New simple equations for effective length factors

AbstractIn most current codes of design steel members and frames, specifications for the design of compression columns or of beam-column use the effective length factor; K. The effective length factor is employed to facilitate the design of framed members by transforming an end-restrained compressive member to an equivalent pinned-ended member. The effective length factor is obtained by solving the exact equations numerically which require many routine calculations or by using a pair of alignment charts for the two cases of braced frames and sway frames. The accuracy of these charts depends on the size of the chart and the reader’s sharpness of vision. Instead of using complicated equations or charts, simple equations are required to determine the effective length factor directly as a function of the rotational resistant at column ends (GA, GB). In this paper, new simple and accurate equations for effective length factors are presented using multiple regressions for tabulated exact values corresponding to different practical values of the rotational resistance at column ends (GA, GB). The investigated equations are more accurate than equations that are recommended in some steel constructions codes. Comparisons between the results of the present equations and those obtained by equations presented in previous researches with those obtained by exact solutions are also given in this paper

Image Segmentation Using Weak Shape Priors

The problem of image segmentation is known to become particularly challenging in the case of partial occlusion of the object(s) of interest, background clutter, and the presence of strong noise. To overcome this problem, the present paper introduces a novel approach segmentation through the use of "weak" shape priors. Specifically, in the proposed method, an segmenting active contour is constrained to converge to a configuration at which its geometric parameters attain their empirical probability densities closely matching the corresponding model densities that are learned based on training samples. It is shown through numerical experiments that the proposed shape modeling can be regarded as "weak" in the sense that it minimally influences the segmentation, which is allowed to be dominated by data-related forces. On the other hand, the priors provide sufficient constraints to regularize the convergence of segmentation, while requiring substantially smaller training sets to yield less biased results as compared to the case of PCA-based regularization methods. The main advantages of the proposed technique over some existing alternatives is demonstrated in a series of experiments.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure

Extensions to the ant-miner classification rule discovery algorithm

Ant-Miner is an application of ACO in data mining. It has been introduced by Parpinelli et al. in 2002 as an ant-based algorithm for the discovery of classification rules. Ant-Miner has proved to be a very promising technique for classification rules discovery. Ant-Miner generates a fewer number of rules, fewer terms per each rule and performs competitively in terms of efficiency compared to the C4.5 algorithm (see experimental results in [20]). Hence, it has been a focus area of research and a lot of modification has been done to it in order to increase its quality in terms of classification accuracy and output rules comprehensibility (reducing the size of the rule set). The thesis proposes five extensions to Ant-Miner. 1) The thesis proposes the use of a logical negation operator in the antecedents of constructed rules, so the terms in the rule antecedents could be in the form of . This tends to generate rules with higher coverage and reduce the size of the generated rule set. 2) The thesis proposes the use stubborn ants, an ACO-variation in which an ant is allowed to take into consideration its own personal past history. Stubborn ants tend to generate rules with higher classification accuracy in fewer trials per iteration. 3) The thesis proposes the use multiple types of pheromone; one for each permitted rule class, i.e. an ant would first select the rule class and then deposit the corresponding type of pheromone. The multi-pheromone system improves the quality of the output in terms of classification accuracy as well as it comprehensibility. 4) Along with the multi-pheromone system, the thesis proposes a new pheromone update strategy, called quality contrast intensifier. Such a strategy rewards rules with high confidence by depositing more pheromone and penalizes rules with low confidence by removing pheromone. 5) The thesis proposes that each ant to have its own value of α and β parameters, which in a sense means that each ant has its own individual personality. In order to verify the efficiency of these modifications, several cross-validation experiments have been applied on each of eight datasets used in the experiment. Average output results have been recorded, and a test of statistical significance has been applied to indicate improvement significance. Empirical results show improvements in the algorithm\u27s performance in terms of the simplicity of the generated rule set, the number of trials, and the predictive accuracy

Finite Element Analysis of Tie Beams under the Effect of Differential Settlement of Isolated Footings

Tie beams that constructed to connect isolated footings are very widely used. The differential settlement between the isolated footings is the main loading case to design the tie beams. In this paper, finite element method is used to determine the straining actions in tie beams under the effect of differential settlement to get clear relations between tie beams straining actions and all the parameters that affect in the design of these tie beams. The parameters included in this paper are the clear length between footings, moment of inertia of tie beam, footings dimensions, soil bearing capacity and the differential settlement value. Charts were presented to show the effect of each parameter in the straining actions of tie beams that can be simply used by design engineers

Spectral clustering for TRUS images

BACKGROUND: Identifying the location and the volume of the prostate is important for ultrasound-guided prostate brachytherapy. Prostate volume is also important for prostate cancer diagnosis. Manual outlining of the prostate border is able to determine the prostate volume accurately, however, it is time consuming and tedious. Therefore, a number of investigations have been devoted to designing algorithms that are suitable for segmenting the prostate boundary in ultrasound images. The most popular method is the deformable model (snakes), a method that involves designing an energy function and then optimizing this function. The snakes algorithm usually requires either an initial contour or some points on the prostate boundary to be estimated close enough to the original boundary which is considered a drawback to this powerful method. METHODS: The proposed spectral clustering segmentation algorithm is built on a totally different foundation that doesn't involve any function design or optimization. It also doesn't need any contour or any points on the boundary to be estimated. The proposed algorithm depends mainly on graph theory techniques. RESULTS: Spectral clustering is used in this paper for both prostate gland segmentation from the background and internal gland segmentation. The obtained segmented images were compared to the expert radiologist segmented images. The proposed algorithm obtained excellent gland segmentation results with 93% average overlap areas. It is also able to internally segment the gland where the segmentation showed consistency with the cancerous regions identified by the expert radiologist. CONCLUSION: The proposed spectral clustering segmentation algorithm obtained fast excellent estimates that can give rough prostate volume and location as well as internal gland segmentation without any user interaction

Production Capacity and Its Relationship to Spraying Some Different Sources of Potassium Concentration of Madjool Date Palm

This study was conducted during the 2021 and 2022 seasons to examine beneficial the positive effects of spraying potassium citrate and potassium acetate at 1.0 to 4.0 each % on the growth, yield and quality of Madjool date palms under the environmental conditions of the Red Sea Governorate. Spraying potassium citrate or potassium acetate three times (after the establishment of the the fruit, at the beginning of Kimri stage and in the Khelal stages) from 1.0 to 4.0% had announced promotion in all growth characteristics, yield, and fruit quality relative to the control treatments.             A gradual promotion depended on increasing the concentration of each from 1.0 to 4.0% without considerable effect among the two concentrations. In this regard, the spraying of potassium acetate was significantly superior to the use of potassium citrate.  The best results were obtained when potassium acetate (a source of potassium) was applied three times to Madjool date palms at 2.0%

Ethoxyquin Inhibits the Progression of Murine Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma through the Inhibition of Autophagy and LDH

Cancer cells exhibit an increased glycolysis rate for ATP generation (the Warburg effect) to sustain an increased proliferation rate. In tumor cells, the oxidation of pyruvate in the Krebs cycle is substituted by lactate production, catalyzed by LDH. In this study, we use ethoxyquin (EQ) as a novel inhibitor to target LDH in murine Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) and as a combination therapy to improve the therapeutic efficacy of the conventional chemotherapy drug, cisplatin (CIS). We investigated the anti-tumor effect of EQ on EAC-bearing mice and checked whether EQ can sustain the anti-tumor potential of CIS and whether it influences LDH activity. Treatment with EQ had evident anti-tumor effects on EAC as revealed by the remarkable decrease in the expression of the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 and by a significant increase in the expression of apoptotic genes (BAX and caspase-3). EQ also caused a significant decrease in the autophagic activity of EAC cells, as shown by a reduction in the fluorescence intensity of the autophagosome marker. Additionally, EQ restored the altered hematological and biochemical parameters and improved the disrupted hepatic tissues of EAC-bearing mice. Co-administration of EQ and CIS showed the highest anti-tumor effect against EAC. Collectively, our findings propose EQ as a novel inhibitor of LDH in cancer cells and as a combinatory drug to increase the efficacy of cisplatin. Further studies are required to validate this therapeutic strategy in different cancer models and preclinical trials

Estimation of period of vibration for concrete shear wall buildings

AbstractMost seismic design codes generally provide formulas to be used for the estimation of the base shear and lateral loads. For the determination of the lateral loads, it is required to estimate first the fundamental vibration period of the building theoretically or experimentally (Uniform Building Code (UBC-1997); Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC-1996); Egyptian Code for Computation of Loads and Forces in Structural and Building Work (EGC-2012); Applied Technological Council, 1978).In various codes such as the current United States (US) and Egyptian building codes and also in the recommendations of many researches, empirical period formulas for concrete shear wall buildings relate the building fundamental period of vibration (T) to the building overall height (H). In this paper, using the available data for the fundamental vibration period of reinforced concrete shear wall buildings measured from their motions recorded during eight California earthquakes, improved formulas for estimating the fundamental period of vibration (T) of concrete shear wall buildings are developed by regression analysis of the measured period data. The results indicate that the value of coefficient Ct in the current US and Egyptian building codes formula should be decreased from its present value 0.02 to 0.014. Also, factors to limit the period calculated by rational analysis, such as Rayleigh’s method, are recommended in this paper. Comparisons between the periods determined using the proposed formula and the measured values show good agreement