A bolted–welded hybrid demountable shear connector for use in deconstructable steel–concrete composite buildings and bridges was proposed. The hybrid connector consisted of a partially threaded stud, which was welded on the flange of a steel section, and a machined steel tube with compatible geometry, which was bolted on the stud. Four standard pushout tests according to Eurocode 4 were carried out to assess the shear performance of the hybrid connector. The experimental results show that the initial stiffness, shear resistance, and slip capacity of the proposed connector were higher than those of traditional welded studs. The hybrid connector was a ductile connector, according to Eurocode 4, with slip capacity higher than 6 mm. A nonlinear finite-element model was calibrated against the pushout tests and found capable of reproducing the experimental behavior with good agreement. The verified finite-element model was then used to conduct a series of parametric studies in order to assess the effect of infilled grout, concrete slab strength, stud diameter, stud tensile strength, tube thickness, and tube tensile strength on the shear resistance and stiffness of the hybrid connector. Based on the experimental and numerical results, a design equation is proposed for the prediction of the shear resistance of the novel connector.
A compact microstrip six-port reflectometer (SPR) with extended bandwidth is proposed in this paper. The design is based on using 16-dB multi-section coupled line directional couplers and a multi-section 3-dB Wilkinson power divider operating from 1 to 6 GHz. The proposed SPR employs only two calibration standards: a matched load and an open load. As compared to other dielectric substrates, fabricating the proposed SPR involves using a low-cost (FR4) substrate. A novel algorithm is also proposed to estimate the complex reflection coefficient over the frequency ranges at which the standard performance of the circuit components is not fully satisfied. The new algorithm is based on the circles’ intersection points, which have been de
... Show MoreThis paper presents a hybrid genetic algorithm (hGA) for optimizing the maximum likelihood function ln(L(phi(1),theta(1)))of the mixed model ARMA(1,1). The presented hybrid genetic algorithm (hGA) couples two processes: the canonical genetic algorithm (cGA) composed of three main steps: selection, local recombination and mutation, with the local search algorithm represent by steepest descent algorithm (sDA) which is defined by three basic parameters: frequency, probability, and number of local search iterations. The experimental design is based on simulating the cGA, hGA, and sDA algorithms with different values of model parameters, and sample size(n). The study contains comparison among these algorithms depending on MSE value. One can conc
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a preventable disease with some significant extra pulmonary effects that may contribute to the severity in individual patients.. The systemic manifestations of COPD include a number of endocrine disorders , such as those involving the pituitary, the thyroid , the gonads, the adrenals and the pancreas. The mechanisms by which COPD alters endocrine function are incompletely understood but likely involve hypoxemia , hypercapnia , systemic inflammation and glucocorticoid administration.
Objective: To evaluate the relationship bet
... Show More<span lang="EN-GB">Transmitting the highest capacity throughput over the longest possible distance without any regeneration stage is an important goal of any long-haul optical network system. Accordingly, Polarization-Multiplexed Quadrature Phase-Shift-Keying (PM-QPSK) was introduced lately to achieve high bit-rate with relatively high spectral efficiency. Unfortunately, the required broad bandwidth of PM-QPSK increases the linear and nonlinear impairments in the physical layer of the optical fiber network. Increased attention has been spent to compensate for these impairments in the last years. In this paper, Single Mode Fiber (SMF), single channel, PM-QPSK transceiver was simulated, with a mix of optical and electrical (Digi
... Show MoreThis paper focuses on developing a self-starting numerical approach that can be used for direct integration of higher-order initial value problems of Ordinary Differential Equations. The method is derived from power series approximation with the resulting equations discretized at the selected grid and off-grid points. The method is applied in a block-by-block approach as a numerical integrator of higher-order initial value problems. The basic properties of the block method are investigated to authenticate its performance and then implemented with some tested experiments to validate the accuracy and convergence of the method.
Semantic segmentation is effective in numerous object classification tasks such as autonomous vehicles and scene understanding. With the advent in the deep learning domain, lots of efforts are seen in applying deep learning algorithms for semantic segmentation. Most of the algorithms gain the required accuracy while compromising on their storage and computational requirements. The work showcases the implementation of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), where DCT exhibit exceptional energy compaction properties. The proposed Adaptive Weight Wiener Filter (AWWF) rearranges the DCT coefficients by truncating the high frequency coefficients. AWWF-DCT model reinstate the convolutional l
... Show MoreThe majority of systems dealing with natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) can assist in making automated and automatically-supported decisions. However, these systems may face challenges and difficulties or find it confusing to identify the required information (characterization) for eliciting a decision by extracting or summarizing relevant information from large text documents or colossal content. When obtaining these documents online, for instance from social networking or social media, these sites undergo a remarkable increase in the textual content. The main objective of the present study is to conduct a survey and show the latest developments about the implementation of text-mining techniqu
... Show MoreBackground: Lack of durability of the bond of the dental adhesive systems to tooth structure is one of the most important problems in tooth colored restorative work. This in vitro study was performed to evaluate the effect of 2% chlorhexidine gluconate(CHX) on dentin bond strength by using total etch adhesive system at twenty-four hours and three months of water storage. Material and methods:A flat dentin surface was prepared for forty sound human maxillary premolar teeth which were acid etched with 36% phosphoric acid gel after being divided randomly into four groups of ten teeth each according to storage time and CHX application, theCHX was applied for 60 seconds before adhesive application for groups I and III which were tested after twe
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