Hydrophobicity properties of graphite and reduced graphene oxide of the polysulfone (PSf) mixed matrix membrane

Hydrophobicity properties of graphite and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) (from exfoliated graphite/rGO) towards PSf polymer membrane characteristic and properties at different additives weight concentrations (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt. %) were investigated. Both PSF/graphite and PSf/rGO membranes were characterized in term of hydrophobicity, surface bonding, surface roughness and porosity. FTIR peaks revealed that membrane with graphite and reduced graphene oxide nearly diminished their O-H bonding which was opposite to the graphene oxide peak that shows a strong O-H bonding as increased exfoliated times. These results were in line with the contact angle results that showed strong hydrophobicity of graphite and reduced graphene oxide membranes as increased these additives concentration. The effect of strong hydrophobicity in these membranes also has resulted in smoother surface roughness compared to pristine PSf membrane. Further investigation of the performance of water flux also proved that both above membranes have strong hydrophobic effect, with the lowest pure water flux rate (L/m2h) was given by PSf/rGO 3% membrane at 19.2437 L/m2h

The Impact Of Learning Style And Self – Efficacy On Academic Performance Of Mba Candidates

The demand for the MBA program is considered high in Malaysia and to select the suitable MBA candidate that can excel in his performance encouraged me to do this research. The MBA program is different from other postgraduate program in the sense that it’s candidates merge from different backgrounds with different learning styles and this might make them differ in their academic performance

Testing collapse models with levitated nanoparticles: the detection challenge

We consider a nanoparticle levitated in a Paul trap in ultrahigh cryogenic vacuum, and look for the conditions which allow for a stringent noninterferometric test of spontaneous collapse models. In particular we compare different possible techniques to detect the particle motion. Key conditions which need to be achieved are extremely low residual pressure and the ability to detect the particle at ultralow power. We compare three different detection approaches based respectively on a optical cavity, optical tweezer and a electrical readout, and for each one we assess advantages, drawbacks and technical challenges

Characterization study of industrial waste glass as starting material in development of bioactive materials

In present study, an industrial waste glass was characterized and the potential to assess as starting material in development of bioactive materials was investigated. A waste glass collected from the two different glass industry was grounded to fine powder. The sampleswere characterized using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), pycnometer and inductively couple plasma (ICP). The XRF result indicates both waste glass (WG1 and WG2) are the glass made based SLS glass composition and the density values were in the range of commercial SLS glass. Results from ICP showed both waste glass has contains of heavy metal trace elements that exceeds the allowable concentration level as per standard ASTM F1538-03. Obviously from this study, these twotypes of waste glass were not suitable for use as starting material as no compromise against the toxic elements are allowed for use in the human body.Keywords: waste glass; soda lime silica glass; biomaterials

Study of the superconducting properties of the Bi-Ca-Sr-Cu-O system

High Temperature Superconductivity in the Bi-Ca-Sr-Cu-O System has been observed and has attracted considerable attention in 1988. The 80 K superconductivity phase has been identified to have a composition of Bi2CaSr2Cu2Ox, while the 110 K phase as reported in the literature has a possible composition of Bi2Ca2Sr2Cu3Ox. Researchers present here a study of the electrical properties of bulk samples of the slowly cooled and rapidly quenched 2:1:2:2 system. The samples used in this study were prepared from appropriate amounts of Bi2O3, CuO, SrCO3, CaCO3

Phylogenetic analysis of human Tp53 gene using computational approach

The TP53 gene encoding p53 protein is involved in regulating a series of pathways. New discoveries about the function and control of p53 are still in progress and it is hoped to develop better therapeutics and diagnostics by exploiting this system. Evolutionary studies are of prime importance in the field of biological research since very long as provide the basis for comparative genomics. The sequence of Homo sapiens human TP53, transcript variant-1 mRNA sequence was retrieved from the NCBI in FASTAformat and was studied for its relationships and percent similarity within human and others species. Genetic variation among TP53 found in human beings and other organisms were studied in detail. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of the human TP53, transcript variant-1 mRNA sequence through UPGMA was performed which showed its relationship and pattern of variations among different organisms. This study will help in modern research strategies through the manipulation of p53 as its pathways are emerging rapidly and one can predict its extensive clinical use in the near future for the human benefit worldwide.Key words: P53, tumour, cancer, phylogeny, sequence alignment

Quantum Nonlocal Boxes Exhibit Stronger Distillability

The hypothetical nonlocal box (\textsf{NLB}) proposed by Popescu and Rohrlich allows two spatially separated parties, Alice and Bob, to exhibit stronger than quantum correlations. If the generated correlations are weak, they can sometimes be distilled into a stronger correlation by repeated applications of the \textsf{NLB}. Motivated by the limited distillability of \textsf{NLB}s, we initiate here a study of the distillation of correlations for nonlocal boxes that output quantum states rather than classical bits (\textsf{qNLB}s). We propose a new protocol for distillation and show that it asymptotically distills a class of correlated quantum nonlocal boxes to the value $1/2 (3\sqrt{3}+1) \approx 3.098076$, whereas in contrast, the optimal non-adaptive parity protocol for classical nonlocal boxes asymptotically distills only to the value 3.0. We show that our protocol is an optimal non-adaptive protocol for 1, 2 and 3 \textsf{qNLB} copies by constructing a matching dual solution for the associated primal semidefinite program (SDP). We conclude that \textsf{qNLB}s are a stronger resource for nonlocality than \textsf{NLB}s. The main premise that develops from this conclusion is that the \textsf{NLB} model is not the strongest resource to investigate the fundamental principles that limit quantum nonlocality. As such, our work provides strong motivation to reconsider the status quo of the principles that are known to limit nonlocal correlations under the framework of \textsf{qNLB}s rather than \textsf{NLB}s.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Formal Analysis of Linear Control Systems using Theorem Proving

Control systems are an integral part of almost every engineering and physical system and thus their accurate analysis is of utmost importance. Traditionally, control systems are analyzed using paper-and-pencil proof and computer simulation methods, however, both of these methods cannot provide accurate analysis due to their inherent limitations. Model checking has been widely used to analyze control systems but the continuous nature of their environment and physical components cannot be truly captured by a state-transition system in this technique. To overcome these limitations, we propose to use higher-order-logic theorem proving for analyzing linear control systems based on a formalized theory of the Laplace transform method. For this purpose, we have formalized the foundations of linear control system analysis in higher-order logic so that a linear control system can be readily modeled and analyzed. The paper presents a new formalization of the Laplace transform and the formal verification of its properties that are frequently used in the transfer function based analysis to judge the frequency response, gain margin and phase margin, and stability of a linear control system. We also formalize the active realizations of various controllers, like Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID), Proportional-Integral (PI), Proportional-Derivative (PD), and various active and passive compensators, like lead, lag and lag-lead. For illustration, we present a formal analysis of an unmanned free-swimming submersible vehicle using the HOL Light theorem prover.Comment: International Conference on Formal Engineering Method

Q-FOX Learning: Breaking Tradition in Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) where agents learn the best action by interacting with the environment, making it suitable for tasks that do not require labeled data or direct supervision. Hyperparameters (HP) tuning refers to choosing the best parameter that leads to optimal solutions in RL algorithms. Manual or random tuning of the HP may be a crucial process because variations in this parameter lead to changes in the overall learning aspects and different rewards. In this paper, a novel and automatic HP-tuning method called Q-FOX is proposed. This uses both the FOX optimizer, a new optimization method inspired by nature that mimics red foxes' hunting behavior, and the commonly used, easy-to-implement RL Q-learning algorithm to solve the problem of HP tuning. Moreover, a new objective function is proposed which prioritizes the reward over the mean squared error (MSE) and learning time (steps). Q-FOX has been evaluated on two OpenAI Gym environment control tasks: Cart Pole and Frozen Lake. It exposed greater cumulative rewards than HP tuning with other optimizers, such as PSO, GA, Bee, or randomly selected HP. The cumulative reward for the Cart Pole task was 32.08, and for the Frozen Lake task was 0.95. Despite the robustness of Q-FOX, it has limitations. It cannot be used directly in real-word problems before choosing the HP in a simulation environment because its processes work iteratively, making it time-consuming. The results indicate that Q-FOX has played an essential role in HP tuning for RL algorithms to effectively solve different control tasks

The illusion of untranslatability: a theoretical perspective with reference to the translation of culture-bound euphemistic expressions in the Qur'an

The present study investigates the notion of untranslatability where the concept of equivalence is reconsidered since the misconceptions, related to the said concept, inevitably lead to the emergence of untranslatability. Identifying equivalence as relative, approximate and necessary identity makes the notion of untranslatability a mere theorization. The objectives of the present study are (1) to investigate the notion of untranslatability in terms of the misconceptions associated with the concept of equivalence (2) to examine the possibility of translatability from Arabic into English focusing on culture-bound euphemistic expressions in the Quran as an area of challenge in translation. Data on the translation of culture-bound euphemistic expressions were purposively selected from the Quran and its four identified English translations. Ten examples were randomly selected and the criterion for their selection is that they are culture-bound and therefore translation-resistant. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine the source data by referring to traditional exegetical books to determine the source text intentionality. Additionally, the translated data were analyzed according to the functional equivalence proposed by Nida (1993; 2001).Findings of this study revealed that translatability is always possible and, accordingly, untranslatability is no more valid