Optimization is essentially the art, science and mathematics of choosing the best among a given set of finite or infinite alternatives. Though currently optimization is an interdisciplinary subject cutting through the boundaries of mathematics, economics, engineering, natural sciences, and many other fields of human Endeavour it had its root in antiquity. In modern day language the problem mathematically is as follows - Among all closed curves of a given length find the one that closes maximum area. This is called the Isoperimetric problem. This problem is now mentioned in a regular fashion in any course in the Calculus of Variations. However, most problems of antiquity came from geometry and since there were no general methods to solve suc

According to different types of democracy Indexes, hybrid regimes or those in the gray zone, make up the majority of regime transformations in the third wave of democracy. However, after nearly three decades, conceptual confusion about hybrid regimes persists and grows, while obstructing the accumulation of knowledge about the nature of hybrid regimes. This leads to significant political repercussions for democratization. This Paper attempts to provide a clearer view of different and overlapping concepts and classifications in this complex field, and sustain development in literature on democratic transformation. To achieve this, we followed an approach based on the classification of concepts and terms in three distinct categories, b

Objective. Glass-ionomer and resin-modified glass-ionomer cements are versatile materials with the ability to form a direct bond with tooth tissues. The aim of this study was to formulate a novel class of dental bio-interactive restorative material (pRMGIC) based on resin-modified glass-ionomer cements via the inclusion of an organophosphorus monomer, ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate, with a potential to improve the mechanical properties and also function as a reparative restorative material. Methods. pRMGIC was formulated with modification of the resin phase by forming mixes of ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate (EGMP; 0–40%wt) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate monomer into the liquid phase of a RMGIC (Fuji II LC, GC Corp.).

The development of low profile gamma-ray detectors has encouraged the production of small field of view (SFOV) hand-held imaging devices for use at the patient bedside and in operating theatres. Early development of these SFOV cameras was focussed on a single modality—gamma ray imaging. Recently, a hybrid system—gamma plus optical imaging—has been developed. This combination of optical and gamma cameras enables high spatial resolution multi-modal imaging, giving a superimposed scintigraphic and optical image. Hybrid imaging offers new possibilities for assisting clinicians and surgeons in localising the site of uptake in procedures such as sentinel node detection. The hybrid camera concept can be extended to a multimodal detec

Classifying butterfly species is crucial in biodiversity studies and environmental monitoring. However, manual classification is often a laborious process that requires specialized expertise and is prone to error, especially when species have similar visual characteristics. To address these drawbacks, this paper presents a hybrid approach that combines machine learning with deep learning for feature extraction. To enhance the visibility of important features, preprocessing techniques such as background removal and binarization are applied to butterfly images. Feature extraction was performed using the SqueezeNet convolutional neural network, pretrained on the ImageNet dataset. By discarding the final classification layer, the networ

Background The Transportation Problem (TP) is a detailed model in operations study with applications in logistics, supply chain management, and resource allocation. The classical IBFS methods including North-West Corner, Least Cost and Vogel’s Approximation have competitive computational efficiency, but they are very sensitive to the structure of the problem and usually lead to a solution that is far from the global optimum. Classic enhancement strategies like the Generalized Distribution (MODI) and Stepping-Stone (SS) approaches have low computational complexity but may fall into a local optimum quickly, which makes them ineffective in large-scale or unbalanced problems. Methods We propose the first generic hybrid algorithm, calle