antifreeze Based Grinding Aids on Cement Grinding Characteristics

Grinding aids to increase grinding efficiency in cement production are materials that can produce large amounts of high-quality cement in a short time by reducing surface energy by preventing particle agglomeration and improving fluidity. In the paper, a grinding aid using glycerol-waste antifreeze(GAP) is prepared and its effect on the grinding properties of clinker is investigated in contrast to that without the grinding aid. The results are as follows: The angle of repose of the cement powder added with GAP decreases as the grinding time increases (decreases by 3.8° when the grinding time is 60 minutes), indicating that it increases the flowability of the powder. On the contrary, the residual amount of 45µm sieve is also significantly reduced (4.6% decrease) and the specific surface area increases (30.5m2/kg), which results in an increase in the grinding efficiency. In the size range of 3 to 32µm, it increases the particle content, makes the particle size distribution uniform, the 7d and 28d activity index of the powder is improved by 5% and 6%, respectively, and increases the compressive strength of the cement. In addition, it is confirmed that the performance of the TEA grinding aid and the grinding aid are similar, and are very effective in terms of economy.